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katykelly 's review for:
The Evening and the Morning
by Ken Follett
Unputdownable prequel: fans of medieval history must try this
History’s dark side, but also how advances happened.
I fell in love with The Pillars of the Earth early on, then loved the TV series. World Without End showed that Follett knew he was onto a winner with archetypes and structure but that didn’t matter, he creates winning good guys, appallingly hateable bad guys and gives us a visually immersive world that I’ve rarely seen explored in fiction before.
While this is technically a prequel to the series, you can read it as a stand-alone without foreknowledge of the characters or events of the others. In 997, an independently-minded noblewoman in Cherbourg falls for an older Englishman from the upper classes, thus changing her prospects. Over in England, Edgar and his family have the consequences of a Viking raid to live with, as lives and livelihoods are lost to the raiders. These two stories give us the story of a years-long plot that involves political machinations, intrigues, and the everyday lives of the poor and rich alike.
Edgar’s inspiration in the series can be easily seen in Tom Builder/Jack, and the boatbuilder and his sharp, problem-solving mind gives us a clue just how advances must have been made. For someone like me who isn’t technologically minded, I found the description if bridge- and raft-building just as intriguing as cathedral building was with Tom. And Ragna’s seemingly worlds-apart life journey, as newcomer, foreigner, new wife and authority figure is just as compelling as we get the chance to see the role of women in medieval society, and how they could influence events.
There are several strong female characters here, some wealthy and some from much more humble origins. They give a good account of themselves (even if some are motivated by less-than-honourable intentions) - it was clearly not a man’s world alone.
The origins of the class system are also very clear to see, as money is kept within families, power transferred, opponents and anyone likely to show promise and leadership removed, the influential family at the heart of these events always able to control proceedings from their vantage point. Not much changed even in a thousand years...
There is a fair amount of educational content here, facts about living conditions, health (“Ma and Pa had taught their sons to keep themselves fresh by bashing at least once a year.”), political systems, marriage, religion and how people thought and saw their world. Seeing out own from a distance and how we’ve moved on from our antecedents is just fascinating.
A dangerous world, a hard world to survive in, but a completely intoxicating glimpse, with the best of heroes and villains that you would hope for in a saga. I hope this too is transferred into a TV series, it’s perfectly set up to make a excellent historical drama.
800 pages flew by in just four days, I highly recommend this.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.
History’s dark side, but also how advances happened.
I fell in love with The Pillars of the Earth early on, then loved the TV series. World Without End showed that Follett knew he was onto a winner with archetypes and structure but that didn’t matter, he creates winning good guys, appallingly hateable bad guys and gives us a visually immersive world that I’ve rarely seen explored in fiction before.
While this is technically a prequel to the series, you can read it as a stand-alone without foreknowledge of the characters or events of the others. In 997, an independently-minded noblewoman in Cherbourg falls for an older Englishman from the upper classes, thus changing her prospects. Over in England, Edgar and his family have the consequences of a Viking raid to live with, as lives and livelihoods are lost to the raiders. These two stories give us the story of a years-long plot that involves political machinations, intrigues, and the everyday lives of the poor and rich alike.
Edgar’s inspiration in the series can be easily seen in Tom Builder/Jack, and the boatbuilder and his sharp, problem-solving mind gives us a clue just how advances must have been made. For someone like me who isn’t technologically minded, I found the description if bridge- and raft-building just as intriguing as cathedral building was with Tom. And Ragna’s seemingly worlds-apart life journey, as newcomer, foreigner, new wife and authority figure is just as compelling as we get the chance to see the role of women in medieval society, and how they could influence events.
There are several strong female characters here, some wealthy and some from much more humble origins. They give a good account of themselves (even if some are motivated by less-than-honourable intentions) - it was clearly not a man’s world alone.
The origins of the class system are also very clear to see, as money is kept within families, power transferred, opponents and anyone likely to show promise and leadership removed, the influential family at the heart of these events always able to control proceedings from their vantage point. Not much changed even in a thousand years...
There is a fair amount of educational content here, facts about living conditions, health (“Ma and Pa had taught their sons to keep themselves fresh by bashing at least once a year.”), political systems, marriage, religion and how people thought and saw their world. Seeing out own from a distance and how we’ve moved on from our antecedents is just fascinating.
A dangerous world, a hard world to survive in, but a completely intoxicating glimpse, with the best of heroes and villains that you would hope for in a saga. I hope this too is transferred into a TV series, it’s perfectly set up to make a excellent historical drama.
800 pages flew by in just four days, I highly recommend this.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.