Lie Down With Lions

Rating:
Summary: Worst Follett Ever
Review: I like Ken Follett's work (well, most of it), but this one was a huge disappointment. His best books are those that take place during WW2; that's when he's at his best. The others vary greatly. I didn't care for "Man from St. Petersburg" -- good plot but awful characters -- but this one takes the cake. I see that many reviewers liked it, but I found the plot boring and
the pace slow -- I skipped over all the descriptions of life in Afghanistan, as well as all the scenes of Jane bonding with her baby. The main problem for me, though, was the characters. If I don't like the main characters I don't care what happens to them. Jean Pierre was fine as an evil Commie villain, but I just couldn't warm up to Ellis & Jane as the hero & heroine. Call me old-fashioned but I like my protagonists to be a little more on the straight & narrow than these two. As for the much-vaunted sex scene -- I know some reviewers found it erotic, but I found it just plain vulgar, including the language used to describe it! It's one thing to put dirty words in the mouth of a character, but for the omniscient narrator to use them as descriptons was too much. If you're new to Follett, go to the WW2 novels instead.

Rating:
Summary: Page turner
Review: Lie Down with Lions contains an excellent plot, employing an array of techniques that keeps the readers interest right from the start. From the beginning, the book is filled with scenes of passion, deceit, treachery, and action. These characteristics are all coupled together making for a page turner from start to finish.
The author keeps the readers interest through the first few chapters by detailing the end of the relationship between Jane and Ellis. Their relationship comes to a climatic end, which is a story in itself, but it gets better. After Jane weds the clear antagonist (Jean-Pierre) and the couple embarks on a volunteer mission to Afghanistan, Ellis heads to Afghanistan on a covert operation for the CIA. Soon Jane discovers Jean-Pierre is working for the KGB pitting them against each other, and Jane finds herself on Ellis's side working against her husband, this is where the book really takes off. The Cold War rivals are in a fight for Jane's heart, Afghanistan, and world supremacy. Follett takes the reader all over Afghanistan giving accurate descriptions of the people and landscape.
A great read, Follett will put you in a trance.