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World Without End (The Pillars of the Earth #2)

by Ken Follett (Goodreads Author)

4.17 of 5 stars 4.17 · rating details · 68,686 ratings · 6,815 reviews

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 tw...more

ebook, 1024 pages

Published October 9th 2007 by Dutton Books (first published 2007)

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Oct 14, 2011 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, historical-fiction, 2006-2010, ebooks, epic, romantical

Put some towels down because I sense a fully formed gush geyser about to spill all over this review. This book was fantastic and really did it for me. I loved it, all 1000+ pages, and I wouldn’t have minded if it was considerably longer (TWSS).

After more than loving The Pillars of the Earth (that’s right, I lurved it), I had tall hopes for this sorta sequel and let me tell you it was more than up to the task.

I was parched and hungry for a good meaty read. Well consider me gorged and my story...more

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Oct 15, 2007 Lynn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Pillars of the Earth fans

Shelves: british-history, historical-fiction

This "companion" novel to Follett's 1989 classic The Pillars of the Earth is set in the same community, 200 years later. I'd been excited about it ever since I heard it was coming out this fall - Maybe too excited, because it just didn't live up to my expectations.

The first half of the book seemed a sort-of ho-hum retread of "Pillars". In place of Jack Builder, we have his look-alike great-great-great-many-times-over grandson, Merthin. Instead of Aliena, we get Caris (who I wanted to slap severa...more

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Sep 16, 2010 Alex Telander rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2007

WORLD WITHOUT END BY KEN FOLLETT: There are books that you read, with vaguely interesting stories, that sometimes within less than a month have been forgotten, ignored, barely recollected except for title, author and a minor recall of plot. Then there are books that change your mind on life, that give you a thrill as you read them and think about how much you’re loving to read this particular book, and how it’s making such an impression on you, and how you’re going to remember it for a long part...more WORLD WITHOUT END BY KEN FOLLETT: There are books that you read, with vaguely interesting stories, that sometimes within less than a month have been forgotten, ignored, barely recollected except for title, author and a minor recall of plot. Then there are books that change your mind on life, that give you a thrill as you read them and think about how much you’re loving to read this particular book, and how it’s making such an impression on you, and how you’re going to remember it for a long part of your life. I don’t need to tell you which kind of book World Without End is. I’m also not going to give you a formal, regurgitated plot summary that you can find in just about any review of this book. I am however going to try to convince you why you should read this book with the intention that it will have the same pivotal impression on you as it did on me.

While I have never been a fan or proponent of the seemingly omnipotent Oprah and her book club, she nevertheless has the power to make a considerable number of Americans do, and more importantly, read whatever she tells them. In January of this year, Oprah nominated Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth for her book club and overnight people of all different kinds, and of unexpected types, picked up this lofty paperback tome set in the Middle Ages and documenting the fascinating building of a giant cathedral with immense architectural detail. It’s one of my favorite books, and to see so many people buying it and reading it made me happy. Naturally, once these people got to the last page of Pillars of the Earth, and assuming they enjoyed it as much as Oprah said they would, they would then turn to World Without End. Follett’s new book has been labeled as the sequel of Pillars of the Earth, which is not exactly correct, for none of the original characters are in the new book, and it is set in a later period, however it involves descendants of the main family in Pillars of the Earth, and there is the memory and impression left by characters both in historical record and physical form, such as the cathedral. But World Without End takes many giants leaps further forward as a deeper and more complex book than Pillars of the Earth ever did, equivalent to an ant making its way along a path, while a person looks down upon the ant as they walk by. Perspective is the key here, and if one has some knowledge of the fourteenth century, one will enjoy the book all the more.

Don’t look for the good guys to always win out, and the bad guys to fail in World Without End because, like real life, this world does not reward those who do good and punish those who do bad; it’s a harsh world that gives more opportunity to the survivors of the fittest. You must also remember that this is the fourteenth century, the time of the peasant and noble, a time where class distinction was at the most severe and was a defining character of every person. Though while there is all this suffering, one cannot help but think at some point it must get better for the characters you like, and worse for the characters you hate, and this is after all a novel, but don’t expect Follett to do anything you might predict.

