Reviews and Comments

I’m reading the series in chronological order so this was a complete change of scenery with Paris and the USA now featuring, and also for the first time from a woman’s perspective too. Really enjoyed this one.

It was going to be difficult to top the previous book Bird of Prey, and this was not quite as exciting as that book. But nevertheless I still really enjoyed this book. The difference was probably the sheer amount of action and events packed into the first book.

First book I’ve read in this series and I really enjoyed it. It has a bit of everything from love, lust, death (lots of it), betrayal, greed, torture, adventure, action, loss, etc. Living in Cape Town of course I enjoyed the setting which I know, as well as the background history. I was really wrapped up in the details of the story and the various climaxes that unfolded, and was really wishing it would not end. But good to know there are lots more books in this series!

I’ve always loved time travel stories but did find this one quite unique as to its construct, and some interesting twists like the unexpected happening about 30% of the way through during the train journey. The philosophical takeaway is that altering something in the past does not mean history just happens in a similar way. Lots of other variables change. Even just buying a flower on the street can introduce a small tweak that changes things.

It’s a long time since I struggled to put a book down. More than once I just had to continue reading into the early hours to find out what happened next.

This book was a roller coaster of emotions and events that highlighted the violence, greed, passions, revenge of the main protagonists. It also really portrayed the ebb and flow of power and influence that royalty and religion had against each other, as well as the poor peasants who were caught in the middle.

A really enjoyable read and I can see why this book is one of Ken Follett’s all time best sellers.

I enjoyed this story all entwined with real historical characters. It had good momentum with one thing leading to another with quite a few exciting climaxes.

A good read, and apart from the 3 laws for robots, I now realise there was also a 4th law: Zeroth Law is: ‘A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.’ This automatically means that the First Law must be modified to be: ‘A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, except where that would conflict with the Zeroth Law.’ And similar modifications must be made in the Second and Third Laws.” But this book also answered many questions and also revealed a plan that is older than Seldon’s Plan…

This started out slowly and I was convinced my rating would be lower than the previous ones in the Foundation series, but it took on a whole new twist to the series unlike the previous ones and in the end I enjoyed it very much.