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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
I has forgotten how much I love these books. I may have to reread Pillars of the Earth now.
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I liked the story.
But...
I was disappointed by the predictable action. As with the Authors other books, Pillars of Earth and World Without End, the “good” characters always make dumb decisions and have repeated setbacks, whilst the “bad” characters (and once again they are mostly priests) get all the lucky breaks until virtually the last chapter.
The story is well written and does roll along quite well. It is just enough to keep keep the reader interested despite the sometimes unbelievable naivety of the main characters. Right from the start you get the sense that Edgar's dreams will not be forthcoming anytime soon.
But...
I was disappointed by the predictable action. As with the Authors other books, Pillars of Earth and World Without End, the “good” characters always make dumb decisions and have repeated setbacks, whilst the “bad” characters (and once again they are mostly priests) get all the lucky breaks until virtually the last chapter.
The story is well written and does roll along quite well. It is just enough to keep keep the reader interested despite the sometimes unbelievable naivety of the main characters. Right from the start you get the sense that Edgar's dreams will not be forthcoming anytime soon.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was a huge surprise to me. I was aware of the pillars series but I had put it off for so long I was worried. And in the beginning I thought I was right to. However after 200 pages the book just caught hold of me and I struggled to put it down.
Definitely a good historical fiction book. Especially if you want one without loads of fight scenes.
Definitely a good historical fiction book. Especially if you want one without loads of fight scenes.
Took me a while to get interested, and I think I had started it before and set it aside. But after 2-3 hours listening I got into it. Not nearly as absorbing as The Pillars.
The beginning of this book was promising, but ultimately, it disappointed me. Pillars of the Earth stands out because it successfully ties together the stories of a large variety of characters through the mechanism of building a cathedral, but the prequel lacks this necessary cohesive element. As a result, you have a very long book, scant on rich historical detail or interesting character development, replete with extreme violence, constant sexual assault, gratuitous infanticide, and other casual brutality. Neither the villains nor the heroes had any interesting complexity. The Dark Ages are a fascinating (if mysterious due to the lack of archaeological evidence) period, but this is not Follett's best work.
Ken Follett's "Kingsbridge" series is amazing - great historical fiction, well-written . . . every volume was hard to put down. This prequel to the series, set before Kingsbridge was really founded or bore that name, was no different - this one set before the Conquest, at the time of the Viking raids - the main protagonist, Edgar, loses his father and home, not to mention the woman he loves, in a Viking raid and his family is forced to start a new life. The story involves church politics, a Norman noblewoman married to an English ealdorman, political maneuvering, the horrors of medieval poverty and slavery, and a compelling overarching plot that made it very hard to put down! Great stuff, highly recommended!
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Compared to its predecessor A Column of Fire this book was quite good. Ken Follett, as we probably all know at this point, has a talent for bringing the past back to life and going into detail about how life would have been during this period of human history. The characters are more or less likable & interesting and the plot is okay. However, compared to the first two books of this series (The Pillars of the Earth & World without End), this book is average at best. It was ok to listen to because I had nothing else to do on my way to work or while going for a walk, but it wasn't nearly as captivating as the first two books. I have read The Pillars of the Earth at least 15 times because it's just so freaking good and World without End at least 5-10 times. In those two books, you just don't want to put the book down while reading because you want to know what happens next, because the villains are truly evil and you can't wait for them to get what they deserve and because the protagonists have something about them that just makes you wish they'll get their happy ending. Here I was mildly interested at best how everything would play out and wasn't too sad about being done. If you don't have anything else to read, I guess you could give it a go, but you won't miss anything if you don't. There are at least a couple better Ken Follett novel out there, though.
4.5 stars. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is that it's the teensiest bit too formulaic. You know, the world of an all-powerful church and the corruption of so many of the men running it, not to mention how life just SUCKED for women in that era.
But I did love reading it. It was a very Follett-esque novel, and should satisfy readers who love "Pillars of the Earth" as much as I do. Many of the same characters are here, but with different names. Given that there is very little extant documentation about this period of history, these books give me what is probably a pretty realistic feeling for what life was like.
As usual in Follett's books, the women are the strong characters. They aren't all pleasant and some are downright nasty, but they are stronger than the men. I like that about Follett's writing.
In general I am not a fan of prequels. I figure that if you want to tell a story you should start telling it from the beginning. But this book isn't really a prequel, in that we don't learn anything about the actual people in "Pillars". There's no backstory to any of the characters we already know, unless you count Kingsbridge itself as a character. Oh, wait. We do find out about Saint Adolphus, but he has already been dead for a long time before he shows up even in this book.
But I did love reading it. It was a very Follett-esque novel, and should satisfy readers who love "Pillars of the Earth" as much as I do. Many of the same characters are here, but with different names. Given that there is very little extant documentation about this period of history, these books give me what is probably a pretty realistic feeling for what life was like.
As usual in Follett's books, the women are the strong characters. They aren't all pleasant and some are downright nasty, but they are stronger than the men. I like that about Follett's writing.
In general I am not a fan of prequels. I figure that if you want to tell a story you should start telling it from the beginning. But this book isn't really a prequel, in that we don't learn anything about the actual people in "Pillars". There's no backstory to any of the characters we already know, unless you count Kingsbridge itself as a character. Oh, wait. We do find out about Saint Adolphus, but he has already been dead for a long time before he shows up even in this book.