The Pillars of the Earth cover art

The Pillars of the Earth

Kingsbridge, Book 1

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The Pillars of the Earth

By: Ken Follett
Narrated by: John Lee
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About this listen

An epic, spellbinding tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, The Pillars of the Earth is Ken Follett's historical masterpiece.

A Mason with a Dream
It is 1135 and civil war, famine and religious strife abound. With his family on the verge of starvation, mason Tom Builder dreams of the day that he can use his talents to create and build a cathedral like no other.

A Monk with a Burning Mission
Philip is the church prior of Kingsbridge. A resourceful man, he knows that if his town is to survive at all, it must find a way to truly thrive. He decides, then, to build Kingsbridge the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known.

A World of High Ideals and Savage Cruelty
As the prior recruits his mason, so begins a journey of ambition, anarchy and the struggle for absolute power. Facing enemies that would thwart them, they will stop at nothing to fulfil their grand plans of Kingsbridge. Soon build tensions between good and evil, turning church against state, and brother against brother . . .

The Pillars of the Earth is the first in The Kingsbridge Novels series, followed by World Without End and A Column of Fire.

©2007 Ken Follett (P)2007 Penguin US Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Medieval Suspense Thriller & Suspense
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Most relevant  
Enjoyed immensely - word limit is annoying but must be met to submit so I’ll do it

Excellent

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Very well written, interesting and educational. Characters are captivating. The narrator was excellent and dramatic. Thoroughly enjoyed the listen. Would recommend.

Couldn’t stop listening

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It is such a shame that someone who is clearly a talented story teller is such a weirdo pervert.
The amount of unnecessary sex, sexual descriptions, and rape is so unnecessary as to completely take away from what could have been quite a good story.
Let’s just say that if I knew Follett, I wouldn’t leave my children near him, nor would I let them read this book.
The narration is very well done at least.

Collette is clearly an old pervert.

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Readers who love long medieval sagas will probably love it, but to me it was a bit like a 40 hours of medieval Coronation Street. That's not so bad, but what was really disturbing was the author seems to have a bit of an obsession with writing explicit and brutal rape scenes, particularly child rape scenes.
So if that's not your idea of entertainment I'd say don't get this one.

Ruined by rape scenes

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