I didn't think Ken Follett could follow up The Pillars of the Earth very well, but he proved me wrong. Pillars is still one of the all time greats, but I loved World without End. It had tremendous characters, story lines, people you loved and people you hated....I am a big fan, this one is a winner.....

I had greatly enjoyed Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, and so I was looking forward to World Without End. While not exactly a sequel, his second medieval novel picks up in the same town of Kingsbridge two and a half centuries later, so that his first novel is the local history and its characters the ancestors of the characters of his second novel. It completely lived up to my expectations, and held me rapt. Once again he has woven a fascinating tale of love, ambition (both lofty and venial), and intrigue around an engaging set of characters, and enriched with a depth of historical context. While engrossed in the struggles of an independent-minded woman, an excellent architect with a poor start in life, a brutish knight, and a scheming prior, I inadvertently learned a heap of history, such as the economic development of medieval English boroughs, the wars of King Edward III in France, and the principles of medieval medicine. It was fascinating to me to learn things like how the wool trade gave way to the cloth trade, how feudal lords lost control of their tenant laborers, what the experience of the Plague was like, and how brutal the English invaders were in France. (That last item gives me a new appreciation for the famous Rodin sculpture The Burghers of Calais.) These historical details are not the least bit pedantic, but are vividly described, forming integral background to the rich tapestry of Follett's gripping characters and story. Through a span of a generation, the story explores, among other themes, the interesting question of what options were available for a smart, independent woman in the mid-14th century. I thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating historical tale.

Just to add a point here, many of the criticisms of this book deal with how similar it is toi Pillars. Well, thats true, but the entire point of buying this book for most people is to get a repetition of the Pillars experience. So draw your own conclusions...

Why would such an excellent writer feel compelled to write soft-porn sex scenes in otherwise terrific historical fiction? It just ruined the whole book for me.

There is nothing I like more then finding a book I can really sink my teeth into. I love it when a book is so good I find myself thinking about it when I'm not reading it. I love when a book is an easy read not because the content is frivalous, but the writing is fluid and well paced. I love books that have epic story lines and diverse characters. I love historical fiction that is well researched but not "preachy". As a relatively slow reader, I love being able to read 100+ pages in one go without batting an eye. I love this book because it provides all these things.
If you're looking for a book with emotional depth and contemplative prose, move along.
If you're looking to invest yourself in a long and thrilling tale, look no further.
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Suggested With: An oversized chair and a tankard of ale. ;)

Even though the characters are different, set later in time, you're able to get right back in the story like its prequel. I was initially disappointed that the story didn't pick up where it left off, but once I got into it, it was so much better! Again, the architectural details and Follett's ability to really "put you in the story" is the best part.

An amazingly real biography of a time so far away! This story will envelop you to the very end! Although it ties in with Pillars of the Earth, it functions brilliantly as a novel in its own right. Own it, Read it, LOVE IT!

one of the very best novels i have read. the central themes of english life in the 14th century: farming: the serfs and nobles: the church and royalty: building cathedrals and bridges: men and women relationships ............are superbly told

I just finished World Without End and I'm now mourning it. I'm so sad that it's over. I savored every page of that book...couldn't wait to crawl in bed at night and devour every page. I think I liked it even better than Pillars of the Earth and I loved that book. I crave a sequel desperately.

I still prefer Pillars of the Earth, but this one is one great novel and stands on its own.

Follett has done it again, taken me to a place & time I can only read about... He's stimulated my mind, with his gift for writing, He had me hooked with Eye of the Needle, I've been a fan ever since!
The only bad thing I can say about this book was having it come to an end! :-(
Thank you & Blessings!
Rena

Boring, repetitious, badly written, same material than Pillars of Earth, the good-good, the bad-bad, the falling of something -- cathedral, bridge, lots of rape and sex, always told the same way

I totally enjoyed Pillars of the Earth and now I feel the same about this book. I find it very interesting. I recommend this to anybody who just wants a good book.

I'm enjoying this book, and have almost finished it, but I have noticed two odd things while reading it.

