Product Description

"Ken Follett has 90 million readers worldwide. The Pillars of the Earth is his bestselling book of all time. Now, eighteen years after the publication of The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett has written the most-anticipated sequel of the year World Without End. In 1989 Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected. Critics were overwhelmed and readers everywhere hoped for a sequel. World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroad of new ideas about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race -- the Black Death. Three years in the writing, and nearly eighteen years since its predecessor, World Without End breathes new life into the epic historical novel and once again shows that Ken Follett is a masterful author writing at the top of his craft."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95 in eBooks
• Published on: 2007-10-09
• Released on: 2007-10-09
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

From Publishers Weekly
Eighteen years after Pillars of the Earth weighed in with almost 1,000 pages of juicy historical fiction about the construction of a 12th-century cathedral in Kingsbridge, England, bestseller Follett returns to 14th-century Kingsbridge with an equally weighty tome that deftly braids the fate of several of the offspring of Pillars' families with such momentous events of the era as the Black Death and the wars with France. Four children, who will become a peasant's wife, a knight, a builder and a nun, share a traumatic experience that will affect each of them differently as their lives play out from 1327 to 1361. Follett studs the narrative with gems of unexpected information such as the English nobility's multilingual training and the builder's technique for carrying heavy, awkward objects. While the novel lacks the thematic unity of Pillars, readers will be captivated by the four well-drawn central characters as they prove heroic, depraved, resourceful or mean. Fans of Follett's previous medieval epic will be well rewarded. (Oct.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
The sequel to Ken Follett’s best-selling Pillars of the Earth (1989) is equally compellingâ€"and equally long. World moves the action from the 12th to the 14th century, following the descendants of the earlier book’s main characters and continuing its use of architectural details as a way to explore themes of change and continuity. Critics praised the novel’s intricately constructed plot, lively pace, and overall exuberance, if at times the complex subplots overwhelm the main theme of stasis versus change. While some reviewers criticized Follett’s characters for being no more than pawns of larger forces, most agreed with the Washington Post’s assessment that "the ups and downs of [the characters’] lives are so well engineered that their lack of dimension isn’t a major problem." Though engaging on most levels, World and its 1,000 pages may be best suited for patient readers who don’t mind a book seemingly without end.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
John Lee gives a breathtaking performance of FollettÕs sequel to PILLARS OF THE EARTH. Two hundred years have passed, and fourteenth-century Kingsbridge is now a prosperous town, with its cathedral and priory still a central force. As the novel follows its four main characters from 1327 to 1361, medieval English life is slowly and thoroughly revealed. Lee gives stunning portraits of change-resistant churchmen, the hardships and superstitions of peasant life, the inequities of corrupt noblemen, and the grotesqueries of the Black Death. While creating wholly credible major and minor characters, Lee delivers FollettÕs intricate plots and subplots, making each detail fascinating, from medieval medicine and bridge-building to the surprisingly powerful role of women. Even after 36 CDs, listeners will be sorry to see this book end. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Medieval Soap Opera
This book made a great summer read! I found myself picking it up every chance I got because I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. There are many stories and characters (100's) intricately woven together. I imagine that if soap operas had existed in the middle ages, the storylines would have been similar. However, if you are looking for deep reading, World is not it. Despite the book's long length, this is very light, easy reading. For me, the most interesting parts of the book were the ones dealing with the plague and how it changed medieval society. One thing that sets this book apart from other historical novels I've read is that it deals with everyday people rather than royalty and the nobility. The main characters are Merthin and Ralph, brothers whose father is a former knight now reduced to poverty, Gwenda, a girl born into utter poverty who manages to survive anyway, and Caris, the daughter of a wealthy merchant.

Many readers have criticized the amount of "gratuitous" sex in the book. There are, at times, a good bit, but no more than one finds on T.V. these days. Also, I would hardly call the sex scenes explicit, but so badly written that they are almost comical. They seem to have been written from a adolescent male's point of view. Many other criticisms were from people who did not even finish the book. I don't think it is fair to write a crtical review of a book you did not bother to finish. If they had hung in there, they would have found that there as an explanation for everything that happened.

While I enjoyed this book a great deal, I gave it 4 stars because I felt that it was poorly edited. There was too much repetition in the book. For example, Philemon and Godwyn were described as being "obsequious" at least ten times making me wonder why someone didn't pick up a thesaurus. One also gets tired of reading about how plump Madge Webber is, that Gwenda looks like a rodent and other repititious physical descriptions of the many characters.

One other complaint I have is that the Catholic Church is portrayed as being corrupt. While there was quite a bit of corruption in the church at that time, they were not all bad and I wish there had been a few pious church leaders portrayed in the book to balance out the bad leaders.

If you are looking for a light read that will keep you hooked I think you will enjoy this book. I hope Mr. Follett will write another sequel. I would love to find out how Kingsbridge Priory survives Henry VIII and the Protestant Reformation.

World Without End
Slow at first. I made the big mistake of try to read it as I was still reading The Pillars or to try to go back an associate everything with it but once you give it it's own space it is very entretaining.

World Without End
This was one of the best books I have read in a while. It was even better than Pillars of the Earth. I recommend that anyone who reads the book should read Pillars of the Earth first in order for World Without End to make sense, because in the book they make references to people in the Pillars of the Earth. It will keep you up at night wondering what is going to happen next.