Throughout these books, Follett has followed the fortunes of five intertwined families - American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh - as they make their way through the twentieth century. Now they come to one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the enormous social, political, and economic turmoil of the 1960s through the 1980s, from civil rights, assassinations, mass political movements and Vietnam to the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution - and rock and roll.

East German teacher Rebecca Hoffman discovers she's been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for the rest of their lives. George Jakes, the child of a mixed-race couple, bypasses a corporate law career to join Robert F. Kennedy's Justice Department, and finds himself in the middle not only of the seminal events of the civil rights battle, but a much more personal battle of his own. Cameron Dewar, the grandson of a senator, jumps at the chance to do some official and unofficial espionage for a cause he believes in, only to discover that the world is a much more dangerous place than he'd imagined. Dimka Dvorkin, a young aide to Nikita Khrushchev, becomes a prime agent both for good and for ill as the United States and the Soviet Union race to the brink of nuclear war, while his twin sister, Tania, carves out a role that will take her from Moscow to Cuba to Prague to Warsaw - and into history.

As always with Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. With the hand of a master, he brings us into a world we thought we knew but now will never seem the same again.

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Listening Length	36 hours and 51 minutes
Author	Ken Follett
Narrator	John Lee
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	September 16, 2014
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00M7RNO1Q
Best Sellers Rank	#6,096 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #86 in Fiction Sagas #169 in Family Life Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #352 in Historical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

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2 star		7%
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Top reviews from the United States

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zsuzsanna22

A disappointment from Follet

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2017

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It's hard to believe that the same author that wrote one of the great books of all time, "Pillars of the Earth", also wrote this book. It's start out really, really poorly and I almost put it down before I had read 200 pages. But I had read the first two in the trilogy and I was interested in the history of the era, so persevered. It gets better but the issues still remain.

The reason I gave this 3 stars instead of 1 or 2 is the historical fiction aspect. This is where Follet shines. He does a good job of explaining the detail and background of events that, though I lived through them, I was young enough that I didn't know these details. But even here, while duly recording history, Follet's political bias' colour the narrative - whose politics he agrees with and his interpretation of events definitely sway the pure facts of the narrative. He is especially harsh and critical of the Kennedy brothers in contrast to the view of most contemporary historians.

But the worst part of this book, the hardest bit to suffer through in order to get to the good bits, were the purely fictional characters. This is meant to be a sweeping generational novel where the real hook for the reader should be that we care about these families as they live through these times. But in 1145 pages, Follet cannot do better than to give us cardboard cutouts with no soul and some of the most trite, insipid dialogue I have ever had the displeasure to read. We should be crying and laughing and sharing these monumental events with these characters (because, of course, Forrest Gump-like, they all just happen to be right in the middle of everything through all the decades). But instead they are just passive observers and we don't care at all about them.

Even worse, Follet treats the reader like a dunce who can't remember from chapter to chapter people and events, constantly repeating what this person did, or who they are. And repeating the background of people, events and places multiple times. This book could have been cut by at least a third in length if these repetitions were eliminated. There is a cast of characters at the front but I never once had to check it, as I often do in other similar books, because I keep getting told even what I remember every time a character shows up again. The other device I found really irritating is Follet's practice of telling us about a historical event followed by a comment like ". . . George thought" or someone else thought. Not a true experience of the event by George, just something like George is watching this event unfold on TV (say the Berlin Wall coming down) and something about the wall, and then "George thought this was great" or something equally trite.

Writing this review, I now want to change my rating back to 2 stars as I remember how irritating the fictional characters were. But I did get swept up in the story and the historical parts were interesting and well written. I am surprised by all the 4 and 5 star reviews of this book, maybe other people did better at ignoring the weakness of the main characters. I have read all of Follet's historical fiction novels and, while some were better than others, this one is by far his worst.

60 people found this helpful

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Redhead Reader

Left a lot to be desired

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2018

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The first book in this series was very good, but the last two did not live up to my expectations. As with a lot of series, the first book gets you hooked then the language and sex gets progressively worse in the following volumes. The author only knew one expletive and used it as a noun, verb, adjective. I really wish books had a rating such as movies and TV shows. I am 71 years old and not a prude, but I love a good story without all the descriptive sex and foul language.

30 people found this helpful

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Semosig

Good Read

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2018

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The 1st 2 books of the trilogy were great. The 3rd book was so liberal in its viewpoint it knocked President Reagan with only a couple mentions. One said his name and that he was basically going nowhere and the other said while he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall", they then went on to say it was pretty much Gorbachev's plan anyway and he was ready to take it down so Reagan really was just taking advantage of history. That being said the trilogy was a great read.

