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Ken Follett: The Pillars Of The Earth

I love this book. I read it in norwegian, and I'm sure I'll read it again someday, although it will be in english next time.

I love the medieval setting.
 
I finished this book today, and I thought it was ok. I started to get a bit bored with it towards the end. It seemed to be really drawn out and I was not as concerned with the characters by then. I did like the details of building the cathedrals and running the monastery.
 
I didn't finish it. I usually enjoy historical novels and I liked the beginning, but soon got bored with the characters. I dragged on for about 400 Pages because everyone told me it was worth hanging on. However, it didn't get better, so I gave up. Had it had 600 Pages or so, I'd probably have finished it, but I couldn't face another 700 pages of it.
 
i've just read the book recently. it was on sale (really cheap. it was quite ok but not my favorite book by the author. it was quite long too, i struggled to finish it.
 
Ken Follet's books are definitely readable, but I just can't get enthusiastic about them. The characters seem flat. Their actions seem forced. He has a style so contrary to what I prefer, I was surprised to be able to finish them at all, but they are pretty action-packed and full of interesting tidbits, mitigating the lack of sympathy. They do have god-awful villains, which is a plus, but I find the sex sort of skewed, even the bits that are supposed to be nice...

What I look for in a book is a sense of being cut off from my body and swimming, creeping, running, floating is some other parallel world. It is a lot to ask from a book, I know, but I also know it is possible, so when a book such as this falls short, it's only obvious. No such sense.
 
I really loved this book, but I read it a fair while ago, and have forgotten a lot. :eek: :rolleyes:

I'm actually quite surprised that not that many people here seem to like it. It was the first historical fiction novel I've read, and has made me definately more open to the genre.

I even enjoyed all the cathedral - building prose (normally not my thing); I just basically loved the story. Also, I needed to see the villain (can't remember his name) get his comeuppance. :mad:

It's the best Ken Follet book I've read; I think it's different from what he normally writes.
 
a sequel! after all this time.. i read this years ago, the bookshop guy recommended it to me one week when there were no new scifi or fantasy books available.. i remember really enjoying it.. it's a book i consider re-reading very so often, but alas.. there's always a new book to read instead! :D
 
I certainly don't hate the Pillars book. My first sentence called them "readable," but perhaps that's too lukewarm a recommendation. I do like it on several accounts. The architectural detailing is very interesting, the basis in historical fact keeps me guessing, and reading nonfiction to pinpoint what is actually on the books, especially as regards the horrid villains, and the story does keep me wanting a satisfactoty resolution. All that said, I simply can't recommend it with very much vigor, because of my knowledge of how much I CAN love a book, this one, however fine, doesn't set up that fabulous cool transport.
 
This blurb is now on Follett's Web site:

Sequel to 'The Pillars of the Earth'
Ever since The Pillars of the Earth was published in 1989, readers have been asking me to write a sequel.The book is so popular that I’ve been nervous about trying to repeat its success. But at last I’ve screwed up my courage and begun 'World without End'.

I couldn’t write another book about building a cathedral, because that would be the same book. And I couldn’t write another story about the same characters, because by the end of “Pillars” they are all very old or dead. So I’m working on a story that takes place in the same town, Kingsbridge, and features the descendants of the “Pillars” characters two centuries later.

The cathedral and the priory are again at the centre of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge. But at the heart of the story is the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race: the plague known as the Black Death, which killed something like half the population of Europe in the fourteenth century. The people of the Middle Ages battled this lethal pestilence and survived – and, in doing so, laid the foundations of modern medicine.

I’m hoping to finish the book around May 2007, so that it can be published in time for Christmas that year. Wish me luck!
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Ken Follet-Pillars of the Earth

I have read POTE and really enjoyed it.I have read reviews and peoples comments about it and how historically inaccurate it is and how it is badly written and how a "certain scene" was too graphic and only a man would make up such a scene. How people back then had better hygiene than what Follet writes.
Me not being a history buff I enjoyed the book as a story and about the cathedrals but others who do have some history knowledge or not , what do you think?
 
This is one of the few books that has been on my tbr pile for the last two years. Those that I know that have read it have nothing but great things to say about it. I really need to ensure it floats to the top over the next few months.
 
Robert said:
This is one of the few books that has been on my tbr pile for the last two years. Those that I know that have read it have nothing but great things to say about it. I really need to ensure it floats to the top over the next few months.
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Get to it:D so we can analyze it! I am alone! lol
 
^No, you're not alone - I'm still here!! I've read POTE twice, and enjoyed it both times (though my memory about it isn't very good :eek: ). It's the first historical fiction I read, and I was just completely hooked by it. I loved the story, and the characters - it was so compelling, and I really had to know what happened to them as the story went on.

On the other hand, I found the sequel to be quite dire. Plotless and pointless is my summary of it. :D
 
I read it a year ago and enjoyed it,but when another author was critisizing it I did my own search. I didn't find major inacuracies ,Cathedrals were being built, cleansiness was not like today and even though they found kings teeth with no cavities , the regular people did not have the same advantages.And as for a certain rape scene, that could be only written by a man, I find that rubbish.I think they just didn't like Follet at all:)
WWE I haven't read yet.
 
I didn't like World Without End at all; there was just no story. I posted a review about it somewhere here. It's nothing compared to POTE, which is a shame as I had such high hopes about it, and was waiting for a long time for it to be released.
 
angerball said:
I didn't like World Without End at all; there was just no story. I posted a review about it somewhere here. It's nothing compared to POTE, which is a shame as I had such high hopes about it, and was waiting for a long time for it to be released.
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Someone gave it to me as a gift, hardcover, about 45 dollars with the taxes here in Canada, doggone it I am going to read it! lol
 
You never know - you may enjoy it, Libra. I was just hoping for something very similar to POTE, but didn't feel like it delivered. :(
 
POTE and WWE

Just listened to both on audio while commuting and running. LOVED them both.

Wondering if anyone can recommend any books similar in length and detail to character. I even enjoyed the Earls, Knights, midevil themes (which is uncharacteristic for me!)
 
The Eagle and The Raven- Pauline Gedge

The Greatest Knight, and The Scarlet Lion- Elizabeth Chadwick:)

and if you want to go with a looong series, try Outlander-Diana Gabaldon
 
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