Ken Follett

The Pillars of the Earth

The no.1 bestselling masterpiece "A novel of majesty and power." Chicago Sun-TimesA spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett's classic historical masterpiece. The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect - a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother.If you loved Pillars of the Earth, read the bestselling sequel, World Without End.

Either being flexible or prepared; as my overthinking brain would like to add. 

Stephanie 

It would go wrong, of course: there was always something that went wrong. The important thing was to be flexible enough to cope with the unexpected.

It had hurt him deeply; and although he had continued to love her, and the wound had healed, it left a scar, as deep wounds do; and sometimes she saw that scar, in the way he looked at her when they quarrelled, and she spoke coldly to him, and his eyes seemed to say: 

Yes, I know you, you can be cold, you can hurt me, I must be on my guard.

‘In the world outside the monastery, nobody looks after you. The ducks swallow the worms, and the foxes kill the ducks, and the men shoot the foxes, and the devil hunts the men.’

These Sunday afternoons were the golden moments in a life that was rapidly falling apart.

‘Don’t be so damned arrogant,’ she flared. ‘I’ve killed to protect you, and that’s more than you’ve ever done for me, you ungrateful pig, so don’t you dare call me harmless.’

‘These big strong men are all cowards at heart.’

Whenever she thought of those old days, with her clever, proud, rigid father beside her, she felt the pain of loss like a wound.

Philip hated to be manipulated like this but at the same time he was bound to acknowledge that the way it had been done was masterly.

Despite all the trouble the boy caused, he made life interesting.

Listen, I hate romance subplots but these two 🫠

‘How long have you been travelling?’ 

He felt adrift. He could survive anywhere but he belonged nowhere. He had been a carver, a builder, a monk and a mathematician, and he did not know which was the real him, if any.

Suddenly Jack looked boyish, and Aliena felt the difference in their ages: he was five years younger than she, and he still thought he had a right to be happy.

Everything in Tom’s cathedral looked as if it was meant to be. Perhaps her life was like that, everything foreordained in a grand design, and she was like a foolish builder who wanted a waterfall in the chancel.

The self-confident part of me relates a lot. Unfortunately. 

The child was full of self-confidence – but all the same he fell over at least once a day.

The most expensive part of a building is the mistakes.

Why did people manufacture trouble when there was already so much of it in the world?

‘Don’t look so sad,’ she said. Her eyes were full of tears. 

‘I can’t help it,’ he said. ‘I am sad.’ 

‘I’m sorry I’ve made you so unhappy.’ 

‘Don’t be sorry for that. Be sorry that you made me so happy. 

That’s what hurts, woman. That you made me so happy

He knew he would never feel as safe again. 

Now that he knew about hunger, and cold, and danger, and desperation, he would always be afraid of them.

‘I’d rather die than marry you, you loathsome, puffed-up toad!’

I‘m enjoying this POV so much more than I expected to. William is a questionable, but entertaining character. 

Who would have thought that torturing people could be so difficult?

That was not the end of the problems, but it was the beginning of solutions.

This was the essence of a building, for it had a roof to keep the rain off and two walls to hold up the roof. 

A church was just a tunnel, with refinements.

Ravana Eagleheart

England 1123-1173. Es ist eine Zeit blutiger Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Adel, Klerus und einfachem Volk, das unter Ausbeutung und Not leidet. Philip, ein junger Prior, dessen Eltern von marodierenden Söldnern abgeschlachtet wurden, träumt den Traum vom Frieden: der Errichtung einer Kathedrale gegen die Mächte des Bösen. Er und sein Baumeister Tom Builder, dessen Stiefsohn Jack und die Grafentochter Aliena müssen sich in einem Kampf auf Leben und Tod gegen ihre Widersacher behaupten, ehe Kingsbridge Schauplatz des größten abendländischen Bauwerks, der "Säulen der Erde" wird ...