The fourteenth century had a lot going on throughout Europe, and what makes World Without End an incredible novel, is that Follett uses the monumental and catastrophic events in microcosm focused on couple of small towns in England. There was a cooling of temperatures, which led to crop failure and starvation for many peasants, known as the Great Famine; coupled with this was the uprising of peasants against their noble overlords, who had subjugated and oppressed them for so long, known as the Peasant’s Revolt. There was the growing guild system, where anyone wanting to become skilled in a trade would have to be invited to become a member of a guild. Then there was horrific plague that was estimated to wipe out half the population of Europe, known as the Black Death. There was also the moving of the papacy from Rome to Avignon, France, which created a fission in the Christian faith and led to questioning and critique of the absolute religion. Finally there was the seemingly never ending Hundred Years War.

Follett skillfully uses these events in World Without End, weighing in at 1024 pages, but never overtly calls out any of them for what they are, partly because a lot of the terms and names for the events were not yet in existence, and because he seeks to be less overt and obvious, but to have these events occur in most cases beyond the scope of these small towns, to be events occurring far away that have little importance and effect on the citizens of the town – much like the Iraq War is for the American people today. At least this seems the case at first, and then the subliminal effects come into play, where men head off to war, craftsmen have to fight to get into guilds, peasants are suffering and in some cases starving, the church is overbearing in its control and being questioned, and finally with the arrival of the plague, the people’s lives and the towns are changed forever.

World Without End takes you on a journey through the fourteenth century, but not via a history lesson, but in the important and complex lives of some ordinary townspeople of varying classes, their loves and losses, their hopes and dreams, their despair and suffering. It’s a moving and some might say depressing book, but as I mentioned, the fourteenth century was a tumultuous time to say the least. But when you get to the last page, you’ll wish it had never happened, you’ll wish for more story, for more characters, you’ll wish to remember this incredible story for a long time.

FOOTNOTE: Just as World Without End has 1024 pages, conveniently (and maybe with a little effort on my part) these review has 1024 words.

For more book reviews, and author interviews, go to BookBanter.(less)

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Jan 16, 2012 Kevin Xu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is like the book before the Pillar of the Earth in that it is about the lives of three or four main characters throughout their lives of childhood through adulthood seen through their troubles and hopes every so often in the the city of Kingsbridge, two hundred years after. It starts with two family, the family of Gwenda, who is poor and steals from Merthin and Ralph, making them without broke. It is a book that is epic with their struggle between the them along with other characters,...more

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Sep 19, 2008 La Petite Américaine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Non-anal types who enjoy guilty pleasure reading

Recommended to La Petite Américaine by: Nicole

Shelves: kicked_ass, guilty-pleasures

In all practical theory, this book should be on my 'Sucked' shelf. It's a tale of the Middle Ages, the gross injustices of the time, and it truly amounts to a thousand-page Medieval soap opera. It hasn't got much to do with it's predecessor The Pillars of the Earth , except that it's in the same location 200 years later, with characters that are "descendants" of the Pillars characters. There's none of the complex building and architectural aspects found in Pillars, the graphic sex and violence h...more In all practical theory, this book should be on my 'Sucked' shelf. It's a tale of the Middle Ages, the gross injustices of the time, and it truly amounts to a thousand-page Medieval soap opera. It hasn't got much to do with it's predecessor The Pillars of the Earth , except that it's in the same location 200 years later, with characters that are "descendants" of the Pillars characters. There's none of the complex building and architectural aspects found in Pillars, the graphic sex and violence has been toned down, several aspects of the plot are predictable, and the dialogue seems strikingly modern for a novel set in the 14th century. So, why is this book not on my 'Sucked' shelf? ...

Because it KICKED ASS.

With all of the above-mentioned problems in the book, it takes on hell of an author to pull off this kind of novel. Kenn Follett just plain rules. The story goes at a breakneck pace, the descriptions of the feudal system are fascinating, and the characters are complex and multi-faceted. For every (small) predictable plot twist, there are a million little shockers, and at the end, there are a few questions about the truth lingering. Frickin great.

