Customer Reviews

End Of The Enemies

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The End of Enemies is a complex thriller that combines many elements ranging from Arab terrorists to Japanese businessmen to Russian spies working as consultants.

Rather than explain the plot, which in itself would be a spoiler, this book takes you into the realm of political motivation and the interests of countries such as JJapan, Syria, Israel, Lebanon and America.

Many people have given this book 5 stars. While the writing is fine and pace is fast, there were a couple of things that didn't work for me. The love affair between Briggs Tanner and Camille seemed superficial and the political landscape established in the book is flawed.

Despite these issues, I found myself reading it to the end.

Slow, and plodding. Nothing new, or unpredictable. Clive Cussler should have saved his rave review for another book. Totally uninteresting story of an ex-spy/assasin-Briggs Tanner, who witnesses the execution of a man he barely knows, and decides he must get involved in finding out who killed the poor man. Very few action sequences, and those there were, barely made it worth drudging through to the end.
Come on, isn't that what the police are for?
Suggestion...skip it, and read something else, anything else!

Listening to the recommendations of some friends, I took a break from fantasy and tried out Mr. Blackwood. He now has a new dedicated fan :)

My only complaint is that he is a little too good at keeping the reader's attention. Never, and I mean NEVER, read "just a chapter or two..." before you go to sleep, trust me on this one.

Great Book!! Started reading it on vacation, and could NOT put it down. He weaves the tale together like a master author, even though this is his first book. His detail was reminiscent of Clancy, and his writing reminded me of Cussler, Grisham, Coonts....I can't remember enjoying a book as much as this one the first time I read the author's work.

I will pick up the newest book ASAP!

As I said in my review of Blackwood's second book (Wall of Night, which I read first), I generally don't go for suspense-thrillers, but neither The End of Enemies nor The Wall of Night are ordinary suspense-thrillers. My husband, who does read a lot of these kinds of books, agrees wholeheartedly.

If I had a spot on bookshelf devoted solely to "books I couldn't put down", both these books would be the first ones there!

Chapter one of The End of Enemies starts out with Blackwood's hero, Briggs Tanner, vacationing in Japan where he witnesses a murder. Once involved in finding out the who/what/why of the crime, Tanner finds himself neck deep in a deftly woven plot that takes him to Alaska, to a mysterious island in the Pacific, and finally to war-torn Beirut.

One thing that I especially liked was that the action and adventure wasn't gratuitous -- everything in the story belonged there, instead of being "planted" simply to add thrills. Every piece -- from characters to sub-plots - fit into the larger whole. I really like that in books, and too often find it lacking.

The verdict on The End of Enemies? 10 stars if I could! Great action and intrigue, fun and compelling characters, and a plot that pushes you ahead to the final page and a great finish.

What can I say? The End of Enemies is the kind of suspense-thriller that I
love to find, but so rarely do these days. It grabbed me from the first
page and never let go. Fun, action, intrigue, espionage, heroes, villians,
traitors.... It was all there!

I especially enjoyed Blackwood's deft interweaving of character- and
plot-lines and the "insider knowledge" sprinkled throughout the book, as
well as all the exotic locales the reader is taken to. I felt like I was
living a real adventure -- not just reading another canned storyline with
characters that have nothing invested in what's going on.

If suspense-thrillers are your kind of book (and even if they're not, you
may be surprised by how much you enjoy it), try The End of Enemies. I
wasn't disappointed and I don't think you will be either.

PS -- According to Amazon, Blackwood's next one, The Wall of Night, is due
this month sometime. I'm ready!

When I was a young lad in the 50s and 60s, I read all books of The Hardy Boys series wherein these two clean-cut, drug-free, American teenagers outwit a wide variety of scoundrels. In THE END OF ENEMIES, Frank and Joe Hardy have grown up to become Briggs Tanner and Ian Cahil, two clean-cut, nobly heroic, ex-Special Forces types employed by a private firm that does top secret wet work for the U.S. government. (Plausible deniability for the President, you see.) In any case, Tanner and Cahil now have the opportunity to save the world, or at least the Eastern Mediterranean.

This potboiler is a standard global conspiracy thriller involving leftover WWII munitions, a renegade Japanese industrialist, Arab terrorists, Syrian plotters, seduced damsels, the FBI, the Mossad, traitors, blackmail, the CIA, and a Doomsday plot. It's entertaining in a silly sort of way, much like the Impossible Missions Force movies starring Tom Cruise.

I don't know. Maybe it's because I've read so many similar storylines that I've become jaded. In this case, my peevishness stems principally from the fact that all the characters, whether American, Canadian, British, Japanese, Israeli, Russian, Syrian or Palestinian, all "sound" like customers recruited by Central Casting out of a Seattle corner Starbucks and dressed up in costumes for day of play acting. (This is a failing of quite a few works of espionage fiction, not just this one.) Moreover, author Grant Blackwood is occasionally incredibly sloppy in the small details. I picked up on a few (and wonder how many more I missed). The page numbers refer to the paperback edition.

1. A woman with a femur broken in five places - imagine the cast - is not going to be seen having "curled herself into a ball". (Page 77)
2. Except for the "scrambled eggs" on the visors of Commanders and above, the billed caps of American naval officers do not carry rank badges. (Page 238)
3. It seems highly improbable that an American fleet attack submarine on WWII patrol is going to have an Ensign, the lowest officer grade, as the Executive Officer, i.e. the second-in-command. (Page 1)

OK, ok, ok - so I'm picky, picky, picky. This book admittedly has more elements that are positive than are negative, but the fact remains that it's no better than an average representative of the genre. Worse than that, the author is so busy tying up loose ends at the conclusion that the last 6 pages are patently ridiculous.

If you want to read a novel that deals with Middle Eastern terrorism and is well crafted, as opposed to being slopped out any old way, then I would recommend John le Carré's THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL or Gerald Seymour's A LINE IN THE SAND.

Blackwood's work is reminiscent of Clancy's best work (i.e. the stuff he used to write years ago). Like the old Clancy, the author has a talent for keeping a mindboggling number of subplots up and running full speed ahead in a literate style so often missing from books of this genre. If Blackwood can maintain this level of writing through the books that are sure to follow (most of them likely starring "End of Enemies'" hero, Briggs Tanner), he'll own a spot (right next to Ralph Peters) at the top of the military techno-thriller honor roll for years to come. "The End of Enemies" was a enjoyable rollercoaster of a read from beginning to end.

Great book, hard to set it down when the story gets started, i can't wait for the secound book, great job Grant you are going to the stars and back

I don't know the author, but he worked with my daughter, so I have an autographed copy. Though the beginning is a bit confusing, you know there will be a connection somewhere. The excitement builds through out, building to a great finish. I will certainly be looking for his next book.