All three books were boring, predictable
352990
Save your self from giving this trilogy a try. I never write reviews on books but this trilogy was so awful that I had to say something. I made the mistake on buying all three at once. I am one of those people that has to finish what I start and I really wish I didn't have too with these books. All three books were boring, predictable, and lack of substance. All the books were pretty much about a close group of friends / family that just eats and drinks together every night. The author just goes into detail on their gatherings around the kitchen table or in the pub. The same scenario is dragged out through all three books. I have never been so bored and struggled through a series so much in my life. The only good thing about the books is that it talks and describes about places in Ireland that I had just been too this past year. Keep looking for another trilogy to get yourself into because this one isn't worth your time.
4824947
This trilogy goes down hill fast. This first book is mediocre, at best, and the second and third books just get worse and worse. The plot is pretty cliched and chronically positive. There are no surprises, plot twists, or any Gasp! moments in the entire book. Everyone has the best luck and everything turns out right in the end, always. Do yourself a favor and and don't waste your money on this series.
2911748
Nora Roberts needs to take a break from writing. This entire trilogy is predictable from the first chapter on to the rest of the trilogy. Basically if you combine the Garden trilogy with the Key trilogy, this trilogy is what you would get. Even the "unexpected" surprises are predictable. I can't believe I actually took the time to read the entire trilogy. Take it from someone who could have spent the money on more worthy books, don't waste your time on this trilogy. Nora Roberts just keeps getting more into a pattern in her writing. Now that I've figured it out, I'm not going to waste any time or money on her novels.
3456019
While I enjoyed the first two books of this trilogy, I found Edge of Eternity pedantic and ponderous.  While some of the characters were interesting and likable, most were pretty two-dimensional, particularly the insufferable female characters, Beep and Evie.  Follett seemed to spend most of his time wandering aimlessly through the 1960's, predictably placing his characters at the most obvious events from the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy and King assassinations, the summer of love, the Chicago Democratic Convention, etc., etc.

This is a novel built on contrived coincidence, but even worse, it is preachy.  Although I did finish it, I almost dumped it at the point where Follett interrupted his narration (which, let's face it was tedious) to define for the reader what a party primary election is in American politics.  Sure, Follett is British, and primaries are not part of a parliamentary system, but, really, does the reader need this sort of mini-lecture?  Look it up if you need to, for goodness sake.

Perhaps this book needed to be focused on some galvanizing historical event as in the first two books which were about the period of the two world wars.  Unfortunately for Follett, the closest he could come to that was the VietNam War, which only seemed to have an effect on the sleazy Jasper, and seemed to pass right over the heads of the rest of the characters.

I've read a number of books by Ken Follett and liked many of them.  However, every now and then he publishes one like this, replete with shallow characters, predictable plot lines, and narration that feels like a classroom lecture.
290832
Shallow, boring and very predictable. It seems Nicholas Sparks is unable to write with any substance, after The Notebook, his books all seem the same, hoaky themes with no depth of character or literary interest.
4845198
I read all three books in this trilogy. Book One was fairly interesting with characters that were engaging. Book Two seemed a little less involving  and this book was almost devoid of interesting characters. The main characters were one-dimensional and very boring. The writing was also boring and repetitive. Mr. Follett seemed to need to say everything more than once as if readers might not understand what he was saying the first time. I was determined to finish this book to see the final outcome after about 3,000 pages in all three books but this last one was hard to get through. When there wasn't enough historical narrative to fill the pages, Mr. Follett resorted to describing his characters sex lives. Even this was not very interesting. I took breaks and read other things in between doses of boredom, Perhaps this was the most boring of the books because I have lived during the historical period described and therefore found almost nothing enlightening. I also found several errors, such as referring to University of California at Berkeley as an extension of the University of California in San Francisco. I did finally finish this long story but would not recommend it to anyone.
Maurine in California
3720273
There was anticipation of something happening. When it FINALLY happened (took FOREVER) it was predictable and boring. Then the book was over.
4538635
What happened to Mr. Follett between book two and book three of this trilogy?  The growth and development of the characters which was vital to the story, was non-existent.  The scene setting, which had been detailed with imagery, was dull. The story telling, which was rich with history, was trite and predictable.  The gratuitous sex was embarrassing and boorish.  I so looked forward to this last installment but unfortunately could not finish it because I do not care what happens to the characters; I can predict the storyline; and if I wanted to read a 1120 page version of 50 Shades of Grey, I would have read that trilogy.
2891429
The first two books were better, this last one was predictable and boring. I lost interest half way through. I finished but it was a speed read just to get it done.
3262895
Veronica Roth had an incredible opportunity to wrap up this trilogy in a very creative way. Instead, she introduced a brand new storyline that was so boring it was hard to keep reading. If she wanted to kill off a main character, that's fine- but do it right. JK Rowling killed off her characters with meaning, she didn't rush a death just to be shocking. It's clear Veronica Roth didn't have an actual gameplan when she wrote this book. To be honest, this was the worst third book in the history of trilogies. I almost wish I didn't waste my time.
2333393
I managed to slog through all three books in this series. While they were decent stories, the poor grammar and repeated use of the same words and phrases over and over shows a profound lack of imagination and grasp of vocabulary. A thesaurus would have been a handy reference tool. The most egregious case of overuse was the use of the word "smirk", used nearly every single time in all three books to describe what was meant to be smile, grin, laugh, happy, pleased, etc. You get the idea. It detracted so much from the storyline that the books were a lot less enjoyable than they could have been.
2028235
I read the first two books and they were so bogues that I didn't want to read any more bull***t.

RJ
3551131
After Book Five that was boring with virtually no plot, this book was marginally more interesting but jumped around so much that the timeline was totally off and the "adventure" unbelievable. The interaction between the characters was predictable and boring and just like the other books. This gets ridiculous after six books. Again, the writing was very bad -- even a middle school student could do better. I teach writing and I edit indie author manuscripts and this author definitely needs a new editor. This book was full of mistakes, mixed up words, punctuation, and cliches that were wrong. Each book seems to have worse writing than the previous one.
2138086
Dull and predictable! Took me a long time to read this because nothing really happened in the whole book! I don't know if I can make myself start the next one.
1932924
the three books in this bundle are all very similar, I got bored with it by the third book. They were enjoyable, but reading them back to back was a mistake.
1859621
The final book of the trilogy was barely good. The character development that occured in the second

book kind of stalled and one of the characters became very cardboard and uninteresting.

Another character that could have been very interesting was not developed to full potential and kind of left a disappointing hole in the story for me.

The plot twists that I have been reading the novels to resolve came to a conclusion to quickly and without much fanfare. What he did write was average. I just thought it could have been so much better.

It just seemed so generic. The first two books were better and seemed less rushed to me. This one felt like it was written on a deadline, especially toward the end. The trilogy as a whole suffers as a result.

If this last book had been as good as the first two I would have given the trilogy a confident recommendation but now I can only recommend it if you are really into heroic fantasy and can make more of the characters in your mind than the author makes of them in the final book.
1413549
Hugh tied up a trilogy in about 8 pages.  What a lame let down it was to struggle through Shift and then Dust to find the ending to be 100% predictable.  It's like he had a deadline to meet for the book and needed to get it over in one afternoon.  I'm not a writer, but I could have done much better in hindsight to reach the same ending.  I'm not going to bother reading another of his books.