Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing
Comment: I've enjoyed Ken Follett's past books, and being interested in this time period specifically I thought this book would be a natural for me. Not so...
I found most of the characters unsympathetic to just downright pathetic. Feliks was the best of the lot, but I wasn't sure what the author was trying to tell us about him. One moment he's a hardened revolutionary who would would gladly kill a policeman, the next he's torn bewtween his ideals and love--next he's risking everyone he loves in a hare-brained scheme that seemed very overcooked (pun intended)...
The story could have been better. I wanted to like and care about the characters, but I found them wanting, especially Lydia...
Overall good writing style, but poor plot and contrived characters.
Customer Rating: Summary: The best of Follett....
Comment: This is my favorite of Ken Follett's work...
Like many of his earlier novels (Triplet, The Key to Rebecca, etc) it is fast paced and engaging. These are the precursors to the "techno-thrillers" of the late 1980s. But this is deeper....
This novel addresses the themes of WW1 and how it came about. It lightly touches on the contradictions of 'the establishment' versus the 'peoples movements' of the early 1900s and how the war came to be one of class struggle instead of one government vs another. As Feliks would have said, it was 'war killing people' instead of 'people killing people'...
Follett does a TERRIFIC job of showing one man's twisted understanding of war, politics, and the evolution of those times - but written for our world and understanding. Feliks, the protagonist Main Character, is not a communist but rather an anarchist revolutionary who represents the life as it "could have been" vs how it became. He sort of shows how life and politics could have changed our world had not it become a struggle between the capitalist West vs the communist East...duno if that makes sense, but its what I see in it....
Even if you don't like politics, you can like this book as a spy or adventure novel...and still get something out of it as a historical novel....
I highly recommend this book....
Customer Rating: Summary: Morally sickening... avoid.
Comment: This book IS quite interesting, a captivating plot and lots of historical detail sure to delight most readers. Its the cheap sex, lust and glorification of adultry that damns the whole thing. Not to mention, this book has the trashiest climax I`ve come across in a long time.
Mr. Folletts obsession with adultary is extremely frustrating as he writes what are otherwise excellent historical thrillers. Trust me, if you have an ounce of traditional values in your body you'll want to hurl this book accross the room.
Pick up A Dangerous Fortune or Pillars of the Earth first. Lets all hope Mr. Follett wakes up and takes his job a little more seriously soon.
