The Pillars of the Earth

"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.

Great characters, especially Prior Philip and Tom Builder. I won't look at a cathedral the same way after reading this.

Rarely have I been privileged enough to take such a journey as this. This book has it all... literally. It would be nearly impossible to be disappointed by this book.

I have so many thoughts I ought not attempt any further review. Let me simply add, this is one of the most comprehensively written books I've read. Another epic of its caliber that comes to mind is The Company by Robert Littell.

I could not decide if I loved this book or hated it. I finished it (audiobook). I loved this epic-ness of this story, but I hated all the tragedy. Of course, every good story needs struggle and this may have been realistic, but it was too much for my enjoyment.

On a related note, two years after finishing this, I started the 2nd book in the series and decided to quit for similar reasons to why I did not love this book.

I enjoyed this book. Occasionally it seemed that the characters' motivations or reasoning was a little too over explained, but in general it was an entertaining story. I have liked this author's other books and plan to read the sequel to this.

The kind of epic novel that leaves you exhausted by the time you finish it. I thought the characters were well written, particularly Prior Phillip. Follett has obviously avoided using language of the period and this makes it an easy read (other than the length!). I found the descriptions of the cathedral building interesting and well researched. I did notice my reading slowing towards the last third, but it did pick up again and I rushed to finish it.

I agree with some of the 1-star reviewers that the book would have been even better had the characters been more deeply drawn and more nuanced, and found the summary of the plot by one of the reviewers on point (and hilarious) but, that said, and perhaps I have a special interest in King Stephen and the 12th century generally, I enjoyed the book ... in part by skimming throughout the sections describing building of the cathedral.

I wholeheartedly do love this book. I've read it twice and was quite caught up in it both times. I recommend it. I'll be reading the sequel, of course. And perhaps perusing other works by Follett.

I feel the hidden influence of Follett's ability to write successful mystery or thriller novels added enhancing factors to this novel, while also possibly contributing the few defects. The style can be a bit too abrupt at times, mostly being revealed through somewhat lacking dialogue. All the same, the plot is propelled at a steady and interesting pace with clever twists and turns. We're able to follow many characters and actually understand their motivations, all while not necessarily agreeing with them. I commend Follett for that ability, and his masterful use of foreshadowing. Only on a second read did I see how subtle it was at times.

My only real complaints:
Did they use the words “puke” and “sexy” in that time?
I feel for whoever had to edit 973 pages, but did no one notice these spelling errors? There were only 4 or 5, so not bad for a book of about 400k words. Maybe next printing they'll be gone.

Eh.

Let me just say, I really wanted to like this book. It wasn't bad, but I found it to be extremely frustrating, in large part because of the lack of moral complexity, particularly in regards to the one-dimensional, moustache-twirling villains, none of whom were believable as actual human. Their thirst for revenge for perceived humiliations and power wasn't presented as a believable motivation, but was a caricature taken to ridiculous extremes, basically so their schemes could function as reverse deux ex machina whose purpose was to service the plot by throwing obstacles and misfortunes in the protagonists' way.

Other than that, I thought that the character voices and the dialogue came off as way too modern for the setting, and I personally thought the long passages on architecture, while fascinating in a different context, took away from the plot. But neither of those things bothered me as much as the lack of moral complexity.

loved it! when I thought I didn't like it, by Job, it sucked me back in 3 pages later!
All the events and characters kept coming back full circle. Amazing book, I will recommend it to anyone & everyone.
I have never read Game of Thrones, but from what I have heard, if you liked those books, you will like this one!

This book was way too long winded for my liking. I found i could easily just gloss over pages (something i don't usually do) and not lose track of the plot. The story itself was ok, but for me the characters never really developed. The only reason I finished the novel was to see vile William meet his inevitable comeuppance - horrible man with no redeeming qualities at all. Think I will give the sequel a miss.

I did not really like this book but I am proud of myself for finishing it. I do not care about cathedral-building, I didn't find it to be an epic romance, and I hated every character. But hooray! I am done!

Loved it!

This book is freaking long! But it's worth it.. Can't put it down.

Not quite the intellectual book I was expecting, but interesting nonetheless.

Enjoyed it but found it too long and too repetitious in parts. Loved how he re-created the 12th century

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.

For great storytelling, it's hard to beat this one. I never thought I would enjoy a book about the building of a cathedral, but I loved this. You get drawn in and completely submerged, and even after 1100-plus pages, you still don't want it to end. The very best kind of popular fiction.

I got about 350 pages in, then quit the book. For the time period it's set in (medieval times), the book has way, way too much profanity and graphic scenes... rape etc. Too bad that what seemed like a great story was ruined by superfluous lewdness.

Huge novel. But well worth reading.

At Christmas my work does a blind secret Santa which basically means you buy a gift but not for a specific person. I foolishly chose a package that looked vaguely book shaped - and it turned out to be a copy of this book - which I have already read, albeit long ago - around 1992 by best guess.
Initially I though to consign it to re-gifting or selling on, but realised I could not remember a single detail about the book, other than it went into great detail about cathedral building - which interested me at the time, and still does for it's architectural and stonemasonry input. On this basis I though I would commit to the (almost) 1100 page reread.

I had initially rated it four stars, which is above my general 3 star rating for books read prior to joining Goodreads, which meant that in 2012 I recalled enjoying it more than averagely. On completing it this time, I felt that 4 stars was still correct, although it might have been 3.5 stars, rounded up.

This is a pretty thorough historical fiction, set in the years 1135-1174, with a prologue in 1123. Other readers have complained about the detail, but that is perhaps the part I enjoyed the most about this - plenty of detail around the cathedral, the stonemasonry and carpentry but also around the aspects of life in this period for the different people from serfs and poor townsfolk to the monks and the lords, even the small amount we saw of the King.

Based around the priory and village of Kingsbridge, which grew to a city, then reverted to a town and grew again to a city, the story follows many characters, and is written from the individual viewpoint of each, typically changing several times per chapter. The destruction of the old cathedral, the commencement of a new cathedral, and then the completing of the cathedral in a new style are the basis of the action. The primary characters who we see the perspective of are Tom Builder, Ellen, William Hamleigh and Prior Philip, then in the later part Jack Jackson and Aliena. There are a multitude of other characters who play parts through the entire book.

The book explores the complex relationships and politicking of the monks and with the Bishop and the Earl who all live locally and all compete for power. With the country in a continual civil war - Stephen challenging rival Maude to rule England, the Earl (William Hamleigh) battles to remain necessary to the King which allows him to act ruthlessly with the town of Kingsbridge, which he sees as a threat to his own city.

I won't outline more of the plot, as in fiction it is too easy to spoil the story. Probably the most annoying aspect of this book is the use of modern words in the dialogue - it just wasn't necessary, and breaks the historical spell so easily. The other minor annoyance was the recapping / repetition - towards the end of the book there were several occasions where characters make fundamental decisions, and the key events of the story we have just read are rehashed and set out as the basis for making the decision. It is somewhat insulting that the author doesn't think we can recall what we have just read sufficiently to understand the decisions made by the characters.

Glad I read this one again, but I doubt that I will pursue the other books in the series, which are awarded a range of ratings by those who enjoyed this book.

4 Stars