"Los buenos tiempos se van para no volver nunca más."

Una trilogía excepcional, que cierra con broche de oro! Un gran paseo histórico, el recorrido de un siglo convulso, lleno de cambios, guerras, ideales y lealtades; que dejó profundas heridas en la humanidad.

En esta última entrega el autor nos describe todos los sucesos que tuvieron lugar durante la guerra fría hasta la caída del muro de Berlín, prácticamente nos cuenta todos los acontecimientos importantes de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Y nos encontramos a los nietos de las cinco familias protagonistas con la que hemos vivido, amado y padecido.
Este libro no solo nos trae los hechos más importantes, nos trae a sus protagonistas: J.F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Nikita Jrushchov, Gorbachov, entre muchos otros, perfectamente entretejidos entre los sucesos y ligados de una u otra manera a los personajes ficticios. Hay partes muy emotivas como el famoso discurso "Yo tengo un sueño" dado en Washington por Martin L. King, tan magistralmente narrado, que particularmente me sentí parte de la audiencia.

"Sueño que un día esta nación se alzará y vivirá de acuerdo con el verdadero sentido de su credo: «Sostenemos como certeza manifiesta que todos los hombres fueron creados por igual»."

Todos los personajes de esta novela, reales o ficticios, están muy bien perfilados, perfectamente encuadrados en los roles que juegan.

Es una novela extensa (más de 1100 páginas) pero no hay desperdicio, está dividida en 10 partes, narrada magistralmente de forma lineal sin saltos temporales, con capítulos algo extensos, pero con este autor eso no genera problemas.

Particularmente para mí, éste ha sido el mejor libro de la trilogía, quizás por el hecho que fue del que más historia aprendí. Ojalá hubiera podido leerla en mi época escolar, hubiese sido más fácil comprender este período de tiempo.

100% recomendado.

"¿Cómo se pueden obtener soluciones si a nadie se le permite hablar de los problemas?"

Otra repetición de fórmula. De una fórmula que me encanta y que, parece ser, nunca me cansaré de leer. De volver a ella. De revivirla.

"El Umbral de la Eternidad" me ha parecido el mejor libro de la trilogía, aunque no es el que más me ha gustado. Aquí Follet logra un mejor equilibrio entre lo comercial y palomitero y lo puramente histórico. Curiosamente, y aunque me parece la obra más redonda de la "Trilogía del Siglo", me ha faltado algún personaje con el que realmente emocionarme e identificarme. Pese a ello, al final tienes una necesidad vital, casi física, de conocer el destino de estas familias que te han acompañado durante un siglo. He llegado a sentir verdadera emoción despidiendo a ciertos personajes. Eran casi de mi familia. Una de las infinitas manifestaciones de la magia de la literatura. Impagable.

A modo de resumen aquí tenemos una trilogía que recomendaría sin reflexionarlo demasiado a cualquiera mínimamente interesado en la novela histórica y que busque una lectura ligera (pese a la extensión lo es) y que enganche. Pocos libros integran con tanta brillantez y naturalidad lo mundano, lo anónimo, en el que todos podemos vernos reflejados, con los acontecimientos históricos que configuraron nuestro presente, y de los que tenemos un deber cívico y humano de conocer. Sin embargo, sigo pensando que son libros muy sesgados por la ideología del autor, no en cuanto a que lo que cuente sea falso, sino a dónde se pone el foco y dónde no. Pero en general tienes un repaso de los episodios históricos más determinantes.

No voy a extenderme más, ya en mis anteriores reseñas expliqué lo que podéis encontrar en esta saga y lo que no; y al fin y al cabo este tercer libro es un copia y pega. Todos estas obras se van a llevar las 5 estrellas por mi irremediable amor al hacer literario y la forma de contar historias del señor Follet. No obstante e intentando ser "objetivo " estas novelas orbitan entre las 3-4 estrellas. Nota global de la saga: 4 estrellas.