I also found Follett's descriptions of the complete powerlessness of women and the ultimate authority of the nobles described with total intensity, and they are displayed over and over again through the stories of the characters. Equally interesting were the power struggles between the church, the people, and the nobility. Conflict everywhere! Love it!

Another great aspect of this book was the concentration on Medieval ideas about health and medicine, especially during the time of the plague. Given that monks are the only physicians, the best cures are blood-letting and applying goat-shit to open wounds to form a "healthy" pus. If you sit closer to the altar in the church hospital, you'll heal faster. [Although slight scientific advances are made in the book, the lingering affects of the church's bogus medical ideas seem to have transcended the centuries to live on in modern Italy: cover your stomach to avoid catching a cold, wait 3 hours after eating before you swim or you'll drown, sunflower oil is good for the flu, humidity causes low blood pressure, and canker sores are caused by indigestion. A complete aversion to all forms of medicine are also fundamental in this society. (i.e. Yesterday my French friend Sandrine had a headache. Italians don't like to take Aspirin because it will "destroy your liver," but Sandrine is French and has no problem with taking meds, so I offered her an Aleve. "If you don't want medicine, be Italian and kiss this," I said to her, holding up my pocket-rosary.)]

Anyway, great book, totally fascinating, very different from
Pillars of the Earth, and written by a guy who truly is a master writer.

KICKED ASS.
(less)

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Aug 13, 2008 James rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Follett finally completed the sequel to his evergreen historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth, and although I was compelled by the story enough to read all 1024 pages in a week, I was saddened at how poorly the book compares with its predecessor.

It is interesting to consider the nearly 20 years between the first book and this sequel. Many things have changed in our culture since then, leading Follett to inject even more egregious anachronisms into this book than the first. For example, the ch...more Follett finally completed the sequel to his evergreen historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth, and although I was compelled by the story enough to read all 1024 pages in a week, I was saddened at how poorly the book compares with its predecessor.

It is interesting to consider the nearly 20 years between the first book and this sequel. Many things have changed in our culture since then, leading Follett to inject even more egregious anachronisms into this book than the first. For example, the characters at one point fret over the self-esteem of a teenage girl. There are many further examples but I will spare you.

More telling is the apparent shift Follett has undergone in what he believes we want to read about. For example, the first book avoided homosexuality, despite the many opportunities to explore it in a monastery. The second, now twenty years deeper into the gay rights movement, explores gay relationships with a frank openness more consistent with San Francisco circa 2000 than the Britain of the 1300s.

I am most personally disappointed that the author did not again craft a thoughtful and multi-dimensional portrayal of a man of faith. The character of Prior Philip stands as the hallmark achievement of the first novel. Prior Philip was a man filled with the desire to do what is right by God and by his fellowmen but sometimes unable to know what would be right and what cost was worth bearing to do it. This is my personal experience of what most spiritual leaders are like.

In contrast, the religious figures in the sequel are all one-dimensional sycophants or toadies, ingratiating themselves with higher ups for their own personal gratification, betraying their own principles regularly, and considering faith a stepping stone rather than an end in itself.

The one sympathetic, intelligent, and thoughtful religious character is a woman who is technically an athiest, and only joined a convent to avoid being tried as a witch. She is consistently smarter and more capable than all other religious figures and her athiesm is continually cited as the engine behind her industriousness and her unique interpersonal gifts.

I've met athiests like that, but I've also met religious people like that and you'd think that a novel that spans fifty years of religious life in a town where all activity centers on a cathedral might include even one intelligent, sincere devout person? Just one?

