Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: Since I have never been a fan of the espionnage genre, I avoided Follett. Fortunately for me, someone insisted that I "at least" give Pillars of the Earth a try. I was captivated from the first page of this 1000-page tome and I am wishing there were an equally long sequel. This book encompasses the history of English architecture, Christianity and the monarchy in the 12th century and makes it all the more absorbing by adding believable characters to a story line. Their timeless characteristics of good, evil, kindness, and cupidity result in interesting sub-plots that produce this epic that is now one of my all-time favorites.
Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite All-time Book
Review: I bought this book in 1989 and started reading it just before the San Francisco earthquake, while I lived in the heart of the Marina District of San Francisco. The book got me through the 2,000+ aftershocks felt in the coming weeks.I have since read this book two more times in the last ten years. The book brought out every emotion a human can possibly feel - I laughed, I cried, I mourned, I hated, I loved. Ken Follett is undeniably one of the best authors to have ever published a book. He grips the reader's attention from the first paragraph and doesn't let go. The first time I finished this book I closed it and sat in silence, staring at the wall in front of me, feeling as though I just lived a whole other life in the weeks it took me to read the book. I have always been a fan of Ken Follett's espionage novels, so when this one was on the bookshelves (hard copy even) I bought it. As I read the book and became hooked on the historical facts presented within, I was shocked to find the name of one of my ancestors actually printed in the book. Unfortunately, I shouldn't have bragging rights as my ancestor is the man who was responsible for the murder of Thomas Abecket. But because this, and William DeTracy's name, were mentioned in the book, I had to have my (at the time) 80 year old grandmother (a geniologist) read the book. It had been some time since I'd read the book and I'd forgotten about some of the language until I re-read it for the third time. The story so engrossed me that I was involved to a point of thinking about the main characters' ordeals even when I wasn't reading it. I found myself wishing I could jump in the story and help out the good guys, and take out the bad guys. Ken Follett has an incredible way of taking the main character down so low that one would think it impossible to survive the heartache, but he always ends the books with the same moral: What goes around comes around. The bad guy always gets it in the end, one way or the other. On the other side of the coin, in the harshness of adversity, one becomes stronger and love is always worth the wait. I have recommended this book to many people who have all given me the same feedback. They all agreed with my opinion of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly Good.
Review: Pillars Of The Earth is an easy 5-star winner. I read this book on recommendation from a relative. It is not one I would have ever chosen by reading the jacket. A story about a 12th-century church-raising and the lives of its prior and sundry others just does not sound interesting to me. But I was astounded. This is a fantastic book. The research he must have done is overwhelming, but he doesn't overwhelm you with it. He makes the history come alive. He narrates a surprisingly exciting tale with a kind of fluidity and insight that easily suspends your disbelief and has you thinking you're reading a story told by someone who was actually there. The plot is thick and rich, the characters simply masterful, and the language lyrical and flowing. Follett is a professional in every sense of the word, and earns my deepest respect with this epic work. -- Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead
Rating:
Summary: I love it , i love it, i love it.
Review: Why is this not a movie yet? I am almost finish reading this book for the 2nd time and feel bad because it has gotten to the point where i can't talk to my boyfriend on the phone at night before bed because i need to reserve at least 1 hour a night of reading. (i just can't put it down!) Thank you for writing what so many people dream about everyday and for describing characteres so well that i actually see some people on the street and imagine that they could be the character in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Magificent!
Review: I did not sleep for 3 nights while reading this book. It still ranks as my all-time favorite novel. If you're at all interested in medieval history, this book is a must read. Despite its length, this is one book I will read over again - and again.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but lacks an ending
Review: Maybe I got my hopes up too much from reading other reader's reviews, or maybe I was just snowballed into thinking I was picking up the greatest book nobody's ever read. The truth of the matter is, however, that the book is very good, but not great. I think my biggest quarrel with the book is that it didn't stay true to form. The entire novel centered around the building of a great cathedral and it should have ended when the building was finished. All plot lines could have been wrapped up at that point and the book may have garnered another 'star' from this reviewer, but in the end I think Follett missed an opportunity. There was nothing gained by adding yet ANOTHER hardship on the main characters and it only served to drag out the inevitable. My recommendation? Read the book, you'll be happy you did. Just keep in mind that what your reading is a satisfying page-turner, not the greatest story ever told.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!
Review: There is little else to call it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime book, the story being spun with such grace, the reader knows it was dying to get out and be read. Mr. Follett did not write this book. This book wrote itself and used Mr. Follett as its medium. A wonderful story.
Rating:
Summary: the Pillars of the Earth
Review: Follett's finest. Avery good read and repeat.
Rating: 
Summary: A decent vacation read
Review: This book was highly recommended by the owner of the bookstore I frequent. Another customer noticed I was holding it in my hand indecisively and declared it was the best book she'd ever read. On the strength of these recommendations, I bought it for my vacation reading. It was a good read, but I had higher expectations of it than it delivered. I must disagree with those who have reviewed this book and called it "an epic". It's not an epic--it's just a long book. It has more similarities to a t.v. mini-series than to the epic tradition. I will forgive any number of transgressions in your average 300-page murder mystery, but given that "Pillars" is 983 pages long,I expected "more bang for my book", to pervert the idiom. I wanted to learn things that I didn't know before. The first few hundred pages are quite well written. Follett's writing flags toward the middle (but by then, I was two days into the book, and it was raining at the cottage, so I continued reading). The problem, I think, is that we are to believe that this is a mostly historically accurate portrayal of daily life in the Middle Ages. Follett even thanks several people at the end of the book for assisting him with their "encyclopedic knowledge of the Middle Ages". In my opinion, if an author is going to go to that much effort for historical accuracy, he can't marry it up with sentences such as: "They looked fascinated: they had probably never seen a woman done by two men at the same time". There are parts of the book where the reader is brought up short by Follett's lapse into lurid prose and it is all of a sudden unclear whether one is reading a historical novel or a Harlequin romance. And that makes us suspicious of the historical aspect of the novel and ruins the suspension of disbelief. Follett's writing style is uneven--he devotes an inordinate number of paragraphs to a description of a bear-baiting contest at a fair, yet resolves the dispute between the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury in only a few pages. There are too many disembowelments and heaving bosoms used to--pardon me--"flesh out" the middle of the book. All in all, a decent vacation read, but not the best book I've ever read
Rating:
Summary: A magnificent construction
Review: I'll go for the obvious metaphor and declare this a cathedral of novels: immense, stoutly contructed, cerebrally and emotionally inspiring. Pillars is a wonderful and engrossing story, filled with memorable characters and instructive historical details. Without ever resorting to a detached historian's voice, Follett lets the point of view shift quite naturally from one character to another, bringing the reader fully inside their shared world of 12th century England. I learned more of ordinary Medieval life than from any history lecture: how they ate, worked, mated, worshiped, even the origin of surnames: lords taking the names of their properties (Hamleigh, Winchester), commoners their occupations (Miller, Carter), others simply the names of their fathers (Jack's son, John's son, Richard's son). The major themes of human virtue versus human evil, and social justice versus unchecked power, are nicely sustained and reinforced throughout the story. And of course you learn a lot about cathedrals.
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