As always, Follett delivers a well developed tale that is complex and compelling. The book feels familiar and new at the same time. Beautifully written and a welcome escape during dark times.

Ken Follett is such a love/hate author for me. His past books, especially, Pillars of the Earth, were just excellent story driven novels with amazing pacing and thrilling action. On the other hand, his characters can be either dull as dishwater, pure as the driven snow, or Evil with a capital E. This is still true with this newest novel of his, but the stories he tells about such an obscure time in early English history (10th C.E.) really made this so compulsively readable for me. (And he spends considerably less time pondering the size of a woman's breasts and/or attractiveness level--yes, I'm looking at YOU, sexist Pillars of the Earth.)

It was a really great pandemic historical fiction deep dive read. Ragna is probably the first heroine of Follett I really liked. Good for first time Follett readers.

The Evening and the Morning
by Ken Follett
PENGUIN GROUP Viking
You Like Them
Viking
Historical Fiction
Pub Date 15 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 15 Nov 2020

Fantastic Prequel!! I highly recommend this for our readers of Ken Follett!
5 STARS

Another hit for Ken Follett. A fabulous prequel to "Pillars of the Earth" that will bring you into the Dark Ages and keep you immersed into the character's world!

Another great novel from Ken Follett. The Evening and the Morning takes place in England during the dark ages, years 997-1007, where tensions between noblemen, various levels of clergy,servants and Vikings abound. The story centers on Edgar and Ragna. Edgar starts out as an illiterate highly skilled ship builder who eventually becomes a master builder of churches and other stone structures. He falls in love with the Norman, Ragna, who was married to an English Ealdorman. The story delves into noble, church, and ordinary life with all its hardships including war, evil plotting of men and women against each other, and earning a living off the land. Edgar waits many years for. Ragna, learns to read during the wait, and ends up succeeding in all he determined to be.

I loved this even more than the trilogy beginning with Pillars of the Earth. I foresee a bestseller and anew series.

Having loved and devoured Pillars of the Earth, I hoped I’d feel the same way about this prequel. No worries because once I got into the book I couldn’t put it down. The positive side of isolating is I can indulge and read all day long, and this was the perfect book to do it with.

This was actually the first Follet novel that I have ever tackled. Shortly after I started, one of the first things that caught my attention was the extent to which everything was described, even in conversations between characters. At first, it gave the book a bit of an over-explanatory kind of tone, and I quickly found myself wondering just how long it was going to take to eventually work my way through the several hundred pages.

At some point, however, a switch happened. I don't know when it occurred, but suddenly the book that I was stubbornly trying to work my way through became the book that I was reluctant to put down. I found that I had become quite fond of the three main characters as they navigated separate and shared challenges, the grand majority posed by a power-hungry archbishop and his various loathsome allies. Just when one machination was over, a new one was hatched, making for an abundance of intrigue and struggle that became harder and harder for me to tear myself away from. And as I stayed up increasingly laters in the evenings to devour chapter after chapter, Follet’s style of descriptiveness had ceased to be a bother, and instead just made the characters’ world come incredibly alive through rich detail. Clearly, the author has done his research about life in this area. And while there is definitely a limit to how far Follet could go on existing scholarship before taking up some creative liberties, nevertheless at times it definitely felt like I had taken a time machine to early medieval England.

By the time it was over, it turned out to be a most enjoyable escapist journey via historical fiction. If this is Ken Follet at his usual level of work, then fans of his will definitely be justified in their anticipation of his latest book. And for first-timers like myself, I can say from experience that they have nothing holding them back from diving right in. 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).

If you have not read or watched "Pillars of the Earth" not a big deal, because you will enjoy the prequel of it here. After reading The Evening and the Morning I am sure you would continue other books in this series. All of them are amazing but this one and the first two are going to create sleepless nights and almost addiction and want to read and read and read. The style or Ken Follet's writing and beautiful historical description plus plot will leave you not only mesmerized but also super satisfied! Whatever he writes you can be sure - you will love it!
I can't wait until he writes another series - he is that good!💖

Much like The Pillars of the Earth, I could not put this book down. Follett has such a gift for enlivening people and places we don't know much about--and making them relatable at the same time. I can't wait til this is published so I can recommend to all historic fiction fans.

Another masterful work of historical fiction by Ken Follett, and an improvement, I think, on 'Column of Fire'.

'The Evening and the Morning' is thoroughly enjoyable even if you are not familiar with the rest of the Kingsbridge series. The time and place are both excellently-rendered. Follett has a remarkable talent for showcasing the priorities of people in history -- what was most important to them in their cultural context. In a broad scope, those things don't change much over time: we yearn for power, wealth, love, vengeance, harmony. But the particulars can be so very different, and in 'The Evening and the Morning', Follett excavates a period of history even lesser-known than the Anarchy which formed the backdrop of 'Pillars of the Earth': that of pre-Norman England. He strikes on many historical realities at odds with our general view of medieval Europe, influenced largely by later centuries. England circa 1000 was a fractious place, where Christianity's hold was nominal at best in some places, where priests could still have wives, where polygamy and slavery were not unusual, where women could hold property in their own names. The characters and their stories are compelling, and the lens of history fascinating, so the book easily stands on its own.

