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jeffburns 's review for:
The Evening and the Morning
by Ken Follett
The Evening and the Morning (Book 4 of the Kingsbridge series). Ken Follett. Viking, 2020. 928 pages.
I am a huge Ken Follett fan. His Kingsbridge series and Fall of Giants trilogy are, in my opinion, some of the greatest historical fiction ever written, with fantastic historical detail and exciting stories packing every page. The Evening and the Morning, published in 2020, is a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth, and book 5 is set to be released this fall (already pre-ordered). I decided it was time to catch up and get around to reading Evening, set from the late 990s into the early 1000s.
Well, it's another tour de force in storytelling as one would expect from Follett. However, honestly, there are lots of familiar notes. There's the extremely bright and talented peasant boy who falls in love with a beautiful, assertive, young woman who challenges all of the traditional roles and expectations of the time and is far above his station. He's friends and allies with a low ranking cleric who lives an exemplary life. Practically every other nobleman and church official is evil and corrupt, terrorizing, brutalizing, raping, and murdering anybody and everybody beneath him. And, of course, there are a few painfully awkwardly written sex scenes - I think Follett is one of the worst writers of sex scenes ever.
Nevertheless, this book is a must-read for Follett fans, Pillars fans, and lovers of medieval history.
I am a huge Ken Follett fan. His Kingsbridge series and Fall of Giants trilogy are, in my opinion, some of the greatest historical fiction ever written, with fantastic historical detail and exciting stories packing every page. The Evening and the Morning, published in 2020, is a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth, and book 5 is set to be released this fall (already pre-ordered). I decided it was time to catch up and get around to reading Evening, set from the late 990s into the early 1000s.
Well, it's another tour de force in storytelling as one would expect from Follett. However, honestly, there are lots of familiar notes. There's the extremely bright and talented peasant boy who falls in love with a beautiful, assertive, young woman who challenges all of the traditional roles and expectations of the time and is far above his station. He's friends and allies with a low ranking cleric who lives an exemplary life. Practically every other nobleman and church official is evil and corrupt, terrorizing, brutalizing, raping, and murdering anybody and everybody beneath him. And, of course, there are a few painfully awkwardly written sex scenes - I think Follett is one of the worst writers of sex scenes ever.
Nevertheless, this book is a must-read for Follett fans, Pillars fans, and lovers of medieval history.