The differences between these two books tells us much about ourselves and the kinds of things authors and editors believe we want to read. I wonder what a third book, written 20 years from now, would say about us?
(less)

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Apr 12, 2008 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, Pillars of the Earth is one of my favorite books and I was looking forward to completely enjoying this without reservation. But way back when it first came out, I stumbled onto an online discussion that cited a passage with anachronistic vocabulary, which bothered me. It was very anachronistic. So it was a single passage, but it added some reservation to my anticipated complete enjoyment. And then I got to page 15, and there's this conversation that no two people would ever have under any...more Well, Pillars of the Earth is one of my favorite books and I was looking forward to completely enjoying this without reservation. But way back when it first came out, I stumbled onto an online discussion that cited a passage with anachronistic vocabulary, which bothered me. It was very anachronistic. So it was a single passage, but it added some reservation to my anticipated complete enjoyment. And then I got to page 15, and there's this conversation that no two people would ever have under any circumstances that served only for the author to show off some detail about the time period. That doesn't bode well, at least not on top of sloppy word choice. Finally, there's a character in this book that might as well be a character from Pillars, which makes me worry that other character types will be recycled. PLUS there's a major plot point hinged on the kind of intrigue that drove the motivations of some characters in Pillars--derivative! derivative! So I have four things in my conscience mind to have to suppress as I am reading. Fortunately, I have been able to do so, at least through the first part of the book.

I am sad that people who are sort of shabby and bumbling are the descendants of people who were just fantastic in Pillars, but I accept that family fortunes rise and fall. I think it will color my feelings about those Pillars characters next time I read the book, but not necessarily my feelings about the book.

UPDATE APRIL 5:
Uh-oh. I had really hoped the Great Mumbo Jumbo Kerfuffle of Aught-Seven was an anomaly, but I just encountered the word "sexy" in a character's thoughts and I'm not even at page 100 yet. Is two a pattern?

UPDATE April 12:
The book tanks. It becomes extraordinarily boring around the plague and then it just doesn't pick up again. The second half of the book is like a checklist of all the social changes that the plague triggers. The characters turn into mirror images of the characters in Pillars, and some of them in that book were a little silly. The final scene between Gwenda and Annet is just goofy; there is a rebellious teenage girl running around with a bad crowd; I skimmed the last 200 pages while fooling around in a chat room.

I will forget I have read this book. I was sad for a while to see what became of Jack and Aliena's descendants, but it doesn't matter. The book is inconsequential.

Also lesbian nun sex.(less)

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Jan 29, 2008 Christine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: ONLY extremely bored people with no capacity for long term memory

The Pillars of the Earth was pretty good, but WWE is supposed to be a sequel... However, WWE seems to be a 1000 page snorefest after the first book. Perhaps if I had read them 18 years apart... then I would not have minded that WWE is a plagiarized (by the same author) copy of TPOTE. They have the same plot, same polar characters (no one is reasonable, they are all so totally overboard in every description), same activities, same cads, same villians, same love story... Same everything... But the...more

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Leigh I have to agree - I wouldn't give it just one star; it's still enjoyable - but, essentially, this is the SAME BOOK! Names have been changed, destinati...more
Apr 10, 2008 09:02am

JoAnn I too, have to agree. I read both books back to back and was stunned by the rubber-stamp mentality of the second book. And yet even with the duplicati...more
Jun 09, 2009 02:14pm

Natascha Keil You took the words right out of my mouth. I regretted every cent of the money I spent on it.
Feb 11, 2013 05:35am

Sep 15, 2012 Ðɑηηɑ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who believes that a book should not end - till it ends!

Shelves: historical-fiction, mystery, favorite, 4-stars, 2011, england, feminist_themes, favorite-heroines, cultural, france, has-a-tv-show, hebrew, male-authors, original-storylines-or-characters, orphan, paperback, shortly-reviewed, pub-2000s, my-rating-matches-avgr, christian, strong-female, disguised, over-800-pages, historically-accurate, british-author

This is an enormous book, really! Ken Follett is one of the best, this is for sure, but "World Without End" seems to me that he have done, once again, the impossible. What a wonderful book! Yes, let me admit it is quite long (1000 are a hard task, indeed), but it is so worth it. Every page is another problem to solve, another stםlen moment of pleasue. And this is what I like about it: whenever things seem to get on track שמג under control again, when the world gets safe and lovable again - somet...more

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Jan 09, 2008 Jillian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I got this book for Christmas and was so excited to start. I was a big fan of Pillars and figured I would love this as well. I liked it a whole lot, but definitely not as much as Pillars. The story was familiar (and at points almost a retread of Pillars). It was often anachronistic - especially the character of Caris. I loved her and I'm all for feminism and strong female characters, but it made me wonder how accurate and believable she really was. Clunky prose such as "she would have been alder...more

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Jan 07, 2013 NiteReader rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, historical, epic, 2013-reads

5 EPIC STARS
I didn't believe I would like this book as much as the first one, The Pillars of the Earth. But Mr Follett has created the most vivid characters that I laughed with, cried for and rejoiced in. Another amazing book!

