5 comments about The Hammer of Eden.

1. Ken Follett has written many exciting books. This is not one. It doesn't even feel like him - I kept going back to the coverpage to make sure it wasn't written by someone else.



2. Hammer of Eden is one of only a few contemporary novels written by Ken Follett. He is more well known for his historical/World War 2 novels. The Hammer of Eden has a different feel to it but still maintains some of the classic Follett elements such as strong characterization and quick prose.
   
   Priest, an aging leader of a cult, has to do something to save their commune from being flooded by a dam that is to soon be built. Priest threatens the governor with an earthquake if he doesn't put a stop to the building of all future power plants. Priest can do this because of Melanie, a recent arrival at the commune that hates the world and her ex-husband and was a siesmologist in college. She knows a lot about earthquakes, and so does her ex-husband. She steals some data from him and Priest steals a truck called a seismic vibrator and now they are ready to cause earthquakes if they don't get their way.
   
   Priest is the strongest character in the book. He can be sensitive and sweet then downright ruthless. Trying to stop Priest is Judy Maddox, an FBI agent given the case as a demotion. Furious at the lack of respect she is shown, she throws her all into the case and discovers the earthquake threat is real. She joins forces with Michael Quercus, a seismologist, and Melanie's ex-husband.
   
   While fun to read, the plot twists were handled poorly. We find out early that Melanie and Michael are related and much could be solved if Judy knew more about Melanie and Michael. When she does finally find out, it is kind of anti-climactic.
   
   Still, if you are all Follett fan, then definitely read this book. If you are considering Follett, I suggest you check out some of his other books like Hornet Flight or Dangerous Fortune first.



3. This book was a bit of a page turner. The most interesting thing about it other than it was a good read like all Follett's books are is that the villain has so many likable qualities that you get suckered at first just like his victims.



4. A very interesting, and quite novel, approach to mystery writing. Ken Follet is one of my favorite authors who never fails to create interesting characters, establish great tension and suspense, and leave you with a few surprises. This was a very interesting read.



5. When a writer is out of ideas, he writes about characters. And when he has no characters, he writes the Hammer of Eden. A briefly intriguing idea is lost through lackluster plotting, flat characters and painfully inadequate dialogue. The idea of a terror group actually causing an earthquake with a seismic measuring truck is just so preposterous that no suspension of belief is possible. Throw in a hippie commune, a female FBI agent and a bunch of forgettable characters, and you actually feel sorry for the trees that were sacrificed for this production. I don't mean to be cruel to KF, but it's very frustrating reading page after page expecting something different to happen, only to be disappointed.

5 comments about Night Over Water.

1. Ok, this was no Pillars of the Earth, but it was a decent read anyhow. Just before the outbreak of World War 2, a Clipper - a large luxury plane akin to the Spruce Goose - is taking off from England for America. Some passengers are ordinary people, some are upper class people, some are movie stars, some are police, some are criminals, and some are Nazis. Moreover, someone has kidnapped the wife of a crewmember, and will kill her unless he brings the plane down in the Atlantic and release one very special passenger.
   
   There are many characters, with many intertwining plots, and Follett does a decent job in managing it, however, there were times when he would quit switching points of view, and continue with the more interesting characters. Also, the ending is a tad forced, in that everything ends a little too prettily, otherwise this book would have gotten 5 stars for being a real page-turner.
   
   Get this one next time you have a long flight.
   
   Relic113



2. I read this 544 page paperback in 3 days. Its "Ship of Fools" meets the Pan Am Clipper in 1939 at the very beginning of WWII. Everybody on the legendary flying boat seems to be running away from something and their stories all intersect during the 40 hour flight from England to the U.S. Its an easy and fun read, and the closest we'll ever get to experiencing the golden age of travel by flying boat.



3. As usual another great story told by Ken Follett. This book takes you back to 1939 in pre-war times in England. It it about several different families and lives that come together on the Pan-Am Clipper. The story is beautifully told from many different points of view. I like the was he would end one chapter with one persons point of view, and then resume the other chapter going a few minutes back in time and telling it from someone else's point of view. I loved this book. Thanks Ken Follett for another wonderful novel.



4. Having finished Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, I rediscovered Follett after having read Eye of the Needle eons ago. Night Over Water is as well constructed a story as you'll find. He introduces the cast of characters so well, that when the flight commences and the personalities meet, the mystery and spice pull you in. Tighten your seat belt, this one is going to be a turbulent good read. Enjoy!



