Fall of Giants

It took me more effort to finish this Ken Follett's new novel. It was not really because of its thickness, but I think it was because there were too many historical facts in the book, which made me tired after reading a couple of pages. The story is set around WW1 with characters from America, England, Germany, and Russia.

It's not that the book is worthless, because while I was reading, I got a better picture about how double murders of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo could trigger a world war. Most of it because of greed of the leaders. Giant countries were changed because of the war: Germany lost the war and revolution happened in Russia; and although we could say England and France won, the people suffered, many were dead, and there were political changes in England. The description of pain and horror in the war, however, was not as haunting as Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong. [But we know Ken Follett and Sebastian Faulks are different kinds of writers.]

The president of USA, Woodrow Wilson, then had an idea to form the League of Nations, so that any future conflicts could be canvassed, and such world war could be prevented. Of course we know that the League of Nations was a failure, and the United of Nations replaced it.

After reading Emile Zola's Germinal, the parts about coal miners in Wales are not so interesting. The struggle of English Women to be able to vote is not interesting either. I did enjoy reading the stories set in Russia, although after the revolution, there were too many political facts for me to read.

Fall of Giants if the first book of the Century trilogy. I guess the 2nd or 3rd book could be set around WW2. I know this is a historical fiction, but could it be possible to include more fiction?