Book Review: World Without End by Ken Follett

When I picked up Ken Follett's World Without End, I was besieged by doubt. At 1,014 pages, the book is almost too heavy to read. And worse, I "inherited" World Without End from my in-laws, whose tastes don't often compliment mine. But, after months of careful avoidance, World Without End was the only book left unread on my shelf. I finally opened it on a cold, rainy night, feeling like a new book without a wet trip to the book store.

Within minutes of opening World Without End, I was hooked on the world Ken Follett created. Ken Follett's simple, yet precise, prose reads quickly - nearly a necessity in such a hefty book. It also allows the reader to become unwittingly engrossed in World Without End; not once was I distracted by an oddly placed word or ridiculous phrase. Ken Follett also writes without the obnoxiously excessive use of adjectives so many authors now favor. Ken Follett gives his readers the necessary details, and lets their imaginations fill in the rest - exactly what I want a book to do.

Ken Follett's writing style is only part of what makes World Without End a fantastic read. His perfect prose holds a fascinatingly complex tale. World Without End opens on a young girl, Gwenda, about to commit her first robbery, forced by her father to help feed her poor family. On that fateful morning, Gwenda makes several new friends and enemies. World Without End follows Gwenda and her newfound acquaintances through lives alternately fraught with despair and glowing with hope.

Ken Follett quickly draws readers into Gwenda's hard-scrabble life in 14th century England. Readers will easily identify with the characters' frustrations, hopes, dreams and fears as Ken Follett exposes every aspect of their lives. I quickly became lost in the intricate, every-day dramas that unfold throughout World Without End.

Although World Without End is what most would classify as a historical fiction, it is not clouded with the pseudo-historical fantasies that often dominate such novels. Rather, 14th century life is depicted in an accurate, believable manner, but remains in the background. The era is rather like the paper of a book, guiding the story without being unnecessarily obtrusive.

Despite it's length, I wasn't ready for World Without End to be over. Follett neatly wraps up the story and closes the book, yet I couldn't help but wish for more. Ironically, the book I read to avoid the book store ultimately led me to the book store, looking for its prequel. World Without End occurs several hundred years after the prequel, Pillars of the Earth, so there is little harm in reading them backwards as I am. Regardless of the order you read them in, Ken Follett's novels will leave you satisfied, yet with a slight feeling of remorse at their being over.