Fall of Giants, apparently, is the first part of what is supposed to be a trilogy spanning the whole of the 20th century in a Rutherfordesque manner, that is, telling the history of several families who interact with each other. There is an Welsh mining family, an English noble family, a German noble family, a Russian family, an American diplomat and a bunch of other characters and in this the first novel we learn about their fates from the eve of the Great War to the 1920s.
Overall, I found the book - well, to put it in a sophisticated manner - rather meh.
There were bits that were very good - the build-up to the outbreak of the war, for example, although some of the people involved were fictional, was, IMHO (although I'm not an expert on that topic) rather well shown, as was the build-up to the Russian revolution (again, not an expert). Sadly, though, there was not much detail about post-war Germany and the revolution there, but that would probably have made the book even longer.
I did, however, not buy the book as a historical book, and as a family saga, I found it a bit lacking. The personal relations got a bit repetitive, most of the characters were almost interchangeable and the more interesting relations were only hinted at. There is only so many love scenes of the same scheme that one can read without being bored, even if political/historical lectures are interspersed with it. It might have been worth it to have a few couples less, but to look at their characters and motivations in greater detail. For example, I would have loved to find out why exactly the two main female character behaved the way they did. As it was, it was like watching a giant card-board cut-out ballet. A very expertly choreographed ballet, to be sure, but still, card-board figures.
Anyone else read it? Differing opinions?
Is it not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?
