| |  | Author: Ken Follett
Publisher: Signet
Category: Book
List Price: $4.50
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Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 3077338
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0451143272
EAN: 9780451143273
ASIN: 0451143272
Publication Date: May 1, 1983
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| Customer Reviews:
A good read all around July 4, 2006
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others
THE STORY:
Its WWI and England faces the fact that Germany may invade France and eventually England. They turn to an alliance with Russia in order to avoid this but people like Feliks don't want to see Mother Russia pulled into a fight that will leave the common man killed and the old regime in tact. So Feliks, the Man from St. Petersburg, sets out to stop the people trying to make the alliance.
THE SETTING:
When most World War stories take place they seem to revolve around WWII, not the first one. It was a nice change of pace and even "funny" on some levels to see characters like Winston Churchill play a part in the plot.
THE CHARACTERS:
Feliks - the anarchist who sets out to stop the alliance
Stephen Walden - a British aristocrat asked to help negotiate the alliance
Lydia - Stephen's wife with a past
Charlotte - Lydia and Stephen's 18 year old daughter who is starting to discover a world that her parents have isolated her from
All the characters are vivid and one's we can relate with on some level. At no point are you left wishing a scene with a specific character would hurry up and end because the reader gets engaged by them all.
THE PLOT:
A bit of cat-n-mouse story during a historic periods of time. The story presents information ("lessons") in philosophy and history, both of which I wished my school books presented the same theories in such fictionalized writing in order to make it interesting and not boring or slow as with this well paced, easy to read story. The book also has plenty of action for those that just want to get to it.
CONTENT:
Little memorable vulgarity. Some sex, though not as descriptive as most books, but definitely not shy either. The violence is mostly "off-screen", leaving it to your imagination.
OVERALL:
I've read 3 books by this author (Eye of the Needle, Hammer of Eden and this one), and this was more enjoyable for me on several levels than the other two. My experience with this book was going to be the deciding factor if I ever read a book by this author again as I was ok with the other two books. I'd be willing to read more from this author after this read.
 An oldie but a goodie May 16, 2006
I bought this book when it was first published oh so many years ago. It's one of Follett's best and I must have re-read it 20 times. It's that good.
This isn't one of those exciting page turning books that keep you up til 2am. To use the words of one of the reviwers below, it's a character driven book. And the characters are fully fleshed, right from the first time you meet them. That's why you can re-read these books. With most thrillers, you can only read them once because once you know how it ends the excitement is gone. But with books like this (which it seems authors don't know how to write any more) you can keep reading them again and again because the characters are old friends that you revisit each time you re-read the book.
I must admit the plot is a little simplistic compared to best sellers of today, but it doesn't really detract from the enjoyment of this book. If you are a true book lover who loves character driven drama you must buy this book.
This is one of Follett's early books and he hasn't written like this ever again.
 not his best, by far May 14, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Thin plot, thinly developed characters, not the author's best. The Pillars of the Earth, Eye of the Needle, and Dangerous Fortune stand out as by far his best. The Man from St. Petersburg is interesting, but not nearly the suspense, drama or richly developed characters of Follett's best... not worth a read in my opinion.
Character-Fueled Storytelling October 12, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Follette's best characters in the "political intrigue" stage of his writing career are to be found in this lightning-paced novel. Set in England in the year before the outbreak of the First World War, this story concerns an anarchist named Felix, and his efforts to assassinate a Russian Prince, who is visiting England to cement a treaty of mutual protection in the event of hostilities with Germany. The anarchist, a Russian who has endured much injustice in his life (so much, in fact, he has somehow lost the capacity to feel fear in his plummet from idealistic pacifist to hardened killer) is no purposeless psychopath. Though he has come to regard himself as "lost" Felix holds out hope that if the chains of tyranny can be lifted from the peoples of Europe, then peace and goodness might rise. He sees no need for governments or for law. He feels humans can best direct themselves and authority is by definition corrupt. It is to the end of disrupting the treaty between the two powers, England and Russia, that Felix travels to London in 1914, intent on stopping the alliance and making war that much less attractive to the great powers. Opposing Felix is an English Earl named Walden, who, unknown to both men, has a unlikely mutual connection with Felix from the past-the Earl's wife. This novel moves at a brisk pace and flashes through the underworld of post-Edwardian London, as well as its halls of government. Winston Churchill is a minor figure in this book, although most others, including the memorable eighteen-year-old Charlotte Walden, at the time of the novel, supposedly a ninety-two-year-old friend of Follette's, are fictional constructs. I found this novel skillfully rendered and immensely enjoyable. It is possibly the best of the novels Ken Follette composed before his turned out his 1989 masterpiece: The Pillars of the Earth.
Very Emotional July 13, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The best part about this book is that halfway through the story, I couldn't figure out what ending to hope for. Follett does an excellent job of creating sympathy for each character, even the evil ones, a characteristic found in some of his other novels as well. All of them are in very precarious situations and each possible outcome spells disaster for some other character in the book. On the one hand, I wanted the assassin to carry out the murder for his own sake and for the prevention of WWI(even though it did happen), but I also wanted the Russian prince to survive because he is a good character and it would be disastrous for the entire Walden family. Rarely does an author present such a conflict, most resort to the hope of a happy ending which the reader knows is inevitable but this one is definitely unique. There is no true happy ending.
This is an all-around solid book. You really do feel for the characters and their dilemmas. The story never drags, each chapter has some kind of contribution to the overall quality and the high stakes involved ensure the reader's attention for the duration of the book. Worth the $8.
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