World Without End, Ken Follett
World Without End, Ken Follett
81 Rating(s)
List: $40.00 | Sale: $28.00
Club: $20.00

World Without End

Author: Ken Follett

Narrator: John Lee

Unabridged: 45 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 10/09/2007

Synopsis

In 1989 Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected. Critics were overwhelmed—“it will hold you, fascinate you, surround you” (Chicago Tribune)—and readers everywhere hoped for a sequel. 

World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroad of new ideas— about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death. 

Three years in the writing, and nearly eighteen years since its predecessor, World Without End breathes new life into the epic historical novel and once again shows that Ken Follett is a masterful author writing at the top of his craft.

About Ken Follett

Ken Follett, a Welsh novelist has written important bodies of work, such as: Eye of the Needle, The Key to Rebecca, Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, Whiteout, The Century Trilogy. His genre includes thrillers and historical fiction. As a youth he was never allowed to watch television or movies, so out of boredom, he developed a keen interest in reading.

Follett had various jobs on his pathway to being a novelist. He was a general assignment reporter for the Evening News in London. He found that work to be very unchallenging, so he took a position as managing director of Everest Books and began writing fiction as an evening hobby. With the publication of Eye of the Needle in 1978 he became not only internationally known, but also wealthy. Follett’s next project is a third book in his Kingsbridge series. The first two were The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, and is to be released in 2017.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Dutch on 2008-01-09 18:02:27

Thirty-six disks?!? This 14th century soap opera just goes on and on and on. When I finally finished listening to this excellently read audio book I actually felt the need to go to church just to prove to myself that there are actually nice people out there. If you hate humanity as much as Mr. Follett apparently does, youll thoroughly enjoy all 36 CDs.

AudiobooksNow review by C on 2009-06-09 17:17:03

I very much enjoyed Pilgram's of the Earth and was looking forward to another of that caliber--unfortanately it did not happen. None of the characters really touched me like they did in Pilgrims. It was long though...very long.

Goodreads review by Emily May on September 05, 2017

We who are born poor have to use cunning to get what we want. Scruples are for the privileged. I must confess-- I am addicted to these Ken Follett novels. I finished World Without End and had to pick up A Column of Fire immediately. I'm also going to get to his Century trilogy at some point. The......more

Goodreads review by Lynn on December 04, 2013

This "companion" novel to Follett's 1989 classic The Pillars of the Earth is set in the same community, 200 years later. I'd been excited about it ever since I heard it was coming out this fall - Maybe too excited, because it just didn't live up to my expectations. The first half of the book seemed a......more

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on February 09, 2018

Here’s a book that completely copies the first book in the series. Here’s a book that follows the same sense of narrative progression, character development and resolution as it predecessor. It is one who's characters bear a striking resemblance to their ancestors in terms of individual personality......more

Goodreads review by Dana on July 24, 2018

World Without End is written in the third person but isn't choppy like some third person books are. I loved that we get to see the characters grow up and mature. They all encounter hardships (war, death, disappointed hopes and dreams, the black plague) but never stop fighting and never give up hope.......more

Goodreads review by Alex on September 16, 2010

WORLD WITHOUT END BY KEN FOLLETT: There are books that you read, with vaguely interesting stories, that sometimes within less than a month have been forgotten, ignored, barely recollected except for title, author and a minor recall of plot. Then there are books that change your mind on life, that gi......more

Quotes

“[A] well-researched, beautifully detailed portrait of the late Middle Ages . . . Follett’s no-frills prose does its job, getting smoothly through more than a thousand pages of outlaws, war, death, sex, and politics to end with an edifice that is as well constructed and solid as Merthin’s bridge.” —The Washington Post
 
“Follett tells a story that runs the gamut of life in the Middle Ages, and he does so in such a way that we are not only captivated but also educated. What else could you ask for?” —The Denver Post
 
“So if historical fiction is your meat, here’s a rare treat. A feast of conflicts and struggles among religious authority, royal governance, the powerful unions (or guilds) of the day, and the peasantry . . . With World Without End, Follett proves his Pillars may be a rarity, but it wasn’t a fluke.” —New York Post
 
“A work that stands as something of a triumph of industry and professionalism.”—The Guardian (UK)
 
“The four well-drawn central characters will captivate readers as they prove to be heroic, depraved, resourceful, or mean. Fans of Follett’s previous medieval epic will be well rewarded.” —The Union (CA)
 
“Populated with an immense cast of truly remarkable characters . . . this is not a book to be devoured in one sitting, tempting though that might be, but one to savor for its drama, depth, and richness.” —Library Journal
 
“Readers will be captivated.” —Publishers Weekly

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List