24 people found this helpful

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tagalong

Unenjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2019

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I am glad I got this an my Kindle. At first I enjoyed reading about recent historical/political events. Most of the cast of characters were shallow, with much of their daily lives involving sex. I did learn a little more about some of the major events of the last century. However, the way some politicians were portrayed. Especially Kennedy and the Maria affair. Really? It is well known he had an interesting sex life, but to go beyond that and include her having an abortion. Did that ever happen to any of his partners? I can't imagine what Caroline Kennedy thinks of that section of the book. Was all that necessary? I got 25% of the way through, skipped a bit further, and decided I had better things to do/read than try to finish this. Again, glad I downloaded it on my Kindle at a low cast.

14 people found this helpful

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Good read but strangly biased against 2 presidents

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2019

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This was a great read...wonderful historical travel through the turbulent 1960's 70's, and 80's. Kept my interest and read to the end. Biggest disappointment was author's obvious dislike for Presidents Reagan and HW Bush. In fairness, he was highly critical of LBJ, Nixon, and mentioned the personal weaknesses of the two Kennedy's, but was virtually silent and thus gave Jimmy Carter a total pass for his administrative's ineptness on the international stage (i.e. his character who was otherwise consistantly painted as an 'astute, talented, and accurately critical' political journalist was weirdly described as 'quiet' during the term of Carter...implying there was nothing to criticize about Carter) And yet, gave virtually no credit to Ronald Reagan for the fall of the Berlin Wall and essentially labeled him a mass murderer. His depiction of President Bush (41) was no less objective labeling him a bumbling war monger. Very disappointed in an otherwise good historical novel.

9 people found this helpful

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Richard Schlott

very big disappointment.

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2014

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One of my favorite writers decided to rewrite the history of the World in the 80's & 90's. He substituted factual history with a book of mostly sex and disinformation about the real roles of Reagan, Pope John and Margret Thatcher ending Communism in Europe. Sadly Follett's perspective in today's world puts a blot on his place among the quality writers of today. Any objective person who lived through this era will find that he has a distorted sense of what really happened while falling into sensationalism sex to help sell Book 3!

52 people found this helpful

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Walter Neilson

Some authors should stop at the sequel

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2015

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Follette can write a good story, but this isn't one of them. He simply took history and some historical figures and bent them both out of shape. The book quickly degenerates into a predictable liberal diatribe. Reagan bad! Gorbachev good! Republicans bad! Democrats good! Bush bad! Nixon bad! Kennedy's good! CIA bad! Vietnam bad! Protesters good! Throw in some drugs and some free love among the under developed characters and you have Book Three!

50 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Char Louise

Not as strong as the first two books in the trilogy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2016

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I’ve read and enjoyed the first two books in the trilogy, but unfortunately I felt disappointed by this one. The first two books contained a mix of politics, warfare, everyday life/the home front and relationships, whereas this one seemed to be purely politics with a lot of sex thrown in. I don’t mind well written sex scenes in moderation, but there was a sex scene in almost every chapter here and it felt like they had just been added in to liven up a plotline which is otherwise a bit dull. The only characters I felt interested in were Rebecca and Walli; partly because their storylines focused on everyday East and then West German life, and also because none of the other characters seemed to have been developed, they simply had jobs that allowed them to be involved in key aspects of history. Finding out about the Cuban Missile Crisis and Civil Rights Movement was interesting as they happened before my time, but nonetheless I never felt invested in any of the characters involved and the dialogue between them was often wooden. I was also disappointed that there was nothing about British politics during this period (Thatcherism, the miner’s strike etc.); the main focus was American history and politics, with the ins and outs of presidential elections, which doesn’t interest me as much. The chapter on Vietnam was very powerful, but it felt like it was skipped over very quickly.

I also felt that the novel was far too male-dominated: sex and relationships were usually described from the male POV, which I found difficult to relate to; the only thing most of the men seemed to have on their minds was sex and power/ambition; and most came across as very arrogant and sexist even when they were supposed to be the ‘good guys’. There were very few strong female characters, unlike in the other books; Rebecca was the only woman who was likeable.

The first two books were justifiably long, but this one felt like it was long just for the sake of being long. I’ve been a fan of Ken Follett’s writing for years and The Pillars of the Earth is one of my all time favourite novels, but sadly this book seemed rushed and it felt like he had got bored with the series. Hopefully his next book will be more exciting.

18 people found this helpful

SevilleOrange

Characters secondary to a history book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2018

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Not as comprehensively researched as would be expected for a book covering so many years, while the reference to UK history relevant to the political events of the time is scant. The characters are secondary to the story and so I found it impossible to relate to them, try as I did. The characters shifty according to the demands of the narrative so that the as such becomes more of a diluted history book than an engaging story.

