The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)
Author: Ken Follett
Rating: ā 5/5
Date Read: 2017/09/18
Pages: 976
I put off reading Pillars of the Earth for quite a long time. Now, I definitely wanted to read it, as many of my friends have recommended it to me. I bought a used copy on Amazon, then got a little put-off by the sheer size of the book. I figured Iād get a Kindle copy instead, but that just languished on my digital bookshelf, collecting pixelated dust. I donāt even remember why I bought the audiobook; seriously, at that point I was wondering if I would ever actually read this book.
The problem was, mostly, the subject material. Cathedrals are beautiful, but I donāt find the church particularly compelling. I didnāt know how Ken Follet could make me interested in an epic story centered on building a cathedral.
Turns out, I vastly underestimated Ken Follet. The Pillars of the Earth is a page turner of an epic novel with a ton of action and political intrigue; it reminded me of Les Miserables more than anything else, and thatās one of my favorite books. Both books are epic historical fiction, both have characters that stick with you, and both somehow maintain a message of hope despite the fact that horrible things keep happening.
But the craziest thing is that I kept having to remind myself that I wasnāt reading A Song of Ice and Fire, The Lies of Locke Lamora, Mistborn, or another epic fantasy book. I mean, I know there that dragons arenāt real, and they didnāt exist in the 12th century either, but I kept expecting dragons. But whatever, itās cool. This was definitely a five-star read for me, even with the historically-accurate lack of dragons.