Roman

Die Säulen der Erde

The first book of 2024 was already a highlight. Although the biggest book I‘ve ever read, I wasn‘t bored once! Insane worldbuilding with stories of cruelty, love and being human. Loved it 

Lili

“The duck swallows the worm, the fox kills the duck, the men shoot the fox, and the devil hunts the men.”
--------------------

The Middle Ages were a dark time indeed. Plenty of depressingly awful stuff going on during those centuries, of course (not to be confused by the depressingly awful stuff going on in our current time): intrigue, betrayal, grabs for power, religious manipulations, hypocrisy, and enough violence to curdle your blood.
Seriously. So much violence.
And as always in the history of humankind, we get small slivers of light among it all: love, true devotion, hope, and kindness.
The Pillars of the Earth is a well-woven tapestry of all that, transporting the reader to a medieval town in the throes of political instability and pious ambition that feels almost cinematic in its execution. Written in a simple style that is easy to follow, the story is told in a very descriptive and immersive way, but without any unnecessary flourishes.

The wide range of characters, the never-ending intrigues spanning generations, and the awe-inspiring architecture really make this a book worth reading. The author has clearly taken some liberties with history, of course. But it is all in the favor of the reader. (view spoiler)[Everything ends in a tidy little bow, tying up all the loose ends. The good always prevails, and the bad are always justly punished. So what if that is not the case in real life, least of all in the Middle Ages? So what if any woman brave enough to be independent would have been shunned and punished for it instead of looked up to and respected? This is history as it should have been. Fight me. (hide spoiler)] The result is a very satisfying read at the expense of reality.

Overall, a great historical fiction that flows smoothly despite its intimidating size. I am really undecided as to whether I should carry on with the series (considering each book jumps ahead a few centuries each time, telling the story of the town at a different point in time), but that’s a question for another day, I suppose.

4.5/5

Brooke Lonegan

incredible. can't wait to read the sequel.

Gwyn Dill

I listened to this book (E-audiobook from library) & the actor who read the book did a great job. I do want to warn people that there are rape scenes, hangings & other violence as well as sex scenes that are all described in great detail. Some of those were a bit disturbing at times but this is a book set in the 12th century when things like that were more commonplace. This book covers the span of 50ish years and was enthralling, extremely well-written and while it was LONG, it held my attention the entire time. I highly recommend this book!

Really didn’t get on with this. Loved the premise: Crafty monks! A stone mason with dreams of building a cathedral! Feuding nobility! But found it astonishingly tedious. Sad!

Sarah Christine Gill

"The first casualty of a civil war was justice."

Well, I finally did it. I finally knocked this one off my to-read list at the expense of my yearly goal (I’m two books behind now!), and I feel good about finally working my way through it. This is a weird book for me to rate, because I’m not very religious and I can’t exactly say I enjoyed it all the way through, but I’m still putting book two on my to-read list for….sometime in the future. Maybe next year.

This is a book about a man with a dream to build a church. Things start small, then quickly snowball as these things do, creating a real mess of church problems and state problems along the way. The lines between the two were, basically, nonexistent back then. Lots of political infighting, jockeying for position within the church/country, stuff like that. Amongst it all we get to know a few members of the village/town/city of Kingsbridge, and follow them as they experience the repercussions of these choices down at the personal level.

I definitely enjoyed some of the points of view more than others. Ailena was far and away my least favorite perspective in the beginning, had some redemption in the middle, and then returned to being my least favorite in the end. Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge, ended up being my favorite point of view, as we see his dreams of a new church building come to fruition. His internal struggles the entire way were interesting to read about, particularly when he struggles constantly with personal pride as a member of the church. I enjoyed the writing, the story was pretty great, I just felt like it dragged a bit in places. I guess in a book of almost 1000 pages it’s to be expected, though.

I don’t know, I’m glad to have finished it and have added the sequel to my to-read list, but I’m not sure who I’d recommend it to. It comes with some religious baggage, so if that’s not your jam, I’d probably pass on it unless you can set your personal feelings aside to experience a good, realistic, medieval story.

altlovesbooks

"The first casualty of a civil war was justice."