The first odd thing is that Follett has apparently recycled all the major characters from "The Pillars of the Earth." Of course, they have different names, family origins, and circumstances, but they are still the same-old same-old. To wit, the duelling Cain and Abel brothers, with one brother incredibly good in all aspects, and the other brother incomprehensibly bad in all aspects. As I recall, in "The Pillars of the Earth" these were the children of John Builder. In the present work, they are Merthin and HIS brother. The main heroes, John Builder and the Lady Aliena, reappear here as Merthin and Caris. And so does the evil, repellent woman who is incredibly gifted in power politics, forced to tell her stupid male relatives what they must do in order to gain power.

The second area of concern will probably (like the first) not matter much to most readers: anachronism. Basically, this means "contradicting the time-frame of the story." If you are filming a tale about Ancient Greece, it is a major anachronism if the camera catches someone wearing a watch.

The problem here goes much deeper than extras with a Rolex. All of the major heroes of this allegedly medieval saga are deeply concerned with issues which belong to modern times, most particularly feminism. The problem here does not lie with feminism, or the attitude towards slavery, but with ANACHRONISM. A woman in the Middle Ages would hardly have obsessed over the choice between career and marriage, but the heroine of this novel does. She also obsesses about the unequal status of men and women -- a concern which had not even been verbalized in medieval times.

A counterexample would be Mary Renault, who did her level best to try to capture and present actual people from Ancient Greece, in her many excellent historical novels. She worked hard at it, to the point of trying to make her English prose echo, somehow, the sounds and rhythms of Attic Greek.

Ken Follett didn't even try to do something like this with regard to the Middle Ages in Europe. He gave us, instead, a bunch of 21st century people dressed up in medieval finery, and so, in my opinion, he fails as a writer of historical novels.

In fact, I suddenly suspect that the incredibly verbose Anne Rice is better at recreating ancient worlds than Ken Follett.

Nevertheless, I'll undoubtedly finish reading "World Without End." This review has concentrated on two negative points, but neglecting the positive aspects: Ken Follett can really tell a tale, and his characters really capture your heart and your imagination.

As an engineer and an avid fan of historical novels I have found both novels exceptional. Follett delivers exceptional characters and captivating delivery, but he also discusses real engineering issues. Who knows, perhaps this is how builders first came to struggle with wind loading and river scour. Real issues handled in a manner that makes them approachable by the reader. I am very impressed with the level of research put forward. I consider both books among the best I have read.

Ken Follet is a master. I loved this read; I couldn't put it down. Pillars of the Earth is even better; that is one of my all time favorites!

I believe this book may be better than Pillars of the Earth. It is similar, but has a different main story line. The characters and plot are rich and overlap. I was always surprised with the story events. It is a long book, but worth the read!!

I read "Pillars of the Earth" at least ten years ago and remember enjoying it, though I recall it had a number of holes in the plot large enough to drive a truck through. But that was of no import to me, since the same is true of many books and virtually all movies. I didn't read "Pillars" because I was looking for accurate history anymore than I enjoyed the movie "Gladiator" despite its complete rewrite of the reign of the Roman Emperor Commodus. Both were rip-roaring yarns, with interesting characters and plots that barreled along at 150 miles an hour. Which is why the plot holes don't matter - you're just along for the ride.

"World Without End" is equally enjoyable, and in fact more satisfying in the end because Follett has matured as a writer and at least to my eyes there were no groaners when it came to plot twists and resolutions. The characters were interesting, many were sympathetic (although I never warmed up to the lead female character, Caris), and while Follett undoubtedly mixed up minor aspects of the history of the 14th century, none of it was so obvious that it became a distraction. The book really can't be called a sequel: the action occurs two centuries after "Pillars," and other than the town of Kingsbridge and the cathedral everything else is different. One could certainly pick this book up without having read "Pillars" and not miss a thing.

Happily, Follett keeps his typically gratuitous and dopey sex scenes to no longer than a paragraph or so, which is a vast improvement over some of his earlier works where he felt obligated to subject the reader to pages of pointless smut. I'm no prude - but get on with the story already, okay? Unfortunately, Follett instead provides us with a seemingly endless description of a man being flayed alive, which, in retrospect, was probably more useless to the story than three pages of sex, so maybe I shouldn't complain about the sex scenes...

