World Without End

Kingsbridge #2

by Ken Follett, Richard E. Grant (Narrator)

The #1 New York Times bestselling sequel to The Pillars of the Earth.

Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England that centered on the building of a cathedral and the men, women, and children whose lives it changed forever. Now, two centuries after the townspeople of Kingsbridge finished building the exquisite edifice, four children slip into the forest and witness a killing-an event that will bind them all by ambition, love, greed, and revenge...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Audiobook, Medieval, Fantasy, British Literature

Audio

First published October 4, 2007

About the author

Ken Follett is one of the world’s most successful authors. Over 170 million copies of the 36 books he has written have been sold in over 80 countries and in 33 languages.

Born on June 5th, 1949 in Cardiff, Wales, the son of a tax inspector, Ken was educated at state schools and went on to graduate from University College, London, with an Honours degree in Philosophy – later to be made a Fellow of the College in 1995.

He started his career as a reporter, first with his hometown newspaper the South Wales Echo and then with the London Evening News. Subsequently, he worked for a small London publishing house, Everest Books, eventually becoming Deputy Managing Director.

Ken’s first major success came with the publication of Eye of the Needle in 1978. A World War II thriller set in England, this book earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. It remains one of Ken’s most popular books.

In 1989, Ken’s epic novel about the building of a medieval cathedral, The Pillars of the Earth, was published. It reached number one on best-seller lists everywhere and was turned into a major television series produced by Ridley Scott, which aired in 2010. World Without End, the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, proved equally popular when it was published in 2007.

Ken’s new book, The Evening and the Morning, will be published in September 2020. It is a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth and is set around the year 1,000, when Kingsbridge was an Anglo-Saxon settlement threatened by Viking invaders.

Ken has been active in numerous literacy charities and was president of Dyslexia Action for ten years. He was chair of the National Year of Reading, a joint initiative between government and businesses. He is also active in many Stevenage charities and is President of the Stevenage Community Trust and Patron of Home-Start Hertfordshire.

Ken, who loves music almost as much as he loves books, is an enthusiastic bass guitar player. He lives in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, with his wife Barbara, the former Labour Member of Parliament for Stevenage. Between them they have five children, six grandchildren and two Labradors.

Reviews

[Emily May · Rating 4 out of 5]

We who are born poor have to use cunning to get what we want. Scruples are for the privileged.

I must confess-- I am addicted to these Ken Follett novels. I finished World Without End and had to pick up A Column of Fire immediately. I'm also going to get to his Century trilogy at some point. These books are bloodstained historical soap operas and I just can't get enough.

Follett knows how to create exactly the right amount of drama and set it to the gory backdrop of history. I've always loved being taken back to times that I've only read about in passing and here we see the horrors of the Black Death up close.

It is one thing to read a textbook about the illness, its symptoms and its wide reach - wiping out up to 60% of Europe's population - but it's another thing entirely to be taken into the lives of characters we come to love and seeing it firsthand. Knowing at any minute that they or their families could be next. It was a truly horrific and frightening disease, and I think the author captures that really well.

Follett once again utilizes a technique that worked very well for him in The Pillars of the Earth - the plot is often driven by our hatred for certain characters. In the previous book, it was William Hamleigh. Here, there are a number of candidates competing for our hatred; namely, Ralph, Godwyn and Philemon. It's pretty effective to despise a character so deeply that we absolutely must read on to see them get their just desserts.

It's also just a fascinating portrait of everyday life in 14th century England. Two hundred years after the events of The Pillars of the Earth, Kingsbridge now has a nunnery (which makes for some interesting politics as the monks try to control the nuns, but they are some seriously badass women) and the Guild plays an important part in decisions for the town, as well as the Priory.

It's hard to explain - between the deaths, disease and war - how much enjoyment there is in the everyday lives of these people, as we live with them through romance, poverty, heartbreak and betrayal. AND these books are so so easy to dip in and out of. I rarely feel ready to commit to a thousand-page book, but I can easily read this alongside other books and return to the story and characters without a problem.

So much fun and drama.

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[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Put some towels down because I sense a fully formed gush geyser about to spill all over this review. This book was fantastic and really did it for me. I loved it, all 1000+ pages, and I wouldn’t have minded if it was considerably longer (TWSS).

After more than loving The Pillars of the Earth (that’s right, I lurved it), I had tall hopes for this sorta sequel and let me tell you it was more than up to the task.

I was parched and hungry for a good meaty read. Well consider me gorged and my story thirst completely slaked.

Now before I continue operation lick-spittle on Mr. Follett for his 2nd delightfully voluptuous epic, let me shine some context on this review so it will better help you decide whether this book is right for you:

1. As I mentioned above, I thought The Pillars of the Earth was pure, uncut awesome I my satisfaction gauge red-lined while I was reading it. If you had similar feelings for Pillars, than World Without End is going to make you happier than…


Alternatively, if (heaven forbid) you thought Pillars was a Meh-filled bore fest or it just didn’t push your joy buzzer, I see no reason why this book will be any different as the books are almost identical in tone and structure. Thus, you might look want to go elsewhere.

2. Assuming you haven’t read Pillars (which is certainly not a prerequisite for this book), if you get through the first 100 pages or so and find yourself anxious for “something” to happen, again this may not be your kind of book. In my opinion, the book should grab you roughly and carry you away and if that doesn’t happen or if you find yourself disconnected from the characters, then this could be a real slog for you.

3. I listened to the unabridged audiobook (all 45+ hours of it) read by the incomparable John Lee (who also narrated Pillars). John’s narration is masterful and definitely enhanced my happy with the story. I don’t know if I would have had quite the level of appreciation, but for John’s involvement. If you are a fan of audio books, I would highly recommend this one (or anything else read by John Lee).

Okay, I just wanted to get that out there, because the rest of the review is pretty much a Ken Follett, fanBOYatic extravaganza…so let the man-crushing begin:

This story is prodigious, sprawling and more addictive than caramel-covered crack. This is big, bad historical soap opera at its full on finest complete with everything that makes a great period piece: politics, intrigue, alliances, betrayals, fortunes won and lost, life-long grudges, loves, jealousies, deaths, plot-twists, unspeakable crimes (e.g., rapes, murders, etc.), conflict between major powers, reformers versus status quo, good vs. evil and a mysterious letter the contents of which could shake the foundations of the Monarchy itself.

Boo Yah!!!

Set approximately 200 years after the events of The Pillars of the Earth in the same fictional town of Kingsbridge, England, this story is set against the backdrop of, and incorporates into its narrative, the beginning of the Hundred Years War and the outbreak and spread of the Black Plague. These events intersect with the lives of the inhabitants of Kingsbridge in significant ways and Follett does an amazing job painting a credible and highly entertaining portrait of life during the period.

Follett introduces and weaves into his vast tapestry dozens of well-drawn, intriguing figures who each play a critical role in the outcome of the epic. However, the narrative flow centers primarily on the lives of four key people. The first of these is Caris, a strong, intelligent, enlightened woman who is the primary proponent for change in Kingsbridge and the main enemy of the old guard “status quo” represented by the Kingsbridge monastery and Prior Godwyn. Caris strongly desires to be a healer and treat the sick at a time when only men may be physicians and the remedies supported by the Church are as bad as the illnesses they seek to cure. Caris is out to change that.

Merthin is a smart, extremely talented architect whose innovative and radical designs are instrumental throughout the story. Merthin and Caris are deeply in love but events and their own personal integrity constantly conspire to keep them apart. Next is Gwenda who is a favorite character of mine. Gwenda suffers more unimaginable heartache and grief than any other character in the story and yet remains unbowed by what life throws at her. Sold by her destitute father for a cow (yes, a cow), Gwenda finds herself on her own early in life and ends up thriving through her wits and huge reserves of inner strength. She goes through some horrendous events as part of the story.

Finally, we have Ralph, Merthin’s younger, stronger brother and main (though by no means only) villain of the story. A rapist, a sadist and a murderer, Ralph is as devoid of empathy as it is possible to be. He is the Lord of Scumbaggery and the epitome of callousness and abject cruelty. Some of the things he does throughout the story are truly shocking and get worse as he gains more and more influence.
On a side note…how cool is it to have a main nemesis named….RALPH.
Joining the above is a stellar cast of supporting characters that all engaging and complex. Follett has a real knack for showing us villains through there own eyes and making them seem more human…and thus all the more evil.

As for the writing itself, Follett really gets the hat tip from me on this point. Not for its poetry or majestic beauty though I thought his prose was excellent. Rather for its incredibly engaging, breezy readability. Despite being over 1000 pages long and having almost the whole story take place in a single small town, I was hooked from the very beginning and never had a moment in which my attention wanted to stray.

Follett’s prose is like a strong but gentle current that just picks you up and carries you through the story until you eventually reach the end and realize how very far you’ve traveled. It was a greatly impressive feat.

World Without End is sublimely entertaining and I have rarely been this completely snatched and cloistered inside its narrative as I was from the very outset of this. I don’t know that I liked this quite as much as The Pillars of the Earth, but that’s trying to discern gnat crap from pepper and is due completely to the fact that I read Pillars first. Given how similarly both books are structured it makes sense that this one wouldn’t feel as fresh and new.

That said, Mr. Follett…PLEASE don’t go messing with the formula because it is working like a charm. This is quintessential story-telling and a masterful piece of historical fiction.

More please!!!

5.0 stars. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This "companion" novel to Follett's 1989 classic The Pillars of the Earth is set in the same community, 200 years later. I'd been excited about it ever since I heard it was coming out this fall - Maybe too excited, because it just didn't live up to my expectations.

The first half of the book seemed a sort-of ho-hum retread of "Pillars". In place of Jack Builder, we have his look-alike great-great-great-many-times-over grandson, Merthin. Instead of Aliena, we get Caris (who I wanted to slap several times during the course of the story). Instead of Big Villain William, we get Ralph, Merthin's knightly (but less-than chivalrous) brother. And a bridge-building project stands in for the cathedral construction of the first book... As if anything could.

The only character I found remotely original was the first one we meet in the book, a little girl reduced to pickpocketing by her starving parents, who grows up to be hopelessly in love with a handsome, honest young farmer.

