A review by tori_gray
Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

3.0

I absolutely adored Pillars of the Earth, World Without End and Column of fire. I liked this. Nowhere near as much, but Ken Follett has a way of making you care for characters, even if you don't want to. This book follows Germans, Russians, Welsh, English and Americans. It was enjoyable enough as a read, but didn't hit me as hard by any means, but maybe that's because I'm less interested in this particular period of history. The story starts with Billy Williams, but he is barely mentioned when the war starts, Earl Fitzherbert starts off as a likable young Earl to a complete douche. I even ended up not liking Ethel Williams by the end. Maud and Walter were by far the characters I kept reading to find out what happened to them. But I feel like that was a major problem, I kept reading to find out what happened to the characters, not because I enjoyed the book as much as I did the other trilogy. I feel like one major event of 1918 was left out in order to finish the book. The Spanish flu was mentioned once, and then never again, even though it occurred during the war and killed more than the war did. It felt that by leaving it out, Follett forgot to remain true to history. This book however did succeed in making me angry about WWI and the futility of it all, millions died because of one assassination, it also made me angry about the Versailles treaty. If that was the aim, Follett certainly succeeded, if not, I don't understand what he was trying to achieve.