wanda_mol's review
4.0
Definitely would recomennd unless you are a diehard pillars fan. Okay so I'll just start by saying that I've been soooo excited before this book came out I literally think I may be the first person in my country to have owned it. I started reading when it came out, very excited. I love Follett's books. Love love. I read all that i could get my hands on so basically all except like four which i can no longer get a physical copy of. This book for me didn't live up to my ridiculous expectations. I fell in love with Follett through pillars, which may have been part of the reason why i now am headed towards a master of architecture degree, and this fascination continued through world without end which also had a lot of these "building beautiful buildings and saving thr world" vibes. I then read basically the rest of his books, including the ww2 trilogy, which was epic in its own way even without the "building". In "pillars 3" i was expecting some of the building/helping people vibes to continue. This unfortunately did not happen. The third book is far from "return to Kingsbridge" it's more like "hey this is Kingsbridge you all love and let's move on to stinky London amd Paris". Also it got like all political. In the first two books, the politics are not all that important.
So to finish this, the book as a book is great, but for me the connection to the previous two is too small, so my own unrealistic expectations ruined it for me.
So to finish this, the book as a book is great, but for me the connection to the previous two is too small, so my own unrealistic expectations ruined it for me.
ericb237's review
4.0
I liked the story overall but it felt a bit too fast-paced at times compared to other sections which were much more well thought out and written.
olonion's review against another edition
2.0
ENOUGH of Ken Follet for a while now.
I can't say I've enjoyed this book. It's way too long, with way too many historical events (Guy Fawkes, really?) and way too many unimportant characters, and I didn't even care about them.
If I were to compare Pillars of the Earth's and World Without End's characters with A Column of Fire ones, I would find the exact same stereotypical 'extremely good' or 'extremely evil' character from this book that had actually already appeared in PotE and/or WWE:
The stupid Rollo is a mix of Alfred and William in Pillars and Ralph in World.
The evil manipulative Piere is Waleran in Pillars and Godwyn in World.
The 'I will fight for love' female (obviously female, it's aaaaaaalways a woman in the stereotype) Sylvia and Margery (who, mind you, are basically the same and are aimed for the same purpose: Ned) are a copy of Aliena in Pillars and Gwenda in World.
The problem is, Pillars had Prior Philip as a deep and really interesting character, and World had the wonderful and free-spirited Caris.
A Column of Fire has no one at all.
I can't say I've enjoyed this book. It's way too long, with way too many historical events (Guy Fawkes, really?) and way too many unimportant characters, and I didn't even care about them.
If I were to compare Pillars of the Earth's and World Without End's characters with A Column of Fire ones, I would find the exact same stereotypical 'extremely good' or 'extremely evil' character from this book that had actually already appeared in PotE and/or WWE:
The stupid Rollo is a mix of Alfred and William in Pillars and Ralph in World.
The evil manipulative Piere is Waleran in Pillars and Godwyn in World.
The 'I will fight for love' female (obviously female, it's aaaaaaalways a woman in the stereotype) Sylvia and Margery (who, mind you, are basically the same and are aimed for the same purpose: Ned) are a copy of Aliena in Pillars and Gwenda in World.
The problem is, Pillars had Prior Philip as a deep and really interesting character, and World had the wonderful and free-spirited Caris.
A Column of Fire has no one at all.
sydofbee's review
3.0
I really enjoyed this one again! Possibly because I'm a sucker for the Tudor period, haha.
catparton_ok's review against another edition
4.0
What a good book! This was my least favorite of Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge trilogy but I would still highly recommend it to anyone that has started the series or is a fan of historical fiction. Ken Follett writes such captivating novels. This book didn’t feature as many in depth technical/descriptive passages that I enjoyed so much in his previous works (Jack & Tom’s buildings, Merthin’s bridge work or Caris’ medical work, etc) and I missed that. Character development was mostly good, there just wasn’t too much he could do with a plot in Kingsbridge since so much of the book was based on real historical events. I am DYING to read the Kingsbridge prequel that will one out this fall.
forfatter_torben_mathiassen's review against another edition
4.0
Jeg nyder (næsten) altid Ken Follets historiske romaner. Den Evige Ild er ingen undtagelse. Interessant persongalleri, historiske fakta og en velfortalt historie I den scene han har opbygget. Ikke hans bedste, men bestemt værd at læse.
jen_e_fer's review
5.0
This book was set in the Elizabethan era. I found it very informative,even though it is a historical fiction book. The author explained which characters were real and which were fictional in the epilogue, which I liked. Its very long but very good.
benjfleck's review
3.0
A Column of Fire: Or, Religion Ruins Almost Everything
The third novel in the Kingsbridge Series takes place at a time (1558-16-something) when religion really ruined everything because people can't learn to f*cking get a long. Catholics vs. Protestants = lots of dead people for dumb reasons. The conflict even makes it to the fictional Kingsbridge, but the novel does NOT spend much time there. This is more about the world at large.
Boring Ned goes to work for the the future Queen Elizabeth I. Snoozefest Margery does stuff too. Absolute evil villain Pierre does evil things. It's cookie cutter Follett. Two lovers torn apart by duty and unfortunate circumstances that leads to a lot of drama. I just didn't care as much as I did in the two previous novels. Maybe because this novel focused on so many other characters that weren't really connected to Kingsbridge? IDK. I can't put my finger on it, but it just wasn't as good.
The third novel in the Kingsbridge Series takes place at a time (1558-16-something) when religion really ruined everything because people can't learn to f*cking get a long. Catholics vs. Protestants = lots of dead people for dumb reasons. The conflict even makes it to the fictional Kingsbridge, but the novel does NOT spend much time there. This is more about the world at large.
Boring Ned goes to work for the the future Queen Elizabeth I. Snoozefest Margery does stuff too. Absolute evil villain Pierre does evil things. It's cookie cutter Follett. Two lovers torn apart by duty and unfortunate circumstances that leads to a lot of drama. I just didn't care as much as I did in the two previous novels. Maybe because this novel focused on so many other characters that weren't really connected to Kingsbridge? IDK. I can't put my finger on it, but it just wasn't as good.
tdblaylock's review
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
This may be Follett's lost historical of the Kingsbridge series, and in my opinion, was what held this book back. It started off really intriguing, but was extremely taxing by the end.