Take a photo of a barcode or cover
laurajh77 's review for:
The Evening and the Morning
by Ken Follett
Ok, so the rating might not reflect how quickly I read this mammoth book.
Here’s the thing, it’s just too long. The story was soooooo slooooooowwww at times it was infuriating. I know it’s a prequel to the Kingsbridge trilogy (and The Pillars of the Earth is one of my all time favourites) but there was need for an editor, so badly. The span of just 10 years doesn’t need pages and pages of riding about the countryside.
Also, it’s brutal. Now I know the Dark Ages probably were, but when I’m wanting to curl up in front of the fire and just read on a dark day, I don’t want the endless rape, violence and cruelty. The treatment of women is especially unkind, the treatment of children even more so (Blod’s baby and Mairead made me sob).
Finally, the characters are just caricatures. The good are completely good, the evil are utterly evil. There are masses of small roles that all blend into the background. So it ends up feeling very shallow. The author can’t write a sex scene from the women’s viewpoint for toffee.
All that said, I didn’t hate it. I just wouldn’t bother again. It’s a poor relation to the fabulous TPOTE and I won’t be lending it to my mum either.
I have the most recent Follett book at home and will be interested to see how he writes other genres, I’ve only read the Kingsbridge books.
So really it’s a 3.5 but I’m ok with rounding it down.
Here’s the thing, it’s just too long. The story was soooooo slooooooowwww at times it was infuriating. I know it’s a prequel to the Kingsbridge trilogy (and The Pillars of the Earth is one of my all time favourites) but there was need for an editor, so badly. The span of just 10 years doesn’t need pages and pages of riding about the countryside.
Also, it’s brutal. Now I know the Dark Ages probably were, but when I’m wanting to curl up in front of the fire and just read on a dark day, I don’t want the endless rape, violence and cruelty. The treatment of women is especially unkind, the treatment of children even more so (Blod’s baby and Mairead made me sob).
Finally, the characters are just caricatures. The good are completely good, the evil are utterly evil. There are masses of small roles that all blend into the background. So it ends up feeling very shallow. The author can’t write a sex scene from the women’s viewpoint for toffee.
All that said, I didn’t hate it. I just wouldn’t bother again. It’s a poor relation to the fabulous TPOTE and I won’t be lending it to my mum either.
I have the most recent Follett book at home and will be interested to see how he writes other genres, I’ve only read the Kingsbridge books.
So really it’s a 3.5 but I’m ok with rounding it down.