I missed Prior Philip, from the original book, who was a character who at least had some integrity and depth to him. All the clergy in "World Without End" seemed to be corrupt - including the ones we're supposed to like.

Something big happens about halfway through, to change the book's course - and it doesn't get resolved as quickly as I thought it would - but the big payoff from the opening scene never materializes. ("That's IT?" I wanted to say when I read the explanation of what happened.)

There are some good scenes, showing how war and pestilence affect ordinary folk - but the "heroes" in this book talk and think too much like people from the 21st Century to make the setting really believable. If you loved "Pillars", you might as well try this one, but it's not any great shakes.

[Sean Barrs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here’s a book that completely copies the first book in the series. Here’s a book that follows the same sense of narrative progression, character development and resolution as it predecessor. It is one who's characters bear a striking resemblance to their ancestors in terms of individual personality and their place within the story; yet, for all the repetition, Follett churns out an equally as engrossing story as that of The Pillars of the Earth.

What have I to complain about? This is one of those rare occasions when more of the same isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And the sense of familiarity also helped to solidify that this is actually the same location, Kingsbridge, just a few centuries later. Instead of focusing on building a new cathedral, after the dramatic burning down of the first one, the citizens are focusing on re-building the town bridge after the other was destroyed by a stampede of angry witch burners. And here’s one of the things Follett does better this time round: he explores more social issues regarding femininity with greater depth.

In Pillars of the Earth he looked at injustices such as women being paid less for the same work and having to stay married to violent husbands. In the fourteenth century here he looks at the fear and hysteria that surrounded women with knowledge. If a woman had an idea or if she was moderately successful, it was a logical assumption that she must be a witch. It’s unthinkable that she could have done such a thing based upon her own merits. And if this wasn’t bad enough, men were always seen as right even when they were so clearly wrong.

The response to the Black Death that sweeps across Kingsbridge shows this. The monks have some very backwards ideas to medicine such as applying dung poultices to wounds and then wondering why they become infected. The sisters of the priory recognise the folly of this and argue for a more modern approach to treatment. The practicalities of their ideas are ignored simply because they are women: they must be wrong or witches. The men in the book are either suffocating brutes or paragons of kindness and decency. There seems to be no middle ground. The women though, they have many chances to prove themselves and rise above restrictions of the church and society.

A strong romance against a backdrop of war and terror

“It was an odd relationship, but then she was an extraordinary woman: a prioress who doubted much of what the church taught; an acclaimed healer who rejected medicine as practised by physicians; and a nun who made enthusiastic love to her man whenever she could get away with it. If I wanted a normal relationship, Merthin told himself, I should have picked a normal girl.”



As well as enduring the Black Death, Kingsbridge finds herself at the centre point of a massive court intrigue. Decades ago Edward II was deposed by his own wife and her secret lover. Now his son (Edward III) has his armies marching towards Kingsbridge due to some very disturbing rumours about a wayward knight. Follett explores how such tumultuous actions affect the lives of the everyday people of the realm, of the builders and the nuns, who simply wish to live in happiness and peace.

Central to this story is a real human element of drama. Everybody is out for themselves and despite the fact that they have known poverty and hardship, when they are placed in a position of power they only help to cause more for those less fortunate. There’s a certain lack of empathy and self-involvement that only serves to destroy communities. The bridge though, and the building of it symbolises something much greater: it symbolises strength and human spirit. If the people can come together and re-build it, in the midst of death carnage and misery, then they can survive anything. Love, friendship and society will endure.

This book is over a thousand pages long, but for all that it is completely griping, entertaining and thoroughly dramatic. This is my favourite historical fiction series, I recommend it most highly.

[Dana Ilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

World Without End is written in the third person but isn't choppy like some third person books are. I loved that we get to see the characters grow up and mature. They all encounter hardships (war, death, disappointed hopes and dreams, the black plague) but never stop fighting and never give up hope.

I really enjoyed reading about the advances in medicine and what people believed to be cures (bloodletting, poultices made with dung, balancing the "humours" of the body). Physicians believed that diseases could be transmitted by looking at a sick person because the eyes have "feelers" that touch things in order to see them. Isn't that wild? When the black plague befalls the country, one of the nuns wants to wear a mask over her nose and mouth to prevent transmission of the disease and this is treated like heresy!

I also enjoyed reading about the politics of the church. There was definitely more corruption in World Without End than there was in The Pillars of the Earth. Of course, the fact that The Pillars of the Earth's main character was a humble and worthy prior may have something to do with that.

I am in awe of Follett's plot. He weaves the stories together in a way that they all make sense and seem cohesive.

The last thing I enjoyed reading about was the architecture. Now, the descriptions were hard to read, which they were but they were also really informative and practical to the story. I'm not a fan of architecture, but reading about how they had to build things back then was pretty fascinating to me.

When I finished the book, I was left with a feeling of hope. I think the ending is totally appropriate. It's not so perfect that it's unrealistic. I think that's the special thing about Follett's writing---he makes you feel what his characters are feeling.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

World Without End, a follow-up to Ken Follett’s surprise bestseller Pillars of the Earth, steals a page from the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure playbook. A motley collection of insipid characters – if possible, even stupider and less realistic than Bill & Ted – get into a time machine and travel back to year 1327 and the village of Kingsbridge…

Wait. Oh, wait.

There are no time machines? The characters in World Without End are supposed to represent actual people from the 14th century?

Well.

I read Pillars of the Earth as something of a lark. For one, I enjoy grandly ambitious, watermelon-sized novels, packed with blood and strife and minutely-detailed, anatomically precise sex scenes. I love excess – all the better to feel lost in a different world. I was also a fan of Follett’s earlier thrillers, which relied on precision plots, tissue thin characters, and yes, lots of sex, to tell crackerjack stories. Eye of the Needle and The Key to Rebecca are marvelously quick reads; meanwhile, the explicit hand-jobs detailed in Night Over Water turned me into a man almost overnight.

In that mindset, I was able to enjoy Follett’s foray into the realm of historical fiction, a tenuous place where copious research often rests uneasily with under-drawn characters. I felt that Pillars of the Earth had many problems. It was poorly paced, the dialogue was robotic, the characters were plot-pawns, and anyone paying the least bit of attention knew exactly how every minor and major mystery was going to be resolved. Still, there was enjoyment to be had in the research that Follett crammed into every page, from the composition of the bread, to the building of a cathedral. There was also a great deal of unintentional hilarity, much of it spawning from Follett’s obsession with his characters’ pubic hair.

World Without End is a sequel in spirit to that earlier novel. It shares the same town – Kingsbridge – but none of the same characters. Reading one book is not required to understand the other. World Without End also shares many of the faults of Pillars of the Earth. It is, in other words, just as horrible. But for whatever reason – bad mood, fit of pique, utter irrationality – I have decided that I hate World Without End. Oh, it still gave me some laughs, just like the first one; this time, though, I’m not giving it the stars.

And yes, I realize that any criticism of World Without End or Ken Follett is like whizzing into the ocean. The man is Teflon-coated and critic-proof; if he ever feels bad about the criticism leveled against him, he has millions of dollars with which to dry his leaking eyes.

I certainly don’t bear him any malice. I will continue to read his books. Indeed, I have already started the next book in a proposed trilogy, Fall of Giants.

It just needs to be said that this book is awful, in every way a book can be awful.

I should say something about the plot: there is no plot.

Well, that’s not quite accurate. To be more precise, this book has an Alphabet Plot. This is a phrase I invented to describe a book that resembles – more than anything else – the 300 meter hurdles. It starts with the “A” story, resolves that, moves on to the “B” story, resolves that, moves onto the “C” story, resolves that, and etc, etc. Right up until the last page, Follett sticks to this simple formula: (1) introduce a difficulty for his characters to overcome; (2) have them despair; (3) have them come up with a plan; (4) the plan works!; (5) the characters believe (stupidly, it turns out) that all is right with the world; and (6) a new difficulty arises for the characters to overcome…

This pattern is so distinct, so telegraphed, that it doesn’t take you long before you can foresee the problem and the solution before either are introduced by the author.

Follett tries to give this shaggy storyline some coherence by creating a bookend mystery to overlay all the other happenings. The novel actually begins with the main characters as children, out playing in the woods. On All Hallows Day, these kids witness a brutal fight that leaves two men dead and one man wounded. The cause and the consequences of this moment “lingers” over all the events of the next 900 pages. And by lingers, I mean that Follett sometimes refers to it. The problem with this framing device is that the initial mystery is not mystifying; that you forget about it almost as soon as it happens; that the payoff comes too late; and that the payoff is underwhelming. Actually, underwhelming is not the right word. The word I’m looking for is nonexistent. Yes, that’s better. The payoff is nonexistent.

Thus, you have an essentially plot-less book, with no real through-line, that follows a collection of cardboard cutouts characters from 1327 to 1361.

If I were being charitable, I could almost dub this a multi-faceted bildungsroman that follows Follett’s creations from childhood to adulthood. Of course, in the typical bildungsroman, the characters change and grow in some way. In this book, however, the characters are not even human: they are medieval robots who lack personality, charisma, charm, and anything resembling the human spark.

The center of Follett’s novel is a young woman named Caris. She is your typical 21st century girl. She is smart, outspoken, ambitious, and wants to become a doctor. In other words, the exact opposite of what she is supposed to be: an English peasant girl.

In all seriousness, though, I give Follett a lot of credit in his intent. He isn’t an author to create token female characters. Quite often, he puts women front-and-center in his novels. And these are the type of women we – in the 21st century – want our daughters to be: competent and take-charge; independent; smart; willful; and driven. Far be it for me to mock Follett for this, when so many authors and film directors treat women as adornments.

