Ken Follett - Fall of Giants

review by Brian Lowen on show 13th October 2011

Another great saga from Ken Follett. As good as his previous long works – Pillars of the Earth and World without End. This is book one of a trilogy

The story is set in the period leading up to and subsequent to the first World War and once again a tremendous amount of research has gone into this book, blending real life characters with fictional ones

The story centres around five families – one each in America, Germany, Wales, England and Russia, from the high-born to lowly peasants. You get to know each family as Follett weaves his story around them, with great characters with whom you can empathise as we follow their adventures during the ten years covered in the book. At 850 pages long it is not an easy book to hold but well worth the effort.

The story starts in 1911 as 13 year old Billy Williams starts his first day at work down a Welsh coal mine.
The Williams family is connected by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocractic 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 Gus Dewar, ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Two orphaned Russian brothers soon become involved, but Grigori and Lev Peshkov’s plans to emigrate to America falls foul of war, conscription and revolution

The story goes into great diplomatic detail as the various countries spar with one another before the outbreak of the war. You are left wondering what on earth Britain was doing getting involved in this battle between warring nations in central Europe, but it all boils down to a power struggle with Britain still feeling it has to be the most powerful in the world, as it was, building up to this conflict. But the subsequent horrendous loss of life in pointless, repetitious battles that went on for months, with no one gaining an advantage, should have resulted in courts martial for the Generals involved.

A book I thoroughly enjoyed, and can recommend. I look forward to the next book in this trilogy.