After reading "The World Without End" and "Pillars Of The Earth" I thought Ken Follett was a genius, however as I finally finished "Fall of Giants" I might re-think this.
It is a overtly ambitious WW1 saga that feels too much like soap opera - on few occasions I had actually felt bored and left the novel on the side to start reading it another time. When I'm reading the book just because I want to finish it, its not a good sign. Follett obviously thought it would be a good idea to picture WW1 by juggling characters from different social backgrounds, countries and continents, however the fact that these characters are roaming the world and meeting again and again seems a stretched a bit - too often it was simply artificial and unbelievable. English lords are mingling with russian peasants, american politicians with german officers and so on. I mean, the world might be small but not so small. The novel might be successful as TV serial (it begs for small screen, with thousands extras and war scenes) however it bored me - I learned about WW1 already in the school so the book did not unearth anything new - I will not bother with sequels simply because I don't care for the story or main characters.
If you think this is good, check out the novels by James Michener who is master of the saga-genre and who would have completely different job out of this same story.
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