Still, Follett has a serious subtlety problem that undermines everything that Caris is supposed to be. I will take it as a given that Caris, as the heroine of a 1,000 page novel, might be an outlier; that is, atypical from the other Middle Aged peasant stock. But if you are going to get me to accept that conceit, you have to show me that it is deserved. Here, Caris is just a transplant from a different millennium. She defies religious authority, she doesn’t want to get married, she runs her own business, she dabbles in situational-homosexuality, and she discovers the germ theory of medicine (!). It all becomes a bit much, especially since Follett isn’t able to make me believe a single thing. He tells us that Caris is smart, all right, but he isn’t able to show it. For instance, here is a typical bit of dialogue:

SILLY PEASANT: I don’t know how to solve this problem.
CARIS: It’s simple. You just need to do this obvious thing, this obvious thing, and this obvious thing.
SILLY PEASANT: You might be a woman…but you are a genius!
ME: No! You’re both idiots! Good luck with the bubonic plague, jackasses.

Okay, so I made that up. But you get the point.

As you might have guessed, Caris is a Good Guy, as opposed to a Bad Guy. For those of you who appreciate streamlined storytelling, there is no Ambiguous Guy.

Caris is in love with Merthin. Merthin is a builder-savant. Even though he has never had any formal training, he knows everything there ever was about architecture. He loves Caris, but is upset because she doesn’t want to get married (“marriage is so 12th century”). The biggest problem with this, the central romantic relationship of the novel, is that Caris and Merthin actually seem to hate each other most of the time. They are just like the couple in NBC’s execrable sitcom Whitney. Despite the fact that they are always fighting, and despite the fact that their worldviews are completely inapposite, we are asked demanded to accept their fairy tale romance.

There are several bad guys in this book. Some of them are dispatched quite early; others have to wait for their comeuppance. Spoiler alert: all the bad guys eventually get their comeuppance. If this surprises you, please contact me for some investment opportunities that I am making up as we speak.

The chief Black Hat of Ye Old Novel is Ralph.

Now, there will certainly be times in World Without End when you will get characters confused. This is because they are all the same; which is to say, they’re all one-dimensional wisps of smoke with names and occupations. To this day, I cannot tell you the difference between Elfric and Wulfric.

Ralph is different, though. You will remember Ralph because of this mnemonic device I am giving you now: Rapey Ralph.

Ralph, you see, likes to rape. And when he is not raping, he is thinking about rape. Every time Ralph meets another female, Follett digs deep into his psychology to describe precisely the dirty thoughts that Ralph is having. And Ralph is not discerning. When he sees a chubby girl, it turns him on, and when he sees a skinny girl, it turns him on, and when he sees an older woman, it turns him on…and you get the point. In short, the character of Ralph was written by a 13 year-old boy who is approximately fifteen years away from ever talking to a woman.

I refuse to call Ralph an avatar of anything, yet he is emblematic of a strong rape fetish that courses through World Without End like poison in the bloodstream.

Fetishes turn up a lot in Follett novels. As I mentioned above, Pillars of the Earth was marked by its detailed descriptions of pubic hair, and the way Follett’s characters obsessed over their hirsuteness. This was hilarious for many reasons, but mainly because people in the Middle Ages were engaged in a minute-to-minute struggle not to scratch themselves on the arm and die of a raging infection. I’m guessing that bikini waxing and body-scaping were low on their list of concerns.

Here, the fetish is rape, and this is less funny. Rather, it’s not funny at all, except in the way that you laugh when something utterly ridiculous appears before your eyes. Rapey Ralph and his rape-dreams are pretty low. Things get even worse when Gwendolyn, who has “the look of a determined rodent,” is raped by Ralph and begins to enjoy it. Also, this is the second time that Gwendolyn is raped. She also started to enjoy it the first time, before she stabbed the eyeballs out of her attacker. I wish I was making this up.

Even if you can ignore the anachronisms, the lack of forward momentum, the rape fantasies, you cannot ignore the dialogue. The hardest part of writing a novel is dialogue; Follett seems to have recognized this, and decided not to try. His characters utter things that an American teenager would loathe to text. Most exchanges are purely expository, and almost all of them include idioms and phrasings that belong solely to our time, and not theirs. Follett couldn’t have better undercut his own research and attempts at verisimilitude if he’d tried. (And maybe he did try. Maybe this awful dialogue was part of a bet with his publisher. “Hey, I bet you that even if I write this s—t, I’ll still sell millions of books.” If so, he won that bet).

So yes, the dialogue sucks. Like I said, though, dialogue is hard. What about the prose? Well, the prose is… Let’s just say that if you played a drinking game in which you took a shot every time you read a cliché – “she burst into tears,” for instance – you should definitely expect to vomit the next day.

During the course of this disaster, Follett attempts to weave a couple big historical events into the mix. He has to, because this time around, there is no cathedral to build. The two marquee happenings are the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death.

Of the two, neither are effectively utilized. The scenes of the Hundred Years’ War, set in France and featuring Rapey Ralph and the battle of Crecy, are historically accurate but hopelessly dull. I’m not sure why, but Follett seems incapable of epic-style storytelling. He does (relatively) well when he sticks to his central location of Kingsbridge. When he starts expanding the scope of his tale, however, he loses his sure-handed grasp of the material. The scenes set in France are inert and stage-bound. Even though he is an author, with no limits save his imagination, he writes his battle scenes as though he was on a budget.

Follett is only marginally more successful with his usage of the Black Death. Admittedly, when the Plague first appears, it does so effectively, driving the plot in the required direction. After awhile, though, it becomes a deus ex machina: whenever Follett needs someone killed off, the Plague returns. Around page 800, I was actively hoping for the Black Death to finish off every last person, just so I could toss this book off a moving train and start fresh.

I want to be clear that I do not hate this book. Hate is a strong word, and World Without End does not have the requisite content to create any real emotion.

I bought this copy used for 1 cent, plus 4 dollars shipping. No one forced me to read it. I put it on my exercise bike and read 50 to 70 pages every time I worked out. It cost me $4.01 and helped me lose a couple pounds. Still, it’s a piece of crap.

The true and actual reason I started reading Pillars of the Earth and World Without End is simple: I had just finished George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons and I needed a swords-and-sex fix to tide me over for the next decade, when Martin’s next novel may (or may not) be released.

In comparing Martin to Follett, I discovered a certain irony. Follett has devoted an enormous amount of time and effort into making his novels historically accurate. He has strived (and succeeded, largely) in getting all the small details right. You can read his novels and learn a lot about the Middle Ages – the feudal system, the way clothing was dyed, the way a bridge was constructed.

Martin’s books, on the other hand, exist in a land of his own creation. There are fire-breathing dragons, the Red God, decades-long winters, and White Walkers who implacably roam the Earth. Martin’s novels are fantasies; they take place in a land that never existed.

Yet, everything about Martin’s Westeros feels real. And everything about Follett’s England feels artificial.

[Alex Telander · Rating 5 out of 5]

WORLD WITHOUT END BY KEN FOLLETT: There are books that you read, with vaguely interesting stories, that sometimes within less than a month have been forgotten, ignored, barely recollected except for title, author and a minor recall of plot. Then there are books that change your mind on life, that give you a thrill as you read them and think about how much you’re loving to read this particular book, and how it’s making such an impression on you, and how you’re going to remember it for a long part of your life. I don’t need to tell you which kind of book World Without End is. I’m also not going to give you a formal, regurgitated plot summary that you can find in just about any review of this book. I am however going to try to convince you why you should read this book with the intention that it will have the same pivotal impression on you as it did on me.

While I have never been a fan or proponent of the seemingly omnipotent Oprah and her book club, she nevertheless has the power to make a considerable number of Americans do, and more importantly, read whatever she tells them. In January of this year, Oprah nominated Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth for her book club and overnight people of all different kinds, and of unexpected types, picked up this lofty paperback tome set in the Middle Ages and documenting the fascinating building of a giant cathedral with immense architectural detail. It’s one of my favorite books, and to see so many people buying it and reading it made me happy. Naturally, once these people got to the last page of Pillars of the Earth, and assuming they enjoyed it as much as Oprah said they would, they would then turn to World Without End. Follett’s new book has been labeled as the sequel of Pillars of the Earth, which is not exactly correct, for none of the original characters are in the new book, and it is set in a later period, however it involves descendants of the main family in Pillars of the Earth, and there is the memory and impression left by characters both in historical record and physical form, such as the cathedral. But World Without End takes many giants leaps further forward as a deeper and more complex book than Pillars of the Earth ever did, equivalent to an ant making its way along a path, while a person looks down upon the ant as they walk by. Perspective is the key here, and if one has some knowledge of the fourteenth century, one will enjoy the book all the more.

Don’t look for the good guys to always win out, and the bad guys to fail in World Without End because, like real life, this world does not reward those who do good and punish those who do bad; it’s a harsh world that gives more opportunity to the survivors of the fittest. You must also remember that this is the fourteenth century, the time of the peasant and noble, a time where class distinction was at the most severe and was a defining character of every person. Though while there is all this suffering, one cannot help but think at some point it must get better for the characters you like, and worse for the characters you hate, and this is after all a novel, but don’t expect Follett to do anything you might predict.

The fourteenth century had a lot going on throughout Europe, and what makes World Without End an incredible novel, is that Follett uses the monumental and catastrophic events in microcosm focused on couple of small towns in England. There was a cooling of temperatures, which led to crop failure and starvation for many peasants, known as the Great Famine; coupled with this was the uprising of peasants against their noble overlords, who had subjugated and oppressed them for so long, known as the Peasant’s Revolt. There was the growing guild system, where anyone wanting to become skilled in a trade would have to be invited to become a member of a guild. Then there was horrific plague that was estimated to wipe out half the population of Europe, known as the Black Death. There was also the moving of the papacy from Rome to Avignon, France, which created a fission in the Christian faith and led to questioning and critique of the absolute religion. Finally there was the seemingly never ending Hundred Years War.

Follett skillfully uses these events in World Without End, weighing in at 1024 pages, but never overtly calls out any of them for what they are, partly because a lot of the terms and names for the events were not yet in existence, and because he seeks to be less overt and obvious, but to have these events occur in most cases beyond the scope of these small towns, to be events occurring far away that have little importance and effect on the citizens of the town – much like the Iraq War is for the American people today. At least this seems the case at first, and then the subliminal effects come into play, where men head off to war, craftsmen have to fight to get into guilds, peasants are suffering and in some cases starving, the church is overbearing in its control and being questioned, and finally with the arrival of the plague, the people’s lives and the towns are changed forever.

