At first, I felt as if Follett had used up all his ideas about basic personality traits and plot ideas in Pillars, and in the second book just mixed them around, assigning them to different characters (good monk becomes bad monk, bullying, jealous builder (Alfred) appears in a new family, etc). I just listened to the first one two months ago, and I wish I had waited at least year before listening to the second. Enjoy.įor anyone who recently read or listened to Pillars of the Earth, I would suggest waiting a while before starting World Without End. I almost forgot: The narrator John Lee is just outright brilliant, with his pleasant and mellow voice. I really look forward to a third book about Kingsbridge – which Ken Follett has indicated might come in a few years. After the usual first listening hour with confusions about all the characters that are introduced, the remaining 47 hours is pure and utter joy.

I have now almost 200 audio books under my belt – and this is one of the best ones. It is therefore not a prerequisite to have read this book first. World without End follows a number of characters in Kingsbridge during 40 years – beginning approximately 200 years after the end of Pillars of the Earth. No other author can mix history, drama, love, battle and suspense like him. It is yet another masterpiece from Ken Follett that – despite its length – is an easy and rewarding experience. Now 'World Without End' takes readers back to medieval Kingsbridge two centuries later, as the men, women and children of the city once again grapple with the devastating sweep of historical change.If you have read or listened to “Pillars of The Earth”, you will not be disappointed with World Without End. Ken Follett's masterful epic 'The Pillars of the Earth' enchanted millions of readers with its compelling drama of war, passion and family conflict set around the building of a cathedral. And always they will live under the long shadow of the unexplained killing they witnessed on that fateful childhood day.

One girl will defy the might of the medieval church the other will pursue an impossible love. One boy will travel the world but come home in the end the other will be a powerful, corrupt nobleman. They will see prosperity and famine, plague and war. As adults, their lives will be braided together by ambition, love, greed and revenge. They are a thief, a bully, a boy genius and a girl who wants to be a doctor. On the day after Halloween, in the year 1327, four children slip away from the cathedral city of Kingsbridge.

World without end by ken follett