Well, I finally did it. I finally knocked this one off my to-read list at the expense of my yearly goal (I’m two books behind now!), and I feel good about finally working my way through it. This is a weird book for me to rate, because I’m not very religious and I can’t exactly say I enjoyed it all the way through, but I’m still putting book two on my to-read list for….sometime in the future. Maybe next year.

This is a book about a man with a dream to build a church. Things start small, then quickly snowball as these things do, creating a real mess of church problems and state problems along the way. The lines between the two were, basically, nonexistent back then. Lots of political infighting, jockeying for position within the church/country, stuff like that. Amongst it all we get to know a few members of the village/town/city of Kingsbridge, and follow them as they experience the repercussions of these choices down at the personal level.

I definitely enjoyed some of the points of view more than others. Ailena was far and away my least favorite perspective in the beginning, had some redemption in the middle, and then returned to being my least favorite in the end. Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge, ended up being my favorite point of view, as we see his dreams of a new church building come to fruition. His internal struggles the entire way were interesting to read about, particularly when he struggles constantly with personal pride as a member of the church. I enjoyed the writing, the story was pretty great, I just felt like it dragged a bit in places. I guess in a book of almost 1000 pages it’s to be expected, though.

I don’t know, I’m glad to have finished it and have added the sequel to my to-read list, but I’m not sure who I’d recommend it to. It comes with some religious baggage, so if that’s not your jam, I’d probably pass on it unless you can set your personal feelings aside to experience a good, realistic, medieval story.

I pilastri della terra

Silvia Lucchini

Un'opera di oltre 1000 pagine, un incontro tra storie e personaggi che si intrecciano tra loro, una piena immersione nel Medioevo inglese. Uno spaccato della sua società, della nobiltà, della religione, tra intrighi, fede, violenza, amore, passioni, morte, vita. Il tutto collegato dall'immensa costruzione della Cattedrale di Kingsbridge.

Ammetto che era da anni che non leggevo questo tipo di romanzo ambientato nel Medioevo e il ritmo delle prime pagine l'ho trovato un po' a rilento. Ma questo è un romanzo dove il lettore non può non affezionarsi ai suoi protagonisti e alla loro evoluzione, alle loro passioni e alle loro storie.

Took me a day to think about this book and what all I wanted to say about it. 

Ken Follett writes such expansive histories of imaginary characters that I often forget that most of them are not real people. No matter which book if his I read I find myself rooting for his characters in a way that I never have for any other historical fiction books/authors.

I think this story is a slow burn, don't read it if you're looking for constant action, because while it does have plenty of sword fighting, war, and other exciting bits, it is ultimately about the journey of life and finding a place in the ever changing world over the course of decades. We see monarchs rise and fall, loved ones growing old and dying, and the ever progressing building of a church, and these things take years. For me, this adds to the book, rather than detracts, it gives me time to feel as though I am experiencing what the characters are feeling, all the love, all the rage, all the grief, it's all there. 

Not to mention, the way the Cathedral is described is very beautiful, Follett has a way of writing about architecture that I can visualize, without knowing a single thing about building. 

I also appreciate the presence of strong female characters that also still feel as though they belong in the period the book is set. They hold positions of power either politically or mentally, and their depictions are different enough that they don't all feel like the same woman dressed in different clothing, I get a sense of their different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. Aliena is my favorite, although Ellen is who I feel I see the most of myself in. 

This book, and really any book by Ken Follett, is a 5 star read for me. 

Emma Lechner

Took me a day to think about this book and what all I wanted to say about it. 

Ken Follett writes such expansive histories of imaginary characters that I often forget that most of them are not real people. No matter which book if his I read I find myself rooting for his characters in a way that I never have for any other historical fiction books/authors.

I think this story is a slow burn, don't read it if you're looking for constant action, because while it does have plenty of sword fighting, war, and other exciting bits, it is ultimately about the journey of life and finding a place in the ever changing world over the course of decades. We see monarchs rise and fall, loved ones growing old and dying, and the ever progressing building of a church, and these things take years. For me, this adds to the book, rather than detracts, it gives me time to feel as though I am experiencing what the characters are feeling, all the love, all the rage, all the grief, it's all there. 

