[PCK]≡ Read Gratis Only Time Will Tell The Clifton Chronicles Jeffrey Archer 9780312539559 Books

Only Time Will Tell The Clifton Chronicles Jeffrey Archer 9780312539559 Books

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Only Time Will Tell The Clifton Chronicles Jeffrey Archer 9780312539559 Books

My Review: I'm always on the hunt for a big, sweeping family saga. Something to lose myself in as I read about the foibles, backstabbing and general issues in the characters' lives. After having a library customer suggest this series I decided to pick it up and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

This first book in the series has a lot going for it. It's set in an interesting era (begins in 1920's England), it has multiple story lines and a cast of characters that keep it interesting. The writing style was an interesting choice but I'm not sure that I'm a fan of it. Archer gives his reader a look at the same circumstance via different points of view of several of his characters. Even though each character added a little bit of their own insight into the situations it still felt like I was re-reading the plot and it ended up feeling a little redundant. Perhaps it could have been done in a different way to keep the momentum up and to give the reader a little more to work with.

The plot itself was a little predictable with soap opera-like twists but enjoyable nonetheless. Archer's writing has a certain ease to it which makes this book a good, relaxing read. In the end this was an enjoyable start to a series. The ending makes the reader want to pick up the next book in this series soon.

My Rating: 3.5/5 stars


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Only Time Will Tell The Clifton Chronicles Jeffrey Archer 9780312539559 Books Reviews

The first book in Archer’s seven-book Clifton Chronicles series follows protagonist Harry Clifton from his childhood years in a single-parent home in Bristol, England in the post–World War I era through his grammar-school days and into young adulthood. Hindered by poverty and haunted by the mystery surrounding his dead father, Harry fights to escape his circumstances and find a better life for himself and his mother. Along the way he makes some unlikely friends, some predictable enemies, and some life-changing choices that take him from the streets of Bristol to the halls of Oxford to the bridge of a merchant ship in the opening days of World War II.

For fans of Archer’s previous epics (KANE AND ABEL, THE FOURTH ESTATE, SONS OF FORTUNE), the story will have a familiar feel. The rags-to-riches storyline and sparse storytelling technique have served the author well for many years, and ONLY TIME WILL TELL is cut from the same cloth. It’s not exactly ground-breaking fiction; on the other hand, the writing is good enough that the story feels comfortable if not particularly gripping. The author employs a mixture of first-person and third-person narrative, breaking the book into eight distinct parts retelling the same events from different characters’ points of view. The resulting gradual revelation of motivations and backstory creates a satisfying depth that for the most part overcomes some heavy-handedness in the description of events. The author also weaves in enough references to real-life people and events to give an authentic historical feel, and the book ends on a cliffhanger that leaves the reader ready to begin volume two (SINS OF THE FATHER, 2012).

ONLY TIME WILL TELL is not Jeffrey Archer’s finest work, but it is nevertheless a welcome start to a lengthy series by one of the world’s best modern storytellers.
This is the first volume of a six (so far) part series chronicling the life of the Clifton family. This volume introduces the main characters Harry, his girlfriend, Emma and her brother, and Harry's best friend, Giles, and various others that pop in and out throughout the series.

In this volume, we follow Harry from his early teens to his graduation from grammar school (which in the US would be high school), which is shortly followed by World War Two.

I made the mistake of starting with volume five, and then going back to the beginning, so it is easy to see how many of the conflicts Archer establishes in this volume set the stage for the narrative tension in the later books. I highly recommend reading them in order...not jumping around like me.

I loved volume five, but this volume reads like what it is a book used to introduce characters, relationships, and conflicts which will be more fully developed in later volumes. So in that sense, this is my least favorite of the chronicles. On the other hand, without this one, the remaining volumes don't work as well.
I overheard two separate conversations this past month praising Jeffrey Archer’s Clifton Chronicle series and although I have no desire to tie myself down to reading all seven books my interest was piqued. I decided to read just the first. Big mistake.
It was soon clear to me why the author has sold in excess of 330 million books. His exceptional gift for storytelling kept me up all night to finish (despite the fact that I knew a cliffhanger was inevitable, as that’s how a book series works).
Archer steers the plot forward at a cracking pace. He is also able to handle several characters in the first person viewpoint, presenting parallel viewpoints, something few authors seem to manage well. Also clever is the way in which he hints at plot twists, often resolving them in the same chapter and ending many chapters with a suggestion as to the next looming crisis, thereby maintaining tension and anticipation for what is to come.
My Review I'm always on the hunt for a big, sweeping family saga. Something to lose myself in as I read about the foibles, backstabbing and general issues in the characters' lives. After having a library customer suggest this series I decided to pick it up and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

This first book in the series has a lot going for it. It's set in an interesting era (begins in 1920's England), it has multiple story lines and a cast of characters that keep it interesting. The writing style was an interesting choice but I'm not sure that I'm a fan of it. Archer gives his reader a look at the same circumstance via different points of view of several of his characters. Even though each character added a little bit of their own insight into the situations it still felt like I was re-reading the plot and it ended up feeling a little redundant. Perhaps it could have been done in a different way to keep the momentum up and to give the reader a little more to work with.

The plot itself was a little predictable with soap opera-like twists but enjoyable nonetheless. Archer's writing has a certain ease to it which makes this book a good, relaxing read. In the end this was an enjoyable start to a series. The ending makes the reader want to pick up the next book in this series soon.

My Rating 3.5/5 stars