Scan barcode
A review by brannonkrkhuang
Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
1.0
I was obsessed with this book. I listened to it as an audiobook and literally jammed out to it for over ten hours on the last day. I really loved it. Moving forward, I intend to disagree heavily with his portrayal of the Soviets, because I think it's rooted in western propaganda, but for most of this book the socialists and communists are portrayed well, as the working class fighting back against an evil ruling class. I also wish we could have seen more of the evils of British imperialism in the book, but it was only ever barely mentioned. That was a real shame. It's a great book though for really explaining the history of the first world war in an entertaining, engaging way. Sending my love to Lenin :)
*Edit* Originally I gave this book five stars, but I'm back after reading two chapters of the next book in the series to tell you - don't commit to this series! Chapter two of the next book features a wild justification for rape that made me put the book down and tainted my enjoyment of this one. Also I was right. The soviet union are painted as villains going forward... in a book about the nazis. It's really ridiculous to me now, after reading two chapters of book two, that Follett didn't portray British imperialism at all, but simply glossed over it. British imperialism killed over 100 million people in India alone, which is a higher number than the supposed entire "death toll of communism", and that's just what they did in India, not to mention what they did in Africa. The death toll of capitalism should also include the fact that the U.S. was founded on slavery and the genocide of the indigenous peoples. This portrayal of the Soviet Union as the most evil thing in existence is nothing more than western propaganda. It is a way to hide the sins of capitalism. I really appreciated Follett's portrayal of class struggle in this book, but I fear he does not stick to this portrayal. I suspect he will abandon his portrayal of working class people to focus more on the heroism of insanely wealthy politicians and all the lovely benefits of voting for them so that they can pass laws to help out their wealthy friends.
*Edit* Originally I gave this book five stars, but I'm back after reading two chapters of the next book in the series to tell you - don't commit to this series! Chapter two of the next book features a wild justification for rape that made me put the book down and tainted my enjoyment of this one. Also I was right. The soviet union are painted as villains going forward... in a book about the nazis. It's really ridiculous to me now, after reading two chapters of book two, that Follett didn't portray British imperialism at all, but simply glossed over it. British imperialism killed over 100 million people in India alone, which is a higher number than the supposed entire "death toll of communism", and that's just what they did in India, not to mention what they did in Africa. The death toll of capitalism should also include the fact that the U.S. was founded on slavery and the genocide of the indigenous peoples. This portrayal of the Soviet Union as the most evil thing in existence is nothing more than western propaganda. It is a way to hide the sins of capitalism. I really appreciated Follett's portrayal of class struggle in this book, but I fear he does not stick to this portrayal. I suspect he will abandon his portrayal of working class people to focus more on the heroism of insanely wealthy politicians and all the lovely benefits of voting for them so that they can pass laws to help out their wealthy friends.