Book Review: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Goodreads Summary: The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect—a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.
A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett's historical masterpiece.

Goodreads Rating: 4.32 stars with over 600,000 ratings

Genre Listing: Historical Fiction, Medieval, British Literature

Goodreads Challenge: 30/60

2020 Reading Challenge: #28 A book recommended by a friend (find the full challenge here)

Book Review:

*Edit: Apparently, my Grammarly updates aren't taking effect when I make them. Please excuse my dust while I go through and edit hundreds of posts in between work and classes.*

Hurray! I finally finished The Pillars of the Earth! This book has ultimately killed the month of July reading. I was caught up on the Goodreads Challenge, and now I'm 5 books behind again. I really didn't expect this to take so long to read.  One of my co-workers recommended it to me, and then shortly after that, I saw it on sale on Amazon, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I am going to have a love/hate relationship with this series—first, the good. I liked the story. I thought it was interesting, and I was intrigued by the characters. I felt sorry for Tom almost instantly. I liked Ellen even though I didn't really trust her when she first met Tom. Aliena was probably my favorite character, and her plotline just made me sad, but I was rooting for her the entire time. William is one of the vilest villains I have ever read. I can't figure out if I hate him more or less than Stephen Bonnet from Outlander. Prior, Phillip was an interesting character as well. 

I thought that the interweaving of the story was interesting. The story starts with Ellen watching the death of Jack's father, and we never really find out why he was hung, but all of the plots circle back to that event eventually.  Ultimately it ends with the Sainthood of St. Thomas. This was a really different kind of read for me. I like Historical Fiction and have been wanting to read more medieval stuff. I haven't read a lot that deals with religious history. I'm not a religious person, but I appreciate the history of it, so I liked reading about how the priory worked and how a saint became a saint. 

The biggest drawback for me is that this book is just about 1,100 pages, and it covers forty years of history. It's not action-packed to where the story goes by fast but more gets into the nitty-gritty of the day to day lives of the eight or so main characters. It takes a long time to get into, and reading a few pages feels like a lot. There is some action in the civil war, schemes, and whatnot, but a lot of it is centered around the building of a cathedral, which is not the most exciting thing. Also, there are three characters that I really didn't feel like I got a real ending. Ellen, we kind of learn what happens to her forty years out, but not entirely. Unless I missed it, the story leaves a question mark on whether she went back to the woods, died of old age, or went to live with Jack. Also, Martha and Elizabeth kind of stop being discussed. They are minor characters, but it would have been nice to understand what happened to them.

Overall, I enjoyed The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It's a good story and was something different for me to read. I appreciate that my co-worker recommended it to me. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if it wasn't 1,100 pages and covering forty years.