5. A story of romance,intrigue and espionage takes place over the Atlantic on the Pan American Clipper at the onset of WWII. Follett's mixture of characters are wonderful; everything from aristocrats to theives and spies on this flight. People from all walks of life taking this flight for all different reasons. A darn good yarn and as a bonus I learned something about the Pan American Clipper; an amazing engineering feat in itself.

5 comments about Dangerous Fortune, A.

1. A Dangerous Fortune
   An enjoyable story. Another reason why Ken Follett is one of my favorite authors - particularly of historical novels.



2. I thought this was a good book it started off a little slow but picked up with the deciept, mystery, and intrigue. It was easy so figure out in some parts but still good.



3. Written with typical style the characters are described and built so well you feel like you know them. Great story telling as always, plenty of drama, action and a little romance thrown in.
   
   If your a fan or just looking for something new to read I recommend this book to you.



4. I didn't think I would like this book because I'm not typically a fan of this period of history, but Follett managed to keep my interest piqued throughout the entire book. It starts out with kids at boarding school that are part of a nasty, secret accident and then follows the boys as they grow up and how their secret haunts them. Very twisted tale!



5. This is a quite unremarkable, moderately entertaining work of fiction set in late 19th century England. As with another of Follett's works, A Place Called Freedom, it has little to recommend it over dozens of other similar novels set in the period.
   
   The plot revolves around the Pilasters, a wealthy and contentious banking family, whose various branches struggle for control of the family business. Subplots involving a fictitious South American country and members of the British "underclass" bring some spice into the history. However, as with A Place Called Freedom, the most striking aspect of the novel is its utter predictability. Twists in the story become strikingly obvious scores of pages in advance.
   
   I would rate this novel slightly above the aforementioned A Place Called Freedom, but both pale in comparison to Follett's two novels Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. Readers familiar with those works will likely be disappointed with this effort.

5 comments about Paper Money.

1. I'm moved to add my opinion in defense of Paper Money and Ken Follett's substantial talent. It's all there from the beginning: his masterful plot design, his uncanny ability to humanize and give insight into "bad" characters. I too found the ending a little abrupt and lacking in traditional resolution. However, I would still highly recommend this to someone looking for a well crafted and propulsive "shorter" read.



2. This is the first Ken Follett I have read and I understand it is an early effort. This novel is a wonderful invocation of London and various types that were around in the late 60s and early 70s. In a short space it paints a rich canvass of characters and has a very clever plot.

   The insight into characters and "the way things work" is sharp and the sex is well handled without becoming prurient. I was amazed at the talent here ("I normally read more "serious" authors) and this is a cut above other best selling authors I sometimes have read. I intend to explore his other novels.




3. This was written before the best selling Eye of the Needle back in 1976 and under a pseudonym. Follett considers it his best unsuccessful book. I consider it an interesting opportunity to see an early effort from a well known author. The story takes place in one day and involves about a half dozen people who have no idea how their lives are becoming interlinked by events. Were he to write the same story today, it would probably be tied together a bit differently and would be fleshed out a little more, but all the ingredients are there and if you have been a fan of this author, it is well worth your time to read this one.



4. Follett writes an introduction to this book and explains that in this early novel the plot was too complex and their were too many characters that didn't get enough development. So Follett admits, this isn't the best book, but it was still entertaining, even if the end was abrupt.
   
   The plot revolves around an British politician who is seduced by a young woman then blackmailed into revealing who wins a government oil contract. Also, financial wizard Felix Laski tells a henchman Tony Cox the location of a delivery of money to be destroyed.
   
   The plot then follows the money being stolen and Laski wheeling and dealing to buy the company that won the oil contract. All of this information is filtered through a newspaper office where the reporters must decide what to print and what not to print. The only intrigue lies in will the reporters discover the scheme and will they print it, and will some of the bad guys get there due. For an early novel, this isn't bad, but is extremely obvious that Follett improved greatly after this book.
   
   Paper money is short and good read for a Follett fan, but not anyone else.



5. I loved Pillars of the Earth. Then I ordered three early Ken Follett books which he wrote under a different name. Paper Money is a terrific tale of the banking business in England in the 1800's. The banking family are all great characters. Murder, Mayhem and money. A great read.

5 comments about Hornet Flight.

1. Another exciting, WWII fiction by Follett............Stays suspenseful throughout and keeps you pulling for good to prevail!