World Without End takes you on a journey through the fourteenth century, but not via a history lesson, but in the important and complex lives of some ordinary townspeople of varying classes, their loves and losses, their hopes and dreams, their despair and suffering. It’s a moving and some might say depressing book, but as I mentioned, the fourteenth century was a tumultuous time to say the least. But when you get to the last page, you’ll wish it had never happened, you’ll wish for more story, for more characters, you’ll wish to remember this incredible story for a long time.

FOOTNOTE: Just as World Without End has 1024 pages, conveniently (and maybe with a little effort on my part) these review has 1024 words.

For more book reviews, and author interviews, go to BookBanter.

[Dan Schwent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set two centuries after Pillars of the Earth, the people of Kingsbridge are at it again. The cathedral built in Pillars is in disrepair after part of the roof caved in, the bridge collapsed, and the prior is dead. Also, the constant maneuvering continues...

So, I fell into a trap with this one. After devouring Dinocalypse Now in a morning, my girlfriend asked if I managed to read an entire book in four hours. I said I had and she slammed me with this, saying it shouldn't take me more than a few days. Sighing, before I knew it, I was engrossed and asking her if Ralph was going to be the asshole rapist bully in this one. I still hate that Will Hamleigh!

Much like Pillars of the Earth, World Without End follows the lives of a number of characters; Merthin the carpenter, his brother Ralph the squire, a poor girl named Gwenda, Wulfric the laborer, Godwyn the monk, and several others. As I predicted, Ralph was the asshole rapist of the book. What a nun mugger that guy was!

As with Pillars of the Earth, twists abound and the 14th century is not a good place to be a woman. Hell, it doesn't sound like that great of a place to be a man either, but the women get the short end of the stick for the most part. There's just as much scheming as in the first book and just as many people making decisions that would later bite them in the ass.

While World Without End happens years later, it very much picks up the style and flavor of The Pillars of the Earth. So much that it's very nearly the same book with slightly different characters. As near as I can tell, Follett's master plot generator goes something like this:

1. Things are going good
2. A problem arises
3. Problem solved, leading to unforeseen results
4. Goto 1

It's still a fun read that messes with your emotions but some of the magic is gone once you catch the rhythm of the plot. Kind of like how M. Night Shyamalan's movies aren't as fun once you start trying to figure out what the big twist is going to be as soon as the movie starts. It was exhausting to read at times, not because of the prose, which is breezy and accessible, but because of plot twists every 6.5 pages. It doesn't really build toward anything besides the next iteration of the good guys getting screwed over and the bad guys having good things happen to them.

Since it's hard to review a book of this size without revealing too much, here are some closing points:
1. The late 1300's were just as rape-y as the 1100's of the first book.
2. I wanted to smack Merthin silly. Then again, we men tend to do stupid things when sex is on the table. Or bed, floor, car hood, etc...
3. Godwyn, though one of the good guys at the beginning, is still a tool.
4. Accusing women of being a witch is some serious shit.
5. Ken Follett and George R.R. Martin both went to the school of screwing over characters as much as possible.
6. Getting flayed would suck.
7. The blurb mentions the Black Death but it doesn't make an appearance until after the halfway mark.
8. Every time someone mentioned the bishop, I thought of a certain Monty Python sketch.
9. My favorite line was "Sleeping next to her was like lying with a dead cow."

Three stars. I think I'm Folletted out for the time being.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars to Ken Follett's World Without End. One of my favorite books of all time... I was just mesmerized by the characters and everything they went thru. It is a MUST read.

It's a long read, and it takes place hundreds of years ago, but if you can handle the primitive nature of the timeline, the various plots and subplots will astound you. Amazing.

I kept getting angry at all the tragedy thrown at the two main characters. How could they suffer so much. And for years. I'll stop there as I don't want to give it away, but please read this one!



FAVORITE BOOK!!!!

[La Petite Américaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

In all practical theory, this book should be on my 'Sucked' shelf. It's a tale of the Middle Ages, the gross injustices of the time, and it truly amounts to a thousand-page Medieval soap opera. It hasn't got much to do with its predecessor The Pillars of the Earth , except that it's in the same location 200 years later, with characters that are "descendants" of the Pillars characters. There's none of the complex building and architectural aspects found in Pillars, the graphic sex and violence has been toned down, several aspects of the plot are predictable, and the dialogue seems strikingly modern for a novel set in the 14th century. So, why is this book not on my 'Sucked' shelf? ...

Because it KICKED ASS.

With all of the above-mentioned problems in the book, it takes on hell of an author to pull off this kind of novel. Kenn Follett just plain rules. The story goes at a breakneck pace, the descriptions of the feudal system are fascinating, and the characters are complex and multi-faceted. For every (small) predictable plot twist, there are a million little shockers, and at the end, there are a few questions about the truth lingering. Frickin great.

I also found Follett's descriptions of the complete powerlessness of women and the ultimate authority of the nobles described with total intensity, and they are displayed over and over again through the stories of the characters. Equally interesting were the power struggles between the church, the people, and the nobility. Conflict everywhere! Love it!

Another great aspect of this book was the concentration on Medieval ideas about health and medicine, especially during the time of the plague. Given that monks are the only physicians, the best cures are blood-letting and applying goat-shit to open wounds to form a "healthy" pus. If you sit closer to the altar in the church hospital, you'll heal faster. [Although slight scientific advances are made in the book, the lingering affects of the church's bogus medical ideas seem to have transcended the centuries to live on in modern Italy: cover your stomach to avoid catching a cold, wait 3 hours after eating before you swim or you'll drown, sunflower oil is good for the flu, humidity causes low blood pressure, and canker sores are caused by indigestion. A complete aversion to all forms of medicine are also fundamental in this society. (i.e. Yesterday my French friend Sandrine had a headache. Italians don't like to take Aspirin because it will "destroy your liver," but Sandrine is French and has no problem with taking meds, so I offered her an Aleve. "If you don't want medicine, be Italian and kiss this," I said to her, holding up my pocket-rosary.)]

Anyway, great book, totally fascinating, very different from
Pillars of the Earth, and written by a guy who truly is a master writer.

KICKED ASS.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long a fan of Ken Follett and this series, I chose a return to the wonders of Kingsbridge and all that the author has to say about this place over numerous centuries. I have used my previous review as a foundation, peppering in some new insights with this re-read:

After a lengthy hiatus Ken Follett returns to the series with a second epic tome, (if you pardon the pun) building on the Kingsbridge Cathedral theme laid out in Pillars of the Earth. It is now the mid-1300s, two centuries after Tom Builder, Jack, Aliena, and Prior Phillip helped shape this community. Their presence is felt through ancestral breadcrumbs and mentioned throughout the complex narrative that seeks to breathe new life into Kingsbridge.

The narrative develops early with the emergence of four children in the forest: Gwenda, Merthin, Philemon, and Caris. These four come from their distinct social, economic, and ancestral ties to Kingsbridgeons of old, but whose appearance will prove important throughout the book. While hiding, the children witness the torture of a knight, Thomas Langley, who is able to escape, but not before burying a secret document, which might be the reason he has been chased and tortured. Langley seeks to enter the priory and become a monk, where he will be protected from the outside world and able to devote himself to a new life.

With the Cathedral casting a daunting shadow on the town, the economic stability of Kingsbridge seems less stable, as the Fleece Fair may suffer without a new bridge to transport much needed items from outside. The town of Shiring might profit, though locals are not yet ready to admit defeat and put off any construction for the time being. That gamble is foreboding, as there is chaos when the bridge does collapse and hundreds are caught on it, killing them in various forms.

The Priory must take action, but the need for a new Prior takes precedence. Politics meets religion in this election as barters and bribes see young Godwyn assume the role, whose iron-fist is supported by his controlling mother. The new bridge commences, but not only after thorough examination and potential architectural analysis is done. Saving a few coins over stability becomes a strong issue, though the symbolic nature of the bridge, connecting economic stability to the town that seeks to link itself to new life, becomes apparent throughout the narrative.

As time passes, those aforementioned children grow as well, finding themselves looking to take on trades or turn to the Church for solace. It is here that the drama of the novel builds and social interactions turn to lust and sexual dominance. Forbidden love is tested and sexual control is exerted, sometimes against the will of one participant. Much is asked about that document that Thomas Langley hid away, but there is more on the horizon to keep the locals concerned.

After a time away, Merthin returns with an ominous gift from abroad, leaving Kingsbridge under the cloud of plague. No one is entirely safe and, like the bridge, many perish. Families are decimated and yet Prior Godwyn espouses that this is an Act of God, forcing some to swallow the hard pill of religious retribution.

Follett illustrates this well throughout, as the sobering clash of complete devotion to God is weighted against the early understanding of disease transmission. Will prayer save you, or might precautions prevent infection? Even as Kingsbridge suffers, the Cathedral stands firm, though there is a need to revisit its foundations, at least in part. The symbolism of a renewed strengthening of part of its body parallels nicely with the constant rejuvenation of the populace and those who can trace their ancestral lines from the early founders of the town. Plague and general injury fuels a discussion about building a new hospital to treat the injured in one location and isolate those who are contagious in another, though this becomes a new religious and political discussion.

What awaits Kingsbridge on the horizon is anyone’s guess, but there is surely no stagnancy when it comes to dramatic development, as scores of plots emerge throughout. Follett has emerged to develop another stunning piece that adds to the drama of his opening novel, yet leaves much room for further development, answered with a third instalment in the Kingsbridge saga. Fans of Pillars will likely enjoy this piece, though there is still a need for patience and determination to sift through a much more character-developing based piece, which sees a generational development, rather than that of a stone structure. Highly recommended for those who have time and interest in a slowly evolving narrative.

After admitting that he was out of his comfort zone with the opening novel, Follett continues tilling the soil with this an amazing series. Equally as epic in its development and final delivery, Follett is forced to use scores of characters to flesh out the story he wishes to present. Moving the story ahead two centuries, the characters will all differ from those found in Pillars, though the lineage that is mentioned and some of the mere characteristics of those featured herein allows the reader to feel a strong connection to all involved. Certainly, there will be some names who grace the story throughout and others who play their smaller roles to support, though the thread is not lost in the narrative.