As far as underlying themes go - Follett seems to be exploring the question of how Europe managed to emerge from centuries of religious theocracy and grope its way from the Middle Ages toward the Enlightenment. The religious characters in the book are not presented sympathetically the way the Philip character was treated as a hero in "Pillars." Instead, Follett presents innumerable examples of religious people insisting on idiotic medical procedures, engaging in sexual misconduct, and generally getting in the way of progress. While there is no doubt that such people did, in fact, exist at the time, as they certainly continue to plague us today, Follett does nothing to present a balanced view. I'm no fan of organized religion, but it is unfair to not present any intelligent, intellectually curious, and forward thinking clergy.

That being said, the book moves along swiftly with little or no lags. I found the subplots involving the Gwenda character the most interesting, and looked forward to seeing her cleverly extract herself from one predicament after another.

All in all, a pretty good read. Certainly, if you enjoyed "Pillars," you will enjoy this book, and for all the same reasons.

Absolutely friggin fantastic. He has outdone himself after the equally fantastic Pillars of the earth. Buy them both.

I'll make this brief. There really isn't a need to read Follett's previously released volume to understand this follow-up. It stands well on its own. A World Without End continues the saga of a Cathedral town in the Middle Ages. The story is beset with political and humanistic intrigue during dangerously dark times. War, famine, plague are all unleashed upon the main characters. The struggle to not only survive the latest onslaught, but to rise above it. The tenacity of the human spirit is set against the despicable destruction of ignorant beliefs. I really enjoyed this novel. Despite it's length, it's quite easy to fly right through it. Follett's sentence structure is anything but superfluous. This works well to plow through anything that may cause a reader to put such a hefty word count. I'm hoping that Ken Follett will write yet another novel to follow this great piece of illuminating historical fiction.

The last book of Ken Follet's I read was "Eye of the Needle" and it was wonderful. World Without End and Pillars of the Earth were very long and very well researched and I did enjoy the description of cathedral building, but the characters lacked dimension and were not fully developed. Just when you think you know them, they do something so totally "out of character" for the character they have been built up to be, that I found it frustrating. Perhaps I am being to picky...all in all, it was a good read.

I don't have time to read all 400 reviews here. But I do find that amazon reviews can be very entertaining and enlightening, my own certainly not included. Some of the self styled critics in these reviews turn out in depth analysis that outshines anything I ever wrote in college and perhaps they hope to gain employment somewhere in this fashion. Best of luck, some of you have surprising talent yourselves.

I am one of the many people who have read all of Mr. Follett's books over the years. He deservedly made his name with those early espionage thrillers, then he seemed to lose his focus or intrest in that genre.

Don't get me wrong, there were still gems and ALL of them were worth a casual read. Usually Mr. Follett is just not a deep writer, and I don't expect him to be. He is fast paced and entertaining and that is all I ask of him.

Heck, I read Pillars so long ago that it wouldn't have mattered whether I had read it before or not. But World Without End, while hardly deep and not as historically intriguing as some top writers might accomplish, is still good entertainment and a very nice daily distraction. If the plot is a bit predictable, who cares?

Thank you for your books Mr. Follett. Don't expect the Nobel Prize, but I know you have worked very hard in your life to crank out these books and I will certainly keep reading them. Hopefully, your publishers have rewarded you well.

As others "Pillars" lovers have mentioned World Without End turns out to be what we could have only hoped - a terrific follow up to a one of the great novels ever penned. WWE actually brings the reader right back to Shiring and Kingsbridge without missing a step and the storytelling by Follett is, as in Pillars, captavating and ever so enjoyable. Could he possibly have one last one to complete a tremedous trilogy ?

I read POTE several years ago in paperback and thoroughly enjoyed the book. I received WWOE last Christmas and it sat on my bookshelf for sometime. About a week ago, I picked up the book and haven't been able to put it down. My interest is normally in science fiction and horror i.e. Stephen King, Authur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov, but Ken Follett has done an outstanding job with Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. I've been spending anywhere from 2-4 hours a night reading this book to the point my wife was concerned that I was staying up to late for work the next day. I'm probably down to my last 75 pages and will finish tonight. Excellent plot and character development. The different challenges each of the main characters faced during the time period was excruciating which caused me to keep reading. Life was just plain brutal during the 1300's.

