WORLD WITHOUT END

Ken Follett's sequel to The Pillars of the Earth is 1014 pages of unforgettable reading. I can't remember when I enjoyed a sequel better. This book is set two-hundred years after the first novel. There is, however, a flaw in this novel that is a little annoying. There are way too many calamities, seemingly every ten pages or so. This, coupled with the Black Plague running amok, witchcraft trials, and everybody seeking revenge, had my head spinning. If you like lots of characters, this is your book. There are at least six or seven major characters and thirty minor characters. With all of these people involved, you really have to give Ken Follett kudos for character development. I felt love or hate for each one of them.

The novel starts with four children witnessing a murderous conflict between a knight and two men at arms. The knight buries a secret letter and seeks asylum at the famous monastery at Kingsbridge, where he becomes a monk. The children Merthin, Ralph, Caris and Gwenda are forever tied together. Their trials and tribulations along with their families and the monks form the plot.

As with the first book, the clergy are fighting for power. This time they are led by the evil prior Godwyn. Edmund Wooler leads a township looking for commerce and independence from the church. We have the battle between the good builder, Merthin, and the bad builder, Elfric. There are love stories: Merthin and Caris and Gwenda and Wulfric. We have the horrible Ralph Fitzgerald, later to become the Earl of Shiring. Then we have the "common sense" medical theories of Caris versus the blood letting monk doctors. Finally, there is  Prior Godwyn's sidekick, the scurrilous and conniving Philemon fighting for power and advancement.

The book gives the reader a good idea of how it must have been to live in Medieval times. Can you imagine being bled every time you got sick? Being accused of heresy by a enemy could get you quickly hung? If you were clergy, grab the wrong shirt tails and face failure. Any noble had life and death power over the peasants along with unlimited taxation. As Charles Dickens wrote of a different time in A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

There are too many sub-plots to describe, so my advise is to get hold of a copy and start reading. I found this book to be the fastest thousand page book I've ever read. Is it better than The Pillars of the Earth? No, but I think it's close, which is saying a lot. I think these books are the best novels that Follett has ever written.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Ken Follett is a Welsh writer who has appeared four times on the N.Y.Times best seller list as number one. His current work is Fall of Giants, the first of three books. Some of the thrillers he has written include Eye of the Needle and Night Over Water.