Fall of Giants

So I am going to do my best to convince you to read this masterpiece by Ken with a mischievous letter 'L' on the keyboard and randomly disappearing type. Yes, my laptop has issues. I have raved about my buddy Ken's (I have read and reread his previous novels so he better be considering me his buddy as well, but this may be a one-sided friendship) historical fiction in the past and this one did not let me down. AWESOME book. That is probably the best thing I can say without digressing into cliche phrases like "Page turner!" "Coudn't put it down" "Inspired and well-researched"...... I could go on. So I will.... okay I won't, only because I don't think in cliche phrases so I ran out of them. I looked forward to the debut of this novel for many months before it was released and a few more months until I acquired sufficient funds to purchase it (and my dad ended up doing the actual purchasing so I could save my gift card for a rainy day, or another giant hardback- Thanks Daddy!). Fall of Giants is the story of 5 families from five major countries in the early 1900's (France, England, Wales, Germany, America and Russia) and follows them through the build up to WWI, women's suffrage, the war AND the revolution in Russia. I have always liked history to a certain extent, but nothing has made me more interested in any of those topics than this book. The research and attention to detail is impressive. Ken even includes a list at the front of the book of fictional characters and characters that were actual historical figures. Most things done or said by those characters that actually lived during this time was done or said by them at some point and noted in history. When they show up at a fictional party or whatnot, Ken verified it was possible for them to be in that location at that time. I want to reread it with an encyclopedia handy so I can look up the battles and people mentioned as I go along. I could not put this thing down, but every time I turned a page I wanted to read slower so the book would last longer. My only consolation and one of the best things about Giants is that it's the first in a trilogy. A TRILOGY!  Awesome.

You cannot imagine the editing that went into this after I restarted and the type was back. Whoa.