This was a great read! It's kind of long and for some reason I read three other books while reading it. That sounds like it failed to keep my attention, but it's the opposite. After finishing some more "urgent" readings I came back to Fall of Giants without fail.

It has excellent pacing. Makes it feel like these years (1911-1925) never had a moment without drama. The story focuses on half a dozen viewpoint characters and a cast of recurring characters around them. We visit Wales, London, the Western Front, Germany, the Eastern Front, Petersburg, Buffalo, and more.

The character plots are excellent. They would stand up just as well in a fantasy universe. Many of them are lovable. But even the negative characters have charisma, and by the end at least we understand their point of view, even if we don't sympathize with them.

What takes the book from good to great, though, is its historical setting. I know very little about history, and I'm willing to believe everything I read. It all looks super well researched, and I'm sure the book would not be so popular if it had glaring inaccuracies. I love the depictions of everyday life and economic differences between countries. How incredible German (Polish?) peasant houses looked to Russian soldiers, how even aristocrats in Germany went starving during the war, how children were put to work at 13 or earlier.

But what will stick with me the most is the condemnation of the aristocracy for everything that was wrong with the world. Fall of Giants smashed all romantic notions I may have had from watching Downton Abbey and showed how inherently evil this system of society was. The world has changed a lot in the hundred years since then and Fall of Giants has left me with a fresh perspective on these changes.

I haven't read much historic fiction but I can now certainly see it's appeal! It's just like a good fantasy novel. (Albeit in a very very low magic setting.) But when I rant about its world and its history my family is willing to hear me out!

I'm sure to read the other two books in the trilogy.