Started out interesting, then just got long. Skimming by the end. Preferred the first books.

4/5 Estrellas

Como ya he comentado en las dos entregas anteriores, a mi esta serie, podrá ser un betseller, pero me gustó bastante. Un recorrido imprescindible por la historia del siglo XX, desde distintos puntos de vista, en distintos lugares del mundo occidental. Con un sesgo un poco progre y socialdemócrata, si hay que reconocerlo, pero bueno peor hubiera sido un enfoque populista o un enaltecimiento de los totalitarismos.
Creo que es una lectura recomendable.

De verschillende reviews op dit boek onderstrepen maar weer eens dat de thema's die Ken Follett bespreekt nog steeds uiterst gevoelig liggen in onze moderne maatschappij.

Zelf vond ik dit boek beter geschreven dan in ieder geval de eerste uit de serie. Er is een stuk minder geforceerde dialoog en de onderdelen vullen elkaar actief aan. Follett weet hoe hij de lezer erbij moet houden met alle dramatische wendingen die de hoofdpersonages tegenkomen.

Het is niet echt een geschiedenisboek en zo moet je het ook niet beoordelen denk ik. De auteur laat doelbewust zaken weg die zijn verhaal kunnen onderbreken, waardoor dit boek geen accurate representatie van de geschiedenis is en dit ook niet wil zijn. Het verhaal zelf beoordelen zou hier moeten tellen.

De meeste personages spelen handig in op hun (voor)geschiedenis in de boekenreeks, maar er zijn ook personages die uit het niets opduiken en zonder duidelijk motief deel uitmaken van het grote verhaal. Cam Dewar is vrij bot geïntroduceerd en als lezer snap ik niet waarom hij is gevolgd. Jasper Murray zijn 'avontuur' in Vietnam is veel te kort voor de controversie rondom Tiger Force. Het is niet duidelijk waarom nu juist dit zo vormend is voor Jasper zijn karakter.

De dikke boeken van Ken Follett lezen zoals gewoonlijk vloeiend en de lezer wordt meegevoerd in het grotere verhaal. Sommige details waren voor mij nog niet bekend en de lezer moet er rekening mee houden dat Follett geen objectiefgetrouw geschiedverhaal wil schrijven. Verder is het wel een aanrader.

Review contains SPOILERS. Don't read further if you don't want some plot details spoiled.

Are you a self important baby boomer who leans left in your political views? Well buddy, are you going to have the biggest rager of a boner reading this book. Don't get me wrong, I devoured this book, and it starts off very strong. Most of the characters in the book start off likable. I realized pretty early on that at this point in the story, nearly all the characters are related by either blood or marriage, despite being on 3 different continents. Remember how likable most of the characters in both of the first two books were? The strong women? The men up against these terrible World Wars but still fighting the good fight for their familes? Yeah, you sort of get that at the start of the book, but it doesn't last.

As some other reviewers have noted, the book does start off strong, but then sort of just starts jumping from one historic event to the next, all while glossing over or downplaying some important ones. Nixon, Reagan and the one right leaning character in the book are evil cartoon characters. Jimmy Carter is almost completely left out(I wonder why?). Some redeeming qualities are shown for Nixon, just before getting into the things he's known for. None such for the Gipper, but I think part of that is that the story starts to go off the rails a bit in the 80's. Vietnam was pretty glossed over earlier, and I shit you not, there is not a single mention of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, despite there being two POV characters based out of the USSR and the theme of the USSR losing money and status being a central theme of the later chapters. How is that sort of oversight possible? As for Nam, most of the characters in the story are affluent, so they didn't have to fight. One character gets drafted, and it's a bit of a stretch, and he spends all of about 2 pages in Nam. Those are some of the most forced pages in the entire book and of course Follett goes all BABYKILLER for those pages, and no real mention is made of them again. Another character goes over there and pulls a Jane Fonda. The portions about Nam can somewhat be forgiven from a "boots on the ground" POV stance, as Follett is never at his strongest when discussing combat. However, the absolute omission of the Soviet Afghan war is a really glaring mistake.

In the earlier books, Follett's strength was his human characters, and the terrible situations they're thrown in. Despite all odds, they always pull through, usually with the help/support of a strong family. These are families we've read about for 3 generations or more. It seems, that much like in real life, something was lost between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers. This is both a good thing, in that Follett acknowledges that the family did indeed grow weaker in that time period, and a bad thing as most of the characters are terrible people. Remember Maud? How she loved her man so strongly, that she gave up her family and homeland to be with him? She loved him through two world wars, and stayed strong for her new and growing family. Well, her grandson(SPOILERS) becomes a degenerate, drug addicted rockstar, who sleeps with his best friend's girl. His best friend(also his cousin), decides that this girl is fucking marriage material. Cheat on me and not feel bad about it? That's cool. Enable my cousin's heroin addiction? That's also cool, because I love you. Sounds like the kind of gal you'd want your son to marry right? Oh, that wonderful young lady is also a POV character, ha ha.

