World Without End

“Whether I've been good or bad, I don't think God will be fooled by a last-minute change of heart.”

‘'World Without End'' is the second installment in Follett's Kingsbridge series and what a world it is....Set during one of the most turbulent times in European History, amidst the beginning of the Hundred Years' War and the nightmare of the Black Death that swept over the continent causing the deaths of an unthinkable percentage of the population, it is one more example of why Historical Fiction is the Genre of the Genres when done right. And who can write better than Ken Follett who owns the crown in this field...

In my opinion, what differentiates his writing is the focus he places on the characters. He doesn't perform a History lecture, but builds his protagonists around the depicted era with compassion, respect and immense skill. His descriptive passages and the way he composes the dialogues throughout the novel should be the example for any writer who'd like to make a foray to the tormented Historical Fiction genre. So, ‘'World Without End'' is no exception to the rule. He paints with words and even the readers who have little knowledge of the era and the events that shaped it will find themselves captivated and immediately drawn to the action. However, in my humble opinion, there is a difference that places it in a significant distance behind ‘'The Pillars of The Earth'' and this is the characters. Hence the 4 stars.

The main couple, Caris and Merthin, are nowhere near Aliena and Jack. Especially Caris seems like an average copy of Aliena and her character failed to attract my sympathy. Same thing happened with Merthin and don't even get me started on Gwenda, Ralph and Godwyn. The way I saw it, they came across like badly drawn versions of ‘'The Pillars of the Earth'' protagonists and they were the only reason that prevented me from fully enjoying the novel. Caris is not Aliena, Merthin is not Jack, Thomas in not Philip, Godwyn is not Waleran, Ralph is not William, no matter how much they ‘‘tried'' to be. The only characters that attracted my attention were Mattie Wise and Mother Cecilia. The book was made into a TV series in 2012 but was nowhere near as successful as ‘'The Pillars of the Earth''. Tom Weston-Jones portrayed Merthin and Charlotte Riley portrayed Caris. I've seen a number of their roles and they both seem to have the same expression in every role they've played. Namely, the ‘'I-only have -one expression with my googly eyes-because I can't act -for the life of me'' style and they managed to make the tormented lovers even more boring than their novel counterparts so kudos to them....I think....

‘'A Column of Fire'', the third novel in the Kingsbridge series, has been sitting quietly in its place in my TBR fortress since October, waiting for its turn. It'll have to wait until Easter but I am sure that it won't disappoint me....

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com

Felépítésében pontosan olyan, mint A katedrális, csak történetvezetésben rosszabb. Sokkal rosszabb. Olyan érzésem volt, mintha Follett szeme előtt az a cél lebegett volna, hogy az első résznél is hosszabb legyen a folytatás. Túl bő lére van eresztve, ezáltal teljesen érdektelenné válik, tulajdonképpen unalomba fullad. Fele ennyi oldalon talán izgalmasabb lett volna.
Nem csodálom, hogy az író félt nekiállni a második könyvnek. Valóban nehéz – s most már látható is, hogy képtelenség – utolérni A katedrális zsenialitását. Nem is vártam, hogy ugyanakkora élményt nyújtson, de azért ennél lényegesen többre számítottam. Kár érte.

I loved this more than the first even though it's very formulaic to the first one. Instead of building the church, building a bridge over water and building a spire to the church are the main themes this time. All of the characters are extremely interesting and the evil Ralph is probably the most hate-able antagonist since Joffrey Baratheon. I loved every single page of this book and Follett is definitely a favorite of mine.


My Favorite books this year so far:
1. Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
2. World Without End by Ken Follett
3. A Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie
4. The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan
5. The Dragons of Deepwood Fen by Bradley Beaulieu

I was a few chapters away from finishing this tome and decided to spend eight quid on the television series. I can say that the book is much richer in content and the acting in the book a helluva lot better than the TV series of the same name even though the author was the consultant on the series.

This book is a real page-turner and I found it difficult to put down. Ken Follet's way of bringing the characters and their stories to life grabs you in a neck hold and does not let you go.
I Love this book and would love a third in the Kingsbridge series.