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW UNLESS YOU ARE RIGHT OF CENTER...AND DO NOT READ THE BOOK UNLESS YOU'RE LEFT OF KARL MARX. I loved the first two books in this series and waited impatiently for two years for this one to be released. What a huge disappointment. It became apparent very early on that Follett was heading in the wrong direction. Rather than create a thrilling story about the conflicts and triumphs of the five intriguing families we met in the previous books, he offers a left-wing propaganda paper as the last installment of the trilogy. While I might have forgiven the author for his anger toward whites and their mistreatment of Blacks before the Civil Rights movement, I cannot forgive him for presenting almost every white as an evil, low-intelligence thug. American whites put down American blacks. (But he evens it out: Russian whites put down other Russian whites.) Follett couldn't even have the "good guys" be nice to a cat. The cat's owner is taken in by the KGB. What do the good guys do? They don't take it in and care for it. That would be too kind. They let it loose on the street to fend for itself. In Follett's world, everyone's a prick. Very early on in the book it seemed that Follett had simply selected whatever incidents enraged him in the 60s then clumsily woven his characters into some semblance of a story. (At times I felt like I was reading the script for Forrest Gump!) I really do wish that Follett could have set aside his rabid left-wing politics long enough to have written a book that both sides of the political spectrum could enjoy. But, instead, he chose to alienate half his readers with a politically-charged novel that starts off suicidally depressing and goes downhill from there. Follett made it so abundantly clear that he hates those who lean toward the right that I did him the favor of putting down his book before I'd even finished it. Mr. Follett, thank you for letting me know what a scum-sucking bottom feeder I am. Would you so kindly return the twelve bucks I paid for your book? It's filthy capitalist money and I'm certain you don't want to keep it.

At first my opinion was more critical. The characters were too 'close to the action'. George is a close adviser to RFK. Dimka is a close adviser to Brezhnev. I liked the first two books where the main characters weren't comically 'in the room' where huge events took place, yet were impacted by those events. But the end results of the first two novels were upward mobility, so I began to accept the movement and plot devices of this last book.

I liked the East Berlin and Russian plots more than the American plots, but I'm an american so I'm more familiar with the history that took place here, the opinions and reactions at the time. I think Follett does a good job summarizing complex history, and had me constantly searching wikipedia after reading a chapter to find out more background on the historic events and characters.

I found it odd that characters were dropped out. Like Erik Von Ulrich (Carla's brother), and Werner's sister and family.

For me the book "Edge of Eternity" quivers and quakes under its own weight, and this is coming from a huge Ken Follett fan. Most of what makes his novels so great is the immersive quality and the suspense, along with wicked plot turns. Since the five intertwining narratives in Edge of Eternity are all based on historical events, there goes the suspense. Is it immersive? At times.

Much of the first half of the book centers around George Jakes (son of Jacky Jakes and Greg Peshkov) and his attempts to romance two different women as he begins his legal career at the dawning of the Civil Rights struggle. There are pages of text given to the Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech but while reading, I kept thinking are two fresh law school graduates really going to start as a member of a member of Bobby Kennedy's inner circle and a close adviser to Martin Luther King?

My favorite family and story of the Century series actually starts off the text in Edge of Eternity when Rebecca Franck, daughter of Carla and Werner falls into trouble with the Stasi, the East German police. At the same time her younger brother Walli is trying to find fame as a singer and guitar player. Some of the best moments in Edge of Eternity happen after the Berlin Wall gets built and both Rebecca and her boyfriend Bernd try to escape and at a different time Walli and his girlfriend Karolin also try to escape.

Lots of nice little ends get tied together the way they always do in third books of trilogies. It's a little overly convenient that so many of the characters from the five different families end up as major players in so many different huge historical events, like Forrest Gump times five.

There is a gratuitously violent section that takes place in Vietnam which shows some ugly violence, even by Ken Follett standards (he has had flaying scenes in his books before along with Nazi's breaking a poor 18 year old boy's bones with a sledgehammer). Yes, we know that some horrible things went on in Vietnam but the scene still seems wedged in for shock value.

The Cuban Missile crisis, Watergate, and other significant events get pages upon pages of dry description of all the details and machinations. This might be useful for a student to know but the detached quality of the passages made them seem tiresome to me (by the end of the book I was skipping over them).

Ken Follett's villains are often memorable because they are so vivid and multi dimensional, such as Aleks Kschessinsky (Man from St. Petersburg), Dieter (Jackdaws), Priest (Hammer of Eden) and several others. Yet in Edge of Eternity the one true villain, Stasi agent Hans Hoffman seems more like a pathetic dweeb while ultra right-wing Cam Dewar is just boring and predictable. I skimmed over all passages with Cam in them, which was almost the entire Watergate section.

Edge of Eternity and the whole Century trilogy could go on to become important reads to learn about 20th century events. In fact it would make sense if they ended up on some high school or college reading lists. But for Ken Follett's fans, well we're used to something that evokes a much higher emotional response that's populated with characters we love or hate, not just get annoyed with.

So "Edge" is worthwhile and finishes the Century trilogy nicely but now that he has gotten those 3,000 words of his desk maybe Ken can go back to writing a smaller scope book that's closer in quality to Pillars of the Earth or A Dangerous Fortune.