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Dec 19, 2012 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autumn-2010, fraudio, medieval5c-16c, architecture, published-2006, re-read, winter-20122013, period-piece, historical-masturbation

The Paper Book - abandoned

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Publisher : Books On Tape, 2007
Language : English
Length : 44 hours and 53 min.
Narrator : John Lee

Home audio. A continuation of Pillars of the Earth.

3*

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

TV series

We marathoned this - all eight episodes back to back through the night. Nobody in their right minds looks to historical fiction for facts; however let me qualify that the standard of Literary Historical Fiction raises the bar annually an...more

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Dec 29, 2007 Mary Catherine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the sequel to "Pillars of the Earth." It's set 200 years after that original book but is very similar in terms of plot and especially character. Every main character from "Pillars" has their parallel in this book: the intelligent, noble builder; the feisty, born-before-her-time love interest; the evil, corrupt nobleman who rapes and pillages his way into power. It gets to the point where you start to wonder why you're bothering reading it. There's absolutely nothing new here.

Like "Pillar...more

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Nov 25, 2008 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: historical / medieval novel fans

Shelves: audio-books

A pretty darn good book - you laugh, you're horrified, the whole gamut - but what makes this a truly amazing "read" is the audio recording by John Lee, who is also the reader of Penguin Audio's recording of "Pillars of the Earth." Both recordings are well worth the time commitment to listen to 30+ (unabridged) CD's - I walked around and drove everywhere with my headphones on listening to both of these amazing books.

"World Without End" is a continuation of the Kingsbridge story begun in "Pillars...more

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May 27, 2012 Karina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

World Without End is definitely not perfect-- it has a little too much in common with its predecessor, Pillars of the Earth, and its characters are too often painted only in black-and-white. Regardless of those flaws, I would probably give the book three stars if it weren't for one short plotline early in the book. Prior Phillip was one of my very favorite characters in Pillars of the Earth and his rise to the priorship was particularly enjoyable to read. Despite my trepidation over familiar plo...more

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Feb 24, 2008 PennyiSD rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of my book clubs selected this as we had all read and loved Pillars of the Earth when it came out 20 years ago.

I got halfway through this tome and decided I didn't want to waste another moment of my life on a book which failed on so many counts. The characters didn't seem real and certainly didn't elicit any sympathy from this reader as they moved from one contrived crisis to the next, the writing was repetitive and juvenile (a gifted high school student could write better), the language wa...more

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Feb 11, 2008 Mom rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I cannot find the words to express how disappointed I was with this book. Having enjoyed "Pillars of the Earth" twice I awaited the issue of the sequel with immense enthusiasm.

What a letdown! The characters, the plot,the writing are all dreadful...Mr Follett has tried to bring the 13th century into the 21st and it hasn't worked. The gratuitous sex and foul language spoil the book from the first chapter and for the first time in years, I will not be finishing this novel!

Very sad to see a good au...more

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Feb 15, 2010 JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to JG (The Introverted Reader) by: Pat

Shelves: 3_stars, author_british, fiction, historical_fiction, read_in_2010, reviewed, setting_uk, strong_females

Set a couple of hundred years after The Pillars of the Earth , World Without End picks up the story of the town of Kingsbridge. I don't want to say too much about the twists and turns the plot follows, so I'll just say that the book is the story of a generation of townspeople and what life in the mid-14th century might have been like.

Had I read this on its own, or even after the 20 years between the publication of Pillars and World, I would probably have enjoyed it more. As it is, I did honestly...more Set a couple of hundred years after The Pillars of the Earth , World Without End picks up the story of the town of Kingsbridge. I don't want to say too much about the twists and turns the plot follows, so I'll just say that the book is the story of a generation of townspeople and what life in the mid-14th century might have been like.

