Ken Follett - Fall of Giants

review by showhost
I don’t know where to start with this review as it has been so long since I started it! Its over 800 pages long and spans from the coronation of King George 5th in 1911 to the first labour government in Jan 1924.

I was disappointed in the book as it reminded me in parts of Catherine Cookson with a history lesson. As in true Catherine Cookson fashion, the maid Ethel becomes pregnant by the Lord Fitzherbert but has to leave Wales because of the shame. Her brother comes across Lord Fitzherbert again in the war and obviously there is a running hatred between them.
It’s a saga, intertwining fates of five families, in Wales, England, Germany, Russia and America. The Williams family, who live in Aberowen, Wales and work the coal pits for the Lord Fitzherbert; to Grigori and his brother in Russia who are struggling to live under the Tzarist rule and the women's suffrage movement..
The story sweeps us up into the the simmering bickering that leads so many countries, eventually, into World War 1 and the Russian revolution and the start of ‘the Soviet’.
The story of Grigori and his brother Lev (good brother naughty brother) has shades of Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer.
Not in the same league as ‘Pillars of the Earth’ but I wanted to return to the book and wanted to keep reading it. You just have to shrug at the Cookson bits and wait for the next ‘grab your attention’ bit.
This is part one of the century trilogy, I will read the sequel.