I was a little disappointed by this book. Ken Follet is one of my favorite authors, but this was just not up to his usual standards. The premise was intriguing - a secret commune, headed by a couple hiding from their less-than -lawful past, builds a winery and develops an outstanding vintage, but finds all their years of hard work threatened by a proposed dam. Because they have only held the land on a series of one-year leases, they can claim no recompense for their loss. In desperation, they seize the only option they can think of - threatening to cause an earthquake to force the state of California to halt the dam. And when, against all odds, they make good their threat, things go from bad to worse. Unfortunately, the book comes off as amateurish; the dialogue seems stilted and the characters not quite fully realized. I would suspect that this book was written under deadline and rushed to completion.

Eine gute spannende leichte Lektüre für den Sommer. Manche Sachen waren nicht wirklich glaubwürdig, aber das war mir egal. Ich habe das Buch gelesen, um mich zu unterhalten, nicht um etwas zu lernen, und dieses Zweck hat es erfüllt.

Good, fun, light, summer trash reading. Untenable at times, but who really cares. I read it to be entertained, not educated, and it delivered.

A load of fun to read. from the 4th cover, i was expectingthe usual cold-blooded terrorist threat. It was all but.

In the left corner:
a pacifist commune is in turmoil as a government project threatens to flood the land where they’ve been peacefully settled for three decades, successfully making wine to generate what little monetary income they need. We root for them, and even the crafty ex-con leader, Priest, an illiterated adult. How he gets out of hairy situations while only able to scribble his name is priceless!

They hatch a scheme to stop the flooding, by threatening to detonate an earthquake. There is some interesting seismology, and an escalation into violence (alas, alas).

In the right corner,

Judy, a competent FBI agent working under an incompetent boss who belittle her achievements.

An okay story.

I've read a few of Ken Follet's books, most notably "The Pillars of the Earth," a vast, extremely enjoyable tome. "World Without End" promises to be equally engaging (although one of my friends describes it as the first one wrapped in a bit of a different scenario, but I'm gonna read it anyway). I've also read and thoroughly enjoyed "Eye of the Needle" and "The Man from St. Petersburg."

In this book, Mr. Follet takes yet another direction, thriller genre for sure, but this time in the form of a group of old hippies whose commune is threatened by the building of a dam in California, and the leader, "Priest," with a less-than-upstanding-citizen" past steals a "seismic vibrator," to threaten California with earthquakes unless the governor agrees to stop production of power plants. Fun premise, with some disturbing imagery, but the characters are interesting, the romance angle predictable, the action nicely developed and some surprises, but alas not enough of 'em. Denouement has a couple more surprises, which I liked, but overall too predictable, although I learned a LOT about seismology and earthquakes.

No matter, I got a LOAD of Ken Follet to read.

Not great, which is disappointing since I like everything else I've read by the author.
The "romance" was dumb, and most of the action was predictable. The only thing I really appreciated was the fact that the main antagonist (as poorly written as he was, on the whole) was very flawed, which ultimately led to his ending.

A Flexible Borderline


Suppose you’re living in a farm that provides you all the nourishment you need and that you even produce your own brand of wine mainly for selling and using the profits to buy other useful things also relevant for your well being.

This sort of balanced, peaceful life, flows gently, like a slow motion movie, until the day of the explosive warning ⚠️:

Some guys decided to build a dam, and ... as a result... your farm and all its surroundings will be flooded. In practical terms that means you’ll have to leave your beloved Eden behind, unless of course, you’re in the mood for a dangerous fight, risky to the point of mortal victims!...

Right now, I’m sensing this particular stage of my review, as the perfect timing to drop a quite simple and expectable question:

What would you do in such desperate circunstancies?

Would you stick to the Angels Club, and leave everything behind without a resentful word, or would you slip down (temporarily?!) to hell whilst rising the Hammer of Eden?

Not easy, huh?!...

The Hammer of Eden explores a similar situation, showing how flexible can be the borderline between Angels and Demons — one day Angels, next day Demons!...

An anti climax ! Not one of his best works. There are minor details which the author could have researched better, for instance how come a person with a name like Raja Khan become a Hindu. The antagonist is an illiterate but still has a head for numbers (wonder how?). Then there are cheesy lines like "giving him the Look" which seems to be so childish. This is a totally out and out thriller. The initial pages drag till about the 200th page after which it becomes gripping. But the climax will leave you wondering if the author erred...Still you can read this if you are a Ken Follett fan.

I suppose all it takes is a Ken Follet book to get me out of a reading slump. I was never bored with this one and it was unique enough that I found myself reading it everyday. I highly recommend.

dnf - I didn't get very far. Normally, I love Ken Follett, but I guess this one wasn't for me.
I just couldn't go on with all the vulgarity, sex in the street, etc. The time period was so recent and I'd rather be further back. I didn't care about the characters. I usually stick it out to wait for it to get better, but I'd just rather read cleaner material

A good fbi/domestic terrorism story as hippie commune threatens to set off earthquakes if the governor of California does not stop increasing the number of power plants. Recommended.

Ich habe es sehr genossen, diesen Roman zu lesen. Nur leider bin ich mit dem Protagonisten Priest nicht warm geworden, daher ein kleiner Abzug.