Had I read this on its own, or even after the 20 years between the publication of Pillars and World, I would probably have enjoyed it more. As it is, I did honestly enjoy it, but coming only a year after reading Pillars, the stories and characters were too similar for me to feel like rating it higher. Most of the main characters felt like the same people from Pillars with their names changed. I feel like I could seriously make a list of characters from each book and match most of them to their equivalents in the other. I will say that there's no equivalent to Prior Philip in this book, and I missed him.

One thing I did like better in World is that the violence has been toned down a lot. I almost had to put Pillars down because it got so violent, and I don't think of myself as being particularly squeamish about that kind of thing. The brutality is still present in this second book, but Follett chose to set the scene and then fade to black rather than making us read on in horror.

This book focused quite a bit on one character, Caris, who becomes something of a healer. I enjoyed reading about "health care" in the 14th century, weird as that sounds. I just read and shook my head and felt thankful that I live today, and not in a time when smearing an open wound with manure to "draw out the puss" was thought to be an effective treatment. It makes me curious what we do now that will horrify people in a few hundred years. Chemotherapy was one thing that came to mind. It was interesting to talk it over with my husband and see what practices we thought might eventually be viewed as barbaric.

And that's really all I have to say. Pillars might be slightly better than World, but if you read them far enough apart, I think you'll like them both equally.(less)

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Apr 02, 2008 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who enjoy historical fiction

This novel is Follett's follow up to The Pillars of the Earth which is one of my favorite novels and probably never had a chance of living up to my expectations. It follows the lives of four people beginning with a disturbing childhood encounter. Four very different people: two brothers, one brilliant, but not physically imposing and one one strong and ruthless; and two women, both resourceful, but one from a wealthy family and one for whom life was one struggle after the next. Seeing how each p...more

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Mar 14, 2008 Lindsay added it · review of another edition

Shelves: never-finished-ugh

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 27, 2008 Leah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: 'bodice ripper' fans looking for an "...epic historic novel..."

Recommended to Leah by: QPB sent it 'cause I'm slow at saying 'no'

"...epic, historic novel"??!
Good Lord, I must be reading a different book than everyone else.
This seems formulaic and forced. Characters are more like caricatures; and what's the deal with everyone fornicating all the time??! Not that there's anything wrong with fornicating per se, I just don't care for books that use it as a major plot device time after time after time.
I actually checked the cover to make sure it wasn't "Clan of the Cave Bear" 2.0...
I'm going to finish this book (I think) 'caus...more

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Jan 28, 2008 Krista rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think Danielle Steele might have written parts of this; she must have at least been responsible for the overwrought plot and the ridiculous, unnecessary sex scenes. It was bawdy and endless, just like every Steele book I read as a blushing 12 year old. I also kept imagining Richard Chamberlin as Merthin, as the plot just kept going and going like the Thornbirds miniseries. There were about seven-hundred and fifty climaxes and denoument. Just when a character was happy, he or she would be destr...more

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Mar 26, 2009 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: epic, suspense-thriller

It is not at par with the first sequel - The Pillars of the Earth. The suspense is not always sustained and the characters were not as interesting as The Pillars. The only image that was so shocking that I even dreamt about it was the skinning of the thief while alive. My head was spinning while I was on that page and at first I did not know if it was fatigue or the whirling sound of the pressurized water while by car was being cleaned. Then I realized that it was the shock that I had with the d...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Chantelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book. The reviews said it might be a let-down after Pillars of the Earth but it wasn't, at all. You know how when you're reading a book and you get so invested in the characters that even as you're living your life, you walk around in a fog, waiting to get back to the book? That's how I feel. I spent two weeks reading Pillars and World, over 1800 pages. I stayed up way too late and maneuvered my way through middle school hallways reading. I literally could not put it down. And now i...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Ildiko rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I LOVED the Pillars of the Earth -- BUT this book... well it's a hit and miss. It gets better around page 700+ but before that it is like a copy of the first book. Same old story, same old sadness... This book was just dragging... where as I couldn't wait to read the next page of the Pillars of the Earth, I was just utterly board with this one... Sorry Mr. Follet I think I'm done reading your books for now...

