The Evening and the Morning

This was my first Ken Follett book and it was just wow! It was superb and I definitely will be reading the rest of his books!

It was beautifully written with some fantastic (and some not so fantastic!) characters.

I loved Edgar, Ragna and Aldred. On the other hand, I despised Degbert, Dreng, Wynstan, Wigelm. Honestly the four of them were absolutely vile. Wilwulf nor Gytha were any better! Ken did an excellent job portraying these characters in such a way, that it elicited such strong emotions in me! (I know that if I'd read it with my fellow Pigeonholers, I would have made plenty of comments along the way (It was on PH a while back, but unfortunately I didn't get a spot, so had to make do with reading on my own.)!

Anyway, despite how they were repeatedly knocked down, I loved the fighting spirit Edgar, Ragna and Aldred continuously showed.

I loved that the book contained a couple of strong female characters (Ragna obviously and Edgar's mother, Mildred.) Was nice to see that, they atleast, wouldn't let themselves be walked all over unlike certain other characters!

Anyway, I really enjoyed this and definitely would highly recommend it to others.

A bit of an enjoyable weird one. Weird because, compared to other authors I recently read, Follett is a bit pedestrian as a writer. Ok it is years since I read his other stuff but I remembered him better. The characters are very black or white, the dialog capable but not memorable, however, he does move the narrative arc along, and for a thriller writer turned to Historical novelist, you have to give him credit that he chooses to have a loose plot rather than some strong theme that drives the beginning middle and end. I trust that it was well researched and it does seem a labour of love and the Pre-Norman period of Britain is an interesting one (I now know what a Hue & Cry is...) I will line up his more famous sequal to my TBR list

FULL REVIEW ON MY BLOG


It's been a long time since I read the Knightsbridge Series, and The Pillars of the Earth is one of my all-time favourite books ever. I love Follets style and storytelling. I know these books are fiction, but when reading them it just all seems real to me. I think that's what makes his books so good.

The Evening and the Morning is, just like the rest of the books in this series, marvelous. But yes, I must say, it's not as good as The Pillars of the Earth. I loved every page, but I somehow just felt it missed something.

I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction, and to anyone who's read the other books in the series.