WARNING!! ANIMAL ABUSE!!! graphic, in chapter 90, I think (my audiobook doesn't have chapters), it's a passage after “Gwenda walked to Earlscastle on a baking hot day. She knew what Ralph wanted her for, and the prospect made her miserable. As she crossed the drawbridge into the castle, the rooks seemed to laugh derisively at her plight.”I love Ken Follett's books. [b:Eye of the Needle 92364 Eye of the Needle Ken Follett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327939511l/92364.SY75.jpg 395229] was the first book of his I ever read, and it was masterly. Oh my. Then I read [b:A Dangerous Fortune 825508 A Dangerous Fortune Ken Follett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387637715l/825508.SY75.jpg 2627197] which wasn't an agent thriller, but a historical, and... wow. So, when I found [b:The Pillars of the Earth 5043 The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1) Ken Follett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1576956100l/5043.SY75.jpg 3359698] I was overjoyed. And Ken didn't fail me. It was amazing! It just made things better than I am a medievalist (Thanks, dr Tolkien) and I love cathedrals... it was like written to me.So, of course I had to read the second book. But... it wasn't about the same people, and it wasn't (much) about cathedrals, and they killed the dog in the beginning, so... I didn't come long with reading it.Now I have read it. I hate Ralph. He's one of the most dastardly villains I've read about. Now, he's pretty typical Ken Follett villain, but he's good with the villains. There are several in this book. All those people with too much power and too little compassion. Lady Phillippa is absolutely correct. A person with no compassion and kindness is not a man. Not even a human being.Ken Follett is very formulaic, but I like his formula :-D

An especially good read for 2020, given the parallels between the events of the book / the era in which it's set, and recent events, showing how similar we were to our ancestors of ~700 years ago. It follows the same template as others in this series, but with enough difference in the details to keep it enjoyable.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book. While the story was good, I quit listening (Audible) because I could tell it was going to be a book full of more tragedy without justice than I can stand. It may be realistic, but it's not enjoyable to me. I was a third of the way though at 15 hrs. into the 45 hr. audiobook (Ch. 29 of 91) so I felt like I gave it a pretty good chance. I was hopeful that I was prepared for what to expect (after reading the first in the series) and could enjoy the great story. But I had enough. I'll possibly come back to it sometime in the future, but for now, I can find more enjoyable reads that are worth my time.
(This assumption was based on comparisons to the first book in the series which I couldn't decide if I loved or hated for the same reasons.)

Undoubtedly this sprawling novel is a great achievement in terms of plot, length and historical research, however I'm giving it 3 stars. It's readable but I found myself frustrated by Ralph and Philemon the panto villains who are Irredeemably nasty and always seem to scupper the plans of the heroic characters, the what seemed like an over-reliance on rape as a plot device, particularly in the first half. Not even well-written rape, just problematic rape. Finally, the mysterious letter. I'm not going to spoil it, but I would've liked some sort of explanation as to why Ken came up with that theory, as most novelists do tend to explain what's going on when they use real historic figures. As it was, it seemed like a bit of an irrelevant after thought. Think I preferred the first book, this one seemed to take me ages.

A decent story, clumsily written.

Ken Follett should not be allowed to continue writing. Two stars only because it was an easy read but, oh God, the man has a genius for stale, one-dimensional characters and predictable plots. It takes place during the plague and never once did I feel the terror of the situation. The deaths only happened to those that the story didn't really rely on and I honestly did not care once. Also, sexing up the middle ages should be a crime. Was there sex? Yes. Do we need a description of every one of the women's boobs and lots of inconsequential sex scenes? Aw heck no. Follett, please stop.

A rehash of the themes in The Pillars of the Earth but still enjoyable.

Soooooo long. And all about hitting people when they're down. It was nearly impossible to like any of the characters in the book. Caris cannot seem to make up her mind about anything and is really just a spoiled girl who takes. Gwenda was obnoxious and crazy. Making demands on friends to rally on her behalf for hopeless causes. Ralph was disgusting. Seriously disgusting. Godwyn and Philemon were probably the most repulsive characters I have ever come across in literature. Merthin, Caris's father Edmund and a handful of villagers were the ones I rooted for. The book kept my attention and I found it interesting, it was just a really long story of suffering.

Good, but seemed never ending.