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Dec 19, 2008 Stephanie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Total rip off of the first (Pillars of the Earth). Not impressed. Could barely get through it.

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Feb 19, 2012 Lilian rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I rated it "it is ok". Actually I would rate it somewhere between "it is ok" and "I like it".
I do like it, but it is just too tedious... a medieval soap. It's about a group of people and bad things happen, good things happen, and it goes on and on.. If this book had 500 pages it would be a lot better, in my opinion.
But still it is entertaining and you get a good idea of how life was like in medieval times, with religion, medicine, witchcraft...

But then there are these tiny details I can't stand...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Rebekah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, my-dad-read-it-too, adult, adult-novels, series

Having just finished the book, I'm still feeling all warm and fuzzy at the happy ending (does that count as a spoiler? hmm...), and usually I wait to write a review so that I can be more objective. But nah, I'll go ahead and note my thoughts upon finishing:
1. There were definitely parallels with Pillars. Caris was kind of like Aliena; Merthin was a lot like Jack; Ralph was a lot like William; etc. Both books featured building projects and (definitely a spoiler this time) main characters who stru...more Having just finished the book, I'm still feeling all warm and fuzzy at the happy ending (does that count as a spoiler? hmm...), and usually I wait to write a review so that I can be more objective. But nah, I'll go ahead and note my thoughts upon finishing:
1. There were definitely parallels with Pillars. Caris was kind of like Aliena; Merthin was a lot like Jack; Ralph was a lot like William; etc. Both books featured building projects and (definitely a spoiler this time) main characters who struggle for years to marry, and for years are thwarted by other people. But there were enough differences between WWE and Pillars to suit me.
2. The writing style was a bit clumsy, too telling and not enough showing. He was often too obvious, as though, in his eagerness to introduce the next catastrophe, he simply made notes to himself of what characters were feeling or thinking (not always bad, but in this case a bit disappointing, as I didn't have to work to figure out any of the undercurrents of the interactions) and then never came back later and replaced them with better, subtler writing. I also missed the abundance of sensory details that would have made daily life there seem more vivid. But Follett made up for it in part by his addicting plot twists and character relationship tangles. I read quickly through each scene, constantly urged on by the desire to find out what happened next. It wasn't a thriller, by any means, but the suspense was definitely there. This wasn't a poetic book, but nonetheless, I felt immersed in their world. A little less so toward the end, when so many changes took place so suddenly and I wished things would slow down enough for me to get to know the new Kingsbridge, but maybe that's just me.
3. The ending part felt a little hasty--new characters like grown-up Lolla weren't developed very well. To take Lolla as an example since I just mentioned her, I felt like she was just a cliche of modern teenage rebellion. Very little individuality. I found that disappointing, and I was definitely not impressed by Follett's quick tidying up of that little conflict, as I felt it was too easy, with not enough of her struggle revealed. But I guess when you have thousands of pages worth of action, relatively minor character development takes a sad backseat.
4. I have an uneasy relationship with Caris. I agree with her on a lot of things, but I feel like I don't know her as well as I'd like. Follett often showed me instances of her strong personality in key scenes, but I didn't feel like I got to live in her world with her through many more ordinary days, and I would have liked that. I feel like her experiences in ordinary life, her habits and simple likes and dislikes, would have enriched my experience of her. And, as I commented while reading the book, "Caris seems like an anachronism in this book. With [her radical medical views, like her distrust of physicians' learning] and then the feminist attitude toward marriage... well, I agree with her, but I feel like her perspective is not one I should be encountering in Medieval Europe. Maybe some aspects of it, sure, but not all of it together in one character, manifested so strongly throughout the book."
4 and a half. So, Caris was an anachronism. I felt like there were a lot of those in this book. The dialogue, for example--people calling their friends "pals" and saying the recently popularized "reason why" error, etc. I realize a book of authentic dialogue would have been hellish, like trying to read a thousand pages of Joseph talking in Wuthering Heights (in other words, almost a foreign language), but still, the modernity of it was another distracting element.
5. I'll TRY to avoid spoilers here and just say that it annoys me that (and I'm quoting something I said while still reading the book) "a sneeze in Follett's world is never just a sneeze." I admit, I sneeze more often than the average person, but that never means I'm coming down with something. It's just my normal, healthy nose being weird.
6. I did feel that Follett was successful in making Ralph a character I could sympathize with partly, despite his many unsavory actions. [spoiler: I felt bad for him when Sam and Gwenda stabbed him to death.]
7. This book had way more weird names than Pillars. Gwenda, Oonagh, Merthin, Elfric, Wulfric, Mair? Really? Kind of distracting. Maybe I'm just being ignorant here, but I feel like the weird names took away a little from the book's authenticity.
8. Speaking of Gwenda, a lot of commenters seemed to like her. I didn't. (spoiler for the rest of Point No. 8 ->) I hated the way she immediately hated Annet before Follett even gave the reader much inkling of her personality flaws, just as Caris disliked Elizabeth before Eliz. betrayed Merthin. Gwenda might have been annoyed by Annet without Wulfric's presence, but since Wulfric loved Annet, Gwenda's opposition to Wulfric and Annet's upcoming marriage was mainly just "I want Wulfric all to myself because obviously I'm a better person than Annet!" I wanted to reach into the book and pick her up and physically remove her from Wulfric and leave W and Annet to love each other in peace--it wasn't Gwenda's place to decide who Wulfric should love; it was Wulfric's place to decide who Wulfric should love. Later on, Gwenda's desperate seduction of Wulfric also didn't win her any brownie points in my book. I guess she turned out to be a pretty good character, but I dunno, I never warmed up to her. And I never got the feeling that Wulfric truly got over Annet and fell deeply in love with Gwenda, even though he married her and they had a long, companionable life together. I also didn't like Follett's lazy job of reconciling Annet and Gwenda at the wedding. It felt like something Hollywood would think up for the ending of a chick flick.
So, ultimately, I really enjoyed this book, and by the end, I was glued to it, but I'm left with that paradoxical feeling of "I know I could never have written this, but I think I could have done a better job." I'll hesitantly claim this as a favorite book.(less)

