A sequel to "Pillars of the Earth!"

Cafe Society
21

I just finished the sequel, is it just me or is it nearly an exact retread of Pillars of the Earth? Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, I just felt like I had already read it. In my opinion, Pillars was by far the better book, the characters in World Without End seemed like knockoffs of the main characters in the first book. Plucky modern woman - check. Amazing builder - check (trip to Italy with a new love instead of trip to the Holy Land - natch). Unscrupulous knight - check.

22

Two centuries later and the poor are still getting screwed by the rich

23

Quite literally in some cases.

24

I just started it, and was wondering if there was a thread on it yet. I’ll avoid reading back in case there are spoilers, but I’m excited. I’ve been waiting nearly 20 years for this!

25

I would call the business with the plague and Caris’s attempts to modernize medicine a “central theme.”

Anyway, I just finished it. Like the rest of you, I thought it was “as good as” Pillars except for being so similar, particularly with Merthin as Jack and Caris as Aliena and Ralph as William and Elfric as Alfred… etc. The plague stuff was really interesting, and I thought the romance of Gwenda and Wulfric was very well done, to the extent that I actually cared if she got her man, and that kind of thing usually bores me. The ending seemed a bit too… tidy?

26

For those of you who have finished both books, and crave some more juicy historical storytelling, I recommend another novel by the same author, set in the 1886 London banking world:
A dangerous fortune.

27

Yes! I loved A Dangerous Fortune (“Closed the Doors!..Oh Mr. Hugh :frowning: …”) in fact it is the last Follett book I really liked and have read it three times. His latest just don’t interest me as much. I did not enjoy Jackdaws very much, Hornet Flight was OK, I my try the Pillars sequel because so many of you seem to like it.

28

Thanks for the tip… I’ll look for it.

29

You didn’t think Philemon was the moral heart of this one? :wink:

Actually, I thought Gwenda was. Caris and Gwenda kind of upstaged the boys in this one.

Which reminds me… I have a question that involves a minor spoiler

Did anyone figure out who the “M” was on Philemon’s bracelet that said (in Latin) “M. loves Ph.”? Or is that supposed to be a mystery?