karlynrose's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
ktweedy87's review against another edition
4.0
I am shocked at the number of bigoted reviews about this book. This is history, folks. Look it up. It all happened, whether you want to accept it or not. Yes, white people really treated blacks as badly as he depicted. Yes, JFK slept around. Yes, Reagan made some questionable choices. But you can not deny your history as an American.
I thought the book was beautifully written, though I would've liked more detail about the Middle East.
I thought the book was beautifully written, though I would've liked more detail about the Middle East.
hairband_dude's review against another edition
4.0
OK read. The other reviews pretty much sum up the poor parts of the book, and I agree with them. The storytelling is what keeps the pages flowing, not the history, which is the exact opposite of the previous two books.
rebeccatc's review against another edition
4.0
Tackling the entire 20th century in a trilogy is an enormous task, and I think Ken Follett did a pretty good job of it. The part about the Cuban Missile Crisis was excellent, and I liked the way characters in the Soviet Union, United States and Cuba all reacted to the threat of imminent mutual destruction, when they believed they would likely not live to see another day. The insight into the Civil Rights Movement was also very well done. Many of the reviews criticize Follett for having a liberal bias, and the last quarter of the book in particular does lean pretty far to the left. He portrays the real horrors of living under a Communist dictatorship, particularly in East Berlin, but I think unfairly suggests that the United States' actions contributed nothing to its downfall in the Soviet Union. While I believe that Communism is inherently unsustainable, and the US may have been behind the eight ball when the Eastern Bloc finally fell, the arms race was part of the reason for the Soviet Union's financial collapse. The book ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall, which allows Follett to skip over the Clinton years. What Follett does best is create realistic characters, and it's a little sad to say goodbye to these families whose histories spanned the entire century.
viljaa's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
mainubes's review against another edition
1.0
Este libro fue una enorme decepción. La calidad literaria de La caída de los Gigantes se fue perdiendo en El invierno del mundo y terminó por derrumbarse en éste.
Además, todos los hechos expuestos en la historia están completamente sesgados para hacer quedar bien a Estados Unidos, y se omiten los peores horrores que ese país y el mundo occidental perpetraron en el siglo XX.
(ALERTA SPOILER)
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Se llegan a justificar las bombas en Japón. Se demoniza a Rusia a niveles exagerados mientras no se hace lo mismo con Estados Unidos. Se dice que la alfabetización en la revolución cubana fue hecha sólo porque la gente que sabe leer "es más susceptible a la propaganda". Se santifica a Kennedy, se argumenta Vietnam... En fin. No pude terminar de leerlo, es una acumulación de porquería que me hace dudar muchísimo de La caída de los gigantes, que lo leí cuando confiaba en las fuentes del autor.
Además, todos los hechos expuestos en la historia están completamente sesgados para hacer quedar bien a Estados Unidos, y se omiten los peores horrores que ese país y el mundo occidental perpetraron en el siglo XX.
(ALERTA SPOILER)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Se llegan a justificar las bombas en Japón. Se demoniza a Rusia a niveles exagerados mientras no se hace lo mismo con Estados Unidos. Se dice que la alfabetización en la revolución cubana fue hecha sólo porque la gente que sabe leer "es más susceptible a la propaganda". Se santifica a Kennedy, se argumenta Vietnam... En fin. No pude terminar de leerlo, es una acumulación de porquería que me hace dudar muchísimo de La caída de los gigantes, que lo leí cuando confiaba en las fuentes del autor.
sweetbeetle's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
moogen's review against another edition
2.0
Follett knows how to make you turn the pages. He's a master story teller. But this was a rush job, to the point of being insulting. Would a character in the 1970s really say "yada, yada"? For some reason that annoyed me more than the repeated paragraph, the ponderous recaps,
one dimensional characters and mawkish, cliché ridden writing.
All the same I had to finish it - more fool me.
melahknee's review against another edition
5.0
This book covers so many decades that my only complaint is it felt rushed but I loved it and the whole series. I cannot recommend it enough. Pro-Tip: the audiobook is read by John Lee who might have one of the best reading voices ever.
stephaniebooks's review against another edition
This book is not good. There are others who have put or detailed reviews as to why, including the fact that it is not well connected to the previous books, and in an effort to not bestow characters with knowledge beyond their era, Follett erred on the side of making the characters immensely stupid about the world they live in. The final straw for me was the description of fraternal male and female twins hanging out in the apartment naked because “there was no sexual spark”. Of course not. Unnecessary and uncomfortable, I abandoned this book immediately after reading that.