If you *have* read 'Pillars of the Earth', however, 'The Evening and the Morning' stands as an excellent prequel. It does not, precisely, end where 'Pillars of the Earth' begins, as the blurb implies, but it sets the foundations. I took great delight in seeing things come together over the course of the book. When this novel begins, Kingsbridge does not exist; we have no bridge, no priory, no market, no guildhouses, no thriving point of commerce. There is a decrepit alehouse, a ferry, and a small, corrupt monastery on a riverbank. But as the story progresses, you see the shape of what we will know as Kingsbridge, as well as other landmarks in neighboring towns. The characters will feel familiar as well: a well-intentioned man of the cloth, a precocious peasant with the mind of an engineer, a wellborn lady brought below her station by circumstance, a vicious clergyman obsessed with personal ambition, a brutish thug of an overlord. Follett does play with similar tropes many times over, but these characters are still themselves, not carbon copies, and they respond to their world in different ways than do Jack, Aliena, Waleran, Philip, Merthin, Caris, and the rest.

A few off-notes: It strikes me as odd that, in setting this book when he did, Follett didn't even give a cursory mention to one of the most famous events of the period, the 1002 massacre of the Danes ordered by King Aethelred. Probably this is a detail that will concern very few readers, but it was an odd missed opportunity to me. The perspective of a Danish character somewhere in the mix would've been interesting, in such a tumultuous time. As it stands, the Vikings and their ilk are a nebulous threat, ever at the perimeter of our characters' concerns, but not directly in the flow of the narrative after the first chapter.

I also missed the connection to the wider world -- and perhaps that would have been trickier here, since the world is so much smaller for people in southern England of 1000 than it is even 140 years later. But while 'Pillars' has the White Ship mystery and 'World' has the subterfuge of Edward II, 'Evening' has no such deep-seated historical scandal at its heart. Aethelred and Emma of Normandy show up in the final quarter more as deus ex machina than anything else.

There is, of course -- and I hate to say 'of course', but, well, here we are -- a rape scene. It isn't as graphic as it might be, but it's also just... wearying. I can recognize that, yes, both the rape and its context would not be unusual for the period and still be tired of the trope appearing in fiction. I wish Follett had found some other means of inflicting stress upon his heroine. Another scene, while positively framed, reminded me that I could also do without ever reading a male author trying to write a woman's perspective of her own genitalia ever again.

Those issues aside, however, I quite enjoyed this read. As in 'Pillars' and 'World', I read feeling assured that the virtuous and the wicked would both receive their due recompense in the end, but nonetheless tugged along by the need to follow the stream of injustices and triumphs. 'Pillars' remains the high water mark of this series -- none of the others has been quite so dense with historical veracity, and perhaps that's actually a mark in favor of the other books for some readers who aren't as fond of said density as I am. 'Evening' is shorter and easier to get your hands around, for certain. But it's a good tale, a fascinating window into a little-revealed period of history, and a worthy read.

This latest in the Pillars of the Earth Saga lives up to its predecessors.

The book is a prequel to Pillars of the Earth, and is set in the Dark Ages featuring boat builder Edgar, a Norman noblewoman Ragna, and Aldred, a monk. The story takes place in what will become Kingsbridge. The book, as all of the Pillars book tend to do, spans years and is a breathtaking epic story of intrigue and love and betrayal.

Ken Follett can write, and this book is another winner. If you have not read any of the Pillars books (all of which can be read separately), why not start on this one? You will not be disappointed, although you may find yourself reading for the next few months as you delve into this long, amazing series.

The descriptions, history, and plot are a perfect mix!

This was great. I loved this book zero. Much better than book three. I would recommend new readers to this saga start with this book then progress to Pillars of the Earth.My favorite of Follett's works.

I received an temporary digital advanced copy of The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett from NetGalley, Viking, and the author in exchange for an honest review.

Follett's newest work begins in 997 CE. The King of England tries to enforce his rule while the Vikings are raiding English villages and a lust for power and money drive an Ealdorman, a Bishop, and their brother commit unspeakable acts in Southern England.

Despite the complex politics and power grabs by the elite, Edgar, a builder, Aldred, a monk, and Ragna, a noblewoman, must find their way in the post-Dark Ages of England. The desire for a more just England, bring the three together, while many try to tear them down.

The Evening and the Morning has become one of my favorite novels by Follett. There is a perfect balance of dialog and descriptions, and because this is the first of the Pillar's series, there is no lineage or ancestral stories to recall, thus making it an extremely easy read.

It was almost impossible to put down The Evening and the Morning. The political turbulence and lawlessness of the English people create fascinating story lines that the reader becomes thoroughly invested in. In addition, because of Follett's excellent writing the reader feels as if they are part of the Shiring or King's Bridge community and truly feel for the characters throughout their obstacles and successes.