Not to mention, the way the Cathedral is described is very beautiful, Follett has a way of writing about architecture that I can visualize, without knowing a single thing about building. 

I also appreciate the presence of strong female characters that also still feel as though they belong in the period the book is set. They hold positions of power either politically or mentally, and their depictions are different enough that they don't all feel like the same woman dressed in different clothing, I get a sense of their different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. Aliena is my favorite, although Ellen is who I feel I see the most of myself in. 

This book, and really any book by Ken Follett, is a 5 star read for me. 

Cheyenne Kinney 

Quote, I like: “The most expensive part of building is the mistakes.”


  Overview


I enjoyed the book, I really did, however, I didn’t love it. There was a bit lacking in the way that the book felt for me. Quite a number of parts read in a textbook way, not something I was looking for in a fiction setting. That isn’t saying that I hated those parts, I don’t mind a few textbook similarities, but the sheer amount in this book had my head spinning. This is a 973-page novel, and it reads like it. At times I couldn’t put it down, but at others, I couldn’t wait for it to be over. 


  Plot


The plot in Pillars centers around the building of Kingsbridge Cathedral, a cathedral that faced decades of hardship. I’m not quite sure why I was drawn to a book about building a church, honestly, it confuses me. But I just couldn’t help myself to pick it up. With good reason. There are a number of repeating elements in the plot, but I still found it enjoyable to read despite its repetitiveness. It had a certain charm to it.


  Characters


There is no one central character. There is what I would call a main group of characters that are featured without hesitance though. They are Tom Builder, Ellen, Jack Jackson, Aliena, Richard, Alfred, Martha, Jonathan, Prior Phillip, Percy Hamleigh, William Hamleigh, Regan Hamleigh, King Stephan, Queen Maud, and Waleran Bigod. To say they have been fleshed out would be an understatement. I have gotten to know almost all of them well enough for it to seem like I have met them and known them for most of my life, whether I wanted to or not. 


  Pros and Cons


Pros

I thoroughly enjoyed a few parts of this novel. The development of the characters was amazing. I loved being able to connect with them on the level that I could, well most of them that is. There were a few, William Hamleigh to name one, that I was not a fan of and could have done with knowing a bit less about. I enjoyed the plot as well, much more than I thought I would have, I mean it is 973 pages of building a church. However, it has nice underlying plots that added to my enjoyment of it and allowed me to look past the constant church building before it got boring. I could picture the setting and what was going on so vividly it was as if I was there myself, something that I, as a reader, love. There are a number of time shifts, some as long as seven years. The book is divided into parts that are time skips and each part has chapters and the chapters have parts. Most divisions in the book mean a shift in time. This is helpful to cut out unneeded information and allow so much to get done in the 973 pages that it has. Meaning we get to see a lot of content without as much fluff as the author could have included if he so chooses. 

Cons

There are some things I wasn't a fan of and then there were two things in this book that I absolutely hated. There were some issues with the accuracy of the time the book was set in, which could have been resolved with a bit more research. Nothing too terrible, so if you aren't one who needs the book to have 100% accuracy then you can look past that for a great read. At times the writing was confusing, mainly with the building jargon, which I suppose could be fixed if I took the time to look up what something meant. I wasn't too caught up about it though seeing as I expected it a bit of jargon due to the book being about building a church. I did not know that there were going to be rape scenes in the book. If I would have known that I would have been much more prepared for them. There were a number of sex scenes besides rape too, but the rape or implied rape scenes really stood out to the point of almost making me put the book down. One scene involved two men violating a woman at the same time, so if you are sensitive to the topic please do not read this book. One other thing that really made me cringe was that Tom Builder had sex with a women hours after burying his wife. Not something that I would expect a man who said he was absolutely in love with his wife would do.


  Would I recommend it?


I would recommend this book to someone who doesn’t mind rape scenes and who can enjoy a novel of nearly 1000 pages that rely heavily on recycling the same plot sequence to further the novel.

The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect–a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.
 