Teriffic story - follow-up to Follet's "Pillars of the Warth" - well done

XTINT experience with this used book from an Amazon affiliate !

I'm giving this one star in spite of the fact I did not read it. Having read Pillars of the Earth, I knew well enough to stay away from the sequel. Ken needs an editor to help him figure out what it is he really wants to say, and to suggest that gratuitous sex scenes are really meant for porn novels. This guy keeps getting published because his books sell, even the bad ones. Those who have a history of profiting publishers get published.

Those looking for a quick read should look elsewhere, but then, the product description could have told you that. I read most of the text in the course of a day (with a lot of time devoted).

This is, of course, a sequel to Ken Follett's 80s classic "The Pillars of the Earth"; "Pillars" wrapped up its characters stories quite neatly, so Follett wisely decides to keep the setting, 200 years in the future, and trace the development of Kingsbridge. The first novel, set in the Anarchy that followed the death of Henry I, saw the area go from a monastery on a backroad on the edge of being usurped by the town of Shiring to a cathedral town with a bustling population, all under the wise guidance of the visionary Prior Phillip, while the displaced children of the Earl of Shiring struggled mightily to regain their birthright. Since then, the town continued to grow, until the reign of Edward III, but the main characters' sacred blood and institutions have, to a great extent, rotted. While some of the main good characters are in fact descendants of Jack and Aliena, the main line, the holders of the Shiring earldom, mostly seem to have become arrogant jerks typical of their social class (excepting Earl William, partly due to having a good wife); meanwhile, the Kingsbridge priory, which under Phillip was a force for good out to forge a new community and advance the cause of God and civilization, has become hidebound, held in the course of the novel by a series of conservatives liable to quash progress. Both are entirely realistic outcomes, and it's a nice bit of unsentimentalism (actually, there are a couple of elements here that almost feel like Follett cynically commenting on some of "Pillars"' more optimistic moments; here, there is also a devout, hardworking monk without selfish motives, but he is ruthlessly sidelined instead of advancing to the priorship through good fortune, as Phillip did). Even the foundations of the cathedral are flawed.

Our main characters are two brothers, Merthin and Ralph; Caris, the daughter of a prosperous merchant; and Gwenda, the daughter of a convicted thief. While playing in woods one day, they witness a battle between a knight named Sir Thomas Langley and some footsoldiers of Isabella, Queen-consort of the recently-deceased Edward II of England; Langley trusts Merthin to guard the location of a secret letter (as a sidenote, as an historian, I was absolutely convinced I knew what the secret was (indeed, the characters speculate about it), but I was surprised; well done, Mr. Follett), and then secludes himself in the monastery. Unlike the mystery of Jack's father's death in "Pillars", this mystery is pretty slight, but the individual characters' stories are fairly strong.

As others have noted, one can certainly see certain character types recurring (some, such as the similar profession and proficiency of Jack and his descendent Merthin, are actually noted in-text). One can line up Aliena and Caris (and, to a certain extent, Gwenda); William and Ralph (although Ralph seems somewhat more sympathetic, although he is ultimately just as vile); Warren Bigod and Godwyn, etc. The last of those is rather interesting, since he initially seems to be a good monk in the style of Phillip in the first book, and is even something of a viewpoint character early on, but he quickly becomes a ruthless obstacle. Merthin and Caris' (extremely) lengthy, (extremely) troubled courtship is very similar to Jack and Aliena's, including each having a sojourn to the continent (apart, in the case of this novel), and lengthy periods where marriage is impossible; Caris has an additional wrinkle, since, like many romance heroines, she isn't sure marriage is what she wants, with this taking on particular significance in an era when women became property (many have noted that there's a lot of 21st century feminism present here, and that's true, to be sure, much as with most modern entertainment). Gwenda (despite some similarities with Aliena) is a very different character than can be found in "Pillars of the Earth" however, and she often seems to suffer for it in the narrative (that's on top of all her literal sufferings in the narrative); she doesn't really belong in the same world as Merthin, Caris and Ralph, all ambitious middle-classmen with big dreams success (building England's tallest structure, independence, earldom), while Gwenda, the luckless serf, just wants freehold tenantry (which is as big a dream as most in her class will ever realize). Her narrative coequals reach epic heights and depths; she goes as low, but never gets nearly as high, and she is mostly separate from the lives of Merthin and Caris, the latter nominally being her close friend. Through her, Follett does chronicle a revolution in the land organization of England, brought on by the Black Death.