That's a theme among the male characters in this book. All of them, without fail, are fucking chumps. Almost all of them are either cheated on, cheat themselves, or end up making some choices that require a bit of a leap on the readers part. For instance (SPOILERS), a male character digs one of the female POV characters, but she falls for none other Jack Kennedy. He's such a fucking dreamboat that the bitch doesn't get married until she's 60, withered up, and a literal cat lady. The Kennedy clan in general are portrayed as the polar opposites to the cartoonish Nixon and Reagan. Very little mention is made of Ted, the fat drunk Kennedy, I guess Follett couldn't quite whitewash him into a completely flattering light.

Another character(more SPOILERS), one of the more redeeming ones, decides to cheat on her disabled husband with another man. Her poor disabled, mostly impotent husband say it's all good. Why? Because it's 60's MAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN. She just as quickly ends the affair. It's almost as if Follett put that in there to ruin the one completely likable character in the story.


So, you're probably thinking that I really disliked this book from that review, but that's untrue. It was an entertaining read, and a page turner. It starts off very strongly and I had hoped it would be as enjoyable at the first two, but the enjoyment I got from the middle and end portions of the book came more from Follett's obvious bias and the reverse-Jamie Lannister character arcs of the POV characters. If you have read the first two books, definitely read this one to see how it ends, but I must warn you...the ending is terrible. I mean, I groaned as soon as I saw the date posted at the top of the page. I'll put another spoiler tag below and then discuss it, because it's the funniest, most ironic bit for me.

ENDING SPOILERS

So, as I mentioned earlier, Follett spends some time building all of the right leaning characters into these evil cartoon characters. Early in the story it's(and rightfully so) the segregationists, then Nixon, and lastly Reagan. Now, for Reagan, he asserts that he's even worse than Tricky Dick, and that he got away with murdering innocents during the Iran-Contra affair. So what does Follett end on? You guessed it, the 2008 Barack Obama acceptance speech. For the scene, Follett has all of the black characters, who have fought so hard for civil rights throughout the first part of the book, all in one room watching the whole thing. Never mind that only Jacky and her son George are the only characters you care about in the room. They have reached the top of the mountain! I guess Follett wanted to stop it there and not have the parts where Obama wins the Nobel peace prize, and then murders innocents with drones. Hey, he'll get away with it though, the Gipper would be proud!

Edit: I would also like to add another glaring omission from a book that tried to hit all the big moments of the 60's-80's. The moon landing! The entire space race was barely mentioned, but one of the biggest "Where were you at" moments, and arguably one of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind, the FUCKING MOON LANDING, was not even in the books. Not even a fucking mention!

(review in English below)

Apesar de todos os acontecimentos emocionantes que ocorreram no período da história do século XX abrangido por este 3º volume, a sua leitura não me entusiasmou como eu estava à espera, sobretudo depois de ter gostado bastante do livro anterior.

A maior parte dos personagens acabam por ficar superficialmente caracterizados (o que se compreende, até certo ponto, pelo facto de serem tantos), não permitindo que nos sintamos envolvidos emocionalmente - pelo menos eu não me senti...

Neste volume senti, mais do que nos anteriores, a falta duma escrita rica e evocativa, em vez de descrições e diálogos básicos. Na última semana já estava a ficar saturada e só queria acabar este calhamaço, que já me custava carregar dum lado para o outro.

Enfim, não posso dizer que tenha sido uma perda de tempo, mas podia ter sido melhor...

In spite of all the extraordinary events that took place in the period of the 20th century history covered on this 3rd volume, it wasn't the exciting reading I was expecting, specially after having enjoyed the previous book.

Most of the characters end up characterized in a superficial way (which is understandable to a certain point because they're so many), not allowing the reader to become emotionally invested - at last that's how I felt...

In this book I lacked, more than I did in the previous two, a rich and evocative writing, instead of plain descriptions and dialogues. During the last week I was already getting tired and I just wanted to end this very thick tome, which I struggled to carry around.

In the end, I cannot say it was a waste of time, but it could have been better...

Book 1: 3*
Book 2: 3*
Book 3: 4*

By far the best book in the series. Follet is the potpouri of historical fiction and his simplification of events and human interactions still drives me nuts. However I have to give him his due with how he, in this one especially, has no sacred cows. Obviously a liberal he still takes on the flaws of both Kennedy's, LBJ and Carter.

Additionally his coverage of the civil rights conflicts and political follies of Nixon, Daly and others was applaudable.

Overall a good series.

3.5 STARS

Book Three of Ken Follett's Century Trilogy began as an UNPUTDOWNABLE 5 Star read for me, but soon lowered to a page-turning 4 Stars, then an interesting 3 Stars and even took a dive to 2 Stars in a few instances....hence the 3.5 Star rating.

