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World Without End (Kingsbridge, #2)

Ken Follett

Why we're reading this: You will become fascinated by the characters in this story altho some are super irritating. Be sure to re…more
[close] You will become fascinated by the characters in this story altho some are super irritating. Be sure to read carefully the first part as it relates to the whole thing and is solved at the end. Its a long book and you may forget and have to go back to refresh your memory.

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Jun 24, 2012 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, audiobooks, really-loathsome-villains

Second Ken Follett, second Ken Follett audiobook, second Ken Follett audiobook listened to in car, first time I have ever wished to be caught in a really humungous traffic jam.

This was an enthralling sort of sequel to the The Pillars of the Earth . I say sort of because it is set some 200 years after the end of that wondrous story. Just as the previous novel looked at the building of the Cathedral and the growth of the fictional city of Kingsbridge* through the disastrous 19 year reign of Kin Second Ken Follett, second Ken Follett audiobook, second Ken Follett audiobook listened to in car, first time I have ever wished to be caught in a really humungous traffic jam.

This was an enthralling sort of sequel to the The Pillars of the Earth . I say sort of because it is set some 200 years after the end of that wondrous story. Just as the previous novel looked at the building of the Cathedral and the growth of the fictional city of Kingsbridge* through the disastrous 19 year reign of King Stephen and beyond, this novel covers the forty years or so of the middle part of the 14th Century embracing most especially the horrendous catastrophe of the Bubonic Plague's arrival in Europe in which perhaps a third or more of Europe died a horrible death.

The story centres around the lives of four young children who witness the killing of two men at arms who themselves had come to kill the young knight who turned the tables on them. From those deaths unfurl the long, long journey of the story which cleverly comes full circle right at the end of this huge work. A mysterious letter, buried by this young man, is pivotal to the story and, though it does not reappear fully until the end, punctuates the plot's every twist and turn like a hinted shadow or a glimpsed figure of menace.

The four children grow from pre-adolescent exploring and friendship to middle age and all the accrued experiences. Caris, a young rich girl who is beautiful as well as wealthy but who is a natural leader, strikingly independant in thought, vision and action and is, if I may be so bold, a tad anachronistic. This does seem to be a theme for Follett. Certainly in the two novels which I have read and loved, the main female character is brilliant and strong and intelligent and insightful and therefore, whether people like it or not, not a very accurate outline of how a woman would have been able to be in the 14th Century. We might 100% agree with everything she says and does, or at least a good deal of it, but she speaks and reacts and behaves as a woman might well speak and react and behave in 2012 but most certainly not how she would in 1312. She is a great character but not of her time.

Then we have Merthin, the great love of her life. Of lower gentry fallen on hard times. Should be of rich stock but incompetence by his father results in a lower standing. He becomes an Architect and Trailblazer and courageous man of honour and decency. Another visionary.

His brother, Ralph, an unbelievably squalid shit. Cruel and vengeful and vicious and murderous and irredeemably awful and then we have Gwenda. She is the token peasant not quite the tart with the heart but every soap opera has to have the poor girl whose role is to be the best friend of the rich girl thus enabling aforesaid rich girl to take on another mantel, that of democratic liberal. This is to belittle Gwenda really as she is a brilliantly drawn and brave character and her struggles serve to mark momentous moments in the story and the ebb and flow of her life is one which really holds the reader's sympathy.

Re-reading this it might sound as if i did not like the book. I did. It is excellent. A fantastically exciting story, enormously expansive in its canvas and has enough willthey/won't they moments and gasp-i-can't-believe-he/she/they/said/did/achieved that opportunities for plot development that you are swept along. However this volume, more than the first one I think, is a total Middle Ages Soap opera. I am not sneering at that; it is ridiculously addictive, hence my desire for a big traffic jam but this time the historical awkwardness jarred more. The language used, the opinions expressed...always by Caris and Merthin and sometimes by others of their allies....were not believable for people of the 14th century. Their middle class sensitivities and liberal attitudes are wonderful for middle class and liberal people living and working and falling in love in the 21st Century but though Caris may well have struggled with all sorts of things I felt she was struggling as would a 21st century women transferred by magic back to the 14th century. Her struggles were of a woman going to bed in 2012 Surrey and waking up in 1348, the Bobby Ewing shower scene in reverse.

Follett again keeps 'plates' spinning brilliantly and draws characters with sharp lines so that you do not need to think much but know exactly who you are to boo and who you are to cheer. There was an oddly convenient use of the Black Death where his scythe seemed always to cut down the right people to ease the plot along and enable the main characters to progress. Only one central character died of it and indeed that was massively convenient and came at just the right time. Once again i am not criticizing for the sake of it but it does reinforce the idea of Soap Opera. In Emmerdale or 'Corrie' we will have a plane crash or a train pile up. In the pre-machine, pre-Industrial age of Medieaval Kingsbridge we will use the mightily convenient pandemic making sure only minor characters or certainly those whose usefulness to the plot is past or maybe they want to move on to do a season in Pantomime at Blackpool for the Christmas season. Anyway they will be the ones who 'buy it'.

Things i found briliant were the ways Follett easily explains the development of social structures and the growth of industry and the discovery of different ways of weaving or dyeing or construction. I felt I was learning as i read without even realizing it. The development of surnames and titles and the beginnings of the loosening of the serf structure was fascinating. The political and ecclesiastical battles were cleverly hinted at. The hopelessness of the poor before the tyranny of the powerful was well expressed and the stagnating grip of the status quo was well illustrated. I felt myself groan with frustration along with Caris and Merthin even as I knew this was another anachronism. By this stage i didn't care. That is the power of Mr Follett, I recognize that he is manipulating and twisting reality to suit his story and characters but he did it so well that i was totally Team Caris.

Each time Ralph did something monstrous, each time Godwin was an underhand shite, every time Philemon...who obviously smelt, Follett did not spell this out but i knew this had to be......just breathed I let all these occasions collect in my memory knowing they would surely all be avenged in some way shape or form. Well, all i will say is......I was not massively disappointed....Follett does a good plate of comeuppance and here he parts company with Soap opera cos he, quite evidently, believes in happy endings.

*though I would point out that for threee years I lived just 10 miles from the small town called Kingsbridge which nestles in the beautiful area of the South Hams in Devon ...more

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