The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett 

Your observations were flawless: “Follet was trying to re-write Pillars of the Earth after binge watching Game of Thrones and Vikings”. I had exactly the same feeling. Great channel. Love from Brasil.🇧🇷

Very late comment, because I just finished 'T.E.&.T.M' this week. While I enjoyed it, I did think it was under-written. I don't just mean that the period it was set in was simpler, cruder, etc. I think Follet needed to do another draft. There isn't the same overall plot momentum of Pillars, nor the depth in detail of 'World Without End'. It does feel to me that Follett was somewhat coasting compared to the other two books. As a man, while obviously the female characters go through horrific events/attacks/treatment, I was completely routing for the female characters at all times (Aliena, Gwenda, Blod & Ragna). Ragna is very much the central character and her abilities to assess people and situations and respond to them in the best way available to her (under each set of circumstances) was the most interesting aspect of the book. So personally I never found the vile treatment of women characters titillating to any degree, but instead the basis for caring about their survival and their eventual re-building of their lives.

Thank you so much for the review, not so many people discuss this book on booktube. Personall, my biggest gripe was lack of justice/retribution in the end. Zero punishment for all the evil. Hard to discuss it without spoilers, but the way the author ended individual stories of all the baddies had no direct connection to what the had done to other characters throughout the book, but rather was the result of "life". Also, I saw a whole bunch of characters that turned out to be redundant, I could not see that they were indispensible for the story (like the king and queen, or the first wife and her son). As for violence, yep, all four Kingsbridge books have rape, so going into the fourth installment I pretty much told myself, 'brace yourself, cause at some point somebody will be raped and it will most probably go unpunished". It's hard to say whether Follett includes these scenes for 'historical accuracy' or just for shock value. Also, have you noticed how all four novels follow the same formula from the first book, with very minor variations? I mean, if it ain't broken don't fix it. Maybe because the first book was such a success that he just decided to recycle it over and over?

great review! loved your analysis.

Love from India 🇮🇳

I love Ken Follett but one habit he seems to have is making the bad guys get what they deserve in the end making it somewhat predictable and seeming like everything has been tied up into the conclusion.. I definitely prefer his century series and highly recommend it I really enjoyed reading this though even despite the lack of action (was going in blind hoping for battles) the characters were great (especially ragna and edgar) and I had a genuine hatred for wynston.

**Spoilers ahead for those who haven't read the book** I know I'm about a two years late to this video, but I've just finished reading this book a little bit ago and decided to see what other people say about it. I agree with most of your points in this video (such as some of the more violent scenes going on for far too long and serving little overall purpose, as you described). Though, when you make your point about Wynstan seeming like he is just doing evil for no apparent reason, I don't quite agree with the example you gave. Wynstan is an evil man. He is not likeable in any way, shape, or form, and through the entire book you are rooting for his downfall. But instead of getting 'Disney villain' vibes from him, I thought every one of his decisions helped show his calculating manner. First off, Wynstan isn't the one who attempts to steal Edgar's families' pig, that would be Ironface. One thing I will say is that Ironface really didn't feel too important to the story besides being a convenient plot device when need arose, and I find it odd how that was a focus and we got a whole scene detailing Wyn being the one behind it. The only purpose I can think of was finding a way for Agnes to hate Ragna by having her husband executed for the Ironface situation, and therefore work as a spy for Wynstan later on. Besides that, though, when you get to your point claiming that Wynstan burned Edgar's bridge for absolutely no reason, I don't fully agree with that analysis of the situation. The way I see it, Wynstan's burning of the bridge served two purposes to him and neither of them had to do with Edgar-- he was just unlucky enough to be caught in the middle of the situation. First off, the bridge burning had to do with placating Dreng. While Wynstan isn't fond of Dreng, nor is anyone else, they are technically related, and Dreng made a portion of his money from operating the ferry, which was deemed completely irreverent upon the completion of the bridge. But this wasn't all. The second reason was more in line with Wynstan's calculating side, and he even had some internal dialogue confirming this. This wasn't about hurting Edgar, or helping Dreng, his goal in burning down the bridge was to stop Aldred from being able to continue to fund the Dreng's Ferry Priory and have it grow as a powerbase in the region. I watched many reviews of this book and constantly feel like people aren't doing Aldred justice when they say the only two main characters are Ragna and Edgar. In fact, I found Aldred's optimism and characterization to be a highlight for me throughout the book. Aldred was at the forefront of many schemes to undermine Wynstan's power, and Wynstan knew this. When he was caught out with his forgery scheme by Aldred and realized that he could not bend Aldred to his will the same way he could with the others at Shiring, he knew that he had to get rid of him and put him in a position where he would be powerless to intervene with his future decisions. So, his solution? Use his position as a Bishop to escape prosecution of the crime, and attempt to gain reputation as a 'good' man and getting Aldred out from under his skin by granting Aldred what he had wished for earlier in the book, but not exactly the way that Aldred had planned. Dreng's Ferry was a tiny village, and the priory there was nothing when Aldred was sent there. Wynstan's next best solution besides killing Aldred and risking his position was putting him somewhere where he could no longer interfere. But what does Aldred turn around and do? Begin making the most of his terrible situation and start building up a power base once more, the exact opposite of what Wynstan had wanted. The priory was the owner of the bridge despite Edgar building it, and therefore, they could collect fares for people crossing. To put it simply, this wasn't a Disney-villain "evil for the sake of evil" moment, but rather trying to stomp out Aldred's influence in every way possible. We get even more confirmation of this in the book when we see that Wynstan is spreading rumors about Aldred to try to stop him from gaining more donations. Apologies for the long comment, but I feel like most of the decision making Wynstan made sense for his character. Everything he did had a purpose, and I'm fairly confident that I could name his motive with every decision he made-- that's a part I think Follett did well.

Thank you for a great review, all your complaints and caveats were very enjoyable. I didn't read The Pillars of The Earth but saw some movie or TV adaptation of it and thought it would be impossible to not get swept up in the gifted imagination of this writer. But now, I look down upon all such mere popular fiction from my precipice of high literary art, In Search of Lost Time by Proust. Oh yes! Superiority is so pleasing!! It looks like I will finish the whole six volume edition after all. I'm on the last 50 pages of Sodom and Gomorrah, the 4th volume. I gave up years ago somewhere in this volume and rediscovered the challenges but there are absolute treasures of writing if you can keep your patience with the elaborations of a perhaps overly-perceptive mind. An extraordinary mind, though. I take a break next to read Winterlust, which is one of your mentions of late. Anyway, a new year of reading and reviewing begins!! Vroom vroom.

It's a beautiful cover too. I display it as art in my home. 📚💕

After participating with your pillars of the Earth read along I bought World without End. I had forgotten all about it! Could do with some easy escapism that’s for sure!

What was your opinion of World Without End? I’m dying to know....☺️ Edit: this is my first time at your channel. I like it. ❤️

Great Review, Your Awesome