The four children who emerge from the beginning all branch out and develop their own lives, but it is impossible for the reader not to trace their growth (physical, emotional, and social) through the time period of this story. Love, death, rape, and domination all feature significantly and no character is kept completely protected from these themes.

While Kingsbridge Cathedral stands strong in the background, readers are able to draw parallels between its development and the new architectural piece, the Bridge, that keeps all aspects of the town occupied. Politics seeps in as council and the Priory weigh in on the issue, forcing the higher-ups to also issue their own decrees. The symbolism of the experience is not lost on the attentive reader, though the political and economic arguments differ slightly. Kingsbridge is no longer a speck on the map, though it is still a developing community, receiving scant attention at times. As plague swept across the continent, Kingsbridge must suffer alone and find its own footing, but exemplifies resilience in the face of disaster. Follett is clear to instil these themes throughout, no matter the narrative twists presented.

Again, some have criticised the book for being too long or too detailed, going so far as to inject the words “thick” and “monotonous” into their comments (might they say the same of this review?!). I acknowledge these issues, but counter that this is not the type of novel that can be both rich and brief. Follett has surely taken a massive chunk and must process it, leaving only the most dedicated to synthesise it. There is no shame in admitting that the book is not for everyone, but those who are able to patiently remain enthralled, many gifts shall be granted. Follett has a purpose for taking the reader on this journey, particularly since he did such a wonderful job with the opening novel. I applaud that this is not a novel meant to appeal to the masses, for there seems to be an inherent dedication required before committing to the journey back to Kingsbridge. There is still much to be seen and more generations to come, their lives shaped by the firmly rooted cathedral, priory, bridge, and so much more. Follett has so much to offer and the journey is one that has me extremely excited.

Kudos, Mr. Follett, for returning to this piece and building on its greatness. I am pleased to have been able to come back and read this again, fulfilling a reading challenge requirement, but also reminding myself why I love this type of story.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Follett finally completed the sequel to his evergreen historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth, and although I was compelled by the story enough to read all 1024 pages in a week, I was saddened at how poorly the book compares with its predecessor.

It is interesting to consider the nearly 20 years between the first book and this sequel. Many things have changed in our culture since then, leading Follett to inject even more egregious anachronisms into this book than the first. For example, the characters at one point fret over the self-esteem of a teenage girl. There are many further examples but I will spare you.

More telling is the apparent shift Follett has undergone in what he believes we want to read about. For example, the first book avoided homosexuality, despite the many opportunities to explore it in a monastery. The second, now twenty years deeper into the gay rights movement, explores gay relationships with a frank openness more consistent with San Francisco circa 2000 than the Britain of the 1300s.

I am most personally disappointed that the author did not again craft a thoughtful and multi-dimensional portrayal of a man of faith. The character of Prior Philip stands as the hallmark achievement of the first novel. Prior Philip was a man filled with the desire to do what is right by God and by his fellowmen but sometimes unable to know what would be right and what cost was worth bearing to do it. This is my personal experience of what most spiritual leaders are like.

In contrast, the religious figures in the sequel are all one-dimensional sycophants or toadies, ingratiating themselves with higher ups for their own personal gratification, betraying their own principles regularly, and considering faith a stepping stone rather than an end in itself.

The one sympathetic, intelligent, and thoughtful religious character is a woman who is technically an athiest, and only joined a convent to avoid being tried as a witch. She is consistently smarter and more capable than all other religious figures and her athiesm is continually cited as the engine behind her industriousness and her unique interpersonal gifts.

I've met athiests like that, but I've also met religious people like that and you'd think that a novel that spans fifty years of religious life in a town where all activity centers on a cathedral might include even one intelligent, sincere devout person? Just one?

The differences between these two books tells us much about ourselves and the kinds of things authors and editors believe we want to read. I wonder what a third book, written 20 years from now, would say about us?

[Paul Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthy successor to PILLARS OF THE EARTH!

WORLD WITHOUT END continues the story of Kingsbridge, a medieval town noted for the awe-inspiring Gothic cathedral designed and built some 200 hundred years earlier in the 12th century by Jack Builder.

Gwenda, a female medieval version of the Artful Dodger, is one of five starving children in a very poor family. Despite the horrific punishment that sees the hands chopped off a convicted thief, she's being raised by her father to be a cut-purse and a pickpocket. Ralph is a tall, strong boy whose hopeful family see him as destined for greater things. They imagine him as the young squire of a noble knight or (dare they wish for such an impossibility?) perhaps even elevated to the rank of knighthood and nobility itself. But Ralph is an aggressive bully and although he certainly seems to have the strength and the warlike skills to achieve such an ambition, he is sadly lacking in the ability to soak up any academic learning at all. Descended from Jack Builder, Merthin seems to be the polar opposite of his stepbrother, Ralph. Merthin is a kinder, gentler, more intelligent person whose innate pragmatic genius drives him to wonder how things work and how things are built. Caris, also a descendent of Jack Builder, shares in Jack's and Merthin's intelligence but she is determined to use that academic brilliance to study medicine, an activity strictly forbidden to mere women in the 14th century.

In 1327, these four children slip away from the confines of Kingsbridge and play in the forest, a dangerous activity forbidden to them by their parents. But who among us hasn't ignored a prohibition like that at one time or another? When, to their horror, they witness a killing that they cannot understand, their lives become inextricably entwined together and it is not until many, many years later that any of them will understand the dark motives behind the brutal event in the forest that unfolded before them that day.

Of course, WORLD WITHOUT END is a sequel to Ken Follett's runaway bestseller, PILLARS OF THE EARTH and, as you might expect, Kingsbridge Cathedral, the priory and Merthin's skills as an engineer, a mason, a designer and an architect, all play a central role in the continuing story. Caris' cousin, Godwyn, also a descendant of Tom Builder, becomes a monk at a very early age and sets his career sights very high indeed. With an abundant supply of self-confidence and arrogance, he is absolutely convinced that it is in Kingsbridge's and his own best interests that he become no less than the Prior of the cathedral. Of course, this is still the 14th century and, clearly, Godwyn, the priory and the authority of the Catholic Church will have no small part to play in the history of Kingsbridge as the story of the four children's lives begins to play out against the rich medieval backdrop that Follett provides.

Feudalism, medieval law, the iron hand of the Catholic Church, the innate male chauvinism of the day, the nobility, ongoing war against France and, of course, the Black Death that savaged Europe in the second half of the fourteenth century, all play a major role in Follett's epic tale, WORLD WITHOUT END. Given the setting of the story in terms of time and place, this shouldn't come as a surprise. What may come as a surprise is that, although readers of PILLARS OF THE EARTH who waited so long for this sequel were desperately afraid that Follett couldn't possibly repeat such a literary triumph, their worries were quite groundless. Follett has provided his fans with an epic tale that veritably leaps off the pages - bloody war and battles; greed, ambition and power; lust, love and loyalty; suspense and intrigue; and, of course, a realistic, astonishingly well developed historical setting that will transport delighted readers to the heart of medieval England.

WORLD WITHOUT END is a doorstopper weighing in at a hefty 1000+ pages. But, without a doubt, it's the fastest 1000 pages that you're ever going to read and you'll still be sorry to see it end. What a story!

Paul Weiss



Paul Weiss

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, Pillars of the Earth is one of my favorite books and I was looking forward to completely enjoying this without reservation. But way back when it first came out, I stumbled onto an online discussion that cited a passage with anachronistic vocabulary, which bothered me. It was very anachronistic. So it was a single passage, but it added some reservation to my anticipated complete enjoyment. And then I got to page 15, and there's this conversation that no two people would ever have under any circumstances that served only for the author to show off some detail about the time period. That doesn't bode well, at least not on top of sloppy word choice. Finally, there's a character in this book that might as well be a character from Pillars, which makes me worry that other character types will be recycled. PLUS there's a major plot point hinged on the kind of intrigue that drove the motivations of some characters in Pillars--derivative! derivative! So I have four things in my conscience mind to have to suppress as I am reading. Fortunately, I have been able to do so, at least through the first part of the book.

I am sad that people who are sort of shabby and bumbling are the descendants of people who were just fantastic in Pillars, but I accept that family fortunes rise and fall. I think it will color my feelings about those Pillars characters next time I read the book, but not necessarily my feelings about the book.

UPDATE APRIL 5:
Uh-oh. I had really hoped the Great Mumbo Jumbo Kerfuffle of Aught-Seven was an anomaly, but I just encountered the word "sexy" in a character's thoughts and I'm not even at page 100 yet. Is two a pattern?

UPDATE April 12:
The book tanks. It becomes extraordinarily boring around the plague and then it just doesn't pick up again. The second half of the book is like a checklist of all the social changes that the plague triggers. The characters turn into mirror images of the characters in Pillars, and some of them in that book were a little silly. The final scene between Gwenda and Annet is just goofy; there is a rebellious teenage girl running around with a bad crowd; I skimmed the last 200 pages while fooling around in a chat room.

I will forget I have read this book. I was sad for a while to see what became of Jack and Aliena's descendants, but it doesn't matter. The book is inconsequential.

Also lesbian nun sex.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly delightful read. I really enjoyed the background of the story; the characters (mostly) and how Follett used the story (1300's) to show emerging attitudes ie to the church and medicine.
The setting is 1300s in the reign of Edward 11. We see the changing of people's attitudes. This is shown mostly in treatment of the sick, attitude to land usage and the power of the church and state.
The emergence of sick people treatment from bleeding and dung mixture wound treatments: to treatment with clean washing and bandages. Particularly noticeable was plague victims being tended with nuns wearing masks, washing their hands in vinegar and being separated from other people.
Land usage was initially tightly governed by Lord of the manor rules. (All tied to getting the king his taxes - which did not alter). At the end of the period there was more flexibility for the peasant and labourer. Prompted by the thinking of land worers resulting from the plague - ie less people to work the land.
We see the emergence of entrepreneurs; driven by desire for profits. In this they slowly reduce the power of the church controlling their every day operations. But the king still gets his taxes.
Follett craftily used his characters to show all these changes. And he does it brilliantly. Using a powerful story with wonderful characters.
Unputdownable

[ChopinFC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Follet conjures up another masterpiece with World Without End, as he achieves near-nirvana by writing a spellbinding story that is captivating from page 1 until 1000!