Follett is Follett. He's a great writer, and he manages to keep the pages turning nicely. However, this is a step backwards. For me, the problema is the sweep of time this trilogy encompasses. The classic Follett is arguably the Pillars of the Earth. however, in Pillars, the whole book is anchored to two historical events, the sinking of the White Ship at Barfleur at the start, and the murder of Thomas Beckett at the end. From there, history is a simple backdrop on which the characters are drawn. This time however, the book at times becomes a dashing overview of twentieth century history, loosely tied together by the (too many) characters who make up the story. For me, and I speak as a mere reader, not a critic, the characters should drive the story, but here they are dragged along behind it. Reading other reviews, it seems others also are'nt sure if this was a novel or a history book, and the problem is it falls between the two.I can imagine Reading these books again as Follett has the gift to make you turn pages, but, but, but......a great book, for me, should be like dreaming awake. You pick it up and forget where you are, and are carried away by the story. Sadly, this is too bitty, and I kèpt being woken up.

5 people found this helpful

Jl Adcock

Trashily addictive final volume of the Century Trilogy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 25, 2016

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There are surely few 1000+ page novels out there that are as easily read as Edge of Eternity. Follett continues with the successful formula from Fall of Giants and Winter of the World to bring this massive, all-encompassing popular drama of life in the 20th Century to a conclusion. Inevitably, given the sprawl of the narrative, it's a highly selective -and at times opinionated - interpretation of big events, but as a novel it certainly keeps moving along. UK history is pretty much air-brushed out of the story in this volume, with Follett concentrating his efforts on US, Soviet and European history to shape the lives of his rather flimsy band of characters. They're all high-achievers with convenient access to the movers and shakers of the time, but often, given the unconvincing blandness of their personalities, it is like reading about the sex life of cardboard (and there is a lot of sex in this book).

As with the previous volumes, Follett is good on explaining and using complex political situations to progress his story in a very accessible way, but for bright people finding themselves in the thick of things, Follett's characters often seem incrediblly stupid and naive - which is a good way to explain things to the reader, but it does sometimes feel like we're being treated like idiots. But, any writer who can produce not one, but 3 novels of this length and keep the reader engaged is doing something right - even when you know how events are going to pan out. Surely, anything that Follett tackles next is going to feel like small potatoes compared with what's been achieved with this insanely readable trilogy.

4 people found this helpful

Rosie

Still entertaining but not as good as the other two

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2016

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Oh, darn it. It's really not as good as the other two. If you liked the other two then you kind of pretty much have to read it just to find out what happens to the characters, but actually, you don't find out what happens to many of them. By the very end of the book, the epilogue, all of the first book's characters and quite a lot of the second's, must be dead, but we don't find out what happened to many of them, which is a bit of a let-down. More importantly, I'd say the book suffers because the history is nowhere near as interesting as the first and second world wars. The main feature of the Cold War was that it was a war of words but nothing much happened. Even the Cuban Missile Crisis was more of a non-event than an event. So although they're interesting from a historical point of view, from a seat-of-the-pants action point of view, they don't match up. I enjoyed (if that's the right word?) the assassinations of the Kennedy Brothers, especially Bobby, which made me look him up on the internet and I found that Follett describes it pretty much exactly how it happened (his assassin is still alive by the way - and he was interviewed by David Frost. Fascinating). And the Civil Rights movement is very interesting - I hadn't known much about it before so this helped to fill me in. And that's why the trilogy is such a good read - it's basically history for dummies, an easy-reading jaunt through the main events of the 21st Century. Buty it's not literary fiction; Follett is just as much a proponent of the one or two word

paragraph

as Dan Brown. But who cares. I don't go and see the latest Hollywood Blockbuster expecting to have a profound cultural experience. It's entertainment. Don't knock it for that.

I found it a bit odd having real-life characters who are still alive interacting with the fictional characters. I wonder if Gorbachev's read it? That jarred a bit for me in a way that it didn't with real-life dead characters in this and earlier books. But more importantly, the characters in this book were just not as good as the ones in the previous books. They all had spectacularly successful (and unlikely at such a young age) careers - but the fact that there are lots of famous historical events with real characters and yet the fictionally world famous rock band that's a major feature of the book, along with other supposedly world famous fictional characters, doesn't sit well with the real characters. For the idea of mixing fictional with real characters to work, the real characters have to be people you would never have heard of (which is why the first two books work) but it's quite hard to suspend disbelief when there are characters who had they been real you would have definitely heard of, mixing with characters who were actually real. Also the sheer unlikelihood of the characters from the various families interacting with each other so randomly so often by this book really begin to grate on my suspension of disbelief.

So yes, you do have to read it if you've read the other two books, but don't expect to enjoy it as much.

5 people found this helpful

mr w robb

I feel like I lived it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 6, 2019

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This book is the third in a trilogy beginning not long after the end of the second world war and the terrible cold war. Men proved again that they could plunge ever deeper in to evil and that politics was no answer to that evil but rather it's architect. Believe me when I tell you this, Ken Follett makes the worlds evils come alive. Find deep joy in reading the stories surrounding the story. Feel the hopelessness of the people who lived through it . Hope it never happens again. Christmas is coming , give the gift of magic and time travel so excellently written by Ken Follett , then give thanks you didn't have to live through this period in time. You will love these books , that's a promise.

One person found this helpful

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