The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State

When one picks up a book like Lawrence Wright’s The Terror Years, they might be expecting an all-encompassing book that takes them from approx. September 11th 2001 till the emergence of ISIS. Lawrence Wright gets there, but it is far from the conventional route. Much of the first part of the book is spent in Egypt detailing the founding of Al Qaeda through a series of longer journalistic pieces rather than one unbroken narrative. Then we get the tactical evolution pieces: Africa embassy bombings, 9-11, and European Terror attacks. This is followed by the evolution? From Al Qaeda to Isis where they agree, disagree, aims, etc.The most heart-wrenching of these pieces is the last 80-100 pages that talk about six people that ISIS beheaded or threatened to behead, their families, and the slightly madcap millionaire-billionaire who attempted to help them when the US government would not or could not up to expectation. As a reader reading page after page of vivid detail both of captivity and the desperation efforts of the families, you want everything to magically be okay, but obviously inside you know it won’t be and it just tears into your soul.Wright may not tell the story in a conventional way, but he does piece together how we got from Al Qaeda to ISIS.

I LOVED Looming Tower but it's apparent within the first few chapters that the Author mails this one in. Looks like most of this is just an amalgamation of his previous work. I also bought this thinking it was a true sequel to Looming Tower about the rise of ISIS from the ashes of AQI but it barely talks about Zarqawi or Bagdhadi and is just a random sampling of stories. Just disappointed bc it could have been so much better. It was still well written and a quick read so not a total dud.

Much, but not most, of the text is repetitive from "Looming Towers." That's not bad; in fact, it was somewhat good to reinforce the information from that book.All in all, a book most every American will benefit from reading.With books like this on the market, it's safe to say ignorance is something you do to yourself. There's no excuse to being ill informed.

Good read, but a LOT of overlapping info from the Looming Tower.

A really good book early when the author explained the rise of the fundamental movement in Egypt and his days working in the Saudi Kingdom. The rest of the book was all over the place.

Well Written&worth the read! If you are not at the forefront of this subject this is an easy reading and relatively up to date volume.(. Does not cover the bigger picture)

Worth the read. Was expecting an in depth book but this is a collection of the authors essays.

This is a great compliment to Mr. Wright's "The Looming Tower". I plan on using it in my 9/11 class.

I heard Lawrence Wright on Alec Baldwin's podcast talking about Scientology and this book: he sounded like he had an excellent eye for cutting through to the facts of an issue. In this book he uses the experience gained living in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and a host of brilliant sources, to inform a detailed narrative of this modern incarnation of Islamist terror, from the 1950's right up to ISIL. An enlightening read for anyone looking to learn more about the subject.

Absolutely fascinating, brilliantly researched and a compelling read

I appreciate the accuracy and the perfect mental organisation. I hope the Author will deliver soon a new book I strongly recommend this book along with previous masterpieces

One of the best insightfull naraations. How the terror organizations while each of them bigger failures have been successful in just the sadistic terrorizing process that have taken away so much of happiness, freedom and so many lives and raised only but utter despair across the victims and aggressor equally. Its hopeful to hear that a lot of old terrorists and terror sympathizers now have returned to normalcy after realizing the fruitless results and are trying to call for something called peaceful jihad - which is actually the core of many religions across the world. The book although giving sombre and painful details also gives little hope. Lets hope the hope factor keeps winning leaps and bounds in days to come.

Incredibly interesting book! Shipped and appearance as advertised.