World Without End, Ken Follet

The dis-oriented author rarely reviews fiction books. I read a lot of fiction but only the very best make it into my reviews. I just finished reading Ken Follet's World Without End, and it definitely deserves a review.

This is a big book, over a thousand pages — I could not put it down.

Most people know Ken Follet as a suspense/mystery writer. I put him in the same category with two of my favorite authors; Jack Higgins and Frederick Forsyth. In 1989, Follet broke out of the genre with Pillars of the Earth, a story about the building of a medieval cathedral. Pillars of the Earth is set in the fictional 12th century village of Knightsbridge. The book turned out to be Follets best-selling title. Oprah even selected it for her book club in 2007.

World Without End is the sequal to Pillars of the Earth. The book also takes place in Knightsbridge but the setting is a century later and the story covers the time of the Black Death in England. Many of the characters are descendents of the characters in Pillars.

In these books, Follet does a great job acclimating  the reader to the period in question.  His characters are well developed and  your soon fin yourself rooting for some and awaiting the ultimate demise of others. The book  takes a variety of twists and turns and  I found it compelling.

In both of these books, Follet develops extremely strong female characters. They are every bit the equal of the men around them. Pulling of this literary feat in  the context of 13th century England is certainly noteworthy.

World Without End gets 5 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

Purchase World Without End  from Amazon.com.