Ken Follett’s extraordinary historical epic, the Century Trilogy, reaches its sweeping, passionate conclusion.In Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, Ken Follett followed the fortunes of five international families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—as they made their way through the twentieth century. Now they come to one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the 1960s through the … of all: the 1960s through the 1980s, from civil rights, assassinations, mass political movements, and Vietnam to the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution—and rock and roll.
East German teacher Rebecca Hoffmann discovers she’s been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for the rest of their lives. . . . George Jakes, the child of a mixed-race couple, bypasses a corporate law career to join Robert F. Kennedy’s Justice Department and finds himself in the middle of not only the seminal events of the civil rights battle but a much more personal battle of his own. . . . Cameron Dewar, the grandson of a senator, jumps at the chance to do some official and unofficial espionage for a cause he believes in, only to discover that the world is a much more dangerous place than he’d imagined. . . . Dimka Dvorkin, a young aide to Nikita Khrushchev, becomes an agent both for good and for ill as the United States and the Soviet Union race to the brink of nuclear war, while his twin sister, Tanya, carves out a role that will take her from Moscow to Cuba to Prague to Warsaw—and into history.
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This book finished out the amazing Century trilogy. I did not love it as much as the previous ones, perhaps because there were so many descendants of the original families in first book that needed to be address, so some of the stories were less robust than they’d started out to be. But I loved the front row seat to such important moments in the second half of the 20th century. And the last two lines of the book were two of my favorite ever.
Loved the whole series!
I enjoyed Ken Follett’s third book in The Century Trilogy as much as the first two. The huge amount of history he managed to include in 1100 pages was amazing and now I feel like I understand a lot of my country’s history much better than I did before. Using fictional characters intermixed with real-life political leaders made it easy to follow the events as the characters aged and experienced world events first hand. I do feel the author’s personal views might have swayed some depictions of a few of the antagonists, but that is probably the case in all historical fiction. I thought he would end with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but I loved how he included the election of the first African-American president in America. They were both great events.
Ken Follett does his research!!! I love history and love his trilogies. This is the best I’ve read about the 20th century United States. I highly recommend it to all who want to know the men and women and the history, not only of the United States but the world.
Although Ken Follett is “The Master” storyteller he let me down on this one. I don’t easily confuse but the storylines in this one were not tied together like his other saga.
The entire series is a must.
Loved this whole trilogy!
Not up to his usual standards. Characters since fairly one dimensional and they appear in ever important event of the period. Stopped reading after a while since I didn’t care about the characters and the events are fairly well known so one doesn;t learn much new/ Real contrast to the two best cathedra books.
I enjoyed this book very much. I could not put it down
Hated to see series end
Fantastic historical fiction with an emphasis on historical!
Big book, well worth the time to read. I loved it!
The least interesting of the trilogy
Love Ken follett’s historical fiction books. This one does not disappoint!
I didn’t find this book nearly as captivating as all his previous. Perhaps it’s because I like the history factor of his others. This just didn’t do it for me.
I loved the trilogy. Thoroughly entertaining and educationally enlightening.
This is a very long book at well over 1,100 pages. That said I did enjoy it but I suspect that it was due to my age more than anything else. The book is a history of the 1960’s, 70’s and to a small extent the 80’s. The assassination of JFK, the Cuban missile crisis, the Civil Rights movement in the USA as seen through the eyes of characters on both sides of the Iron Curtain. I don’t know how relevant the book is today and think, but my opinion only, that anybody born after 1990 might struggle to enjoy this book. But I enjoyed it!!
Excellent
Ken Follet is one of my favorite writers. The way he weaves the lives of his characters is second to none.
Ken Follett always is one of the best