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This book is the sequel to Follett's Pillars of the Earth, which is one of my favorite books of all time. World Without End takes place about 200 years after Pillars, and is the story of the descendants of the builders of the cathedral and founders of the town. It's a huge book (as is Pillars) , but it's never boring. There isn't even a good way to quickly sum up what it is about. So much happens in 1000+ pages that all I can say is, "Hang on to your hats!"
What I really love about these books is that the author is not afraid to let bad things happen to good people. And believe me, a lot of bad stuff happens: Successful families topple, peasants lose what little they have, evil lords wreak havoc, unscrupulous monks yield to ambition. (Readers beware: There are a couple of rapes in the book and while not terribly graphic, they are disturbing.) Not that I'm a scholar on medieval life, but it all seemed very realistic to me. It was a hard existence back then. Not that I want bad stuff to happen to good characters, but it keeps you on the edge of your seat never being certain that everything is really going to be all right. And the bad guys don't always pay. But when they do, it is, oh, so satisfying. . . I sound a bit blood thirsty, don't I? Sorry about that. I do find myself getting emotionally caught up in the lives of these characters even after the last page is turned. Just for the record, a lot of good stuff happens, too. And it will be all you can do to not cheer out loud. I, however, was not able to maintain, and I whooped with joy. Thankfully, I was listening to it in my car, and no one was any the wiser. :-)
Have I at least intrigued some of you even though I've told you nothing? I hope so. It's a big commitment to read these, but I truly believe you will not find the time wasted. I listened to the unabridged audio version on my commute, and found it was a great way to not only fit another enormous book into my reading schedule (I was also reading War & Peace at the time), but I almost wished for a traffic jam!
Lezlie
What I really love about these books is that the author is not afraid to let bad things happen to good people. And believe me, a lot of bad stuff happens: Successful families topple, peasants lose what little they have, evil lords wreak havoc, unscrupulous monks yield to ambition. (Readers beware: There are a couple of rapes in the book and while not terribly graphic, they are disturbing.) Not that I'm a scholar on medieval life, but it all seemed very realistic to me. It was a hard existence back then. Not that I want bad stuff to happen to good characters, but it keeps you on the edge of your seat never being certain that everything is really going to be all right. And the bad guys don't always pay. But when they do, it is, oh, so satisfying. . . I sound a bit blood thirsty, don't I? Sorry about that. I do find myself getting emotionally caught up in the lives of these characters even after the last page is turned. Just for the record, a lot of good stuff happens, too. And it will be all you can do to not cheer out loud. I, however, was not able to maintain, and I whooped with joy. Thankfully, I was listening to it in my car, and no one was any the wiser. :-)
Have I at least intrigued some of you even though I've told you nothing? I hope so. It's a big commitment to read these, but I truly believe you will not find the time wasted. I listened to the unabridged audio version on my commute, and found it was a great way to not only fit another enormous book into my reading schedule (I was also reading War & Peace at the time), but I almost wished for a traffic jam!
Lezlie
2 comments:
I've been listening to the Outlander series, which are also huge books. I just started the 2nd one, Dragonfly in Amber, which is 38+ hours!
Aren't audiobooks just the best? Especially for some of these gigantic tomes? I've begun re-listening my way through Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series. I made it through the first 7 or 8, then found I couldn't remember what had happened by the time the next book came out. So I started collecting them all on audio. Now that the entire series is out, I can listen to the whole epic straight through while I'm working. I just love multi-tasking! :-)
Lezlie
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