Mass Market Paperback, 890 pages
English language
Published Aug. 26, 2014 by Dutton.
Picking up where Fall of Giants, the first novel in the extraordinary Century Trilogy, left off, Winter of the World follows its five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—through a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil, beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, through the great dramas of World War II, and into the beginning of the long Cold War.
Carla von Ulrich, born of German and English parents, finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide until daring to commit a deed of great courage and heartbreak....American brothers Woody and Chuck Dewar, each with a secret, take separate paths to momentous events, one in Washington, the other in the bloody jungles of the Pacific....English student Lloyd Williams discovers in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War that he must fight Communism just as hard as Fascism....Daisy Peshkov, a driven social climber, cares only for …
Picking up where Fall of Giants, the first novel in the extraordinary Century Trilogy, left off, Winter of the World follows its five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—through a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil, beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, through the great dramas of World War II, and into the beginning of the long Cold War.
Carla von Ulrich, born of German and English parents, finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide until daring to commit a deed of great courage and heartbreak....American brothers Woody and Chuck Dewar, each with a secret, take separate paths to momentous events, one in Washington, the other in the bloody jungles of the Pacific....English student Lloyd Williams discovers in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War that he must fight Communism just as hard as Fascism....Daisy Peshkov, a driven social climber, cares only for popularity and the fast set until war transforms her life, while her cousin Volodya carves out a position in Soviet intelligence that will affect not only this war but also the war to come.
в літературному сенсі — гидотна халтура на рівні поганенького фанфіку... але відірватися неможливо!
Winter of the World continues the saga begun in Fall of Giants, with the events within happening in the years 1933 to 1949. Most of the characters from the first book are still here, but the focus has shifted to the following generation. The writing felt a bit formulaic this time round. There's always a couple destined to be together. In the first book this was Lady Maud Fitzherbert and Walter von Ulrich. In this book it's Daisy Peshkov, daughter to the now American scoundrel Lev Peshkov, and Lloyd Williams, son of Ethel Williams and Earl Fitzherbert. Woody Dewar was definitely pretty much a copy of his father in the first book, and Volodya's chapters were a lot like Grigori's, the Russian who supports Communism but has his doubts about the system. And so on. The characters are all still a bit flat, rather one-dimensional. They could have been so …
Winter of the World continues the saga begun in Fall of Giants, with the events within happening in the years 1933 to 1949. Most of the characters from the first book are still here, but the focus has shifted to the following generation. The writing felt a bit formulaic this time round. There's always a couple destined to be together. In the first book this was Lady Maud Fitzherbert and Walter von Ulrich. In this book it's Daisy Peshkov, daughter to the now American scoundrel Lev Peshkov, and Lloyd Williams, son of Ethel Williams and Earl Fitzherbert. Woody Dewar was definitely pretty much a copy of his father in the first book, and Volodya's chapters were a lot like Grigori's, the Russian who supports Communism but has his doubts about the system. And so on. The characters are all still a bit flat, rather one-dimensional. They could have been so much more.
I have few quibbles aside from that. I probably liked Fall of Giants a little better because I previously had little knowledge about World War I. As a historical lesson, Winter of the World is wide-spread and covers just about every large-scale event that happened during WWII. From the rise of the Nazis to the war in Spain, to the Blitz over London, to Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway, to Hiroshima and the beginning of the nuclear arms race. It's a massive book, it's exciting to read, and it even picks up on stuff like homosexuality in the navy and the mass-rapes of the Red Army reaching Germany.
I should note that Ken Follett has the habit of focusing quite a bit on sexual relationships when it comes to his characters. As such, there are many, somewhat cringeworthy (or lol-worthy) sex scenes. You have been warned.
That said, I am looking forward to the concluding book which will come out later this year, with a focus on the cold war.