2. Follett has written some really great books; "Eye of the Needle", "The Key to Rebecca", "Night Over Water"; that can be easily classed as a "beach read". How is a "beach read" different from an "airplane read" or a "little boy book"? Well, Tom Clancy does "little boy books" and Cormac McCarthy does "airplane reads". Follett's books - except for "The Pillars of the Earth" - are action books with an escapist bent that focuses the reader on learning about a key piece of the plot. In this book it is the Hornet Moth airplane powered by a Gypsy Moth engine - both made by de Haviland. The book's many twists and turns are accelerated by characters as diverse as sinister Nazi cops and strict Lutheran sect ministers along with a handful of bumbling Wehrmacht soldiers. Oh and do not forget the threat of the Gestapo always available to pull out a victims fingernails at the drop of a military secret.
   
   As with all Follett's books, the good guys live in the end to not only escape but return to fight the Nazi's to the bitter end of the war.



3. I had liked very much a trip to Denmark last fall so I was looking forward to reading this book, set there. I was disappointed. It was a rehash of innumerable WW "thrillers" - although not very thrilling!



4. Could not drag myself further than to page 70 - what a disappointment. His style of writing in this book is incredibly poor, it felt like reading a dime novel picked up at the gas station.
   I loved all his previous books, but I am not sure if I will give his future books another try.
   Good luck that I only checked it out at the library and did not buy it.



5. This is not a bad book -- it just seems pretty formulaic and uninspired to me. I saw the romance angle coming from miles away -- Follett uses variants on the same formulas for almost all of his WW2 thrillers (Eye of the Needle is the big exception--but this is the identical formula he uses in "The Key to Rebecca" and "Code to Zero" to name just two). Follett's writing style, as usual, moves right along, but this is a quick read, and not a particularly memorable one.

No comments about Pillars of the Earth [Cd] (Abridged).

5 comments about The Key to Rebecca.

1. I am an avid fan of Ken Follett and, with the exception of "Pillars of the Earth", he is at his best in the world of WW2 intrigue. "Key to Rebecca" drops us smack into the middle of the desert war with Rommel's Afrika Corps. Follett has created another fascinating undercover agent, a dynamic, intriguing woman and a host of other gritty characters lurking in the shadows of Cairo. Hang on for a lightning fast, twisting ride barreling along toward a dynamite ending.



2. My title was less about offending purists and more about catching the eye with a little joke: plus it's technically all true. The fact is The Key To Rebecca is one heckuva thrilling jaunt. Set in occupied Egypt during the early part of World War Two and telling the fictionalized background story of how Rommel's best spy infiltrated Cairo and got his hands on invaluable military information the British were trying desperately to conceal, Ken Follett's second published novel has something for everyone: including, may I add, fans of strategically shaved belly dancers. By using as his code book something as innocuous as Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier best-selling novel of Cornwall, a maverick German spy sends theoretically unbreakable messages back to his comrades on the front lines, giving the Afrika Korps a seemingly inexplicable advantage over its beleaguered foes. Opposing this ruthless spy is a British officer tormented by his own personal demons, someone far less interesting than the spy he hunts, but more sympathetically comprehensible in his fallibility. Unlike most novels of this genre The Key To Rebecca, while energetic and quick moving, offers few cliffhangers or plot twists and instead relies on being driven by some of the most memorably sketched characters in fiction who stalk one another in a time and place that holds the balance of the world itself.



3. Germany has managed to sneak a spy into Cairo during the desparate struggle between the British and Rommel's Afrika Corps. Alex Wolff, the spy, is ruthless and determined to help the Germans capture Egypt. Using contacts from his depraved life in Cairo, he sets out to steal secrets from an unwitting British officer, providing Rommel with all the tools he needs to defeat the British.
   
   Standing in his way is Major Vandam, a British Intelligence Officer, widower and father, and Elena, a beautiful young Jew he recruits to try and capture the spy. The trap is set, but their plans are complicated by the conflicting alegiences of the Egyption officials, and Elena finds herself trapped by Wolff and his depraved partner, and must somehow both survive and help Vandam stop the spy and provide the key to stopping Rommel.
   
   Set against the chaos of wartime Cairo, the suspense builds as Wolff and Vandam dance around each other, each trying to gain an advantage. The story moves at a brisk pace, and full of interesting twists. However, there is a fair bit of moderately graphic, mature content, so this book might not be appropriate for less mature readers (parental guidance is strongly suggested).



