World Without End: Kingsbridge, Book 2

Great story line and characters. A real page turner. It’s a shame it is over and I am going to start the next on in the series straight away!

I did enjoy this read. Very detailed and historically accurate. Obviously Mr Follett does do his research. Again his characters developed nicely and the story progressed at a fair clip. Now on to the next in the series.

I would have given it 5 stars where it not for the fact similarities to the first book. It's another page turner (and there are lot of pages to turn) which is an achievement for a book of this length. Lots of action and intrigue, and the world building is excellent. Only issue is how most of the main characters are carbon copies of ones in the first book. Also quite similar plotting.

I read "Pillars" years ago and that was one of the best books that I have ever read. This one is just as brilliant and I am looking forward to reading Book 3 and 4. What a wonderful writer.

Read the book many years ago - still an amazing read.

My first review . Still reading it.It’s an easy read and it’s written for everyone. A young teen could read it and it’s just as engrossing for adults . An example of the sort of thing that impress me is the way the convolutions of the various trials and tragedies weave together so well , that amazes me actually . An example being that before we know it we are seeing the Battle of Crecy from the French perspective and their own contribution to that defeat . This battle a added to the long term challenges for the heroes, I felt I understood more of that battle , learned probable origins of some old words we all use , got a bit of adventure , and was set for another one as characters died and inherited or were promoted and new things learned for other characters which continued further the trials , tragedies and minor triumphs . Then another adventure which does the same thing again , and again , and so on. All linked and weaving wonder into your reading . Anyone could write that side of it. I liked how Follet enabled that as part of the story with such economy . And it just goes on like that . There must be plot holes but they are very well disguised as to be unnoticeable . This is the first time I have felt I’d like to seek this author out and demand he tells me how the hell is could get all this story telling in order like this!Get it , read it , enjoy . ( it’s an historical adventure novel, not a text book , so ignore the detractors ).

Although I’ve been a Ken Follet reader for 35-40 years, I missed this series.It’s amazing. History with a story woven into it.

Sequels are sometimes described as "more of the same", and that has never applied more accurately than to the second entry in the Kingsbridge series. With the benefit of hindsight, it may have been a mistake to listen to this audiobook immediately after finishing The Pillars of the Earth. Some reviewers have noted how alike the two are, and there are plenty of similarities. To some extent, the story is another version of Pillars of the Earth, two hundred years on, with a shuffled round set of characters. Ken Follett has a habit, in this series at least, of over explaining something that was already obvious through showing. Furthermore, he telegraphs when something momentous is going to happen or not happen by building up the opposite of it. So why the 4 stars? I have to view World Without End as a whole, and although it's not as good as its predecessor, it kept me entertained for 40 hours or more on my commute to work without ever boring me. It felt like a never ending soap opera, but I ended up completely invested in so many of the characters while despising others. Leaving them all behind when it was over was a big wrench. Recommended if you enjoyed the first book and like a long read, but maybe leave a year or so between them.

I really enjoyed it, even more than Pillars of the eEarth.For some people, the length of descriptive phases Follet take in these books are tiresome, but for me are beautiful and nurtured.I highly advice to read the books in order:- Pillars of earth (beginning of the middle age 1100 AC)- World Without End (1300 AC)- and, a Column of Fire (to be read by me)Each set of characters and stories are linked through Kingsbridge Cathedral, but each one preset you with problems and challenges of each time.Discovering the beginning of the black death and how people faced it, reminded me a lot of our actual pandemic. And it was weird to read many of our prevention measurements, to be described in this book.In a few words: it is amazing to read how common people invest their time and life in creating something so beautiful and long-lasting as a Cathedral, a bridge and a whole town.

L’auteur parvient à nous plonger à l’époque du moyen-âge, de la guerre de cent ans et de la peste bucolique. Le rythme est soutenu et le lecteur éprouve de nombreuses émotions au cours des péripéties qui se succèdent. C’est la deuxième fois que je lis ce roman et c’est toujours avec le même plaisir. Je le recommande.

Took me 5 weeks to read this ( i read 9 hrs a week). Despite what other comments say, i personally enjoyed this book more than pillars of earth, because the characters in this book grow over time in such a wonderful way. even lolla a cute 3 yr old girl grows up to have a (surprisingly) different character. all the four main characters in the book really mature over the years. the story itself is vast in scope. in the last 500 pages( after 700 pages) we see the horrors of the Black death. the superiority of the longbow men of the English and the foolish chivalry of French Knights is also depicted . the battle of Crecy is beautifully described.there is no boring part in the beginning as was the case of earlier books written by Ken Follet , he has corrected this mistake in his recent novels.Every character is rich and has its peculiarities, that does not mean the story line was dull, the story is also grander in scope.

Il libro è molto intrigante, con rappresentazioni calzanti dell'animo umano nelle sue debolezze, nelle sue nefandezze e, di contro, nelle sue più alte espressioni. Il racconto ti prende molto e non vedi l'ora di leggere la pagina successiva per sapere cosa succederà. Pertanto è un libro sicuramente da leggere. Difetti? Potremmo dire che i vari accadimenti nel dipanarsi degli episodi sono tutti possibili, ma, come sempre nei romanzi di Ken Follet, la probabilità che nella realtà possano accadere tutti assieme è pari a quella di azzeccare un sei al superenalotto. Ma d'altra parte è un romanzo per cui è molto più importante tenere sulle spine il lettore che scrivere una storia più realistica, ma noiosa.

Love this series. Great characters and the way he incorporates history into the work is marvellous