World Without End - Ken Follett

[goodreads]

Title: World Without End
Author: Ken Follett
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 1237
Date read: September, 2010

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.

Pillars of the Earth was great, but a difficult read, so though I've had this for almost a year, I've been reluctant to pick it up.

With good reason, it turned out. Though just as excellent a book as PotE, World Without End was almost as unpleasant a read. I was fascinated by Ken Follett's descriptions of the time and environment, but became more and more uncomfortable by the obvious unfairness and biasedness (yes, it's a word ;) ) that existed at the time. I don't doubt that it's historically accurate, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant to read about, and it did become a tad annoying to see the main characters meet one draw-back after the other. Thankfully their lives did slowly improve over the duration of the book, so it wasn't completely horrible to read about, but it did occasionally make me put down the book and reach for some lighter reading.

That said, putting down the book didn't happen too often though, because it was definitely a page-turner, and I stayed up far too late on more than one occasion to read just a few more chapters. I also appreciated that there weren't as many completely hideous characters with NO redeeming qualities whatsoever in this one as in PotE. It made certain scenes slightly easier to stomach.

Definitely a worthy follow up to an epic novel (in every sense of the word), and I think I might even like this one a tiny bit better, though it in NO way is an easy read.