Content wise, I found this one tamer than the other books in the series, but prepare yourself for period typical violence and barbarity – torture, rape, abuse, war, poverty, disfigurement, disease etc.

Hopefully you newcomers found yourself as captivated as I was - because when you eventually finish, you’ll still have the rest of Kingsbridge series ahead of you (which, as one may expect, I am now quite excited to move on to). Edgar is a young boatbuilder who is forced to rebuild his whole life after Vikings murder his father and destroy his family home. Ragna has been raised with leadership skills, her noble father letting her sit as justice in the village courts over which he reigned. King Ethelred, shown many years into his reign, does not have the level of control over England that later kings would have. We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from.This one is barely a single decade, and for the most part, it all takes place in a three-year period. Subsequently, he worked for a small London publishing house, Everest Books, eventually becoming Deputy Managing Director. A Norman noblewoman, Ragna, leaves her family, travelling across the sea to marry an English earl whom she loves. Plot twists and historical goings-on fuel a stellar story that seeks to lay the foundational groundwork for what is to come, a sensational trilogy about a cathedral and the town that develops around it.

I have so enjoyed Mr Follett's Pillars of the Earth series so to be able to read the prequel to that trilogy was something I so wanted to do. He strikes on many historical realities at odds with our general view of medieval Europe, influenced largely by later centuries.

Whatever their origin, young slaves were often prostituted, and the punishment for abusing them was mild.

The human characters in this series are rarely dynamic; for the most part, they’re either all good or all bad, with little complexity. It reached number one on best-seller lists everywhere and was turned into a major television series produced by Ridley Scott, which aired in 2010. Dreng's wife promises to free Blod and the other girl in her will, which Ragna has her dictate to Aldred in front of witnesses. It has that pastoral, everyday life feel that I came to love so much in The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End.It certainly took me out of my comfort zone but I loved escaping back to the dark ages with this one every evening after work. I still have yet to read the third book in the trilogy and reading the prequel has made me want to read it for sure. Tikrai maniau, kad bus sunku įsiskaityt, kad ta galybė veikėjų makaluosis ir jų vardai bus sunkiai įsimenami, kad iš tų 734 puslapių perskaičius drąsiai sakysiu, jog pusę išmesčiau. The Church is heavily political, owning land, collecting rents and demanding its own version of fealty.

The nitty gritty of everyday life juxtaposed with political drama and graphic violence made it somewhat compelling, though I have to say I never really came to love the characters here like I came to love Tom, Philip, Aliena, Jack, Caris and Merthin. It is a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth set starting in 997 AD, and covering a period in the late Early Middle Ages and under the backdrop of Viking raids, through the year 1007. Ragna, realizing she had nothing left to lose, tells Aldred the reason for Wynstan's erratic behaviour.Ragna is from noble blood and finds herself in the community after she is married to one of the rich men. Thirty years ago we were introduced to Kingsbridge in The Pillars of the Earth, and now in this masterful prequel international bestseller Ken Follett will take us on a journey into a rich past, which will end where his masterpiece begins. Aethelred and Emma of Normandy show up in the final quarter more as deus ex machina than anything else. In The Evening and the Morning, we encounter a small hamlet with approximately five buildings (I'm not going to spoil things and reveal its original name), and witness it grow and prosper into the busy town which is known as Kingsbridge in The Pillars of the Earth, and beyond.