Book review
Genre fictional drama
Rating-5/5 for the research and recreation of the dark times! It may not be accurate but then there is no way to confirm that! 4.5/5 for the ending! 3.5/5 for the stretch it took to reach there!
This like most of Ken’s drama book is also a big mammoth of close to 920 pages! With moderate print and smooth language it does go fast though! Great credit must go to Ken for having combined real events of dark ages and infusing them with fictional characters without altering the relative authenticity in the process! He did this best in the World trilogy and Pillars of the earth and here also he does not disappoint!!
Spoilers- None that will spoil your joy of reading a Ken!
It has always been a pleasure to read a Ken novel! He is like Sidney Sheldon of the dark time with enough spice in between to make you wanting for more! Of course in the recent times George Martin is the one author who has done so much work in fantasy fiction Game of thrones and the back story of each character is so detailed and exhaustive! No wonder with such a mountain of work he may never finish the seventh one and the sixth one will be a close call!
Coming to this one, Ken takes off where he left A column of fire though not in chronology since this one is a prequel to the Pillars of the earth which is still his best work yet. And this one does not come close to it by years!
Kudos of course to Ken for giving strong character to a female character in most his novels and this was also the pattern in many of his novels! But in the dark ages being a woman however strong willed or intelligent or skill full, you would still be abused and treated as dirt even if you are royalty! You just cannot compare those times to this since rules and regulations where non existent in those times and it was every man over woman to himself or herself!
The one thing which is consistent in all ages and book and novels is that the rich are powerful and the poor may be pious to an extent but still abused and powerless!
Since I am still in awe of Tom builder there are some references to building and builder who is in fact the main male protagonist Edgar who is a talented Boat builder who loses everything to a Viking attack (Vikings are popular nowadays!!) and then he tries to rebuild his life first as a farmer then as a builder all the time juggling with his very terrible love life which is practically only in his mind in most part of the story!
The female protagonist or the chief other player is a Norman Noblewoman Ragna who starts with a bang and in the middle of the novel becomes an abused tormented shell of herself! In one hand Ken tried to show that she was different than other girls of that age and very intelligent and in the very next moment she would do something utterly stupid even for a girl that age! She has never shown to be acting clever or prepared (except in the very end when it was ABOUT TIME!). She is finally shown to be someone who loses her heart to a utterly Macho Ealderman who is in fact married and event after event she is relegated to a corner like a timid girl from a peasant family!
You also have a righteous Monk who desperately tries to fix the right in the world around him which is difficult since no one fears god or punishments and all the sins are done with impunity! Of course it has been shown what finally happens to the sinners but then that is in the novel! In real life we have no idea!
You have an Oaf for a husband who is maybe the one eyed guy in the city of blinds who still has all the vices of a noble man or rather a MAN but has some guilty consciousness at least occasionally!
His two brothers and his mother play the role of villains quite convincingly and then it is just a soap opera of the dark ages and it is a battle of wits and power between the two teams!
Of course the curses of the dark ages at least in a fiction Nobel goes to the sinners so the most gruesome finish is reserved for them!
Of course you have the Ken dose of brutality, clever crooks, some mystery as the true identity of the highway robber!, sex is like a walk in the park for Ken and the descriptions follow that principle! And finally when all hope is lost; like a typical Ken novel you have some redemption in the ending and that really makes up for the wait! Then you feel it ended so soon only after 900 pages!
Kudos also for trying to create a feel of the dark ages, of the disparity, of the poverty, of the powerlessness of the king, of the state of slaves, of the status of women (worse than slaves sometimes!), of the state of religion especially church and other places and how even in the times of dark, money still shines bright!
Don’t miss it if you have read the Pillars of the earth series or if you are reading this first then anyway this is a prequel so don’t miss the sequels Pillars of earth, world without end and the last one columns of fire which are really good reads especially Pillars!
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