Linda

Powerful story, but I really did not like the narrator chosen for this audio reading. He just seemed too forced and fake, especially in reading the female characters. I found it very annoying. A major distraction to the story, overall. He barely sounds Indian. A narrator can make or break an audio book for me. This is one book that I would have much preferred reading the actual book. The narrator fo White Tiger was much more convincing.

Overall, Fall of Giants is a very good read. On a par with Pillars of the Earth and far outshines his last book, World Without End. Fall of Giants has a few problems that better editing would have picked up, but they are minor. The book could have stood out on it's own with out some of the sex scenes. Follet is such a good story teller, I don't see why he needs to cheapen his book with this drivel. I am not opposed to sexual content in a book, but when you have a 1000 page historical fiction book that is great on it's own, you just don't need lines such as this one: "Walter toyed with her pubic hair, it was long, black, and curly. Maude offered to cut it for him, but he told her no, he liked it." (probably not an exact quote but very close) Seriously Mr. Follett? This is spoken in the middle of a discussion of the proposed peace treaty at the end of the war. It made me guffaw, so Harlequin Romance! That being said, the book was really worth the time to read which is why I gave it a 4 star rating.

This book had a lot of potential, but did not quite make it. The book was so annoying to listen to, I can't believe I kept listening until the end. The story is so weak and full of holes.
Plus, I am always bothered by narratives that give detailed accounts of conversation, emotions, and events when the speaker was not on the scene and does not have any first hand knowledge, or even hearsay, about which they are speaking.