I was just a lonely lad, ignorant to the brilliance of Ken Follett until my father suggested I read Pillars of the Earth. My world just about shattered!! ‘Pillars’ is easily one of my top 5 fav books of all times! In ‘Pillars’, we see Follett’s genius shine on: the story is so captivating, with strong willed characters and narrative that was so unique yet so simple, that I instantly fell in love! Starting this sophomore’ series World Without End, gave me some butterflies due to such high expectation and the hope of another home-run. After reading it, the verdict was unanimous:

World Without End is an absolute masterclass in storytelling, character development, imagination and a tale of the unbound human spirit! Ultimately World Without End is at its bare essence a story of love.


Follett revisits the city of ‘Kingsbridge’ about 200 years after we last encountered it at ‘Pillars’. As much as Pillars was a well-crafted story about the ‘building of a cathedral’ and the creation of the city as a religious powerhouse, World Without End encompasses a more global tone involving accurate historical events of the epoch and surrounding Europe. There’s not much Follett is unwilling to touch, as vast range topics of greed, monastic abuse, love, war and death are widely seen in the writing.


Kingsbridge


Follet’s writing style is direct and unadorned, leading to a brilliant and powerful way to convey human emotions! The simplicity of Follett’s narrative is possibly his most unique and powerful attribute. His prose is quite effective, his characterization is absolutely incredible! When he creates an evil character, we as readers develop almost a ‘visceral’ reaction to them!! A perfect example is the most evil character called ‘Ralph’! Follett goes to the extremes to depict this evil, unscrupulous character that will do almost anything to fulfill his aspirations of power and nobility. In fact, Ralph does not shy away from raping innocent females, killing woman and children and lying incessantly to ascend in the hierarchical food chain! Truthfully, I fucking hated Ralph and cringed everytime he got away with murder! This reaction is exactly what Follett achieves with the power of his words.


-“ Ralph.. had killed many people, women as well as men..he had killed nuns in France..he hesitated, but suddenly it seemed terrible to stick a knife into the warm body of someone he had embraced and slept with, the woman who had borne his child”


The story in World Without End is very expansive, and spans decades, and we concentrate on a handful of unique and vastly entertaining characters. Again, heavy focus is geared towards monastic life and the ‘priory’ of monks, with the added difference of a ‘nunnery’ that is added to Kingsbridge. Remarkable and unforgettable characters include the wildly egocentric and power hungry ‘prior’ of Kingsbridge Godwyn, the powerful ‘earl of the Shiring’, the head nun Mother Cecilia and many others. But without exception, the full narrative places Merthin a young ‘builder’ his love interest, Caris at the core of the tale. Follett spins his ‘webs’ masterfully as he tells the love story of both Merthin and Caris, and how their lives seem to congeal and split apart. We take third POV when following Merthin and Caris, as their story feels organic at every corner.


Caris & Merthin

The last worthy point of reference is how Follett incorporates real historical facts to augment the narrative and make the story so interesting. At the peak of 14th century Europe, the ‘bulbonic plague’ ravaged most of the continent. In fact, Europe experienced the most deadly disease outbreak in history when the Black Death hit in 1347, killing a third of the human population! Follett uses this accurate historical event, as it shapes the lives of most resident of Kingsbridge, and ultimately affects every character in the book. The results are astounding and downright terrifying.


'Black Plague


World Without End is another epic slam dunk in the the saga of the ‘Kingsbridge’ series. Follett creates another masterpiece that is wildly accurate to the historical time, as he tells a tale that is fascinating, with memorable characters!

5 Stars

[Orient · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, what a long read it was, but no regrets - the book is really good. I was fascinated reading The Pillars of the Earth and "World Without End" enchanted me from the first pages.
„World Without End“ is considered the sequel to „Pillars of the Earth“, though none of the original characters reappear. However the descendants of the main family in “Pillars of the Earth” gather to tell the new story about Kingsbridge and the people tied to it. Beginning two centuries after "The Pillars of the Earth" in the same town, this book has a lot of interesting characters and combines three decades of love, action, treason, history, corruption, difficult and adventurous life. The characters are so lively and real. This book marks the new era to Kingsbridge, the era of new ideas about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice.

Though the technical things slowed me a little bit. Also I found some repetition (comparing the first and the second books) which reduced my fangirlism in some way, like: two brothers- one good and one bad. The good one is a great builder, not a great fighter, he has difficulties to reach the popularity, but after some time abroad he becomes skilled and famous. The bad one gets a bad end of course. The life long love of the main character suffers some hardship and creates something new in business.
There was much suffering, cruelty and injustice in the story so I couldn’t help but hope that at some point it must get better for the good and worse for the bad ones - this is after all a novel. I liked that the story line had so much unpredictable things. The author skillfully combines the important far off catastrophes into his book, like the Great Famine, the Peasant's Revolt, the Black Death and Hundred Years War. The lives and the towns are changed forever.

This book is not a history lesson about the fourteenth century, but a complex story about lives of ordinary people - their loves and losses, ups and downs, despair and suffering. It's a touching and cruel book, but the fourteenth century was a strange, cruel and dark time. And when I reached the last page, I knew that this is one of those books which I'll remember for a long time. I was spellbound by Mr. Follett‘s powerful vision of life in the Middle Ages. It is one more fascinating, mesmerizing and gripping book for me.
I tried to watch the TV-series "World Without End", but for me it was a real meh and even a badly made interpretation of the book. Though I really liked “Pillars of the Earth” screen adaptation.

[Matt's Fantasy Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Watch my video review by clicking here.

Every bit as good as Pillars of the Earth, albeit a very similar pacing that becomes a bit predictable.

[PennyiSD · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of my book clubs selected this as we had all read and loved Pillars of the Earth when it came out 20 years ago.

I got halfway through this tome and decided I didn't want to waste another moment of my life on a book which failed on so many counts. The characters didn't seem real and certainly didn't elicit any sympathy from this reader as they moved from one contrived crisis to the next, the writing was repetitive and juvenile (a gifted high school student could write better), the language was too modern for the time period ("shagged" didn't come into use - at least in print - until late 18th C.) and sex was vulgar and gratuitous.

If you want to read really well written and very well researched historical fiction try Dorothy Dunnett or Diane Gabaldon.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in the Knightsbridge series first published 2007.

Calling this a book would be a mistake; it’s a tome, but a highly entertaining tome for sure.

In reality what this is, is a medieval version of ‘The Bold and The Beautiful’. For those of you that are unfamiliar with this TV show it’s a daytime soap opera.

This book has all the ingredients that make for a successful soap opera. There is murder, lying, cheating, conniving, back stabbing, lots of bastards, the biblical and non biblical types, greed, avarice, rape and pillage and strangest of all the plague. How portentous is it that I should have been reading this just as corvid 19 is rearing its ugly head.

For those readers who have read the first book of this series you will find pretty much the same content as has gone before.

The story concerns the denizens of Kightsbridge. The hardships of the peasants, the trials and tribulations of the merchants, the privileged lives of the aristocracy and the dominance of the church over everyone and everything.

This might sound just a bit ho hum but I couldn’t get enough of it. The characters are strongly defined and you will soon finding yourself loving and hating them in equal measure.
For a book that is a 1000 + pages long it managed to hold my interest from the beginning to the very end.

A entertaining 4 star read.

[Steven Medina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen libro.

Por este libro me siento irresponsable. He terminado de leerlo hace más de un año y me ha gustado mucho, pero ni le he realizado reseña, ni tampoco lo he marcado como leído, sino que lo seguía teniendo en un infinito «Currently Reading». Para ser honesto quería realizar la actualización de estado cuando redactara mi reseña, pero cada vez que entro a mi perfil me molesto conmigo mismo por esta «tarea pendiente». Así que bueno, lo marcaré como leído para que no me estorbe visualmente mi postergación, pero indudablemente más adelante realizaré la reseña completa. Lo prometo.

Reseña completa más adelante.

[Dave Edmunds · Rating 5 out of 5]

"As it was in the beginning
it is now and ever shall be
World Without End
Amen..."

Initial Thoughts

Ken Follett is back and my word does he mean business with his sensational sequel to his historical blockbuster "Pillars of the Earth."  The first was a book that took my breath away. Easily one of my top reads of 2021 and I was fired up for some more high stakes historical fiction. Would it live up to Pillars of the Earth? Probably not, but I was expecting big things.

The first installment was a sprawling epic set in twelth century England that centred around the building of a church.  If you'd have give me that synopsis before going in I probably wouldn't have read it, but I was happy to be proved wrong. It was absolutely magnificent.  A full on soap opera with twist, turns and plenty of backstabbing.

"I never trust anyone who proclaims his morality from the pulpit. That high-minded type can always find an excuse for breaking their own rules."

I read World Without End (WWE) as part of a group read and it's an experience I highly recommend. If you're on the look for a bad ass group to take part in ventures like that then try "The Night Shift" on here or Facebook. We'd love to have you.

Without End isn’t strictly a sequel, though; the novel still takes place in Kingsbridge, a fictional English city,

The Story

WWE isn't strictly a sequel, although it does take place in the fictional town of Kingsbridge.  Our story begins in the year 1327, which is well over a hundred years after Pillars of the earth.  The cathedral and it's priory are still at the heart of the story, with all the intrigue and political games that revolve around them.  But we have a completely fresh set of characters.



The narrative commences with a knight being chased by two men that he kills, before burying a secret letter. The mystery is a key part of the overarching plot, but there are numerous sub plots that develop and add huge depth to this tale.  Follett really delves into the lives of the characters contained within these numerous pages, providing non-stop drama, tension and entertainment.

At the centre of the story is a romance, and where Pillars focused on the building of Kingsbridge, this one focuses on a relationship that looks far more difficult to maintain than the crumbling cathedral.  It's this kind of venture from Follett that kept the story fresh, although you will see a number of similarities with the first. This all takes place during the time of beubonic plague and the start of the Hundred Year War so there's a fascinating back drop to all this.

