Rating: 
Summary: Great Book...
Review: This was a truly wonderful read. Other reviews have pointed out certain facts though. If you want a straight read of one time period or one family, then this is not for you. However, if you want a sampling of history covering about 10,000 years and want a wide range of stories, then this book is perfect.
You really need to pay attention and then you can see how different lineages keep cropping up throughout history. Sarum also has the little people of Salisbury bumping into great figures of history.
One thing I loved about this book, was it was honest. Most novels, you have the good guys win and everyone lives happily ever after in the end. If a bad guy wins, don't worry, justice will soon prevail. That's not real life. I like those books, but Sarum was wonderfully true for a change. Here, the badguys were defeated for a while, but sometimes they one. Then sometimes they became more powerful than the good guys. Some good guys were ruined and never recovered. Some did recover. there were also characters that Rutherfurd would develop, then let them die unfairly. But guess what. That's what happens in real life.
The only negatives were mentioned by others. The little stone figure's story did end too soon. We know about this figure now and it would have been nice to read how it was finally found again. Also, the ending was a little choppy. I was surprised Rutherfurd left out WWI entirely. That was a big time and should have been included. Also, the names were confusing in 1985. I knew who most of the characters were, but who they had married didn't make sense and the family names were messed up in the end. That was too confusing. Even still, he did end the book nicely as a whole, bringing Sarum into the present day. Definitely an excellent read and I'm off to get his other books now.
Rating: 
Summary: Unhappy with the Ending
Review: Covering 10,000 years of history in the Salisbury area of England in under 1000 pages is an ambitious undertaking. Reading this book is as well - this is a book for someone who loves history or England or preferably both. The story moves very well until the building of the Salisbury Cathedral in the 13th Century. That section of the book was hideously long with far too much needless description of the stone working process unless the book were to be a study in masonry. The story picked up well again and moved along until the late 15th Century when it was completely dragged down with actual historical political notes. Normally, the author's inclusion of historical fact to support the fictionalized story was interesting - but he went over board around 1640!!!!! I was also sorry to see the end of the stone figure carved 10,000 years ago. It resurfaced several times along with other geographic observations in the area until after the building of the Cathedral - then the author dropped that entire story line perminently - very disappointing. I had hoped that in 1988 the statue would have resurfaced again to wrap up the entire tale....no such luck. I actually felt that the author got to the end of the tale by skipping great heaps of history and then just saying..."so there - now the book is done". Honestly - by the end - I had just that same feeling.
Read this if you like to read history - NOT if you are looking for a story alone.
Rating:
Summary: Palatable, sometimes engrossing, history of place
Review: Had I not once visited Sarum and seen Salisbury cathedral, I doubt I'd have been able to stick with this book... but if you HAVE been to either, you can appreciate the atmosphere and incredible historical detail.The subtitle "The Novel of England" is about right... the book attempts to tell the story of this part of England through five families, beginning with prehistoric Akun who takes his family south to get away from the famine of the icy land-- they want to go to italy (they don't know its name, of course) but the English channel prevents them. You've got to pay attention, because even here, the "bad" hunter the family hooks up with is going to be the progenitor of every single nasty character to come. The genes = temperament thing is a little simplistic. Rutherford does know how to draw compelling characters and tell good stories. The trouble is that no story is ever resolved... We spend a good chapter in a particular time period, invest in that character... say, the nobleman Godfrey who tries and fails to arrange marriages for his children with moneyed merchants (the Wilsons, descended from that nasty old Tep)... and start to care... and then suddenly, it's 50 or 75 years later. For me, that sometimes meant that reading was a bit of a chore. I did enjoy many of the vignettes, particulary during Elizabeth's reign, and the restoration. The Victorian and modern periods were far less convincing... and the book just stops in 1985. Like the individual chapters, it doesn't really resolve. I tended to be far less interested in the authorial history lessons that are inserted from time to time. It's a worthwhile read... I'd recommend highly for anyone about to travel to that part of the world. Much less dry than a "straight" history of the place would be... ..but for me, not a really engrossing historical tale... too fragmented.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthwhile read
Review: The amount of dedication that Rutherfurd obviously put into this sprawling epic is enough by itself to give this book a decent review. Both informing and inviting, it's the kind of book you get lost in for the summer. It is true that characters are shown the door as soon as they are ushered in, and not enough time is given to truly connect with them. But since so many of their traits are passed along through the generations, their appeal does not lesson with each new character. Chances are, if you liked a member of a certain family, three hundred years later, his descendant might appeal to you as well. The geographical descriptions, history, and people of England are all personified so passionately by Rutherfurd that, though Sarum along with his other works, share similar faults, they are undeniably superb literary works.
