World Without End

If
you loved Pillars of the Earth and want to read 1000 pages full of
great characters revolving around medieval life in a growing English
town, re-read Pillars of the Earth and save yourself the slight
disappointment from reading World Without End.


World Without End would be a good book on it's own, but when it is
inevitably compared to Ken Follet's masterpiece Pillars of the Earth,
it falls way short. The characters in World Without End are strikingly
similar to their ancestors from Pillars of the Earth, but not as
fleshed out or likable. You never really find out what motivates most
of the main characters. And as with Pillars, Ken Follett tried to make
the plot drive around a great construction project, but for some
reason, I never knew if it was the bridge, or the hospital, or the
tower, and I never really cared. It seemed to me the book could be
summed up by saying: a group of the main characters get together in a
public place, they argue, a poor decision is made by some bureaucrat,
something bad happens as the result, some people have sex, some people
die, repeat for 1000 pages.



An O.K. book, but not great like Pillars of the Earth