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 There's a good story buried in here... July 5, 2008
nodice (Manchester, Ga United States)
it's just too bad that Follett felt the need to pad it with an extra 400 unneccessary pages. Despite the uninspired proses, high school-ish dialogue and a few sinks thrown at the reader, the book has just enough to make you continue to find out what the heck happened. But I have to tell you, by page 700 I was sick of this cathedral. I do like that the women weren't always helpless damsels, despite a few horrible things happening to them, but did all the men have to be complete jerks? Other than Phillip I didn't care for any of them and Phillip rode my last nerve, too. I know as writers, there is a creative license that everyone is entitled to; but really, this reads like the author just didn't know any better on some of the historical facts. Richard and Aliena would not have been just left to hold the earldom after a raid-especially when their father was arrested for treason. Plus Richard would have already been someone squire at that age. The thing that really annoy me about Tom the Builder was just how fast he got over his first wife, Agnes. Literally the next evening he was in love with someone else and he didn't spare her a REAL second thought. 400 pages later Follett throws in that he was just getting over her, but it rang so false that it was insulting. Plus, in the begining of this book we see this family roaming around, starving and barely covering a country side and then 500 pages later, see Aliena cover vast amount of land looking for Jack with supposedly no money, too and with a baby and she wasn't starving and withering away. (Sure she got sick briefly, but C'mon.) There's a very comic book feels to a lot of this that I wished Follett just made it a fantasy so the author could do what he wanted and not have me frowning at the book and going "that's not what happened." Walrean was a disappointing nemesis, I didn't understand how the Hamleigh forgave him for trying to steal an earldom and hate a guy for just wanting some timber and rocks from them. I wanted specfics of Walreans downfall-not that he just shows up and wants to be lowly monk again. William was extremely over the top and I fail to see how a ragamuffin army of Richard's (supposedly of a hundred people) couldn't kill 4 ex-knights taken unawares during a rape.) I loved Follett's Eye of the Needle, but I think he really needs to stay out of the middle ages.
A very long bodice ripper . . . July 5, 2008
Lynne (Massachusetts)
This book reminded me of the bodice rippers that I read when I was a teenager - you know, the ones with Fabio on the cover? It was much longer, of course, more like 3 bodice rippers in one novel. There's the sexy heroine (Aliena), the likeable tradesman (Tom), the evil lord (William), and the saintly monk (Phillip). The story is good vs. evil, true love conquers all, blah, blah.
I finished this book, and found it readable, and even compelling in some parts. The violence bothered me, and I got weary of all the challenges, one after the other after the other, that the characters had to go through. The descriptions could be tedious. When Jack sets fire to the church, it takes pages and pages - it should have been done in one page.
I have to disagree with some of the reviewers who thought that the cathedral building information was well done. I found it confusing and hard to visualize. Even though I have visited cathedrals all over the world (Westminster, York, Notre Dame), I still don't know what a Nave is, so when you tell me that it crosses the chancery (don't know what that is either) or some such - it doesn't do me a bit of good. I would have found it helpful if 10 or so pages of the 970 were devoted to a glossary or even some drawings. I had to go online to look up St. Denis just to get an idea of what the mythical Kingsbridge Cathedral would look like.
I would not call this historical fiction - it was more like fiction set in a past time. Unlike most historical fiction, the places and people described in this book did not exist. It puts into question how much of it is historically accurate.
In summary, I would say that you could read this book and be entertained, but if you skipped it, you wouldn't be missing anything. You could read A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught or The Love Knot by Elizabth Chadwick, and you'd get the same idea.
Raw and gritty July 5, 2008
C. Zamorano (Illinois USA)
I read The Pillars of the Earth and am now plowing through World Without End. Gritty, earthy and raw, these books depict the town of Kingsbridge, England during two medieval periods. Follett is a master at depicting the brutal and desperate lifestyles of all echelons of society during the Middle Ages through compelling characters and thorough research, but these are not for the faint of heart. Both the length of the books and the gory details could be a little off-putting to some readers, but overall, the triumph of the human spirit shines through.
While Follett's research is obviously thorough, there are some slippages of language where characters sound rather startlingly modern, as well as, a few other historical anomalies, but these are mostly forgivable. My biggest gripe is one that has been mentioned before and that is the almost pornographic depictions of rape and sex throughout the book. It is just unnecessarily graphic. As another reviewer wrote, "We get it. William is a really bad guy." Frankly the descriptions are so over the top, one begins wonder about the deviancies of the author, which is generally an unfair assertion, but in this case, unavoidable. Eeek! I am no prude, but there are scenes (particularly the one in the brothel involving a gang rape) that do nothing to further the plot and only serve as titillating pulp.
The gratuitous sex is just garbage, but the main characters are so compelling and enjoyable that you want to spend the 1000 pages with them and will think about their lives long after you have closed the book. It's just such a shame that Follett had to sully up a great book with smut.
 Expansive and Engaging July 5, 2008
J. Korsmo (Moorhead, MN USA)
I had this book recommended to me a number of years ago. After fruitless years of searching for a cheap used copy in a thrift or second hand store, I finally broke down and bought it (I know, I know, libraries are good too . . .). And I'm glad I did. In this huge historical masterpiece, Follett unfolds a masterful tail of life in the village of Kingsbridge, England over a forty-year period as it emerges from relative obscurity to become a cathedral city.
The book begins with a mysterious hanging of a French jongleur (storyteller), a mystery that will weave throughout the rest of the story. We are first introduced to Tom, a stonemason and builder who is a bit down on his luck after a job falls through. He has church building in his blood, but isn't able to find work. His wife dies in child birth, and he takes up with a woman from the wild, Ellen, and her son, Jack. We meet Philip, a young monk, who then is surprisingly elected prior of the Kingsbridge monastary. These two characters, along with a third, Aliena, the daughter of the Earl of Shiring, make up the backbone of the story, as we follow their exploits and as their roads converge and diverge around the building of a cathedral for Kingsbridge.
The story is much too expansive to condense in a coherent way, but it is none the worse for it. The stories of domestic life and struggle, the local power plays between prior and bishop and earl, and the national and international politics of both church and country set the stage for the action. A two-decade civil war in England over the rightful successor to the throne provides the international tension that makes for shifting allegiances of the local earls and bishops, causing repeated upheavals in the local power struggles. Through it all, prior Philip seeks what's best for Kingsbridge and continues to build his cathedral.
Tom is succeeded by his son Alfred as builder of the cathedral, but his bungaling causes a small collapse and work stops, until Jack, son of the forrest-woman Ellen and step-son of Tom Builder, is appointed the new master builder. He reinvigorates the work with a new design based on the newest technologies from France, and a beautiful and light-filled cathedral takes shape. And amongst the stones and pillars, character flourish and fail, love is lost and won, and great things are learned.
The texture of the world Follett creates continually draws the reader into this past reality, and the depth of the characters keeps the plot moving forward. I highly recommend this amazing historical tale.
Warning about the Kindle edition! July 4, 2008
E. Simpson
If you open the Kindle edition of the book by double-clicking on the title in your list of books the Kindle edition opens at Chapter 1. Don't do that. If you do you miss the Prologue. The Prologue sets up a conflict at the heart of the story. I liked the book without the Prologue but it would've been better with it. To access the Prologue you need to use the Menu to open the book. You can get there from the Title page and use Next Page to go forward or you can choose one of the other options that preceed Chapter 1.
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