Carolyn I heard about his new book and planned to reread Pillars, so far I haven't, but did read the blurb on Amazon about the new book. I am undecided about whether to buy the new one after reading about it. If you get it & read it, please let me know!
Also I have Sarum by Rutherfurd and read it years ago. I remember liking one of them much better than the other and now I can't remember which one I preferred.
(Like I need any more books to add to my TBR's-I have only read the first two in the Morland Dynasty).

Pat

I really liked Pillars too...until the rape part. Ugh. Why did he have to do that?!

I just saw Ken Follet interviewed on CBS this morning and he talked about his new book. He says it's the sequel to Pillars of the Earth and takes place at the same abbey but 200 years later. It is about the plague. I can't wait to hear if it is as good as Pillars. Is that even possible?

I too loved Pillars of the Earth and was excited about a sequel. However, the fact that it is 816 pages long has blunted my enthusiasm - what a doorstop!

This is exciting news! Can't wait, since I loved Pillars, and the plague fascinates me too. Another heavy book thats hard to read in bed!

I loved Pillars, too. I hopethe sequel is good, too.

I'm reading World Without End right now and so far it's good, if you don't mind a few graphic scenes. I actually like historic epic doorstop books. I enjoyed Pillars, but I liked Sarum by Rutherfurd better. I can't tell you why now because it's been so long since I read either. I found the details about building the cathedrals fascinating in both books. Pillars focuses more on one time period while Sarum goes through all the generations--"Michener style" I call it.

I just bought it. I just finished Pillars of the Earth and I loved it, so couldn't wait to start this one.

Anyone reading this now. After reading Pillar's and a fraction of the way through this...it makes me wonder what this author is like? I mean, some of these characters are so malicious, deceiptful and cunning,it makes me wonder what the author is like. I would think it would take one to know one in this instance to write characters of this magnitude. I could be wrong...but makes you wonder.

Wow! Just read the book and it was phenomenal. Pillars was only a bit better in the fact that it ended the same way it began, with the hanging. I loved that. These two are the first ive read from the historical fiction genre and I love it, especially the romance in it and I loved the political elements from within the church, very interesting. Can anyone suggest some similar books? Much appreciated!

c3genesis, try Sarum by Eward Rutherfurd for more cathedral building. He has also written several books along the line of James Michener; i.e., he begins with prehistory and goes up to modernity.

If you haven't read Michener, I recommend particularly Hawaii and Centennial.

I commented on this book in another thread. Ranted was more like. I remember reading it twenty years ago, and now I don't know what I read. This thing was horrid. The amount of anachronisms were enough to make my eyes roll back into my head and spin around the other side. But what was worse was the graphic violence and sex. Yes it was a violent time. But describing rape in such detail doesn't tell me anything about the time; it only makes me wonder just what type of person Follet is. There were two rapes that I saw (I quit at page 500 or so) Both of them made me think he was enjoying himself, writing those. It gave me the creeps.

The writing was elementary, the characters shallow and black or white, with little complexity. I really don't get why this book is so popular, and really really don't get what Ophrah was thinking.

This is very frustrating to me, because this is a book I should be in love with. Catherdral building? Middle Ages? Oh my gawd its so up my alley. So I was very disappointed. There are much much better historic fiction of the time period that should be getting press. BTW I also don't care for Rutherford, but I do recommend Michner. Go figure... :)