Edge of Eternity (Century Trilogy #3) by Ken Follett

My rating:

This is, in my opinion, the least well written of the trilogy. With unusual clumsiness Ken Follett brings together concurring events spanning a 30-year period, with protagonists hardly ever crossing each other’s paths, in stark contrast to the first two volumes where the plots are cleverly close-knit, and each character introduced with intent. The characterisation is less intense: all the 3rd generation characters are, to a certain extent, similar, and for some reason I empathised less with them than the previous two generations.

That said, I also felt I was reading History, with a capital ‘H’. A history that shaped my parents’ generation, from the end of segregation, to Flower Power and sexual freedom, through womens’ rights, the assassination of JFK, the fall of the soviet block, and of the symbolic Berlin Wall. The book was surprisingly turned towards the USA and Eastern Europe, leaving the West of Europe, and Asia out (there is a short passage on the Vietnam war).

‘Edge of Eternity’ seemed to me paradoxical, some of it laborious, some of it really exciting, and moving me to tears; but perhaps this is just a reflexion of my own historical preferences. In any event, the book ends with the same high emotions, and hope as the first two volumes, and I am glad I read the trilogy as a whole.

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