Book Reviews(Audio): Pillars of the Earth & World Without End

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, read by John Lee, Publisher: Penguin Audio; Unabridged edition (October 9, 2007), ISBN-10: 0143142372, 41 hours

World Without End by Ken Follet, read by John Lee, Publisher: Penguin Audio; Unabridged edition (October 9, 2007), ISBN-10: 0143142356, 46 hours

Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: Borrowed Pillars from a friend & checked World out from our library

Whew! This was a lot of listening! Almost all of it was done just driving back and forth from work and then around town picking up kids and running errands. I don't recall much of it being done on any driving trips. I was at a friend's house and noticed Pillars of the Earth on her bookshelf and asked to borrow it (Ken, I still have it! Gulp!) And so it began, a marathon of listening to Follet's best-selling novels set in the Middle Ages of England. When I finished Pillars I felt lost without the characters to accompany me to and from work each week, so when I saw the sequel was available at our local library, I couldn't resist. Now, I feel really lonely... missing characters like Tom Builder, Aliena, Jack Jackson, Prior Phillip, Merthin, Caris, and Gwenda. Follet is truly a genius to be able to weave all these characters together along with the history of England in the Middle Ages. (See character chart above!)

From Follet's website on Pillars of the Earth:
In a time of civil war, famine and religious strife, there rises a magnificent Cathedral in Kingsbridge. Against this backdrop, lives entwine: Tom, the master builder, Aliena, the noblewoman, Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge, Jack, the artist in stone and Ellen, the woman from the forest who casts a curse. At once, this is a sensuous and enduring love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age.

From Follet's website on World Without End:
On the day after Halloween, in the year 1327, four children slip away from the cathedral city of Kingsbridge. They are a thief, a bully, a boy genius and a girl who wants to be a doctor. In the forest they see two men killed.

As adults, their lives will be braided together by ambition, love, greed and revenge. They will see prosperity and famine, plague and war. One boy will travel the world but come home in the end; the other will be a powerful, corrupt nobleman. One girl will defy the might of the medieval church; the other will pursue an impossible love. And always they will live under the long shadow of the unexplained killing they witnessed on that fateful childhood day.

OK - a few more things. One - In Pillars of the Earth, the story focused around the building of a cathedral. The engineer in me loved the details and mechanics of how a structure like this would have been built in the 13th century. The cathedral was really a character of its own in Pillars. Second - In World Without End, the non-human character was The Plague. I found it so, so interesting to learn about the outbreak of this illness and how it was treated. Third - be warned of graphic sex and violence. Finally - John Lee did an amazing job of reading both novels. I can't imagine another voice I could stand to listen to for 87 hours! Really talented.

So - if you have a long commute, I'd recommend both of these to you. Beware, though. You'll be sad when you're finished!