The first book was heavy on cathedral architecture description (something Follett has an evident passion for); there's less of that here, but a lot of talk about bridges, which is actually quite interesting. Follett's writing style is about the same as always, familiar to those who've read "Pillars" or any of his past work; as many, many other reviewers have noted, there's a lot of explicit sex (as "Canterbury Tales" will tell you, people in Edward II's time were as randy as today), and some very gruesome violence, most notably a graphic description of a man being flayed alive. It's compulsively readable.

This is a five-star book; not a five-star in the way that "The Pillars of the Earth" was, perhaps, but still an excellent read.

I am totally satisfied with everything I've ever ordered from Amazon. Ken Follett is an excellent writer that will have you into his books so quickly, you never want to put it down. I order the hard copies so I can reread them again. Always perfect shape and you don't have to wait forever to get whatever you're looking for with Amazon.
Keep it up guys.....you're the best,
Thank you for all the choices you give us avid readers,

I enjoy escaping to another place and time through reading a good book. And with over 1000 pages, this book provides a lengthy escape. It also provides some graphic violent details and sexual encounters (including both willing and unwilling participants). The length of the story was not a problem, as the story did not drag on. I did, however, have a problem accepting the part where the nuns head off alone across Europe to track down the Bishop just to tell him that the priests had stolen their money. The 2 women dress in disguises and fall in with the French army as they march on towards battle. Yes, the nuns were travelling to see the Bishop who was currently involved in the war, and the 2 women were following the troups across the country just to tattle on the priests back home. Whatever. So I didn't appreciate Follett's crude details at times, nor the diversion from Kingsbridge, but it was overall a good read.

Marvelous sequel to The Pillars of the Earth. Captivating conflicts, intriguing characters, detailed descriptions--I felt as if I were back in time, living in the 14th century. A masterful storyteller.

Having read "The Pillars of the Earth" earlier this year, I didn't wait long to pick up this volume. The first three hundred pages were very reminiscent of the first book, but then it came into its own. Contrary to the few reviewers on this site who panned the book as dull and its characters as poorly developed, I enjoyed the book thoroughly. In fact, this 60 year old college professor was very sad when the book ended. I felt like I had lived the main characters lives with them and that I knew them like friends or relatives. Yes, Follett inserted many anachronisms in speech and sensibility. But the book makes you realize the humanity of those who lived in those days and the constraints they lived under. The two main characters - Merthin and Caris - are very unusual in their times. However, that makes them stand out in as individuals. Most of their peers believed in spirits and potions. The medieval doctors in the book believed in humors and bleeding, beliefs that lasted into the 18th century. But there must have been many skeptics during this century, like the two protagonists. To follow up on the novel, I'm re-reading Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," written later in the 14th century in which "World Without End" takes place. The number of lecherous monks, adulterous wives and libidinous episodes is rather high in Chaucer. The sophistication of the people narrating Chaucers "Tales" correlates well with the advanced consciousness of Follett's characters. But Follett is writing in the 21st century, for us. His novel speaks to us and is not intended to be limited to what was current thinking in 1360. He is a great storyteller. If you can't enjoy this book, I feel sorry for you.

After reading Pillars of The Earth and enjoying it immensely, I had to buy Mr. Follets second offering. I truly liked how the first book laid flat while reading it. The second book, after a couple hundred pages also has this nice feature, even though it is a hard cover and over 1000 pages.

It is amazing to me that the human race has continued when you read how they only bathed once a year. I felt the dialogue was more current for now than that time. It keeps you interested in how the various characters will survive the latest mishap and what will eventually do them in. A good read all the way.