A fun dark read that’s just long enough to be satisfying without overstaying its welcome.

I went into this City of Thieves blind, not knowing what to expect. What I found was a well researched and entertaining story of a side of the Second World War that we don’t hear a lot about in the West. However, there was something about it stopping clicking with me as well as I thought it should have.  

War Lord wraps up the story of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. But as much as I enjoyed it just as much as the previous books in the series, I would have liked something a little more climatic. 

Having hit all the right notes in the first two books of this trilogy, I was eager to see whether Follett had again managed to capture the same magic in the finale. And while I had more issues with Edge of Eternity than with the previous books, that in no way prevents it from being a worthy climax to the series. 

I'm always going to be nervous about a sequel to a novel I loved as much as I loved Fall of Giants. But this is an instance where you don't need to worry. What we have with Winter of the World isn't so much a sequel but rather a continuation of the same story with no drop in quality. 

I picked this up on a whim, worried it wouldn't be as good as I remembered. But I was happy to discover it’s just as powerful now as it was when I read it twenty years ago.

This was a book it took me a little while to get into. Clearly emulating the dense, gothic style of the period it is set in, it starts off rather impenetrable. But once I pushed myself through, I found the characters and story emerged, making Affinity an incredible pleasure to read.

I enjoyed The Evening and the Morning, but it’s not Follett’s best work. And unfortunately, comparisons with the previous books in the series only serve to highlight its flaws.