The Pillars of the Earth

I'll start off by saying that I am a sucker for a good historical fiction and this book did no disappoint! It sucked me in from page one and kept me hooked (for the most past) all the way through the 900+ pages. My favorite characters by far were Ellen, Jack and Aliena. I just felt most connected to their story and therefore most invested in what happened to them. I also enjoyed the Prior Phillip character and to a lesser extent Tom. I just found myself liking and being annoyed equally with Tom and just could never connect with the character, if that makes sense! I loathed William, which I suppose was the point of the character, but I found him to be a little to much of a characacher by the end. I wish perhaps the author had done something more with the character then just the typical one dimensional “bad guy” thing.

When I read a historical fiction novel I love to have a lot of details, what they ate, describe their clothes, buildings and things of that nature. There was a lot of that is this book and I just loved that, but I also found there was a little to much sometimes about the cathedral, a little TO much description that went on for page after page and after awhile I found myself sort of skimming over all that to get back to the dialogue between characters, but that is just a small criticism! Overall I really enjoyed the novel and will most definitely be reading World Without End and would recommend Pillars to anyone who loves historical fiction.