I’m a big Ken Follett fan. His prose is simple but beautiful, and he’s a master at bringing you into a setting and immersing you entirely. A common critcism is that all of his books are pretty much the same, which is somewhat true. But some have a better mastery of the formula than others. I wanna talk about them briefly in the order I read them.
1) **Pillars of the Earth** — this is the best one to start with I think. It’s his most famous book, and the one you’ll see criticized on /r/books most often. There is a dumb moment in the first chapter that’s rightfully criticized, but if you get past that I think the book is wonderful. It has great characters, it’s violent and engaging, and the ending is extremely cathartic. My main criticism would be that the book does follow a pattern of bad guys make a plan, good guys foil it. Good guys have a success, bad guys ruin it. Especially for a book this long, it can make it rather repetitive.
William is a great villain, but he is surpassed by many of Ken Follet’s other villains.
2) **World Without End** — to me this is Follett’s best book by a mile. It has the same blueprint of Pillars of the Earth, but executed better on all levels. The characters are better, the time period is more interesting (black plague), and the plot advances constantly instead of repeating. To me this book is the most memorable for characters and plot beats, and I read it during Covid so it was great to see all the parallels to modern days. There were anti-maskers, people who didn’t want to quarantine for the good of the economy, religious fervor making bad decisions in the face of science.
Caris is one of my favorite characters ever, and this book has the most investing romance. Godwyn and Ralph are also excellent antagonists.
3) **Eye of the Needle** — I’ve been more inclined to Follett’s historical fiction than his spy thrillers, but this is still a great book. It’s short, but engaging. The two subplots come together in a very satisfying way by the end. Not much to say. It’s an unambitious book that does what it tries to do.
4) **Fall of Giants** — The first of the Century Trilogy, a trilogy of Follet’s books to cover the 20th century. Definitely more of a lean on history than fiction, and the characters aren’t as memorable as other books in the past but Follett handles the scope of the world well and if you’re interested in the World War I time period he gives a pretty enthralling look at the beats of history.
5) **Winter of the World** — This one focuses on World War II. At parts this is the best of the Century Trilogy but overall it’s average. The German plotline is the best by far, and the rest of the book kind of feels flatter as a result. The characters in this one and the following book really aren’t that memorable.
There’s a brief plotline where the characters find out disabled people are being covertly killed by the government, but overall the holocaust is completely absent from the book which feels like a major oversight.
But it’s still emotional at points, and pretty horrifying to know how close the world was to falling into fascism and that that’s still a fight we have to have today.
There’s a gay romance in this book (the first for POV characters) but in my memory of it was more cringey than a great addition. Also one of them dies for a cheap moment of drama.
6) **Edge of Eternity** – The third book in the Century Trilogy and his worst book. Good god this is boring. I love the cold war and this era of history, but he doesn’t even cover that in any exciting way. I really can’t understate how dreadfully boring this book is. Half of it is focused on a fucking rock band of all things.
If you hate Ken Follett, this is the book that’ll support your arguments the best. It’s to Follett what Tenet is to Christopher Nolan, almost feeling like a parody at points.
At this point in the series the plot was lost completely, and I would’ve rather he had characters from the first and second books as the POV characters rather than a whole new set. George is the one exception because of the need to have a perspective on the civil rights movement.
7) **A Dangerous Fortune** — this is his best book next to World Without End. Mickey and Augusta are Follett’s best villains, and they’re both in the same book. The only real knock I have is that the main character and his love interest are boring, but the plot is enthralling and a book about banking of all things kept me engaged and my heart pumping.
There is a prominent gay romance in this story and without spoiling, I absolutely loved how it incorporates into the plot.
8) **A Column of Fire** – The third Kingsbridge book. This one is criticized a lot but I quite like it. Pierre is another masterful villain, and there are some really memorable sections like when he’s trying to discreetly get rid of a baby. It’s dark and hilarious, but legitimately suspensful. Where the book fails is its predicability, but there’s a lot of worthwhile stuff here.
However the climax with Pierre and how he meets his end is dreadfully unsatisfying, and you could see it coming from a mile away.
9) **The Evening and the Morning** — The Kingsbridge prequel. I thought this one was good as well. Not very special, a bit derivative, but no real problems either. The stakes are lower than usual and the scope isn’t as wide, but I still found myself rooting for the characters and their happy endings. A bit of a missed opportunity to incorporate the vikings more into the plot and I think if Follett spent a year leaving this book in the oven it could’ve been really special. Overall it’s fine.
Bonus: **Never** – DNF. A modern day spy thriller. Might go back to this one and only maybe finished 10% of it but it really wasn’t grabbing me in any strong way.
10) **Armor of Light** — the fifth book about Kingsbridge, or a sequel to Column of Fire. It takes place during the French Revolution and I quite liked this one. The characters are all mostly likable, some a bit bland. And besides The Battle of Waterloo at the end, the events feel much more personal to the daily lives of the characters as it was in the first two books instead of a recounting of major historical characters.
There’s a prominent gay romance in this book and it’s well done finally. There’s no “bury your gays” trope either thankfully.
Hornbeam is a pretty great villain overall. Very simple, and ultimately just a businessman, but his chapters were generally the most fun. The ultimate climax with him was pretty satisfying in the end.
Who else is a big Ken Follet fan? Which of his books is your favorite?
by MisterPinetree