Book Review: World Without End (Pillars of the Earth Part 2)

World Without End by Ken Follett

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was the sequel to Follett's 'Pillars of the Earth'. It follows a very similar premise to the first book... it takes place in the same towns and follows the ancestors of the Pillars characters a couple hundred years later.

I have to say I wasn't nearly as enthralled by this book as I was by the first. I listened to the audiobook version of this and it took me about 5 cds to really start getting into it. Had it not been the sequel to something I'd already read, I would have given up after cd #2.

While the storyline did improve, I thought Follett fell quite short in the creativity department. Most of his characters sounded like exact replicas of those in Pillars... most having the same problems and trials as well. This book was over 1000 pages and I thought it could have been at least half that. How many times can the plague start up again? How many times can we have the same quarrels between peasants and clergy? How many times will the bully be unfairly rewarded by royalty and continue to rape the defenseless female villagers?

If you've read Pillars of the Earth and loved it, I recommend just stopping there. There isn't anything to be gained by reading World Without End and those 1000 pages could be better spent on reading more original, new ideas.