The Pillars of the Earth
by Ken Follett
Finished on 25 January 2008. Filed under Adventure, Historical Setting, Romance.
It begins with a curse, a song and a hanging, and it builds into a magnificent adventure no reader will ever forget. At once a sensuous and enduring love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age, The Pillars of the Earth is without doubt Ken Follett's masterpiece, and a story of all time...
Check out The Pillars of the Earth at Amazon.
After-Thoughts
And that was the single longest story I've ever read as of yet—1076 pages. Being such a long story, I was surprised I did not get bored at any point throughout this story. The story captivated me from the prologue and it was hard to put the book down.
The Pillars of the Earth was based in 12th-Century Europe during an age of frequent civil wars, with the spotlight on the town of Kingsbridge. Other than the historical detail, it was a story of adventure and intense romance.
Part of what made it an intriguing tale were the various puzzles that slowly pieced themselves together as the story went on. Troubles continued to hit Kingsbridge one after the other over several decades but the "good people" managed to resolve problems one by one through tactic and luck—though not without immense time costs and casualties.
It was written from third-person point of view, but the focus switched between different characters so the reader could look at the world from different eyes. I was also impressed at the strength and power of women in such an era of male domination. The blurb above sums it all up. I'm looking forward to laying my hands on the next book of the series: World Without End... Kingsbridge 200 years later.
