Ken Follet the Armor of Light
EBOOK
Fiction based on real incidents
Particularly loved to read this book on my new Kindle Scribe which is a huge Kindle and you can take notes! It is a beauty!
No spoilers!
The fifth book of the Kinsbridge Series which includes; A column of fire, world without end, The Pillars of the Earth, The Evening and the Morning and This one, The Armour of Light.
Though this book is a part of the series, it can be read without reading the other books since unlike the Century which had common characters in the books and continuity, there are no common characters. The pillars of Earth and World without end had some direct link between structures and characters and in fact The book The evening and the Morning is actually a Prequel to the Pillars!
If you have not started any of the novels then you might as well start with The evening and The morning! Then read Pillars then World without end then A Column of fire and finally his one!
Then again if you start with this one, you are still safe! You get a good story about incidents which you know involving people introduced by Ken!
The most surprising thing about this one though is that there is no chief Protagonist! There are a couple of antagonists (representing the wealthy traders and oppressors!) who are surprisingly given not much closure in the end! It was so sudden and unexpected!
Set in the 1700s in England the story takes on the life and times of weavers and workers.
Using characters and their life as examples, Ken weaves a web of stories showing how the workers and the labourers were treated. He touched upon the rise of Methodist groups and the influence of the rich over court and church.
How workers more or less do not have any life and union! How they could be punished for the simplest of the crimes and how even the age or nature of the crime does not make a difference especially if you are poor!
Some good people who rise slowly by hard work are shown to be better than most.
With his typical smooth flow, he shows the characters being characterless or flawed as the case may be!
One of the best things about the novel is the historical accuracy which has been maintained to a certain extent just like the Century Trilogy which was my favourite!
The battle of Waterloo and the fear of Napoleon has been shown so well! For people who live in England and similar areas this can be a soapy history revision while for people like me, it was a nice soap!
Since I read in Kindle, I did not realise how big this one is! The paperback is around 750 odd pages! To fill so many pages with stories and connection is a might feat indeed!
Ken doesn’t disappoint
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