Rating: 
Summary: Spy thriller set in the early 20th century.
Review: This spy novel is set ealier in time than most of the similar novels I have read. It makes it interesting from a historical point of view, but can be simplistic in its plot and situations at times.Almost an historical fiction novel rather than a spy thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: A lesson without having to take notes.
Review: This story is set London in early 1914 as Germany was mobilizing and war was inevitable to those that history would prove astute. France was in peril even if England assisted, and the British Empire itself would be at risk if the Germans prevailed. So, The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Winston Churchill of the Liberal government, armed with a note from King George, convinces The (conservative) Earl of Walden to negotiate a secret treaty with his wife's nephew, Alex Orlov, also nephew to the Czar, for Russia to enter into the fray. The anarchists learn of this plot however, and Feliks, The Man from St. Petersburg, has five pounds sterling and a determination to assassinate Alex Orlov on English soil. This story is rich with the history that bored us in school, that stuff about Victorian pomp and starving Russian peasants floundering for a new political order, the prelude to communism. Follett gives us a sense of the debauchery bred from wealth and privilege, and the desperation born of inhumanities in an era gone by. He introduces us to men threatened by women's suffrage, others terrorized of government, and through them, we better understand why society changed, or perhaps mutated. That stuff is woven seamlessly into a story of intrigue without long speeches or tedious lectures. We get our lesson without having to take notes. My only quarrel is Follett's propensity to interrupt with back-story, once with back-story within back-story if I'm not mistaken. It's a minor irritation though, one scratch and it's gone, because we are more worried about how his characters are going to sort out the mess they're in. And in the end, you're going to believe The Man from St. Petersburg might have been.
Rating:
Summary: A lesson without having to take notes.
Review: This story is set London in early 1914 as Germany was mobilizing and war was inevitable to those that history would prove astute. France was in peril even if England assisted, and the British Empire itself would be at risk if the Germans prevailed. So, The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Winston Churchill of the Liberal government, armed with a note from King George, convinces The (conservative) Earl of Walden to negotiate a secret treaty with his wife's nephew, Alex Orlov, also nephew to the Czar, for Russia to enter into the fray. The anarchists learn of this plot however, and Feliks, The Man from St. Petersburg, has five pounds sterling and a determination to assassinate Alex Orlov on English soil. This story is rich with the history that bored us in school, that stuff about Victorian pomp and starving Russian peasants floundering for a new political order, the prelude to communism. Follett gives us a sense of the debauchery bred from wealth and privilege, and the desperation born of inhumanities in an era gone by. He introduces us to men threatened by women's suffrage, others terrorized of government, and through them, we better understand why society changed, or perhaps mutated. That stuff is woven seamlessly into a story of intrigue without long speeches or tedious lectures. We get our lesson without having to take notes. My only quarrel is Follett's propensity to interrupt with back-story, once with back-story within back-story if I'm not mistaken. It's a minor irritation though, one scratch and it's gone, because we are more worried about how his characters are going to sort out the mess they're in. And in the end, you're going to believe The Man from St. Petersburg might have been.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining--you won't be disappointed
Review: This was my first Ken Follet book, and I couldn't have been more pleased! Follet brilliantly takes the reader back to the pre-World War I/Russian Revolution era in a vivid, yet easy-to-read style. The plot is fast moving and keeps the reader engaged throughout. Follet's only shortfall, from my standpoint, came in his effort to make "the man from St. Petersburg" himself somewhat sympathetic. But overall, this is a good thriller, set in an era which Follet masterfully brings to life.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining--you won't be disappointed
Review: This was my first Ken Follet book, and I couldn't have been more pleased! Follet brilliantly takes the reader back to the pre-World War I/Russian Revolution era in a vivid, yet easy-to-read style. The plot is fast moving and keeps the reader engaged throughout. Follet's only shortfall, from my standpoint, came in his effort to make "the man from St. Petersburg" himself somewhat sympathetic. But overall, this is a good thriller, set in an era which Follet masterfully brings to life.
Rating:
Summary: The first book I read from K. Follett
Review: This was the first book I read from Ken Follett, it seems as if you were watching a film. After that I read some more books from this actor and I'll read all of them.
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