Highly Recommended Historical Fiction ~ Edge of Eternity

[Laura PourMeADrink]

Ken Follett.

Absolutely engrossing 1000+ page epic that starts in 1961 and ends with a flash forward to Obama's inauguration.

Follett is a master at building stories about people from different places (East Germany, Moscow, Washington DC, London) and walks of life (aid to Bobby Kennedy, aid to Khrushchev, aid to Martin Luther King, British musicians, ordinary people trapped in East Germany) and how they react to historical events from their point of view.

It's also a great refresher on history, meticulously researched (takes him years to write). From the Freedom Fighters to Berlin Wall, Vietnam War, Cuban Missile Crisis, assassinations, Watergate, British band wave, fall of Soviet Union.

It took me two weeks to finish (in time to give it to my sister on a visit) - but can see it as a book to savor over a longer time.

I was astounded to see that the overall rating was not high - but figured it out after reading reviews on B & N...the conservatives hated it and said that the whole book was slanted left. Left was right, right was wrong. How true !

[BlueMTexpat]

1. Thanks for the recommendation! eom

[TexasProgresive]

2. Thanks, Every book I've read by Mr Follett has been enjoyable education

[malthaussen]

3. Part 3 of a triliogy.

When did Ken Follett start writing like Neal Stephenson? Anyway, it appears from Amazon that the whole production is pretty good, so if you want a 3,000-page epic to curl up with this winter, this might be for you.
It is quite amusing how many reviewers like the first two volumes but can't stand the third, which deals with the events of their lifetimes. There's a moral there, somewhere.

-- Mal

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. Why do you say they are similar? Which book of Stephenson's

is the 3000 you like?

Actually - was disappointed with the first two

[malthaussen]

5. The Baroque Cycle.

I think it's one of the best things written in the 21st century. Mind you, I'm on a first-name basis with many of the historical figures. Add in Cryptonomicon for completion, although that was done in the last century.

Aside from The Big U, which is funny as hell, those are the only books of Stephenson's I really like. And I've read most of them up through Anathem. I see Follett has been getting rather prolix in this century, though. Which is good, if you're entertained by what is written, and tiresome if not.

-- Mal

[pscot]

6. The Baroque Trilogy is a natural wonder

[Enthusiast]

7. Mrs. Enthusiast read that one. She liked it very much. I have yet to read it.

Of course I read the other two so I do plan on reading Edge of Eternity.

Thank you, Laura PourMeADrink.