Edge of Eternity; Ken Follett
Book Three of the Century Trilogy
Dutton - 2014
Ken Follet is truly a master at historical fiction. In 2010 he published the first book in his Century Trilogy with Fall of Giants, (2012) Winter of the World and in (2014), the final trilogy, Edge of Eternity. Although, I really enjoyed the previously (2) books, I hadn't felt like tackling the final book. In part because of it's size, once again over 1,000 pages, but because, I knew it was the end of a wonderful reading experience. I actually finished this one in February, but held off writing the review to think about it a bit.
This installment spans the period of 1961-1989 and covers such history making events as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Civil Rights Movement. JFK Assassination, Nixon and Watergate, and even has a epilogue of president Obama's victory speech. The same significant families are featured, but this time it's a different generation (grandchildren) involved. Fortunately there are family trees provided which were very helpful given the two-plus year lapse since I read the previous book.
The Edge of Eternity and the trilogy as a whole is no ordinary historical work; the recent that most have been involved is impressive. As a work of fiction, I had to keep reminding myself of that, when historically something seems a bit off. The characters are fascinating, American families, Germans, Russians and English are represented. All of the characters are very well developed and seemed authentic throughout.
The story took me back to my school days for some of these history making events. The Cuban Missile crisis, JFK's assassination, although I was a child and at an age when the issues were not really understood, it was still scary for me and other children when observing the reactions of older adults.
This book has so much to offer readers, even though it's not perfect. There's a lot of sex and politics that some readers will take issue with, but personally I felt that it added to the story and did not distract. I think you could read this as a stand alone, but in my opinion, you'd be missing the opportunity to really appreciate the all that the entire trilogy has to offer.
4.5/5 stars
(eGalley)
Finally have Winter of the World ready to go... looking forward to this one, too. Glad it did not disappoint!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about reading this trilogy. Now that all are published, perhaps the time has come. I wonder about listening to it?
ReplyDeleteI know I should try his work but the books are so darn big, it's intimidating.
ReplyDeleteMy husband tried one of these but wasn't interested so I declined as well - too long of books not to grab interest! But they do interest plenty of people, and in fact, when we were overseas, we saw his books everywhere in every sort of language!
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy The Pillars of the Earth but haven't tried anything else by Follett, I should give this series a try.
ReplyDeleteKen Follett is one of the reasons I wanted to make this year a year of reading chunksters. But, my goodness, 1000 is like two chunksters in one!
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