A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett’s historical masterpiece.
source: https://www.davidbaldacci.com/external/title/9781101442197/

Gillian Rose

Ugh. So, I watched the miniseries a few years ago and had no real issue with the story (but likely the cast elevated it for me). I honestly couldn't stand a single character here. They were wildly inconsistent (or consistently making the worst possible decision). The story was pretty basic, in my opinion, and the writing was...okay? A little too much rape. The way women's bodies were described were a little cringeworthy and the phrase "flat male nipples" will never leave my brain. And the final chapter involved a lot of history that I knew but I couldn't figure out how it connected to the rest of the story???? I'm sorry, this book did not work for me.

I know what you're thinking. The book is intimidating in every aspect - the size of it, the premise of following the building of a cathedral over more than 1.000 pages and it being a historical fiction set in medieval England. Doesn't sound that appealing, right? But hell, it was. 

This is one of the most compelling novels l've come across for a long time and I was not prepared to get as invested as I was - Especially because, I picked it up out of pure coincidence. I spotted it at our book swap shelf at work, while I was waiting for my coffee to be ready. The title was vaguely familiar and the author was recommended to me already, so I took it home with me. I started with zero expectations but massive fears of being bored and wasting my time.  Fortunately, I was wrong. After the first 100 pages I was already weirdly fascinated, and hooked to continue. On page 428 I realized how captivated I really was. I can tell you that detailed because I literally screamed about what was happening. 

It's for sure not a quick read, but I don't regret the time spent. Because looking back on the journey, I loved watching all the litte pieces of plot slowly falling in place. I adored Folletts writing and his ability to start with a bunch of individual and unrelated character arcs and wrap them up the way he did. I enjoyed the tension and drama he created. I’m awe-struck about the level of details Follett weaved into the story and the character development. And speaking of characters, I certainly loved how mostly every character is important and a MC of his/her own (and that's probably one of the reasons the book is as long as it is), instead of having one MC and several side characters that just exist to support him. I appreciated that the heroes were failable and made mistakes and morally grey decisions. That he showed not all heroes have to wear capes and swing swords. And that the villains were actually loathsome and threatening. 

Despite a lot of misogynism and violence against women (induced by the setting and timeframe) there were also a lot of scenes with female empowerment and vicious, vengeful, clever, cunning women pulling the strings from the background. This is probably one of the aspects I enjoyed most. Because I feel like, especially in more modern work, we see the same archetype of the bold, sassy yet naive and insufferable FMC sold as strong but is then rescued by her love interest, over and over again. 

The only thing that holds me back from giving five full stars is that some elements started to feel repetitive after a while. Not in a way that I was annoyed or bored, but that it made me sigh with a „oh no, not again“. 

So, if you’re into intriguing storylines, political scheming, plots with twists and turns, betrayal, heartbreak and the beauty of architecture - here's your sign, to give it a try. 

This was epic. 


I know what you're thinking. The book is intimidating in every aspect - the size of it, the premise of following the building of a cathedral over more than 1.000 pages and it being a historical fiction set in medieval England. Doesn't sound that appealing, right? But hell, it was. 


This is one of the most compelling novels l've come across for a long time and I was not prepared to get as invested as I was - Especially because, I picked it up out of pure coincidence. I spotted it at our book swap shelf at work, while I was waiting for my coffee to be ready. The title was vaguely familiar and the author was recommended to me already, so I took it home with me. I started with zero expectations but massive fears of being bored and wasting my time.  Fortunately, I was wrong. After the first 100 pages I was already weirdly fascinated, and hooked to continue. On page 428 I realized how captivated I really was. I can tell you that detailed because I literally screamed about what was happening. 

It's for sure not a quick read, but I don't regret the time spent. Because looking back on the journey, I loved watching all the litte pieces of plot slowly falling in place. I adored Folletts writing and his ability to start with a bunch of individual and unrelated character arcs and wrap them up the way he did. I enjoyed the tension and drama he created. I’m awe-struck about the level of details Follett weaved into the story and the character development. And speaking of characters, I certainly loved how mostly every character is important and a MC of his/her own (and that's probably one of the reasons the book is as long as it is), instead of having one MC and several side characters that just exist to support him. I appreciated that the heroes were failable and made mistakes and morally grey decisions. That he showed not all heroes have to wear capes and swing swords. And that the villains were actually loathsome and threatening. 


