Book Review-Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Title: Fall of Giants 

 Author: Ken Follett

Series:  The Century Trilogy #1

Published:  3 June 2011 by Macmillan

Length:850 pages

Warnings: : Graphic war and otherwise realistic violence, past attempted rape,

Source: Library

Other info: Ken Follett has written many many things.
Summary : This is an epic of love, hatred, war and revolution. This is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and to two orphaned Russian brothers, whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war, conscription and revolution. In a plot of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, "Fall Of Gaints" moves seamlessly from Washington to St Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.

Review: 1911- Billy Williams, age 13, starts his job as a coal miner. His sister, Ethel, works for the Fitzwilliams, the owners of the mine-the earl, and his sister, Maud. Maud falls in love with German embassy worker, Walter von Ulrich. Meanwhile, brothers Lev and Grigori Peshkov dream of  a better life in America, where young Gus Dewar is trying to get through in politics. But with war on the horizon, will any of their plans really work out?

Having loved the Pillars of the Earth series, I was open to reading more Ken Follett. Then I got told to read Fall of Giants, so I did (eventurally).

Follett's talent for writing awesome, and also real, women, shines through in Ethel and Maud, and nearer the end, Rosie. They're all talented, and Ethel's work  for the womens' rights movement is amazing. Fitz is such a disappointing character. He's really nice to start with and then turns into a giant ass and I know it's good (if backwards) character development but still having to flal out of love with a character is not bad. The characters I felt most for were Grigori and Lev, probably more Grigori because he gets a really bad deal out of all of it really.  

It's told over a much tighter time period to the other Folletts i've read, which I quite liked because it meant we could get closer to the characters and not have to fill in the gaps quite as much.

I like the fact that as well as the First World War and women's suffrage movement, we get the Russian Revolution in detail. In history lessons, most of it's Western based, or at least involves them, and it's nice to learn something completely different.  The facts are weaved in seamlessly, made part of the story, and there's a nice author's note at the end about his authenticity of facts.

The atmosphere is built really well, especially the more negative ones built around places like starving Germany, starving Russia and the battlefields. Some of them, the Somme scene especially was very emotional  indeed.

What didnt I like about this? Some of the characteers I disliked. Also, it's quite predictable, especially Grigori and Lev's stories, and some of the mionr characters felt a bit stereotypical, like the Vylovs.

Overall:  Strength 4.5, just more a 4 tea to a detailed, emotional historical epic.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review-The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Title: The Pillars of the Earth

 Author: Ken Follett

Series:   The Pillars of the Earth #1

Published:   2002, 2007 by Pan in the UK.

Length: 1088 pages

Warnings: graphic violence, graphic rape, graphic sex

Source: library

Other info: There is a sequel, World Without End. There was a miniseries of this. Ken has written lots of books.

Summary :  The spellbinding epic set in twelfth-century England, The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of the lives entwined in the building of the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known—and a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother

Review:  The 1000 page book, overall, tells of the building of a cathedral. Included in that we have romance across all generations, tensions among family, church corruption, and drama every step of the way.

I read this book because one of my friends gets excited by it. Really excited. As in fangirling to everyone without pause for breath excited. I had to see what this was all about, especially seeing as it concerns the medieval period, which I loved studying in year 7.

You’re instantly pulled n with a hanging. You soon meet Tom and family. His wife dies after childbirth, leaving starving Alfred and Martha and Tom to carry on looking for work, leaving the child at the roadside. He gets taken in by a monk who is brother to Philip, one who has been at the church for most of his life and despairs at badly run priories (like his). Meanwhile, Tom meets Ellen, her son Jack, and travels with them. Years later, the civil war over the throne of England leads to Aliena and her brother getting kicked out of their earldom by Wililam of Hamleigh, and they travel. All these characters meet at Kingsbridge, where a cathedral is being built.

It’s all set up quickly, and the world, the setting of Medieval England is put across so well via the language and atmosphere and tone, you really feel like you’re there.

All the characters are really well developed. My favourite is Aliena, despite the fact that she is thrown out of her home and she suffers rape and torment from William, she stands up for herself, becomes a successful woll merchant, and is generally awesome. I also really liked Philip, who is a sane churchman, amongst the corrupted ones, who does the best he can for families and his church. Also Ellen, who just did what she wanted, never mind the consequences. Overall, I liked all the characters apart from William, for whom asshole just doesn’t cover it. His treatment of women, well actually everybody, was downright awful. You are warned.

Despite its length, I got through Pillars of the Earth in a week. It’s such a compelling book that you just have to keep reading-the backstory, the lack of unbearable waffling and the pace meant I got on really well with this book.

There’s a lot of timeskips, which work plotwise, but are annoying because I’m not good at mentally aging people. One character starts age 30 and ends 50. Vision issues.

Overall: Strength 5 tea to an epic historical. Must read book 2 soon. (edit:: I did.)  

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |