Fall of giants how many pages

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Fall of Giants , please sign up. Any suggestions on which one I should read first? I know they're both series-openers and completely different, but I'll gladly take any advice from people who are familiar with his work!

Mary Jeanne By now you have read one I am sure. I hope it was PIllars of The Earth. It was head and shoulders above the others in my opinion. So is this book worth it? I am cool with historical novels and such I know i already am about to start reading in a few minutes Helene Definitely. I finished it in 1 week - only reading it on my commute which is 30 minutes. I also loved Pillars of the Earth but that one took me 5 trie …more Definitely.

I also loved Pillars of the Earth but that one took me 5 tries. This one I got into immediately. Only sorry I didn't carry the 2nd book with me.

See all 24 questions about Fall of Giants…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Feb 26, Beth Bedee rated it it was amazing Shelves: historical-fiction , family-saga , favorite , 20th-century , wwi , epic. It's a little disappointing that people are rating this book on Amazon out of protest of its price.

It's low rating does not give the book the recognition it deserves. This is my first Ken Follett novel, and I am hooked. I've read where some people have not been that interested in the subject matter of Fall of Giants and prefer the Middle Ages. I'm fascinated with 20th Century history, so this is right down my alley. This novel covers the years of WWI and the Russian Revolution and follows 5 fami It's a little disappointing that people are rating this book on Amazon out of protest of its price.

Their stories all connect at some point. While you invest in the characters, the story is plot driven and moves pretty swiftly through the years.

There are times that a character may be left for a year before we hear from him again. But you don't feel like you're missing any crucial information. My favorite portions were before and after the war. There is quite a bit of battlefield sections in the middle.

They are well written, but I am more interested in the people than military tactics. I was surprised at how quickly this book reads.

Despite it's huge size, you can read it pretty quickly if you have the time to devote to it. I thoroughly enjoyed this. My Review of Winter of the World View all 44 comments. Jan 17, Matt rated it it was ok Shelves: historical-fiction. Is that too harsh? Let me rephrase. This book is a steaming pile of garbage. Still a bit mean? Ken Follett does not give a whit.

His editor and publisher do not care. His accountant certainly is indifferent to this complaint. Rather, he achieves those astronomical sales with the apathetic approbation of critics usually quick to slash and burn. Ken Follett cannot be criticized. He is covered in Teflon, Kevlar, and Valyrian steel. Book reviewers understand this and have given up. Still, it needs to be said.

This book is awful. Moving on. Let us start with what Ken Follett is not. He is not a poet. He is not a short story writer.

He does not craft literary fiction. Instead, Ken Follett writes dumbbell-sized works of historical fiction that manage to be simultaneously prodigiously researched and absolutely inauthentic.

What is Ken Follett? Ken Follett is a wizard. He is an alchemist. He takes magic beans, plants them in fallow earth, and grows trees that shed money.

He turns charcoal into diamonds, iron into gold; he sleeps in a room built from emeralds, and blows his nose in the finest silk. His ingredients are horrible characters, lack of psychological insight, lumbering plots, and striking coincidences. He mixes all these into 1, pages and creates a bestseller.

Ken Follett has entered into a dark pact. To be fair, Fall of Giants does not aspire to be great, National Book Award-contending literary fiction.

There isn't a very high bar for this kind of book. Johnson appear as Dostoyevsky. Instead, there are at least 2, more pages of inanities to come. The historical realities dictate everything that happens in this novel. You will find more drama, however, on any Wikipedia page.

He certainly is. As the excerpt up top shows, he wants us to know that this big book is important. It would be a stretch to call these characters archetypes. There is no wit, warmth, or ingenuity to be found. The only surprise is that Follett does exactly what you expect him to, every single time. Against suffrage. Sleeping with his maid. But this is Follett.

He does it. And if you also surmised that this German man will be suspiciously anti-imperial no spiked helmet or pointy mustache here! Or what about the Williams family? It is the extent of the use of any idioms, really. Every character, whether English or Welsh or Russian or American or German speaks in the exact same way: unconvincingly.

That is, they converse in robotic monotones meant to deliver historical exposition to keep us moving down the timeline toward the sequel. There is never a moment when two characters share original thoughts, insights, or profundities.

I found no evidence, on the basis of the many interactions and conversations that occur, that anyone in this novel is a human being. Take, for instance, an exchange between Gus and Rosa.

Gus works for President Wilson. He also has a big head. Rosa has one eye. And perhaps some future president will want your help. Sometimes she had an unrealistically high opinion of him. I hope I can carry on covering the White House. God forbid, indeed. In Pillars of the Earth and World Without End , Follett demonstrated his inability to create memorable personages or write convincing dialogue.

Yet he also did a marvelous job cramming period-specific detail into the story. Nothing like that level of detail is present here.

Instead, famous events are often passed off in the form of exposition. Towards the end of the novel, there is a nice little scene showing rampant inflation in postwar Germany.

This small, intimate, anecdotal moment, shows Follett at his best, working his research into his larger story. Historical fiction gives you the chance to breathe new life into actual people. Follett decides to ignore this opportunity completely. Despite walk-on roles by dozens of famous people, none of them is given even the hint of a spark.

I'm not asking for something along the lines of Tolstoy's creative realization of Napoleon. But you have to do more than simply mention Sir Edward Grey's name and expect me to swoon at the verisimilitude.