Despite a lot of misogynism and violence against women (induced by the setting and timeframe) there were also a lot of scenes with female empowerment and vicious, vengeful, clever, cunning women pulling the strings from the background. This is probably one of the aspects I enjoyed most. Because I feel like, especially in more modern work, we see the same archetype of the bold, sassy yet naive and insufferable FMC sold as strong but is then rescued by her love interest, over and over again. 

The only thing that holds me back from giving five full stars is that some elements started to feel repetitive after a while. Not in a way that I was annoyed or bored, but that it made me sigh with a „oh no, not again“. 


So, if you’re into intriguing storylines, political scheming, plots with twists and turns, betrayal, heartbreak and the beauty of architecture - here's your sign, to give it a try. 

The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect—a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.

A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett’s historical masterpiece.
--front flap

Scordatura

Good intentions, poor execution. The book offers an interesting look at medieval and monastic life, with descriptions of world- and churchbuilding I found quite fascinating - yet all of it was ruined for me with very poor characterisation, developments in the plot consisting of problems that are solved way too easily and this occurs far too often. Characters are often incredibly naive (even the ones that should have been likeable) and major moments for character development are ignored or handled in disturbingly weird ways (one character has a very brief mourning period).

Kwan Ann Tan

10/10 for cathedral building & political/religious intrigue, 1/10 for bad writing of women and sex in general

The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect—a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.
 
A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett’s historical masterpiece.

--back cover

Most of the ratings I've seen for this are either really high, or really low. I guess I'm going in between. 

Actual Rating: 3.5

First of all, I adore a good historical fiction read. Lately, it's all I've been reading and it feels nice to know that the people and places I'm reading about actually existed once upon a time. Plus I was also interested in medieval England and Gothic cathedrals.

What I really liked about this was overall feel it gave me. The plot was miserable and tragic, filled with soap-opera twists and predictable schemes, like illegitimate marriage, love triangles, politics, secret children, secret wives, witchcraft, murders, rape, arson and sweet sweet revenge. Even if the situations were a little too mainstream, they certainly were a thrill to read. The characters get quite a lot of shit over many many years, and the worst things happen to the best people, but still in the end, the good always wins. Even after all that happened, they still triumphed in the end. That element of hope and survival was charming.

The story is set in succeeding years, and we watch how they grow and change and develop and how their paths cross and diverge, and how their actions can result to many many subplots. Back stories open and close subtly, and Follet deserves cake for that. The characters are very richly described, very real and detailed and admirable. The men, Tom and Jack and Will are so conflicted and colorful. And the women, in an era where they are still shunned, are strong willed and successful!

But, I had a little problem with the length. I felt like it was waaay to long, and that he was beating around the bush and describing meaningless scenes that really did not contribute much to the plot as a whole.

All in all, great story, fun to read.

Stephanie Honour

Overall, amazing! I love Follet's ability to develop characters into believeable, lovable beings that you want to continue learning about. My one critique would be that the novel moves too quickly sometimes. 5 to 10 years are skipped at a time, and characters die or fade away before I'm ready to say goodbye. Can't wait to read the next one.

This is one of my favorite stories of all time, following the family of Tom Builder as they search to build a Cathedral in the 10th century.

Kirby Handley 

Arianna M

First of all, the writing is mediocre when it is not downright boring. And for what concerns the plot - well, to say it's repetitive would be a big euphemism. It's all the same story, again and again and again, and every so-called plot twist is so predictable it's uncanny, up until the point where during the last hundred pages I wanted to shoot myself, or the author, because even if the story was over, finished, ended - there it was, starting again, with yet another unbelievably trite plot twist. Also, Follett clearly has no concept of character development, or of shades. Characters are all good or all evil, black or white, no grays. Even the flaws the writer tries to shove down our throats, if they belong to the good guys... well, they're flimsy at best. Do not go looking for redeeming qualities in the bad ones, because there's going to be none whatsoever, either. And if all this weren't enough, there's more to this bad writing: it's like Mr. Follett forgets what he already wrote! For one, he explains every single plot point. Thank you, but no thank you. Don't treat your readers like they're stupid. Secondly, he repeats the same concepts over and over again, with the same cheesy sentimentalism. Oh, and if that weren't enough, Follett has a disgusting obsession with rape.
Overall: this book is terrible. Don't waste hours of your life.

