Rating: 
Summary: Follett is better than this.
Review: This could have been a much better book. So much good raw material and fascinating history, as noted by other reviewers. But, also as noted by other reviewers, his plotlines are often too implausible. I can suspend belief to a certain degree, but all too often Follett comes up with plot turns that are so implausible that it spoils the story. Follet can do better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Triumph for Follett!!
Review: This incredible story has many parallelisms with Follett's "Eye of the Needle" novel. Instead of WWII this story takes place in the pre WWI era. England and Russia are in desperate need for a treaty in preparation of Germany's attack. A well known Russian anarchists has been sent to England to assassinate the negotiating Russian Prince hence destroying any faith between the two countries and to fulfill his quest of war against the Russian oppressed. "The Man from St. Petersburg" is more than a book filled with suspense, lust and lies-Follett makes the reader experience the hardships of Russian socialism and the glamour and prestige of the English monarchy. What is so interesting was at face value the two seem very distant, only to find out they share the same pain and turmoil. The author captures the reader with several twists of fate within the personal pasts of the anarchist's lover and now wife of a British Earl. The story leaves this reader full of questions about the hypocracy of British monarchy. It fully explains why distorting the truth to preserve one's pride of class and reputation can have devastating repercussions. This is a good read, a typical Follett masterpiece, regardless of its mirror image of "The Needle", "The Man From St. Petersburg" truely has its own identity.
Rating:
Summary: Another Triumph for Follett!!
Review: This incredible story has many parallelisms with Follett's "Eye of the Needle" novel. Instead of WWII this story takes place in the pre WWI era. England and Russia are in desperate need for a treaty in preparation of Germany's attack. A well known Russian anarchists has been sent to England to assassinate the negotiating Russian Prince hence destroying any faith between the two countries and to fulfill his quest of war against the Russian oppressed. "The Man from St. Petersburg" is more than a book filled with suspense, lust and lies-Follett makes the reader experience the hardships of Russian socialism and the glamour and prestige of the English monarchy. What is so interesting was at face value the two seem very distant, only to find out they share the same pain and turmoil. The author captures the reader with several twists of fate within the personal pasts of the anarchist's lover and now wife of a British Earl. The story leaves this reader full of questions about the hypocracy of British monarchy. It fully explains why distorting the truth to preserve one's pride of class and reputation can have devastating repercussions. This is a good read, a typical Follett masterpiece, regardless of its mirror image of "The Needle", "The Man From St. Petersburg" truely has its own identity.
Rating: 
Summary: INTERESTING BUT SIMPLISTIC
Review: This is an interesting story, but the characters and plot are simplistic and one-dimensional. This book had a melodramatic, soap operaish feel to it. Still it is an interesting story and the author DOES do a very good job describing the gross disparity between the upper and lower classes circa the early 1900's. He also demonstrates the plight of the early feminists in a fair and impartial manner.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Job by Author
Review: This is not a bad effort from the author but his recent books have been better. It sometimes seemed to me that the story line was moving away from the believable. The story did move very quickly and you can stay interested in the book for many hours at a time. The most fun I got out of the book was the descriptions of the time frame and the tradecraft used. If you are interested in reading some of his earlier works then I would suggest Triple or his best work Pillars of the Earth.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent reading
Review: This is the first book I've read by Ken Follett. I loved it. It drew on all your emotions. I loved how it protrayed life as it was. The charters were very real and realistic. I am planning to get the rest of his books.
Rating:
Summary: Spy thriller set in the early 20th century.
Review: This spy novel is set ealier in time than most of the similar novels I have read. It makes it interesting from a historical point of view, but can be simplistic in its plot and situations at times.Almost an historical fiction novel rather than a spy thriller.
Rating:
Summary: A lesson without having to take notes.
Review: This story is set London in early 1914 as Germany was mobilizing and war was inevitable to those that history would prove astute. France was in peril even if England assisted, and the British Empire itself would be at risk if the Germans prevailed. So, The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Winston Churchill of the Liberal government, armed with a note from King George, convinces The (conservative) Earl of Walden to negotiate a secret treaty with his wife's nephew, Alex Orlov, also nephew to the Czar, for Russia to enter into the fray. The anarchists learn of this plot however, and Feliks, The Man from St. Petersburg, has five pounds sterling and a determination to assassinate Alex Orlov on English soil. This story is rich with the history that bored us in school, that stuff about Victorian pomp and starving Russian peasants floundering for a new political order, the prelude to communism. Follett gives us a sense of the debauchery bred from wealth and privilege, and the desperation born of inhumanities in an era gone by. He introduces us to men threatened by women's suffrage, others terrorized of government, and through them, we better understand why society changed, or perhaps mutated. That stuff is woven seamlessly into a story of intrigue without long speeches or tedious lectures. We get our lesson without having to take notes. My only quarrel is Follett's propensity to interrupt with back-story, once with back-story within back-story if I'm not mistaken. It's a minor irritation though, one scratch and it's gone, because we are more worried about how his characters are going to sort out the mess they're in. And in the end, you're going to believe The Man from St. Petersburg might have been.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining--you won't be disappointed
Review: This was my first Ken Follet book, and I couldn't have been more pleased! Follet brilliantly takes the reader back to the pre-World War I/Russian Revolution era in a vivid, yet easy-to-read style. The plot is fast moving and keeps the reader engaged throughout. Follet's only shortfall, from my standpoint, came in his effort to make "the man from St. Petersburg" himself somewhat sympathetic. But overall, this is a good thriller, set in an era which Follet masterfully brings to life.
Rating:
Summary: The first book I read from K. Follett
Review: This was the first book I read from Ken Follett, it seems as if you were watching a film. After that I read some more books from this actor and I'll read all of them.
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