Not truly sci fi, but…could be. Very near future. Maybe present day. This book is a page-turner. It was very hard to put down.

I’ve read some of Follett’s work before and generally loved them. This was no different. My wife also loves Follett and I’m grateful that he lives in a completely different country, because, well, he writes so well that she might consider leaving me for him. Thankfully, he seems happily married (as am I) with kids and grandkids and Labradors.

As I write this, I’m sitting in Niamey, Niger. That made the book more difficult to read because some of the action and tension arose in Chad, which is Niger’s eastern neighbor. A bit too close for my reading comfort. Both countries are mostly desert (Sahara), which made the action very, very real to me as my thoughts returned to the book while fighting my way through blowing dust and sand.

Follett tells the tale through three perspectives: a CIA agent in Chad, a senior intelligence official in China, and the President of the United States. All were wonderfully fleshed out and believable. There were a couple of caricatures as background foils. Although they were just realistic enough to make me squirm. 

We meet and love the characters first, then we witness the first beat of the butterfly’s wings and we’re hooked. The pace is fast, with occasional pauses that allow us to use the restroom, grab some water, and settle back in before Follett sucks us back into the narrative.

On the Feral Scale, the science comes in at a 4. Good stuff, but some more research could have been done in one area. Details below the spoiler warning.

Story-wise, this is a 9. Well done, Mr. Follett.

Good book! Go read it.

Ken Follett in front of his works. Someday, I’ll be able to pose in front of the multiple shelves of best sellers that I have written!

Major spoilers follow.

Fair warning.

Are you sure you want to continue?

Okay, here goes. Follett should have found someone who understands ballistic missiles, at least in terms of their flight paths and time to target. The lapses never fully pulled me out of the tale but were egregious enough that I noted them. Accuracy wouldn’t have hurt the story.