The Evening and the Morning: the prequel to The pillars of the earth (Kingsbridge, Band 4)

Die Bindung hält gut und das Papier ist nicht zu dünn. Die Lesbarkeit ist bei gedämpftem Licht akzeptabel.

Ein sehr spannender Roman, der die Atmosphäre des frühen Morgens in England hervorragend einfängt, allerdings ist die Handlung etwas komplex und erfordert volle Aufmerksamkeit.

Ein absolut faszinierender und packender Roman von Follett, der mich von Anfang bis Ende in seinen Bann gezogen hat. Die Geschichte ist unglaublich spannend und die Atmosphäre ist perfekt eingefangen.

Ich habe dieses Buch für die Enkel gekauft, weil sie gerne Geschichten lesen und ich ihnen etwas Historisches mitgeben wollte. Die gebundene Ausgabe ist solide und hält den Inhalt gut zusammen. Man kann es bequem in der Couch lesen, wenn die Kinder etwas ruhiger sind. Die Seiten sind nicht zu dicht, und die Lesbarkeit ist gut für sie.

More than 30 years ago Ken Follett published his masterpiece The Pillars of the Earth. That set a very high standard and though he has kept publishing entertaining novels since then, nothing ever has rivalled Pillars of the Earth. This is chronologically the first part of the King’s Bridge saga.The novel starts in 977 and these are indeed the Dark Ages - an era where the law has to succumb to the whims of the ruling class. England is under attack by both the Vikings and by the Welsh. There is chaos, there is conflict at every corner.Here there are three major characters whose lives are intertwined. Edgar- a young and bright and charming boatbuilder who loses his first love during a Viking attack. Ragna - a beautiful Norman aristocrat who falls in love with an English nobleman and follows him to England. England and her husband did not turn out to be the way she had imagined. Alfred – a monk wants to transform his very humble abbey into a center of learning. The three of them have to try to outwit a ruthless and reckless bishop who does not stop at anything to increase his power.So there are many conflicts and the novel is very much plot-driven – a page-turner in the best sense of the word. With the emphasis on plot there is no space for character development. They are either very good or very bad – nothing in-between. The good characters overcome after a long uphill battle all obstacles and are rewarded. The bad ones are punished - unlike in real life. That makes the novel always a bit predictable.I was amazed to read at the end of the novel how many historians the authors thanked for their support. There did not seem a great deal of historical facts that needed to be checked. I wondered about the fact that characters already had the syphilis, though supposedly that only came to Europe after Columbus’s discovery of America. So why here 500 years before? Anyway, on the whole I enjoyed the novel as a good page-turner, but found the characters somewhat not very interesting, because they were so predictable. Still, I wanted to find out how the bad guys get their just dessert. So all in all I am happy to give 4 stars to this entertaining novel.I hope you found my review helpful.

Nice read. History intertwined with a fictional story. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Now onto the next one.

Classic Ken Follet, could not put it down..And then....the last 50 pages seem to have been written by a high school English major wanna be. The ending was like Game Of Thrones ending when new writers took over and destroyed the scene.It was like Ken wanted his money and so quickly typed up a couple pages where everyone is happy at the end.