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Dec 14, 2011 Jorge Diaz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: español

Este es, con diferencia (junto a Los Pilares de la Tierra) el mejor libro que he leído. La profundidad con la que Ken Follett describe sus carácteres, con sus sentimientos, pasiones, formas de pensar y de actuar es, sencillamente, magnífica, y un deleite para el lector. Te alegras de las buenaventuras de los que te agradan así como, de la misma manera, te satisfacen los malos momentos de los que no. Además, te preguntas una y otra vez a lo largo del libro de qué forma acabaran dichos personajes,...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Anne Nikoline rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-ilterature, historical-fiction, love-or-romance, read-in-2011

Holy cow, this is not just a thick book, it's @!?%$# heavy too!

I enjoyed the first book in the series a lot, which is also the case with World Without End , however, I'm not sure it's a book I'll be finding myself rereading at anytime soon or even ever again. Sure the book was great and it gives you a clear view on what went on back then, but I didn't connect with any of the characters the same way I did with The Pillars of the Earth which really bothers me. A lot. Still, the language is amazin...more

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About Ken Follett

Ken Follett burst onto the book world in 1978 with Eye of the Needle, a taut and original thriller with a memorable woman character in the central role. The book won the Edgar award and became an outstanding film.

He went on to write four more bestselling thrillers: Triple; The Key to Rebecca; The Man from St Petersburg; and Lie Down with Lions.

He also wrote On Wings of Eagles, the true story of ho...more

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Books by Ken Follett

The Pillars of the Earth (The Pillars of the Earth, #1)

Winter of the World (The Century Trilogy #2)

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Quotes from World Without End

“you should first follow the plow if you want to dance the harvest jig.” — 25 people liked it

“It was an odd relationship, but then she was an extraordinary woman: a prioress who doubted much of what the church taught; an acclaimed healer who rejected medicine as practised by physicians; and a nun who made enthusiastic love to her man whenever she could get away with it. If I wanted a normal relationship, Merthin told himself, I should have picked a normal girl.” — 19 people liked it

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World Without End (The Pillars of the Earth #2)

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