Edge of Eternity: Ken Follett (The Century Trilogy, 3)

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Even with these serious flaws, if the book was entertaining or moving that could redeem it, but sadly it is not. It is a story populated by caricatures who are stupid, promiscuous, drug addicted or delusional fools. Ken has been active in numerous literacy charities and was president of Dyslexia Action for ten years. He was chair of the National Year of Reading, a joint initiative between government and businesses. He is also active in many Stevenage charities and is President of the Stevenage Community Trust and Patron of Home-Start Hertfordshire. Those are the things that disappointed me in a book I was soo looking forward to read. Sorry Ken, this onw gets only 3 stars. He started his career as a reporter, first with his hometown newspaper the South Wales Echo and then with the London Evening News. Subsequently, he worked for a small London publishing house, Everest Books, eventually becoming Deputy Managing Director. Edge of Eternity is the sweeping, passionate conclusion to Ken Follett’s extraordinary historical epic series, The Century Trilogy.

Worth the wait. . . . Once again, Follett has written pitch-perfect popular fiction that readers will devour.” The novel tells the story of the third generation of families developed in the first two novels and located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. The novel's characters become involved in a number of the most significant global events during the period, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the British Invasion, the Kennedy Administration, the Watergate scandal, and the Civil Rights Movement.The novel covers a range of world events during the period, often from multiple points of view. These include the civil rights movement in the US, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the Solidarity movement in Poland. This is a Summary & Analysis of Edge of Eternity. Ken Follett’s sweeping Century Trilogy concludes with Edge of Eternity. It is a substantial and compelling read covering more than fifty years of recent history offering a detailed and authentic account of world events as they could have been seen by those in positions near those in power. As a work of historical fiction, it is based upon and treats real events, but it does so from the peripheries that, still closer to the action than many or most of the readers could be. Ken Follett's extraordinary historical epic, the Century Trilogy, reaches its sweeping, passionate conclusion. If you can’t enjoy a work of fiction like this one, while leaving your political beliefs aside, then this book is not for you.

Hugely ambitious, the trilogy serves as a massive history lesson as well as an example of good, old-fashioned storytelling.” The WORST thing of Edge of Eternity is that, while typically good historic fiction helps you get in the skin of the people who really lived in a specific time, in this book the characters are there to make only high-school history come alive. They are not real people, they are puppets in the hands of a writer (and his many ghost writers) who seems to base his political opinions on a slim book of "World History". Follett is masterly in conveying so much drama and historical information so vividly . . . grippingly told.” Edge of Eternity is the epic, final novel in Ken Follett's captivating and hugely ambitious Century trilogy. On its own or in sequence with Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, this is an irresistible and spellbinding epic about the fight for personal freedom set during the Cold War.

You’re in!

The second book ends with Volodya showing his scientist wife a Sears catalog. Nothing comes of that, and the book focuses on the fraternal twins of Volodya's sister (whose marriage no one was thrilled about). very strong first part covering roughly 1961 - 1963 (Berlin wall, fight for Civil Rights, the Cuban missile crisis), but then the novel starts scattering and after a while becomes almost an encyclopedia like recital of what happens as it follows the diverse group of characters until 1989 He also seems to have a real soft spot for female characters who are self-righteous and aggressively moralizing.

Edge of Eternity is Follett's bookend to his globe-trotting Century trilogy that began with Fall of Giants followed by Winter of the World: a strikingly immense multi-generational saga featuring families from Germany, Russia, Wales, England and America, weaving historical world conflicts of the 20th century. This third part of the trilogy was for me the best maybe because it covered my lifetime and reminded me of the momentous events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of Kennedy and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Though most of the events were familiar this didn’t detract from the power of the narrative to keep me listening wanting to know how the lives of the characters were affected. Though these are fictional one can see that some are lightly-veiled facsimiles of actual people such as Solzhenitsyn. One of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen, Hedy Lamarr also designed a secret weapon against Nazi Germany.John Lee is a great narrator. He adds a depth to the story and proves quite enjoyable to listen to. Ken Follett’s extraordinary historical epic, the Century Trilogy, reaches its sweeping, passionate conclusion.

If you lean liberal and need to have your fantasy world upheld by books where liberals can do no wrong and conservatives can do noth I was enjoying the book until about half-way through, but the second part turned into a YA novel and went seriously downhill. As a series of historical novels, the whole Century Trilogy revolves around an episodic treatment of history, highlighting the most significant events of the 20th century by immersing characters in those events. In doing so, Follett covers almost all of the major historical events between 1961 and 2008, the termination of the novel. Steve Novak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described the novel as "an extremely extensive refresher course [in history]. This isn’t just a few snapshots of history — this is a miniseries." [1] Novak points to Follett's deliberate choices about representing the past that make the treatment of history successful; Novak quoting an interview in which Follett said "The research and effort at authenticity is more difficult when you’re writing about history that is within living memory." [1] But ... this is definitely NOT a book I would recommend. I give it 2 stars because it was ok to listen to, and it kept me company in my walks or car trips. But, unlike the first and second book, this third one has some very, very big issues. Cameron Dewar, a conservative student at UC Berkeley who joins the Nixon Administration, and assists in Nixon's use of illegal espionage on political opponents. He later becomes a CIA agent stationed in Communist Poland.BAD: Republicans and conservatives in general have zero positive traits. They are literally the baddies in this book. Aside from the other left-leaning narratives that Follett fully embraces, he reaches his peak when he presents the end of Communism purely as a spontaneous combustion, while explicitly describing the US and CIA foreign policy efforts during the Cold War as completely useless, as having no effect whatsoever on the the fall of Communism. Therefore, every US foreign policy operation was totally stupid and worthless. Ugh!! *pukes* Is it too much to ask for some middle ground where someone sees things in a more balanced way? The problem is that many teenagers will read Follett's own lefty narrative as if it was the only way to interpret the facts of the 20th century. Born on June 5th, 1949 in Cardiff, Wales, the son of a tax inspector, Ken was educated at state schools and went on to graduate from University College, London, with an Honours degree in Philosophy – later to be made a Fellow of the College in 1995. Many people complained before me, too much pointless sex. Does he really have to tell us that a brother and sister do not mind seeing each other naked? Hiding in a women's lingerie store was a great idea for two women looking not to be followed, but comparing breasts? And that "if I was a lesbian" line? Seriously? Plus the whole thing about Walli shaking hands with Karoly's husband and "seeing something" then Lilli remembering it was absurd. Follett’s real gifts are those of a natural storyteller: swift, cinematic pacing, the ability to juggle multiple narratives coherently, and an eye for the telling detail . . . a consistently compelling portrait of a world in crisis.” As an avid fan of the first two installments of this trilogy ( Fall of Giants covering WWI and Winter of the World covering WWII), I was anxiously awaiting publication of Edge of Eternity. This was actually the installment I thought I would like the most, as I’ve always been fascinated with the Cold War and lived through some of the other events Follett covers. And, I did love a lot of Edge of Eternity, but it ended up being my least favorite of the three books.