Shay Henrion

It was really long. And how many times can the building of a cathedral be hindered by THE SAME THING.

Sian Wadey

This is one of the most amazing books I have ever read! The characters are complex, some you love with all your heart, others you completely loathe! The way Ken Follett describes the amazing surroundings and the events that occur creates an incredible picture in your head, and when you reach the last page you just don't want it to end. Luckily, there's a sequel, which I've yet to read.

Marloes

Good lord, this was a peace of work and I've never been though anything like it. I'm so mixed about this book. At some points I hated it and considered to stop reading, and other times I loved it throughfully. Now, after finishing, I realize I love it but happy it's done 😂

Fraser Simons

This was a pretty huge slog until about 60% into it for me. Historical fiction is a tricky beast, for me. You can pretty much set your watch for the tropes, which definitely show up en masse in this one. 6-7 rapes, karmic Justice, evil bishops. I wonder now if this influenced a lot of historical fiction? Wouldn’t be surprised if this was the blueprint for a bunch of it, to be honest.

There is some satisfaction in the excellent plotting, which built up nicely. No doubt the thematic through line mirroring the starting and stuttering with interventions of antagonistic forces to Tom’s dream; so powerful, apparently, his fairly loveless ex wife felt it needed to be on her tongue at death. A Bold Statement. And it IS satisfying that everything comes around and we circle back to each event so that it gives more context, plot wise. But it also makes the fiction feel slightly manufactured as well. 

Things are a little to clean, even the dirt. 

It’s difficult to prioritize accuracy and then have multiple rapes and wild, random acts, many of which are sexual in nature and trite, such as the gratuitous, obligatory sadist. People really like to show “evil” dudes with that trope. But yet all this mess ties up into a neat bow. It’s a readers satisfaction, and what bumped it up to 3 stars. 

Though long, it did clip along pretty well, I found. Something I hadn’t expected, actually. The first chapter was a bit long, but I mean, it’s historical fiction and we need to be situated, so I don’t mind. It took me a long, long time though, to find something to care about. Especially after the very convenient plot points at the beginning that come ‘round. It’s so tropey at the times that you can pretty much see every character arc and plot point in the distance. You just trot on to see how nice the thing you’re about to witness has been constructed, pretty much. 

Once I did, and things started to come together - albeit with the feeling of a jigsaw puzzle, rather than a painting trying to capture a historical moment - it did start to carve out some agency for the people I liked. I think every woman only got agency after being dominated, and I can hear the men shout about historical accuracy—in fiction. Where the cathedrals aren’t real. And the characters never existed. The writer can choose to decide what is important and what isn’t. 

The verisimilitude isn’t that granular. We don’t follow the characters during plenty of events. So the choice to have gratuitous sex and sexual assault and what not, is the author saying this is important for the overall story. This means it’s fair for the reader to judge them within the fiction as established. And at the very least I can say I’m not interested in seeing that and I’m 100% sure women achieved agency through other means, even “historically”.

Power through surviving is all well and good, I was just so tired every time a chapter started happily and knew that the plotting demanded it’d end shitty for them, and if it was a woman, well assault was probably going. I understand that the guy is shitty and bad. We’ve seen him be that way the whole time. Not everything has to be cyclical and directly opposing to their initial action. No one really changes, they just wait for their own karmic Justice. If you’re bad, anticipate the down fall. If you’re good, you’ll earn it, but you’ve got good odds. Unless you’re a minor character. 

I feel like this is the epitome of a 3 star book. Had I read it ten years ago or more, my mind probably would have been blown. These days, though, I am looking for a bit more than what all historical fiction has to offer and exceptional plotting.

The Pillars of the Earth

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