4. Every Ken Follett novel I have read so far has been outstanding. The Key to Rebecca is no exception. This book centers around a spy in the 1940's in Cairo named Alex Wolff. Through most of the book, all of the characters are very likeable. But keep reading, and the story takes a drastic turn. The book is fast paced. It is full of mystery, suspense, and romance. The book keeps you guessing until the end. Personally, I think this book is even better than The Eye of the Needle.



5. Having been consumed with the masterful writing in Follett's Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, I've started revisiting all his novels. Although written over 25 years ago about a war that took place over 65 years ago, Follett's insightful characterisations hold up remarkably well. The master storyteller pulls you in and weaves a web of intrigue that will keep you involved until the final pages. Great read.

5 comments about Eye of the Needle.

1. This is the one to read. Follett made his mark with this novel and it is a taut and well written "what if" story centered around WWII.
   
   It has it all, cold-blooded killers, military secrets which can change the course of the war.
   
   A page turner from start to finish and I have read it a few times over the years. The movie with Donald Sutherland is also a very worthwhile one to watch if you get the chance to. It is very well done and ranks up there as one of the better ones in the genre.



2. After recently finishing, and greatly enjoying, Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth (Deluxe Edition) (Oprah's Book Club), I was determined to finally read Eye of The Needle. This book has been on my list of must reads for over 5 years. Thank goodness I finally read the book. The Eye of the Needle is a thoroughly enjoyable read with great characters; especially uber-villain Dae Nadel.
   
   Essentially, this book surrounds true events leading to the Allies invasion of Normandy in World War II. There are meetings with Churchill and Hitler and their top advisors in this book. Follett does and excellent job of taking the reader to Great Britain during the time of the Blackouts. Many sub-plots abound in this excellent read. The Eye of the Needle has received much critical acclaim over the years. In my opinion, the acclaim is well-deserved. A highly recommended 5-star read.



3. Mama bear v spy.
   
   
   In this case, not a story I bought into, as a mother and child get in the way of an enemy agent's plans, and must fight to survive.
   
   There's also a movie, which in this case I actually thought was better, something that is pretty rare.
   
   This is passable enough, but that is about it.
   
   
   3 out of 5



4. I read this good fiction book, here in Brazil.This book uses real facts , during World War II, as its source.The operation wanted to decieve nazi Germany, during the months before and some months after D Day landings, in 1944.This book really is a good fiction, but today , I don't like to read fiction.When I read this book, more than twenty years ago, I liked it.Because of the fact that I enjoyed this book, I must give four stars for it.



5. This is a nice thriller about the Second World War in Britain. Spies, deceit, nice reconstruction of the atmosphere of the war in Britain, not of a very rapid pace but it keeps you alert. Nice book.

5 comments about World Without End.

1. I read The Pillars of the Earth and am now plowing through World Without End. Gritty, earthy and raw, these books depict the town of Kingsbridge, England during two medieval periods. Follett is a master at depicting the brutal and desperate lifestyles of all echelons of society during the Middle Ages through compelling characters and thorough research, but these are not for the faint of heart. Both the length of the books and the gory details could be a little off-putting to some readers, but overall, the triumph of the human spirit shines through.
   
   I was so looking forward to reading World Without End and so hoping that Follett would have grown as an author in the almost two decades since The Pillars of the Earth. I am disappointed. Again, compelling characters and thorough research are the stars of this book, but alas, the same weaknesses as before -- slippages of language where medieval characters sound startlingly modern and historical anomalies that just don't fit. These, as always, are forgivable when the tale is well-spun and the characters well-crafted.
   
   As before, my biggest complaint with WWE is the graphic sexual content that just doesn't fit and is totally unnecessary. I get that the Middle Ages were brutal. There was little privacy and the entire cycle of life from birth to death was lived out in almost animal-like desperation except for the privileged few. This is compelling enough fodder without having to show to the minutest detail every rape, pillage and plunder in all its fantastical gore. We get it, Mr. Follett. The Bad Guys were really, really bad. The lesbian nun sub-plot too, was contrived and unbelievable. Without giving too much away, the details of lesbian intimacies were unnecessary and could have been depicted in a much more tactful manner than the clumsy, guy/boorish way that Follett chose. Again, titillating tripe.
   
   I wrote this for POTE and the same is true for WWE, the gratuitous sex is just garbage, but the main characters are so compelling and enjoyable that you want to spend the 1000 pages with them and will think about their lives long after you have closed the book. It's just such a shame that Follett had to sully up a great book with smut.



