The Pillars of the Earth

This book reads like it could have been one of the inspirations for Game of Thrones. With all the intrigue, political games, maniacal masculinity, and graphic descriptions of some pretty disturbing imagery, it is only missing the fantasy elements.

I went through this book in just a couple of weeks, and as soon as page 20 I wasn't able to put it back down. The way this book presents its story as lived by different characters didn't feel forced, and gave it all a good balance and pace.

All in all, very nice read.

I'll start off by saying that I am a sucker for a good historical fiction and this book did no disappoint! It sucked me in from page one and kept me hooked (for the most past) all the way through the 900+ pages. My favorite characters by far were Ellen, Jack and Aliena. I just felt most connected to their story and therefore most invested in what happened to them. I also enjoyed the Prior Phillip character and to a lesser extent Tom. I just found myself liking and being annoyed equally with Tom and just could never connect with the character, if that makes sense! I loathed William, which I suppose was the point of the character, but I found him to be a little to much of a characacher by the end. I wish perhaps the author had done something more with the character then just the typical one dimensional “bad guy” thing.

When I read a historical fiction novel I love to have a lot of details, what they ate, describe their clothes, buildings and things of that nature. There was a lot of that is this book and I just loved that, but I also found there was a little to much sometimes about the cathedral, a little TO much description that went on for page after page and after awhile I found myself sort of skimming over all that to get back to the dialogue between characters, but that is just a small criticism! Overall I really enjoyed the novel and will most definitely be reading World Without End and would recommend Pillars to anyone who loves historical fiction.

I agree with some of the 1-star reviewers that the book would have been even better had the characters been more deeply drawn and more nuanced, and found the summary of the plot by one of the reviewers on point (and hilarious) but, that said, and perhaps I have a special interest in King Stephen and the 12th century generally, I enjoyed the book ... in part by skimming throughout the sections describing building of the cathedral.

This is a challenging book to review, mostly because there was just so much of it. The setting was very Robin Hood vibes. I really enjoyed the characters and thought that they were believable, if a little black and white. The good guys always ended up doing the right thing and the bad guys never stopped being terrible, self-serving, and unlikeable. I loved the story, how it carried over the decades that it took to build the cathedral, and getting to see each stage in the process. And the author seemed to do a great job portraying the political and religious environment of the 1100's, which I found very interesting to learn more about. That was my favorite part of the book: getting to see such a detailed picture of life in an ancient era and all of the small differences I would never have considered. I was interested and entertained all the way to the end of the book. Overall, I would definitely say it was worth the read ONLY if you're willing to skip over some parts.

I do, however, have some complaints. I truly HATED reading the primary antagonist's POV. He was vile, completely self-absorbed and using his power to take whatever he wanted from people and do whatever he wanted to people. It was so frustrating, seeing this character without a single redeeming or positive quality continue to maintain power and destroy in moments the hard work of hundreds of others. Maybe that's the point of his character, but I hated reading from his perspective. Connected with that complaint, this book has an unnecessary amount of adult content. I think I probably skipped 10-15 pages total, which is a small percentage of the book, but way way more than was necessary for the author to include. Lastly, towards the end it just felt a little unbelievable that so many major world events happened to connect to one small town in England and a few specific people.

Age range: 18+
Very violent, medieval combat. Graphic depictions of SA, and some non-violent adult content. Strong language that honestly felt a little out of place for a story that took place 900 years ago, pretty modern cursing.