So here we are reading the pillars of the earth

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

In a nutshell : This book is a little over one thousand pages of small print long so the nutshell is going to be quite meaty. Ok, here goes. In mid-twelfth century England a builder dreams of building a cathedral. He and his complicated, extended family settle in the south of England and the story of the cathedral over the next 50 years is recounted through the stories of all the different people involved, from monks to peasants, landowners and knights.

The blurb : this epic monster of a book spans half a century of turbulent Medieval English history and a cast of a dozen or so main characters spanning 3 generations and every social rank. The building of the cathedral is the background of the story and provides the reason for following monks, priors and bishops, stonecutters and masons, earls and knights, market traders and farmers against a backdrop of Civil War. It is a huge tapestry of a book with many connections between the characters and a nice amount of detail (those 1000 pages had to say something!) and by following half a dozen or so characters throughout their lives you have a good sense of time passing. Follett is a thriller writer and he uses time in a interesting way, speeding up some of the more important events (attacks, quarrels, walks across Europe) and slowing some of the more descriptive bits. This gives an interesting twist to the suspense, especially as Follett uses a lot of rape, violence and plain ol' nastiness to hook you.

IMHO this is a cool, addictive read. The characters are sometimes a little absent or incoherent, the dialogue is nothing ground breaking, the historical accuracy is debatable, the anacronysms blatant, the descriptions of medieval England are interesting but no more and the pace of the book sometimes feels a little odd but it is still an addictive whopper. The likeable/hateable characters are good, the plot charges around and people go from riches to horror and back again . The religious/royal politics described are gripping and the whole thing has a satisfying ending. That said however, ironically for such a huge book, the end feels a little rushed but the first 800 pages or so were very hard to put down. Recommended holiday reading.