The third book in the Century Trilogy. I thought this was the best one in the epic series.
It tells the major events of the years from the 1960's through the 1980's. The history is told through the eyes of members of four families (American, Russian, German and British) and their involvement in world changing events. For older readers like myself,it offers a refresher course and new insights into events we all remember. For younger readers who didn't experience those major events through television and other media, it serves as a good introduction to the turmoil of the 60's and the Cold War.
Although over 1000 pages long, the narrative moves along smoothly. In the previous books in the series I found it necessary to refer back to the list of characters and family trees, but not the case here.
I felt the sex scenes seemed thrown in at random and belonged in a different kind of book. To me they detracted from the flow of a very interesting historical epic.
Conveying the events of the Kennedy era,the Freedom Rides and the Civil Rights movement, the assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis,The Cold War, The Berlin Wall, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and even rock and roll. The story includes all the American Presidents from John Kennedy to George W. Bush and ends with Obama becoming president. The presidency of Clinton does not exist in this story.

#beendet #Hörbuch

Ken Follett believes in the power of a good story. And he harbors no doubt about attention spans in an era when people avert their eyes to smartphone screens approximately every 1.2 seconds.
Ken Follett again tackles great chucks of history in Edge of Eternity, the final installment in his Century Trilogy, which covers 1961 through 1989, and includes such epic events as Vietnam, Kennedy’s assassination, the Civil Rights movement, the Cold War and the fall of Communism. Follett also takes on two pop culture issues: the genesis of rock’n roll and the ‘60s sexual revolution.
And one small scene with Nicolae Ceausescu as protagonist. I was a kid but I remember how communism was: the wake up at 4 in the morning for the queues if you wanted to buy something, the fear of expressing yourself freely etc.
Follett tells his stories by placing readers into bedrooms, boardrooms, even at the Berlin Wall as it comes down. He’s masterly at juggling complex plot lines with a mix of real world leaders and fictional characters who are spread throughout Eastern and Western Europe and the United States.
Wrapping up a huge sweeping trilogy can be difficult, but Follett does a great job tying up loose ends, giving justice and time to characters without making it feel too long or fake. Overall, this is a fantastic series and a fantastic novel, and is enjoyable from a purely entertaining read and also as a way to think about the historical events of our recent past through the eyes of different people and perspectives.

I can't wait to read this book! Fall of Giants and Winter of the World were so good I could hardly put them down.

Thus ends the trilogy of the Century!... With less stars than the two previous installments.

It's true, I could not bring myself to give the extra star that would make it four. Mostly because the book it's not that exciting. And don't get me wrong, the XX century was full of exciting events. The way Follett spun his story was not.

This third and final installment starts in 1961 and brings us the stories of the descendants of the previous books' characters (which are all related somehow). Europe is divided in two, Communism reigns in some parts of the world, and there is still a long way to walk in what human rights are concerned.

Basically, this last book was supposed to tell its readers about the events that took place in the last decades of last century. Please note that I wrote 'was supposed'. Because that's not what happened.

As I said, the book opens in 1961, the year the Berlin Wall was built. Then Follett takes us on a 856 pages trip through the sixties. It was a great and detailed trip, rich in events, fashion, music. We get (at least I got) a really good idea of what the 1960 decade was, both historically and culturally. And I enjoyed it.

But imagine how I was feeling as I saw the book gradually coming to an end. My edition is 1159 pages long which meant that Follet spent more than a half of his book describing one single decade. What about the other three?

Good question!

When you read 'Edge of Eternity' you must be prepared to barely notice the seventies and the eighties. Ken Follett, whilst being really careful with the sixties'chronology, didn't bother that much with time for the next decades. The actions rolls, events happen, his carachters are well placed, as usual, not to miss a single thing, but, unless you know all the major historic events between 1970 and 1989, it will be easy to feel lost.

I felt that, after 1969, there was a brief stop at the seventies, then suddenly it was 1981, then 1984, and finally 1989. Where the stop was longer, because that was the year the Wall came down.

If you happen to be born in the nineties, I'm really sorry, Ken Follett didn't bother. The book ends in 1989 and then there is an epilogue taking place in 2008.

So Follett doesn't cover the last forty years of the XX century history. He tells us of the events that are more meaningful to him in those forty years. And that is fine, of course. But I didn't like it. He could have written a fourth book to end this saga at a better pace. Because, really, after the sixties it really feels Follett was rushing. He had a book to finish, it was already becoming a huge door stopper, the taking down of Berlin's Wall had to be there (very important!), so he just picked a couple of events from 1970 to 1989, ignored the nineties completely (because nothing happened in those ten years, right?), and there you go. Not cool.

