World Without End

By: Ken Follett

Narrated by: Richard E. Grant

Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1989 Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in 12th-century England that centered on the building of a cathedral and the men, women, and children whose lives it changed forever. Critics were overwhelmed, and readers and listeners ever since have hoped for a sequel.

At last, here it is. Although the two novels may be listened to in any order, World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge.

Three years in the writing, World Without End once again shows that Ken Follett is a masterful author writing at the top of his craft.

Please note: This is an abridged edition. An unabridged version is also available.

Listen to The Pillars of the Earth.

©2007 Ken Follett (P)2007 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Critic reviews

"Fans of Follett's previous medieval epic will be well rewarded." ( Publishers Weekly)

Great feeling of history

Follett demonstrates his distinct ability to take you back to a time where you have the enjoyment of living the period as if you are a part of it.

Enraptured storytelling at its best

Best story characters and narration. A gem of a book to listen to anytime and anywhere

Follet delivers another rich epic novel

If you loved Pillars of the Earth, then you'll enjoy the same in-depth character development and historical settings in World Without End, complete with heroes and heroines, Machiavellian politics, class warfare, secularist vs religious extremists, and tawdry sexual encounters. In bringing historical 1300s England to life, Follet develops multiple plots and subplots with endless twists and turns of fate to keep the reader guessing. I purchased the audio copy and the narrator did a tremendous job of moving back and forth between character voices and accents to enhance the narration. A great book for readers who love an historical epic novel.

another good follet book

another good book by the author. I like all of his books so far.... pillars , place called freedom, dangerous gsme. . I'm gonna try the fall of giants series now.

WOW! Great Book.

I have not read the first book but I watched the series on TV and found it very interesting so I downloaded the unabridged version of this book to see if was as good. This book was great. Even in the unabridged version it was very detailed and kept my interest the entire time. Highly recomended!!

Great story

Loved listening to this book. Lots of characters though, so I should have liked to have had a hard copy too for reference.

Five Star Follett

World Without End is very enjoyable. I plan to find a list of more audios by you. Bye for now Glen ;-)

World Without End

I found the first half of World Without End to be a little slow moving. As the second part began it became more interesting to me. After reading Pillars of the Earth, which was also by Ken Follet and in a similiar time period,I must say that the book disappointed me as I thought it would have been just as great as Pillars.

"Abridged" is not a bad word

World Without End is a good book, a worthy follow-up to Pillars of the Earth. But as I found myself only one third of the way through the unabridged 45 hours, it occurred to me to use one of my accumulated monthly credits on the abridged version. Aside from finding Richard E. Grant a much more entertaining narrator--almost like listening to a radio play--I found the story much less squirm-worthy, with more left to the imagination (not a problem, from my AARP-eligible perspective.) In the process of finding my spot in the abridged version, I was able to listen to several chapters in both versions, and found that while I didn't get as deep into each side plot, the main story was there, and moved along well. I'll be doing more abridged books from now on.

excellent

Very different from Ken Follet's previous books-it is a wonderful read. He develops the characters well and keeps you interested until the end-and you don't want it to end.