Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
This is solid 5-star book. It captures you from the first pages, and doesn’t release you until the end. It leaves you ready for the next one in the series, which I guess doesn’t come out for another year or so.
Character development is outstanding, storytelling is among the best I’ve read, and the historical aspects of the book are tremendous. As a reader, I felt pulled deeply into the heart and mind of many of the characters – even the ones I didn’t care much for as people. The story flows quite nicely, as the different threads come together as the storyline develops. Best of all, as a history nut, I LOVED the history lesson I got from this book. I really think this should be required reading for high school students as a lesson in how WW1 happened, and what it meant.
The only other Follett I’ve read is his first series of this sort – Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. In those two books, it was quite uncomfortable for me when he would make his characters endure deep, repeated, and unfair hardship. In this first of this new series, he is much more kind to his characters as he develops them into believable people.
Having now read 3 of his books, I’ve got to say Follett is surely one of the best historical fiction writers of our generation. I can’t wait to read the next in the series!