Not to mention the somewhat forced relationships between all the characters. They are all related. From London to Russia, to East Germany and the United States. In the majority of case, they are relatives, family. It could be something great; I just felt it was annoying.

Another thing I didn't like much was the way some characters "disappeared". Characters that appeared a lot in the beginning could stop showing up suddenly. And then you only hear of them, in the end, by another character's perspective.

I didn't feel this was an altogether balanced book, in a lot of ways. Hence the three, and not four stars.

But the first 856 pages were quite great, though.

What a bunch of liberal dribble. I really enjoyed the first two books in this series. I think that is why I am so disappointed in this last installment. I spent the first two books becoming invested in the lives of some interesting, likable characters only to find them hardly mentioned in this book. I realize that by the timeframe of this book they would have been old... but still. The new cast of characters were one dimensional, shallow, and annoying. On top of that, all liberal characters were automatically beautiful, intelligent, and morally superior. Conservative characters were fat, ugly, liars, thieves, bigots, and murders. I was unaware that if you are a conservative you have to pay someone for adult intimacy. Movie star? Rock star? High government officials? JFK's mistress? Really? Why not tell the story of the average person's life? In the end, I just didn't care what happened to any of them.

Mr. Follett had a 30 to 40 year timespan within which to place his story. I realize that selecting which historical events to highlight would have been a daunting task due to the fact that so many people today lived through those events and would have various opinions of what is important. I can appreciate including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Movement, Kenney's and MLK's assassinations, and the story of the Berlin Wall. But what about some references to the great advancements made in the last 30 to 40 years? Man landing on the moon, the Space Station, advances in medicine, the advent of the personal computer, cell phones, and so forth? Those are the things that truly changed our lives in the last part of the previous century.

And lastly, I don't consider myself to be a highly political person. Nevertheless, I found the slanted view of Nixon, Reagan, and Bush as "all bad" to be distasteful. I would have appreciated a more balanced view. He didn't even mention Ford, Carter, and Clinton. There were so many other world events during that time that could have been included instead of these jabs at our presidents.

I wish I could have my time back that I wasted on reading this trash.

2.5 ⭐️ Mi sono sentita più sollevata quando ho concluso questo libro che quando ho finito l’esame di letteratura italiana ieri.
Tre mesi che mi tiravo dietro l’audiolibro. L’AUDIOLIBRO, nemmeno il cartaceo. Senza storytel non ce l’avrei mai fatta. Shout out to storytel, all of my homies love storytel.

I giorni dell’eternità è il volume conclusivo di una trilogia storica, che segue le stesse famiglie nel corso del Novecento. Sono comunque libri che possono essere letti come autoconclusivi. In questo ci ritroviamo ad assistere a tutti gli avvenimenti che hanno caratterizzato la seconda metà del secolo.

E già qui partono le criticità. Se nei primi due romanzi gli avvenimenti storici approfonditi erano molti meno, qui ci ritroviamo a parlare di: diritti civili, guerra fredda, crisi di Cuba, JFK, Bobby Kennedy, comunismo nell’urss, nella germania dell’est, polonia, ungheria, malcom x, martin luther king, rockstar anni ‘70, siberia, diritti lgbtq+, vietnam, nixon, watergate…potrei andare avanti ancora. Sicuramente è stata fatta una ricerca gigantesca, ma ovviamente non c’era abbastanza tempo per trattarli tutti con la giusta profondità. Al capitolo dopo si passava già alla questione seguente. Se aggiungiamo anche che, per aggiornare i lettori sulla situazione geopolitica del momento, i personaggi improvvisamente si mettevano a parlare tra loro come libri di storia del liceo…l’inquadramento storico, che mi è sempre piaciuto, qua ha fatto cilecca.

Per quanto riguarda i personaggi, stessa cosa. Troppi, troppi. Non c’era tempo per conoscere loro o le relazioni che li legano. Relazioni amorose, non ne parliamo. Il capitolo prima incontrano qualcuno e quello dopo sono sposati. O peggio, la prima volta che li incontriamo ci viene detto che conoscono da tempo una persona e la amano. Non si sa perché o percome, ma si amano. Boh. Ho apprezzato i tanti personaggi femminili tutti diversi e che hanno molta importanza nella storia e nella Storia (in tutta la trilogia ci sono sempre stati), ma…bare minimum.

È un peccato, perché i primi due libri mi sono piaciuti molto, e devo ammettere che alcuni momenti mi hanno commosso, specialmente se riguardavano personaggi protagonisti del primo e del secondo della trilogia. Ma con una scrittura troppo secca e quasi robotica, questo è un mattone di più di 1200 pagine che contiene troppo e al contempo non dice abbastanza.