Random House Books for Young Readers Fall of Giants (Century Trilogy)

Maybe it's part and parcel of starting to read a new book by a favourite author, that the quality of the back catalogue (as with Phillipa Gregory, for example) raises the bar for future work a bit too high. I absolutely adored Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, and so had high expectations of Follett's new work. Fall of Giants is, as one would expect, well written, but I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps there are just too many characters to permit full development of each one in any great depth. In the medieval works, the characters felt fully rounded and were true to their essential personalities throughout. In this book, I feel the characters are being written to fit the events that we readers are historically familiar with, rather than the other way round, and I feel they are ticking the relevant boxes without really drawing the reader into caring deeply about them.I also think his female characters are not as firmly "of their time" as their counterparts in the Middle Ages. Would Ethel and Olga really have surrendered so quickly to their passions, given the deeply rooted and class driven constraints under which they had, in their different ways, been raised. Olga in particular acts like a modern ladette and although necessary to drive this plot line forward, her instant affair with Lev simply doesn't ring true. The male characters, in the main, are rather formulaic, although I have high hopes of Billy in the future two books. So, I'm kind of on the fence about this one.

I think Fall of Giants is just as good as Ken Follett's two medieval novels - then of course it's a matter of taste, and to me, the Middle ages are more fascinating, still, I found this story of love and war very entertaining and well written, the characters are credible in what they do and say (and how they say it)the setting is full of detail, though maybe the American and Russian episodes are slightly less rich in colour than those in London or Wales. It was a very good companion for the coldest days of the Christmas holidays - maybe it lacks the thrill that made me read through Pillars or World without end at breakneck speed, but I do recommend it to anyone who likes a good tale, and has a taste for history coming alive in a novel's crowded plot. The pages on the battle of the Somme are just chilling and full of pathos, and the class struggle is brilliantly rendered. One defect it shares with the previous two historical novels is that the sex encounters are really a bit too...gynecological, a bit less detail would probably be more itriguing. The other thing I didn't like very much was that some of the plot's threads are just left hanging at the end, as if it was just the end of any chapter, leaving the reader a bit too abruptly. So let's hope the next volume doesn't take too long.

When this book arrived I nearly had to revive the postman as he was exhausted from lugging this huge tome to my letter box. OK, so the story of a exhausted postman is a bit of an overstatement but my comments about the size and weight of this book are not.Coming in at over 850 pages and weighing an absolute tonne this novel is in my opinion one of the great character driven masterpieces of our generation. With excellently research historical background 'Fall of Giants' encompasses the build-up, duration and briefly the aftermath of The Great War 1914-1918. From the lowliest, fictional characters such as welsh miner Billy and Russian vagrant Lev to the highest realms of power with the fictional Lord Fitz and the very real U.S president Woodrow Wilson. Mr Follett addresses a very real story of intrigue, cruelty, poverty and human sacrifice. This novel and it's characters tell a tale of survival at any cost that is unrivalled in modern literature.Thoroughly human; My favourite book ever.

I loved this book by Ken Follett, loved the characters, the different settings which i do not think disjointed the book in the slightest, found it incredibly well researched and interesting. My only criticism from a personal perspective was that there was too much political history for me, am more interested in the characters than russian history. Maybe this is just a female thing in me, but did find myself scanning a bit of the historical stuff to get back to the characters and what i was mainly interested in....shame....but i did. Loved the somme stuff, if that is the right word and the football game at christmas and the women's vote movement - Eth is just a doll! I loved her!...just found some of the russian politics difficult to follow, i love Grigori too, what a lovely man...just struggled with the Tsar stuff.Other than that, excellent - looking forward to book 2.

This first volume of the trilogy is a fine book and it shure was difficult to put it down.As to the characterdevelopment it's a bit bleaky - characters are somewhat straight, one is either (very) good or (very) bad, but on the whole it is great reading and in the midst of this book I was already longing for the second volume.So a positive verdict, even with the small "roman de rose"-side of it (excuse my french, I have not got the slightest idea how to translate "roman à l'eau de rose" in english !) The historical side of things, however, is very good developed and in itself it is already a fascinating history of the 20th century !I bought it used at a small price, but I had to pay somewahat more for the second volume, as it has just come off the press. When will the third - and last - volume be on sale ?