2.5*
All in all I was left disappointed here. I had high expectations as the authors reputation, the ratings, and the subject matter all pointed towards a sure fire hit. It's by no means terrible, but it is wooden, formulaic and unbelievable.
I love sprawling historical fiction, complicated multi year and multi level stories. War & Peace, Life & Fate, Wolf Hall and more pulpy books such as the Conquer series. All rated 5*.
I had anticipated something close to the true classics of the genre, given the standing "The Pillars of the Earth" is held in. It's nowhere near them.
We do have sprawling settings, but a comically small number of characters that combine and recombine to a ridiculous degree. One of the set, often two, must be present at all major historical plot points, it becomes quite silly. Why not just have some more characters?
The characters themselves are infact avatars of their stereotyped class per country. Evil capitalists, toffs, up an coming socialists bla bla. They often become the mouth peace for generic historical anslysis - words that people would never use in actual conversations. The history itself may not be wholly inaccurate but it for sure lacks nuance. A better book may have assumed greater reader intelligence to read between the lines.
On the positive side when the characters are allowed to be normal they do have a charm, I did get a keen sense of both the places and times described. The hardships and food of pre war coal miners for example, or what the life of unmarried mother's was like.
Another positive is the highlighting of little know historical footnotes, the Allied assistance of the White Russians here is well covered though again contains a silly confluence of characters.
The best scene, in Wales some weeks after the first day of the battle of the Somme is fantastic. Though a general lack of main character death is a big minus for me.
Oh and I simply must comment on the sex scenes, rrraaawwww!!!
It is a breezy read, easy to flow through quickly, I was never bored and despite rolling my eyes a few times I moved swiftly into book 2.