EDGE OF ETERNITY covers the tumultuous 1960's thru 1980's encompassing the shameful Civil Rights era, the disheartening assassinations of JFK, MLK and RFK, the unbelievable horrors of Vietnam, the tyranny behind the Berlin Wall, the nerve-racking times of the Cuban Missile Crisis, (Tricky Dick) Nixon's impeachment, plus the beginning of the awesome Rock and Roll music era; BUT after all that, disappointedly failed to even mention Neil Armstrong's historic walk on the moon televised on July 20, 1969......(we watched it!)

Having been a young teen in the 60's, I lived through and remember most of the facts and events portrayed here, and for the most part, felt the novel informative and a good refresher on true events of the time. I recall being scared during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but don't remember the U.S. surveilance plane that was shot down; and reliving the assassination of JFK brought back the sad and shocking memory.....like 9-11 and the first moon walk.....you just never forget those times.

There are more unlikeable characters than not in this story, (vindictive Hans Hoffman was #1 on my list with the self-serving Jasper Murray a close 2nd.). There were also unpredictable actions by others that surprised me (Rebecca and Walli each come to mind), and one completely boring character I could have done without all together (Cameron Dewar). There are those who will be offended by the descriptive sex scenes that pop-up often and (sometimes needlessly) throughout the book, but I just chocked it up to the "free sex" time period of the 1960's and ventured forward....

Back to the positive side, one scene in particular  Rebecca and Bernd's escape from East to West Germany  was suspenseful and quite intense as were some scenes during the Civil Rights demonstrations. There were also a few laughable moments along the way.....I have never, ever heard mention of "jumbo" in reference to President Lyndon Johnson......(Cracked Me Up!)

In summary, EDGE OF ETERNITY is not without its flaws, and IMHO not up to par with Books 1 and 2 in the trilogy, but overall, I was entertained and did enjoy it.

Und auch der abschließende Teil der Jahrhundert-Trilogie konnte mich wieder voll und ganz begeistern. Diesmal begleiten wir unsere Familien durch die Zeit nach dem 2. Weltkrieg und durch den Kalten Krieg hindurch. Es werden wieder so viele Themen angesprochen und geschickt in die Handlungsstränge der einzelnen Protagonisten verknüpft, dass ich nur den Hut vor Ken Follett und seiner epischen Erzàhlung ziehen kann.

Die gesamte Trilogie war eines meiner absoluten Jahreshighlights und ist grade auch als Hörbuch sehr zu empfehlen ❤️❤️❤️

Los Williams, los Fitzherbert, los Kostin, los Ulrich y los Dewar.

La tercera generación de unas familias que atraparon en la primera entrega, "La caída de los gigantes", que sufrieron en "El invierno del mundo" y que llegan ahora para escribir la historia del último tercio del siglo XX.

Una historia que se escribe entre el muro de Berlín y la vida en la Alemania oriental, el movimiento por los derechos civiles de los negros en Estados Unidos, la crisis de los misiles, el crecimiento del Ku-Klus Clan, el amor libre y la Guerra de Vietnam, entre otros apasionantes momentos históricos.

Ken Follet borda una vez más una historia repleta de amor, de intrigas, de sueños cumplidos, de frustraciones, de miedo, de superación personal, relaciones familiares, traiciones, mentiras y luchas de poder que enganchan desde la primera página. Continuación de "La caída de los gigantes" y "El invierno del mundo", un magnífico broche de oro de esta magnífica trilogía titulada "The Century", muy a la altura de sus predecesoras y que, pese a la extensión de cada parte, atrapa y deja con ganas de más.

✔️ Puntos fuertes: documentación, ambientación histórica, el repaso de acontecimientos históricos de gran importancia, la intriga, la humanidad y las emociones, los personajes y su evolución, trama adictiva, la prosa narrativa del autor y el cierre de la saga.

❤ Te gustará si: buscas una novela histórica, si te gusta el estilo narrativo del autor o si disfrutaste leyendo "La caída de los gigantes" y "El invierno del mundo".

It pains me to give a Follett a low rating; however, this just wasn't good. Stock characters against the political background of the last half of the 20th century just made this story too long. And where was England in all of this turmoil? Not one single mention of Margaret Thatcher. Seemed to be forcing a particular political agenda also... As I said about the second book in the trilogy, too broad a canvas to be effective.

so many world events took place during the time period of this book that it felt like the characters were forced into the story rather than the story being built around the characters.

This was the worst book ever written by Ken Follett who in general is a good author. Besides adolescent writing style he made the cardinal sin of making this his political mantra. Others such as Stewart Woods and John Grisham have done this and have seen their popularity plummet. Another problem with this book is over simplification of the changed that occurred during this period. This book was 1789 pages long and I could lived without 1700 of them!