The Evening and the Morning
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Average rating4.1
#1 New York Times Bestseller An Amazon Best Book of 2020 The thrilling and addictive prequel to The Pillars of the Earth--set in England at the dawn of a new era: the Middle Ages "Just as transporting as [The Pillars of the Earth] . . . A most welcome addition to the Kingsbridge series." --The Washington Post It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns. In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined. A young boatbuilder's life is turned upside down when his home is raided by Vikings, forcing him and his family to move and start their lives anew in a small hamlet where he does not fit in. . . . A Norman noblewoman marries for love, following her husband across the sea to a new land, but the customs of her husband's homeland are shockingly different, and it soon becomes clear to her that a single misstep could be catastrophic. . . . A monk dreams of transforming his humble abbey into a center of learning that will be admired throughout Europe. And each in turn comes into dangerous conflict with a clever and ruthless bishop who will do anything to increase his wealth and power. Thirty years ago, Ken Follett published his most popular novel, The Pillars of the Earth. Now, Follett's masterful new prequel The Evening and the Morning takes us on an epic journey into a historical past rich with ambition and rivalry, death and birth, love and hate, that will end where The Pillars of the Earth begins.
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4 primary books5 released books#0 in Kingsbridge
Kingsbridge is a 5-book series with 4 released primary works first released in 1800 with contributions by Ken Follett.
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This was my first Ken Follett book and it was just wow! It was superb and I definitely will be reading the rest of his books!
It was beautifully written with some fantastic (and some not so fantastic!) characters.
I loved Edgar, Ragna and Aldred. On the other hand, I despised Degbert, Dreng, Wynstan, Wigelm. Honestly the four of them were absolutely vile. Wilwulf nor Gytha were any better! Ken did an excellent job portraying these characters in such a way, that it elicited such strong emotions in me! (I know that if I'd read it with my fellow Pigeonholers, I would have made plenty of comments along the way (It was on PH a while back, but unfortunately I didn't get a spot, so had to make do with reading on my own.)!
Anyway, despite how they were repeatedly knocked down, I loved the fighting spirit Edgar, Ragna and Aldred continuously showed.
I loved that the book contained a couple of strong female characters (Ragna obviously and Edgar's mother, Mildred.) Was nice to see that, they atleast, wouldn't let themselves be walked all over unlike certain other characters!
Anyway, I really enjoyed this and definitely would highly recommend it to others.
A bit of an enjoyable weird one. Weird because, compared to other authors I recently read, Follett is a bit pedestrian as a writer. Ok it is years since I read his other stuff but I remembered him better. The characters are very black or white, the dialog capable but not memorable, however, he does move the narrative arc along, and for a thriller writer turned to Historical novelist, you have to give him credit that he chooses to have a loose plot rather than some strong theme that drives the beginning middle and end. I trust that it was well researched and it does seem a labour of love and the Pre-Norman period of Britain is an interesting one (I now know what a Hue & Cry is...) I will line up his more famous sequal to my TBR list
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