2. I read Pillars and like the story a lot. I read the reviews of World Without End and decided not to buy it but I rented it from the library. About 300 pages in I stopped reading it. The story is the same; the young plucky heroine, the smart young builder, etc. Instead of the building of a cathedral they have to build a bridge (they encounter the same problems). The characters were shallow and there was no great villain. If you really liked Pillars, read it again, don't buy this book.



3. Ken Follett's follow-up to the vastly overrated Pillars of the Earth offers nothing new, save the historical events of the Black Death and the Hundred Years War. As in Pillars, his characters are one dimensional; the good are always good, the evil always evil. The plot itself is little more than a far-fetched soap opera recycled from POTE. In addition, I was greatly annoyed at Follett's very unsubtle foreshadowing and constant repetitions to remind his audience of how characters are connected or of various plot points earlier in the book. There are much better examples of medieval historical fiction available, so there is little reason to slog through the almost 1000 pages of trite fiction of this book.



4. Just finally finished the Kindle version. Enjoyable but it was a bit repetitive in some areas. Not to give away any elements of the plot but it seemed that a couple of the plot lines would get somewhat resolved, the story would move on to something new and then return to the same former thing. Nothing new the second go-around, just more of the same drama. Weird.
   
   The characters are compelling and believable although in a few areas I thought Follett interjected 21st Century values into his story in an attempt to make the characters more heroic.



5. I liked the book. And I'd give it a full five stars and gush more about it if it didn't seem almost as if a template was lifted from "Pillars of the Earth" and dropped over Kingsbridge two hundred years later. Still, I enjoyed it enough to read it in just a few days.
   
   My chief complaint--as others have noted--is that he sometimes uses modern day slang when accepted English would have done just as well and been much less jarring. It stunned me that such an experienced writer would do this. Stunned me even more that it would get past a good editor.
   
   My other criticism is that he wrapped things up very abruptly. Almost as if mom had shouted into his room, "Ken, dinner in fifteen minutes--you need to finish what you're doing."
   
   If nothing else, I enjoyed it more than I would have enjoyed picking up "Pillars of the Earth" and reading it a fourth time.
   
   All criticisms aside, it's a good book and I'm glad I read it.

5 comments about The Pillars of the Earth.

1. I had this book recommended to me a number of years ago. After fruitless years of searching for a cheap used copy in a thrift or second hand store, I finally broke down and bought it (I know, I know, libraries are good too . . .). And I'm glad I did. In this huge historical masterpiece, Follett unfolds a masterful tail of life in the village of Kingsbridge, England over a forty-year period as it emerges from relative obscurity to become a cathedral city.
   
   The book begins with a mysterious hanging of a French jongleur (storyteller), a mystery that will weave throughout the rest of the story. We are first introduced to Tom, a stonemason and builder who is a bit down on his luck after a job falls through. He has church building in his blood, but isn't able to find work. His wife dies in child birth, and he takes up with a woman from the wild, Ellen, and her son, Jack. We meet Philip, a young monk, who then is surprisingly elected prior of the Kingsbridge monastary. These two characters, along with a third, Aliena, the daughter of the Earl of Shiring, make up the backbone of the story, as we follow their exploits and as their roads converge and diverge around the building of a cathedral for Kingsbridge.
   
   The story is much too expansive to condense in a coherent way, but it is none the worse for it. The stories of domestic life and struggle, the local power plays between prior and bishop and earl, and the national and international politics of both church and country set the stage for the action. A two-decade civil war in England over the rightful successor to the throne provides the international tension that makes for shifting allegiances of the local earls and bishops, causing repeated upheavals in the local power struggles. Through it all, prior Philip seeks what's best for Kingsbridge and continues to build his cathedral.
   
   Tom is succeeded by his son Alfred as builder of the cathedral, but his bungaling causes a small collapse and work stops, until Jack, son of the forrest-woman Ellen and step-son of Tom Builder, is appointed the new master builder. He reinvigorates the work with a new design based on the newest technologies from France, and a beautiful and light-filled cathedral takes shape. And amongst the stones and pillars, character flourish and fail, love is lost and won, and great things are learned.
   
   The texture of the world Follett creates continually draws the reader into this past reality, and the depth of the characters keeps the plot moving forward. I highly recommend this amazing historical tale.



2. I read The Pillars of the Earth and am now plowing through World Without End. Gritty, earthy and raw, these books depict the town of Kingsbridge, England during two medieval periods. Follett is a master at depicting the brutal and desperate lifestyles of all echelons of society during the Middle Ages through compelling characters and thorough research, but these are not for the faint of heart. Both the length of the books and the gory details could be a little off-putting to some readers, but overall, the triumph of the human spirit shines through.
   
