The Winter of the World

The Winter of the World - Book 2 of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett

This book takes us from 1933 through 1949.  Once again, we are following five families from Wales, England, America, Germany and Russia.

I have decided that in a book such as this where we know the historical outcomes, a novelization of the scenario becomes that much more tense and anticipatory.  I was just waiting to see which characters would be part of famous scenes and who would survive and who wouldn't.

This is the kind of book that is hard to put down and I would have loved to just been able to read non-stop.  As it was, I had a couple very busy weeks and couldn't read as much as I liked.  It took me 16 days to read the 940 pages of this book.  I feel like starting all over again because it was so engaging.

Follett has created some very rich and real characters in this trilogy.  By having most of his characters placed in a political position in the first book, he was able to keep them in a position of action or knowledge as the First and then the Second World War unfolded.  There was a review on Amazon that someone was complaining that it wasn't plausible that all these people could meet and connect the way they do in the book.  I disagree.  I think that the circle of people in charge is not a very large one and the idea that a Senator and his son could encounter someone in the Red Army Intelligence community during a summit in World War II is completely believable.  Also, this is a work of fiction so there are certain conveniences that the readers just need to go with.

I love this series and I think I'll need to re-read Fall of Giants and then Winter of the World again just before Book 3 is released.

On a side note, October is banned books month so your next book should be one that has been banned.  Tomorrow ends the official Banned Books Week but check out the website www.bannedbooksweek.org for a list of books to choose from.  I found I have read plenty.  How about you?