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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
If this book were a film it would fall into the action/adventure/political thriller category. Johnson has interesting stories to tell and keeps the narrative moving at a brisk pace. The names got to be a handful but the author helpfully provided useful refreshers when reintroducing the many characters.
In general I thought the book did a nice job of informing the reader about the motivations of the lead actors. (I thought “The Looming Tower” (by Lawrence Wright) gave a much more comprehensive background but this book moved at a quicker pace and also has lots of interesting information about AQAP which was in its earliest form when The Looming Tower was published.) The background on Yemen was also informative and concise.
If the subject matter interests you this book is worth reading.
In general I thought the book did a nice job of informing the reader about the motivations of the lead actors. (I thought “The Looming Tower” (by Lawrence Wright) gave a much more comprehensive background but this book moved at a quicker pace and also has lots of interesting information about AQAP which was in its earliest form when The Looming Tower was published.) The background on Yemen was also informative and concise.
If the subject matter interests you this book is worth reading.
Read like a fiction story. Gave a lot of humanity to the characters, on all sides. The fictionalized (and brief, not at all in depth) retelling covered up many sides of the truth, though.
I really enjoyed this book about Yemen as a growing site of AQAP and other extremist activity, as well as a place that the US has ineffectually meddled in the past. I would have liked to see a deeper treatment of the tribal context for Yemeni politics, but that's probably not practical in a book primarily oriented toward the topic of international terrorism.
Highly recommended for anyone who wants to know more about the regional context of the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Highly recommended for anyone who wants to know more about the regional context of the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
An excellent book that provides an eminently readable narrative on Yemen, a country we should all know more about, and Al Qaeda's history there.
Great for those coming to the topic from scratch. Johnsen draws together a variety of strands together to tell the history of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP, with a specific focus on its actions in Yemen.
I found the sourcing convention (no footnotes, but most things referenced at the back) a bit frustrating, but that's probably just me. For everyone else, this is an excellent (if dated by a few years, now) primer on religiously-inspired militancy in Yemen.
I found the sourcing convention (no footnotes, but most things referenced at the back) a bit frustrating, but that's probably just me. For everyone else, this is an excellent (if dated by a few years, now) primer on religiously-inspired militancy in Yemen.