Customer Reviews: Read 140 more reviews...
 late nights and sore thumbs December 1, 2008
Never read a Ken novel before... but this book ...hardback hence(sore thumbs)... had me spellbound ... the people were with me all day.... until my next fix...I worried for them, laughed with them and wanted to run on several occasions... a fantasic read.. The Pillars of the Earth
 Great book but please check page numbers November 27, 2008
This is an absolutely fantastic book which I borrowed from a friend some years ago. Having recently read the follow up (World without End - brilliant too!), I really felt that I had to re-read Pillars of the Earth. If you order this book, before reading please check the page numbering. I have just reached page 464 and going onto the next page, the storyline did not seem to be making any sense! I then realised that the next page was actually 561. After checking the rest of the page numbering, the book continued up to 608, with the next page after that being 513 (hence missing pages 464-513). Not Amazon's fault at all - how could they know that the printers have got it wrong - but I am now bereft as I can't continue the story until I get a new copy. I may well have the only rogue copy, but I would hate anyone of you to start reading this book and get to the stage where you can't continue. Please check the page numbering first before you start reading.
A Novelty Masterpiece November 25, 2008
This is an AWESOME book, and the sequel "World Without End" is just as good. Although I loved the characters much better in Pillars. Prior Phillip is, no doubt, my favorite character, and I loathed William with so much passion everytime he popped up in the book I would get soo tense I found myself squeezing my book, I thought I was going to tear it up. I ended up getting a hardback anyway. Although Follett gets very descriptive in his books there were some places that I read in which I really didn't need to know the details. But I would have to say that this is one of the best books I've read. It would be cool if they made a film on this. For others who have read this book, I would also recommend the Matthew Shardlake novels by C.J. Sansom: Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, and Revelation; which I also think would make really good films.
By far his best November 14, 2008
I find that all of Ken Follett's other books - including World Without End - are simply "holiday reading". However Pillars of the Earth seems almost to have come from the pen of someone else. It is superb on many levels - and would certainly be in my top ten books ever. Thank you Ken!
 Interesting historically, workmanlike writing November 14, 2008
Someone else mentioned this, but Follett has the silly habit of summarising the previous few pages at the end of a section. As if we have 5 second attention spans and need to be reminded of what we have just read. It's incredibly annoying and condescending.
The quality of prose is at the level of a teenager. All short sentences, "he said, she said" type of stuff. No long descriptions to befuddle the reader. Some of the set pieces are quite exciting eg the historical Battle of Lincoln and the murder of Thomas Beckett. There are some wasted opportunites however. Eg two of the protaganists take a trip to Santiago de Compostela...quite a trip in those days I'm sure. However the whole trip is glossed over in a few pages.
It's basically an easy read, interesting if you're into medieval England, but in no way thought-provoking or deep. But that's ok, not everybook needs to read like Proust and hence I give it 3 stars!
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