I finished Fall if Giants….finally. It is a beast of a book, but it is worth the read. It took me the entire month of July to read it. I have read books of this length in a shorter amount of time, but it is so detailed. You have to pay attention.

Fall of Giants follows five families through WWI, the Russian Revolution, and women’s right to vote. Five families from different countries are connected in unlikely ways. The Williams’ are a family of coal miners that works in the Fitzherberts’ family coal mines. Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with a German spy named Walter. Gus Dewar, an ambitious young aid to president Wilson, becomes entangles in their secret affair. Two orphaned Russian brothers dream of the freedom that America offers. Nobody’s life will remain the same.

My Thoughts

My first thought on Fall of Giants is wow. That’s it. Wow. But I know I would be a horrible book reviewer if I left it at that. Let me get my thoughts together. The character development is probably that best I have ever experienced. Each character is so diverse. They all have lengthy back stories and characteristics. You couldn’t convince me that these aren’t real people.

My next thought is the range of emotion that each character felt is amazing. Just like real life, each character had high moments and low moments. Follett captured the nuances of everyday life flawlessly.

Sitting at a page count of 985, Fall of Giants is dense. For the most part it kept my attention the entire time. Toward the middle I hit a couple of spots that lost my attention. That quickly shifted as major events developed.

Lastly, some of my favorite scenes happened toward the end. We see the end of WWI and the events slowly shift to the prohibition era. I loved how Follett used that change to transition into the next book. If it continues in the direction Follett pointed then I believe I might like Winter of the World even more.

My Rating: 5/5

Purchase