Rating:
Summary: Great Assignment
Review: I loved this book. We had to read it for my English history class and I thought that it was a perfect novel for this class. It was great how it integrated important events in British history into the novel. I highly recomend it.
Rating:
Summary: Rutherfurd does it again
Review: This was the second Rutherfurd novel I read (after The Forest), and I have to say that I can't imagine anyone doing this type of historical fiction better than Rutherfurd does. His characters are brought to life by his intricate storytelling and wonderful mix of the real with the fantastic. I've started London, and can't wait to dive into Russka.
Rating:
Summary: The Novel of All Time
Review: An epic spans generations, but Rutherford spans the ages! From cave man to Twentieth Century in an engaging walk through time, Sarum is so well researched and so full of fine detail, you feel as if you are there. This is one of those books that you think of long after the final page is read. You miss the characters. You see the settings in your mind. Educational and so enjoyable, Sarum made me an Edward Rutherford fan.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful and Excellent
Review: Edward Rutherfurd's "Sarum: The Novel of England" is simply wonderful. Much like the outstanding novels of James Michener, it begins thousands of years B.C. with family of primitive people and jumps through history with each succeeding chapter, focusing on a new individual each time. This method of storytelling requires a huge amount of research, but is highly effective in my opinion. You will be surprised how quickly you become attached and sympathetic (or the opposite, in some instances) to the new character(s) when a new chapter is introduced. This is the type of novel that will really make you think about how easy our modern day lives are, when compared to the tough, and often brutal, lives people of past centuries have had to endure. It will also make you consider your own life, and how brief it really is in the grand scheme of things. If you are a British person, or a person of British decent, be it Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, ect., this novel will certainly give you insight into how your ancestors lived their lives. The only downside to this novel, and any other novel of this style, is that some chapters are superior to others. For instance, I found "Journey to Sarum", "Sorviodunum", "A Journey from Sarum", and "Empire" to be brilliant chapters that resonated with me more than some of the others. Regardless, the whole book is excellent and I encourage you to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: Rutherford obviously loves his subject, and for that, we can be eternally grateful. Here he presents the history of England, from the end of the Ice Age to the present day, through the lens of several families he follows through the ages. Rutherford has been compared to Michener, but I feel the comparison is fatally flawed: Michener tends to thedry and pedantic. Rutherford's characters scream with life and vitality. It's a pleasure to allow yourself to get wrapped up in this world (I've just finished my fourth re-reading of this classic). One emerges from its pages with not only a deeper grasp of English history, but a deeper sense of why history in general is so exciting. It's not about places and dates, it's about people, a fact that Rutherford "gets" and shares with us. Like the greatest of magicians, Rutherford adopts an attitude of, "This is really cool. let me share this with you", rather than the more stand-offish, "Look at ow much I know." He is the modern day equivalent of a storyteller around a campfire, who welcomes you in and shares stories of simple people doing great things. My most fervent wish is that Rutherford continues to write for a long, long time.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining read
Review: The only criticism I have of this book is that soon after I got involved with a character's story and wanted to keep going, that era ended and I was two thousand years further on. That said, the book is an absorbing read. Rutherfurd is a good storyteller and it's an interesting learning experience too!
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