   While Follett's research is obviously thorough, there are some slippages of language where characters sound rather startlingly modern, as well as, a few other historical anomalies, but these are mostly forgivable. My biggest gripe is one that has been mentioned before and that is the almost pornographic depictions of rape and sex throughout the book. It is just unnecessarily graphic. As another reviewer wrote, "We get it. William is a really bad guy." Frankly the descriptions are so over the top, one begins wonder about the deviancies of the author, which is generally an unfair assertion, but in this case, unavoidable. Eeek! I am no prude, but there are scenes (particularly the one in the brothel involving a gang rape) that do nothing to further the plot and only serve as titillating pulp.
   
   The gratuitous sex is just garbage, but the main characters are so compelling and enjoyable that you want to spend the 1000 pages with them and will think about their lives long after you have closed the book. It's just such a shame that Follett had to sully up a great book with smut.



3. This book reminded me of the bodice rippers that I read when I was a teenager - you know, the ones with Fabio on the cover? It was much longer, of course, more like 3 bodice rippers in one novel. There's the sexy heroine (Aliena), the likeable tradesman (Tom), the evil lord (William), and the saintly monk (Phillip). The story is good vs. evil, true love conquers all, blah, blah.
   
   I finished this book, and found it readable, and even compelling in some parts. The violence bothered me, and I got weary of all the challenges, one after the other after the other, that the characters had to go through. The descriptions could be tedious. When Jack sets fire to the church, it takes pages and pages - it should have been done in one page.
   
   I have to disagree with some of the reviewers who thought that the cathedral building information was well done. I found it confusing and hard to visualize. Even though I have visited cathedrals all over the world (Westminster, York, Notre Dame), I still don't know what a Nave is, so when you tell me that it crosses the chancery (don't know what that is either) or some such - it doesn't do me a bit of good. I would have found it helpful if 10 or so pages of the 970 were devoted to a glossary or even some drawings. I had to go online to look up St. Denis just to get an idea of what the mythical Kingsbridge Cathedral would look like.
   
   I would not call this historical fiction - it was more like fiction set in a past time. Unlike most historical fiction, the places and people described in this book did not exist. It puts into question how much of it is historically accurate.
   
   In summary, I would say that you could read this book and be entertained, but if you skipped it, you wouldn't be missing anything. You could read A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught or The Love Knot by Elizabth Chadwick, and you'd get the same idea.



4. it's just too bad that Follett felt the need to pad it with an extra 400 unneccessary pages. Despite the uninspired proses, high school-ish dialogue and a few sinks thrown at the reader, the book has just enough to make you continue to find out what the heck happened. But I have to tell you, by page 700 I was sick of this cathedral. I do like that the women weren't always helpless damsels, despite a few horrible things happening to them, but did all the men have to be complete jerks? Other than Phillip I didn't care for any of them and Phillip rode my last nerve, too. I know as writers, there is a creative license that everyone is entitled to; but really, this reads like the author just didn't know any better on some of the historical facts. Richard and Aliena would not have been just left to hold the earldom after a raid-especially when their father was arrested for treason. Plus Richard would have already been someone squire at that age. The thing that really annoy me about Tom the Builder was just how fast he got over his first wife, Agnes. Literally the next evening he was in love with someone else and he didn't spare her a REAL second thought. 400 pages later Follett throws in that he was just getting over her, but it rang so false that it was insulting. Plus, in the begining of this book we see this family roaming around, starving and barely covering a country side and then 500 pages later, see Aliena cover vast amount of land looking for Jack with supposedly no money, too and with a baby and she wasn't starving and withering away. (Sure she got sick briefly, but C'mon.) There's a very comic book feels to a lot of this that I wished Follett just made it a fantasy so the author could do what he wanted and not have me frowning at the book and going "that's not what happened." Walrean was a disappointing nemesis, I didn't understand how the Hamleigh forgave him for trying to steal an earldom and hate a guy for just wanting some timber and rocks from them. I wanted specfics of Walreans downfall-not that he just shows up and wants to be lowly monk again. William was extremely over the top and I fail to see how a ragamuffin army of Richard's (supposedly of a hundred people) couldn't kill 4 ex-knights taken unawares during a rape.) I loved Follett's Eye of the Needle, but I think he really needs to stay out of the middle ages.



5. This is a good book, especially if you enjoy historical fiction and have an interest in Art history and it's architecture.