The Writing

"Don't worry. We who are born poor have to use cunning to get what we want. Scrupples are for the privileged."

Follets writing is not going to blow you away.  It isn't complicated with overly elaborate prose but it does what it has to and gives the reader a portal into an amazingly rich piece of historical fiction.  Honestly, it so immersive and his style suits the way the story is being told. The plot, historical info and drama take centre stage and you're in for a rollercoaster ride with all the twists and turns. I read this one over two weeks and it felt like I had two lives on the go and now it's gone, I really miss it.

The Characters

We get a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to characters from Follett. They are a touch on the stereotypical side and if you've read Pillars it does feel like he's recycling a few. However, he pours so much love into them and as I followed them through childhood into adulthood, I began to care so much for them. They face adversity like nothing else and I was praying they'd make it but never sure if they really would. Absolutely brilliant.

“The sight … made [her] marvel: each individual had a different life, every one of them rich and complex, with dramas in the past and challenges in the future, happy memories and secret sorrows, and a crowd of friends and enemies and loved ones.”

Follett starts his book with his main characters as children and we first get introduced to Merthin, who much like his ancestor Jack Builder, takes on the role of...you guessed it...the builder. Then we have Merthin's brother, Ralph, who is one of the key villain's, and does whatever it takes to realise his ambitions.  Very William of Hamleigh-esque.  Another key figure in this tale is Caris, Merthin's main love interest and an independent woman who goes against the grain to fulfill her ambition to help others.  Finally, my favourite Gwenda, a woman who is constantly down on her luck but redefined my perception of resilience in her struggle to make ends meet and win the affection of her one true love.

Like “The Pillars of the Earth”, “World Without End” focuses on the struggles and growth of these characters and how their lives and their hard work effect the town of Kingsbridge. It’s the telling of those lives that makes World Without End as brilliant as its predecessor.

Final Thoughts

After reading and loving The Pillars of the Earth I just didn't think World Without End could be as good.  But it most certainly was! This book breathes new life into the historical novel genre and once again shows that Ken Follett is a masterful storyteller writing at the top of his game.

It is the perfect sequel for “The Pillars of the Earth” as it continues the legacy left behind by Prior Philip and Jack Builder. If you enjoyed the first book in the Kingsbridge series, then I recommend “World Without End” with absolutely zero hesitation.  Just be ready for an epic journey like no other.

[Corey Woodcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The hospital was full again. The plague, which had seemed to retreat during the first three months of 1349, came back in April with redoubled virulence. On the day after Easter Sunday, Caris looked wearily at the rows of mattresses crammed together in a herringbone pattern, packed so tightly that the masked nuns had to step gingerly between them. Moving around was a little easier, however, because there were so few family members at the bedsides of the sick. Sitting with a dying relative was dangerous–you were likely to catch the plague yourself–and people had become ruthless. When the epidemic began, they had stayed with their loved ones regardless, mothers with children, husbands with wives, the middle-aged with their elderly parents, love overcoming fear. But that had changed. The most powerful of family ties had been viciously corroded by the acid of death. Nowadays the typical patient was brought in by a mother or father, a husband or wife, who then simply walked away, ignoring the piteous cries that followed them out. Only the nuns, with their face masks and their vinegar-washed hands, defied the disease.”

Kingsbridge #2: World Without End by Ken Follett. What a book, what a ride. While this is the second book in the series, it can absolutely be read as a stand-alone. The connections to the first book, which took place 200 years prior, have to do with the town itself. Yes, our main characters here are largely descendants of the characters of the first book, but that’s about it.

World Without End takes place in 14th Century England. An unfortunate time to be alive no doubt. Europe was ravaged by war and pestilence, and Follett covers it all spectacularly. We start out in a similar way as the first book; a group of kids (who will become the main characters that we follow throughout their whole lives) witness a knight kill two men who are chasing him. He then buried an earth shattering secret in the Earth, swears the kids to secrecy and enters the priory to become a monk where he will be safe. The kids keep their end of the bargain, and we begin to follow them individually as they grow. Like Book I, Follett plants the seeds of a central mystery in the first chapter, and if you want answers you must read on. We have a knight, a builder, a peasant laborer and a woman who wishes to become a physician. The different directions all of these characters take allows Follett to show us all different aspects of life in the 14th century, and all of their lives are forever tied together. From here, we watch our characters interact with some of the biggest and most terrifying events of world history. The Hundred Years War has begun, the Black Death comes, and the world is changed forever.

The characters in this book are wonderfully done. We have good, bad, and characters who aren’t so cut and dry. There are characters I was rooting for throughout the whole novel, as well as a few that were absolutely awful; some who will make your skin crawl. Hate is a strong word, and a strong feeling, but there are some characters in this book that you will hate. Follett does this so well; your heart breaks for the characters you love as they get knocked down by these truly awful villains, but they never stay down long. The ups and downs throughout the novel really tap into our emotions. We are right there with these characters as they are forced to make all kinds of decisions that will impact the people closest to them, and as they struggle with the questions of morality that we have all faced in one way or another throughout our own lives.

”My father hated people who preached about morality. We are all good when it suits us, she used to say: that doesn’t count. It’s when you want so badly to do something wrong—when you’re about to make a fortune from a dishonest deal, or kiss the lovely lips of your neighbors wife, or tell a lie to get yourself out of terrible trouble—that’s when you need the rules. ‘Your integrity is like a sword,’ he would say. ‘You shouldn’t wave it until you’re about to put it to the test.’”

Follett’s writing, as I’ve said before, is simple yet undeniably effective. The readability of his novels is among the highest I’ve encountered. It picks you up and carries you through the story with zero distractions. You won’t stop to reread a paragraph to ogle the flowery prose, and that’s okay. This writing is a certain kind of simple that is remarkably difficult to replicate, and I would argue it’s even rather rare to be able to write in a way where you almost forget you’re reading. It is pure storytelling, and Follett is as good as anyone I’ve read at telling a truly engaging story and keeping you turning the pages. This book is anywhere between 1000 and 1200 pages (depending on your copy) and it never gets boring. It is never a slog. And nothing is wasted. This shows me how skilled this man is.

I’ve tried to stay away from too many specifics in my review; the book needs to be read and experienced, and “the less you know, the better” certainly applies here. However, I need to mention how Follett handles one of the major events of the book—The Black Death. I’m writing this in 2021, nearly 15 years after this book was written, and there are aspects of this book that are shockingly relevant. I’m not just talking about pandemic disease; this is something that has been written about a lot by a variety of authors across genres. Follett decides to make medical “science” of the time a major focus, and it brings up questions of where diseases come from, how they spread, and how they’re best treated. Monks were the main “doctors” of the time, as they could read Latin and were trained in the teachings of the Romans - physicians like Galen, who wrote about balancing the humours to treat disease. If you know anything about this, you know how terrifyingly ineffective it is, as the basic idea they based their entire treatment regimens on was just plain wrong.

This is the school of bleeding a sick patient, placing rotten meat over wounds to “encourage the body to bring forth pus”, and of course, the fundamental medieval belief that disease was ultimately a punishment from God. That is not to say however, that there were not people at the time who were doing remarkable things to further medical care; there certainly were, and Follett gives us a front seat view of this. Yes, the idea of masking to slow the spread of disease is covered (a debate that we know all-too-well in 2021), as well as separating the infectious from the injured, keeping clean hands and cleaning wounds, the idea that disease is spread through the air, and much much more. The battle between the more progressive medical workers of the time and their struggle against and rejection of the old ways and the humour theory of disease is an aspect of this novel that I found absolutely fascinating. And I think you will too. Yes, you.

The freakshow-esque and hysterical nature that began to overtake once normal people and even whole towns as the Black Death went on and on, and continues to get worse and worse is covered as well. Humans react to this large-scale death in all kinds of ways. This was just as true in the 14th century as any other time; some people gave into their most carnal desires and had parties and orgies. Some lost their minds with fear. Some became fanatically religious, and took to the streets, marching across England in large groups whipping themselves, recreating the Passion of Christ on their own bodies, carrying crosses and scourging their backs with sharp whips (the flagellants), and some tried to hold the fabric of their fast-collapsing societies together. It’s all here.

Ok, it’s time for me to stick a cork in it. There are so many more things to say; I have barely even begun to scratch the surface on why this book is such a colossal achievement. The same is true for Pillars of the Earth, and I consider these books equals. Follett once again combines small, dramatic human stories with big picture events, and shows us how we all fit into the history of human civilization, then and now. Do yourself a favor, and read the Kingsbridge series.

5/5

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story. So long it should be called "Book without End" but by the time you reach the end, you don't want to finish.

The characters, both the good guys and the bad guys, are well developed; none is perfectly good or bad. One calamity after another, some of nature (the plague) but most of human cause, beset the capable few who struggle to get things done.

NOTE: You can read this either before or after "Pillars of the Earth." Both books take place in the same locale, but two hundred years apart; there is no plot overlap.

[Candace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in fourteenth century, Kingsbridge is a prosperous town. Merthin and Ralph go to the archery field to try out Merthin's homemade bow and arrows. Because he is an eleven year old child, Merthin is not allowed to practice. Caris, Edmund Wooler's daughter, suggests they go to the forest to practice, which is against the law. Gwenda, a laborer's daughter, with her dog, trails along with them. When they reach the forest, Merthin shots an arrow and misses the chosen mark. Ralph, Merthin's younger brother, tries and is successful. All the children hide in the bushes when they hear men running in the forest. A knight is being chased by two men-at-arms. The knight, Sir Thomas Langley, kills one man and Ralph kills the second man. Three of the children run off leaving Merthin and Sir Thomas Langley to hide the dead men in the bushes. Merthin helps Thomas bury a leather wallet containing a secret scroll. Thomas tells Merthin to keep it a secret because men would kill to find the scroll. If, however, Thomas dies, Merthin is instructed to give it to the prior. Sir Thomas rides to the priory hospital for the treatment of his wound. He asks to join the priory and become a monk.