His earlier work Eye of the Needle , Night Over Water showed him to be a precise plotter of containable dramas. I compare it to a movie director like Kevin Smith director of small budget, dialogue-centric films directing a big action movie. His battle scenes are silly and empty and fake. His big Russian Revolution moments are a confusing mess. I used to be able to count on Follett to prepare three or four euphemism-free adult encounters that would leave me searching for a bottle of wine and a pack of cigs.

Not here. As Follett has reached his widest audiences yet, he seems to have toned down his erotic impulses. All we get is a handjob during an opera. Perhaps the only interesting thing about this novel is its unusual political undercurrents. Generally, I think most people still hew to the Germans-were-the-aggressors-and-the-Allies-were-the-heroes line of World War I. Follett takes a different tact, lingering on Great Britain's questionable decision to enter the war.

This is not a political hot-take. Rather, it would have been interesting in a more lively, well-written, coherent novel. This has been a rather negative review, so I will say two nice things: First, I appreciate that Follett always tries to find actual roles for his women. They are just as poorly-realized and one-dimensional half-dimensional?

I think they are horrible in every objective, measurable way. Despite this, they are also fun to read. To me, the horribleness is even a bit endearing. EDIT: It has been many years, dear reader, and time has flowed on down the river.

It now occurs to me that there is every possibility that I am missing the sequel. Life is just too short to read huge novels due solely to their unintentional hilarity.

View all 22 comments. Sep 14, Melissa Rochelle rated it really liked it Shelves: historical-fiction. One of the early reviews I read stated that this book lacked one of Follett's infamous villains.

I disagree. The ultimate villain in this enormous book is clearly war and perhaps the arrogance of world leaders. I've always had a difficult time understanding the why surrounding World War 1 and this book helps put it in perspective even if it is fiction.

I remember learning in history class that the US got involved because the Germans torpedoed the Lusitania. And it did play a part, but that hap One of the early reviews I read stated that this book lacked one of Follett's infamous villains. Obviously, WW1 was fought because a bunch of arrogant world leaders didn't want to look weak. Looking back, they all look like spineless jerks that killed millions of people because they wanted to "rule the world". By destroying the German economic system after all the fighting was done, they helped Hitler gain power and kill millions more in WW2.

Way to go earlyth century world leaders I really enjoyed this book and think it's worth it for everyone to read! While the beginning was a little slow primarily because of all the character introduction required , it picked up speed and was difficult to put down despite how heavy it was!

If you liked this, try John Jakes' North and South trilogy. Review of Book 2: Winter of the World View all 33 comments. Aug 25, Dana Ilie rated it it was amazing Shelves: historical-fiction.

A sweeping epic with the pace of a thriller, I could scarcely put it down. This ambitious novel, the first of a projected trilogy covering most of the 20th century, tells the story of five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English and Welsh—as they negotiate the tremendous events of the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

Through the various characters—and there are quite a few—we witness the First World War in the trenches and in the halls of government, from each side of A sweeping epic with the pace of a thriller, I could scarcely put it down.

Through the various characters—and there are quite a few—we witness the First World War in the trenches and in the halls of government, from each side of the conflict. It is a period of intense change, a time when giants, be they royalty, tradition, or whole nations, are destined to fall.

Barely rumbling at first, the tempo quickens until it breaks in a crescendo of world-changing events. These are people we care about. We feel the plight of an unwed mother trying to survive in a society that affords her few rights and little help. Although personalized through the lives of these and others, the history is not trivialized.

This period is described accurately — even one well versed in history may pick up something new — yet it manages to be superbly entertaining as well. This excellent work is destined to be a classic, and holds great promise for the following two novels. View all 27 comments. Do not say that I don't like historical fiction - because I do. Do not even say I don't like Follett - because I rather do.

In fact, this highly praised - and very thick - volume I'd been anticipating eagerly, both because I had pleasant memories from The Pillars of the Earth and because currently I am rather WWI mad; I read Tuchman's classic works, Maddox Ford, not to mention Hemingway and Remarque, because I am fascinated by the subject.

So what in the world went wrong with this book? This story Do not say that I don't like historical fiction - because I do. This story, which is, like many Folletts, incredibly wide in scope and encompasses a decade, about fifty characters, and several countries, described the beginning of the 20th century, with a special focus, so the book blurb claims, on WWI.

It begins with a prologue in though the main thrust of the book occurs in and ends with an epilogue in The title, Fall of Giants is rather deceptive; one may think it refers to the fall of empires which was brought about chiefly by WWI, but in fact it refers to the fall of aristocracies. Product Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History. The Pillars of the Earth. World Without End. The Key to Rebecca. Winter of the World. Edge of Eternity. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Hornet Flight. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Eye of the Needle. A Column of Fire. James A. In the Garden of Beasts.

The Source. The Boys in the Boat. Daniel James Brown. The Shadow of the Wind. Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Call for the Dead. Night over Water. Alexander Hamilton. The Man from St. The Godfather. East of Eden. John Steinbeck. The Devil in the White City. All Quiet on the Western Front. Erich Maria Remarque. A Murder of Quality. Michael Crichton. The Invention of Wings. Sue Monk Kidd. What are your writing habits? Do you write daily? Do you work from a detailed outline? Ken Follett. Petra Durst-Benning.

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Bestselling Series. Harry Potter. Books By Language. Momentarily he felt angry; but then he remembered that he had to get up, he even wanted to get up, and he opened his eyes and sat upright with a jerk.

Continue reading It is a big book that tells a big story, but it is one you will not want to end.