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Friday, June 3, 2011

Fall of Giants Review

HI Guys, i just finished reading Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, and personally, i had been looking for a book like this one for a long time. Its very 'Fullmetal alchemist-ish' in a strange way. Not in terms of plot, but in terms of story-telling.

Though Fall of Giants seemed to me at first, for a book of 850 pages, a title that indicated that the story contained in the pages was going to be a heavy and forced combination of melodrama, fantasy and suspense. Another stereotyped book from another ‘sell-out’ author. But despite that, I got the book, sat down and read it. And it blew me away.

The book is first in the intended ‘The Century’ trilogy, and deals with the First World War, Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women, and is about five families connected to each other, sometimes without their knowledge. Some of the characters don’t even know about some other’s existence, but that is the beauty of the story. No character or situation or even time period, in this case, is supreme in itself, but they all add a little to it.

The story begins in 1911, when a 13 year old boy, Billy, in the welsh region of Britain, goes to work in a coalmine, on the day of the coronation of King George V. This is the introduction of the Williams family in the story. As the story continues, more characters come in. Billy’s elder sister, Ethel, their parents, Earl Edward Fitzherbert, his wife and sister, German spy Walter von Ulrich, American Gus Dewar and Russian brothers Grigori and Lev.

At first all these characters seem to be puzzling, but somehow Follett’s writing style warms you up to them so deeply, it’s not a difficult job remembering them. Though he doesn’t describe very deeply the landscapes nor does he give a very detailed narration of the characters but despite that the reader feels as if all of that is stated – even if Follett has omitted something. The writing isn’t extraordinarily great, but rather ‘to the point’ and yet compelling.

All of the characters in the book represent different ideologies that existed at that time – conservative to anarchist – and all that different sections of the society lived through. They depict how the society had started to transition and how the world went through war and revolution.

But the fact that the book closely examines life through war and revolution shouldn’t be mistaken that the story becomes too dreary and dark. It, on the contrary, celebrates life. In one instance, the English and German soldiers on the front, when their superiors weren’t close, started to chat and greet each other on Christmas.

Another quality of the book is that it closely draws upon history, with real persons and incidents that are historically accurate.

Follett’s latest book is a great read and though it appears long, it is worth a reader’s time.

Rating - 3.5/5


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