Gwenda, Caris, Merthin and Ralph grow up. Merthin and Caris love each other. Gwenda is in love with Wulfric, who is in love with Annet. Ralph is training to be a knight in the household of Earl Roland, the Earl of Shiring. Merthin is an apprentice under the master builder, Elfric. Life never goes as planned. When Merthin refuses to marry Elfric's daughter, he is dismissed as an apprentice. Caris loves Merthin but does not want to be restricted by the vows of marriage. She wants her independence and Merthin too. He wants to be a master builder, have a family and own a house. Gwenda is sold as a commodity by her father to Sim Chapman. Caris is working with her father in the wool business. Ralph despairs of ever becoming a knight.

Then the bridge collapse and Kingsbridge is threatened with economic ruin. Without a bridge, the merchants and traders will travel to Shiring for market days and fairs. Kingsbridge Fleece Fair merchants and traders will suffer from lack of trade. The priory will not pay for a new stone bridge because they have no money. It will be up to the townspeople to raise the funds, with the promise of reimbursement from the priory. Merthin is hired to build the bridge. In replacement for part of his pay, Merthin receives Leper Island as his property. Leper Island joins the expansion bridges. He has great plans to build up the property with rentals and storage areas. Then Caris is accused of witchcraft and enters the nunnery to save herself. Merthin is heartbroken and decides to leave for Florence, Italy, after he is dismissed as the builder of the bridge.

This epic tome follows the life of the four individuals -- Merthin, Ralph, Caris and Gwenda -- and the people connected to Kingsbridge. Two hundred years after the Kingsbridge cathedral is built in the Pillars of the Earth, we are carried along in the lives of its descendents. Through love, greed, lust, plague, and prosperity, we witness the lives in and around Kingsbridge. From lives decimated from the plague to the resurgence of the community, we ride along on the journey. This is a character-driven novel. Though the plot and subplots are important, it is the characters we identify with throughout the book. The settings and descriptions are stunning. The pace is consistent and flows smoothly. I could set this book down for a respite and pick it back up and still be enthralled in its pages. This over a thousand page book isn't for everyone, but if you are looking for a story that is full-bodied, rich and textured, then this is the novel for you.

[Mom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot find the words to express how disappointed I was with this book. Having enjoyed "Pillars of the Earth" twice I awaited the issue of the sequel with immense enthusiasm.

What a letdown! The characters, the plot,the writing are all dreadful...Mr Follett has tried to bring the 13th century into the 21st and it hasn't worked. The gratuitous sex and foul language spoil the book from the first chapter and for the first time in years, I will not be finishing this novel!

Very sad to see a good author with good ideas go down the path of populism.

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

"...epic, historic novel"??!
Good Lord, I must be reading a different book than everyone else.
This seems formulaic and forced. Characters are more like caricatures; and what's the deal with everyone fornicating all the time??! Not that there's anything wrong with fornicating per se, I just don't care for books that use it as a major plot device time after time after time.
I actually checked the cover to make sure it wasn't "Clan of the Cave Bear" 2.0...
I'm going to finish this book (I think) 'cause I'm feeling a little masochistic. I may have to make my own book cover though, with Fabio as the builder replete with heaving chest and flowing locks on the cover. ;P

Update:
I've finished. Unless you are on the beach and looking to read but not think, and feel that a book cover emblazoned with 'Harlequin' is benath you-I really can't recommend this book.

[Christine Whitney · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Pillars of the Earth was pretty good, but WWE is supposed to be a sequel... However, WWE seems to be a 1000 page snorefest after the first book. Perhaps if I had read them 18 years apart... then I would not have minded that WWE is a plagiarized (by the same author) copy of TPOTE. They have the same plot, same polar characters (no one is reasonable, they are all so totally overboard in every description), same activities, same cads, same villians, same love story... Same everything... But the characters all have new names. So, if you decide to read them... Skip 18 years before reading the sequel, which takes place in the same town as TPOTE 200 years later. If you wait 18 years, the book might seem fresh instead of boring, annoying, unoriginal and tedious. I kept wanting people to die just so I would not have to read another word about them. If I did not have this incessant need to complete books, I would have just thrown it on the floor and never picked it up again.
It makes me annoyed every time I pick it up.. sad but true.

my hint:
Read Pillars of the Earth, take a LONG break and then, if you feel a desperate need... think about it, and if you can find the book for cheap, maybe... perhaps... read it if you have absolutely nothing better to do.

[Aitor Castrillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leído en cuanto se publicó hace ya más de una década. Venía del nivelazo de Los pilares de la Tierra y pensé “es imposible”, “Follett no va a poder aguantar las comparaciones”, “este seguro que no me gusta tanto”… y me equivoqué.

Uno de mis libros favoritos.

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 3.75 ***

"...“You see, all that I ever held dear has been taken from me," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And when you've lost everything-" Her facade began to crumble, and her voice broke, but she made herself carry on. "When you've lost everything, you've got nothing to lose.”..."

This is the truth about this book, similar issues I had with "The Pillars of the Earth" - Ken Follet piles up small, every day problems that were typical for all in Medieval Europe, and adds to them more and more and more problems, big and small, until he not only ruins the spirit of the characters in the book, but succeeds very well in destroying any optimism or hope the reader might have kindled for them.... I was so depressed while reading book one, I had to take a month in between, so I can get my Happy back. I feel like this book is even more devastating emotionally to me than the previous one. You might say, but of course, in the first book there was no Plague, while here it is very prominent and we all know that more than half of Europe's population was wiped out by the merciless infection, bringing devastation on a scale we can't even imagine today. But this is not the only reason this whole tome had a solid core of depression to it. It is the thick fog of misfortune and crap everyone with some measure of decency had to thread through on every page, while those with darkness in their hearts kept on prospering and rejoicing with every evil deed perpetuated on the weak and unfortunate. Follet does that with no respite for the entirety of the book. Just when you think something might happen that would make all the struggles of our characters worth it, they still have to pay a heavy price for it and the feeling of hopeless helplessness that emotes from the page infuses into the reader until you wear it as a second skin... At one point I became well trained - the author gives us struggle toward something, we have hope and even a good result, only to follow it up with something to put us back in our place, cowering in fear and despair back into the dark and dusty corner of a surfs' latrine.

"...“My father hated people who preached about morality. We're all good when it suits us, he used to say: that doesn't count. It's when you want so badly to do something wrong - when you're about to make a fortune from a dishonest deal, or kiss the lovely lips of your neighbor's wife, or tell a lie to get yourself out of terrible trouble - that's when you need the rules. Your integrity is like a sword, he would say: you shouldn’t wave it until you’re about to put it to the test.”..."

I was angry throughout most of the book. Don't get me wrong. It was not anger because the writing was terrible or the storytelling inadequate. The opposite. I was riveted to the story and even did not sleep last night so I could finish it up today. The author has done his research into the time period perfectly and the story is more than realistic, it is down right depressingly so. I know that what my 21st century heart truly rebels against is the historical truth of how one people, who happened to have been born to a class of privilege and influence, exerted their power over other people, who happen to be born in a circumstance that makes them into almost a property of the other, stripping them from everything we believe to be a human right, all the way down to the smallest choices over their livelihood and personhood... My free-loving spirit wanted to spit in the faces of the "Lords" and "Nobility" and kick them in the balls, show the bullies that we will not let them bully us or anyone else, but I had to let the author lead me through his story and hope he would take us to a place where we would have some literary vengeance and a pay-off for all the hopeless emotions he put us through...

"...“Don’t worry. We who are born poor have to use cunning to get what we want. Scruples are for the privileged.”..."

We have several main players in this tale of mid-1300's Kingsbridge, two centuries after the story of Tom Builder, Jack, Aliena, and Prior Phillip. Kingsbridge Priory is well established and the town is prosperous. There are many descendants of Jack and Aliena Fitzgerald, and they are representatives of all the social classes of the time. Our main protagonist Merthin and his brother, the heartless monster of the age, Ralph, are just two of those coming from the branch of the Earls, but long ago fallen into poverty and as kids, circumstances make them and their parents dependents of the Priory. Ralph, being a big boy and physically fit, is given into the care of the current Earl as a squire, while Merthin, having not been blessed with great physique, goes as an unpaid apprentice to a carpenter-builder. He falls for the daughter of a prosperous wool merchant, and the rest is history.

Caris meets Merthin, Ralph, Gwenda and her brother Philemon while playing in church as kids and their lives change for ever when they encounter a fleeing knight, wounded in the forest. From that day on their faiths are intertwined in intrigue, power-struggles, murder, secrets and a never-ending personal loves and hatreds, which shape their actions and their personalities on the long run. Although there are some redemption for some of the main characters, the overall hardships they go through are demoralizing. No wonder people thought of themselves as old at the age of 40 and ancient if they were able to reach fifty years old.

Caris was strong and independent of spirit, but she also came from a place where she had been given a sense of self-worth since she was born. Merthin and Ralph were raised to think of themselves as better than the rest, despite their impoverished state, but Gwenda and Philemon came from the lowest of the low and their parents only made them feel and be even lower than that. My heart broke for both of them when we first met them. As much as I loved and respected Caris, despite her acting ridiculously irrational at times, Gwenda was the one whose story I couldn't get enough of. I hurt for her, I loved for her, I was angry and disappointed by her, I wanted to shake her and and hug her alternatively, and I wept with her, but I was just as taken by her perseverance and strength, both in body and mind, which made her survive in this miserable time with so little going for her. She was so flawed, so real, that it hurt. And I loved reading about her, every single word.

"...“When you were trying to enforce law and order, it was difficult to explain that the rules did not actually apply to you personally.”..."

So, despite this book depressing the hell out of me for most of the 1014 pages, I am still glad I was able to read and had the patience to actually finish it, because there were misfortunes and side story-lines, which I felt were there just to pile on the misery and not to add anything to the overall plot arc, which made me furious for being there and I was tempted to just lose the book somewhere before I destroy it in futile rage. I would still recommend it to those who loved the first installment in the series and those who love a realistic but slow portrayal of 14th century Europe in the mids of the Black Plague.

"...“You didn’t ask for a priest.” “Whether I’ve been good or bad, I don’t think God will be fooled by a last-minute change of heart.” ..."

Now I wish you all Happy Reading and my you always find what you Need in the pages of a good book!!!