At the time I wrote my post about best Ken Follett books. And the truth is that, with my taste for going against the tide, I ended up setting three main plots that separated the general view on the most well-known works of the great Welsh writer in recent times.
But with the passage of time I have been considering whether it is fair to make this tendentious screening for the mere fact of irreverent literary criticism, of the search for the alternative.
I do not mean that I do not consider my selection to be true. For me discover stories like «The third twin»Who flirted when not based on science fiction, or«Double game»A whole great plot of the amnesiac supense type that I found fascinating.
But there is no doubt that a thriving genre such as historical fiction owes much of that pull to this author who looked back to write thousands of pages.
When Sir follett he sat at his desk, with his cosmic dimensions schemes, to face his sagas spread over centuries of our history, he had just entered through the main door of the genre. So the time has come for the recognition of that other, more popular side of this author.
It is about looking for the best of these two commercially unbeatable sagas, with their substance in the plot and bordering on perfection with their captivating characters in the human: «The pillars of the earth»Or«The Century«.
Top 3 Historical Novels by Ken Follett
The winter of the world
Thanks to the pull of The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett ended up tackling the second great saga "The Century" in which we found this work fascinating for me. Between its pages we enjoy a trip to World War II.
Among real situations of what was lived not so long ago in Europe we find characters who link the events and coexist with certain personalities from both fronts.
With his usual great virtue to endow his scenes with the crudest realism, we find characters who suffer and make us suffer. With prominent roles for those great women who in that war became as strong or stronger as the soldiers themselves who saw the blood flow.
From Russia to the United States through France, England or of course Germany that anticipated the fear of Nazism and that succumbed upon its arrival. The ties between the characters here and there intensify to orgasmic limits a knot that is constantly being overcome.
If anyone knows how to make longsellers, it is undoubtedly Ken Follett. There is no rest chapter because even the moments of transition are complementary ramifications that take on as much or more weight as the conflict itself of those days. Unsurpassed also in its way of presenting those foundations of our present.
An endless world
At the end of this novel I remember that, with a lump in my throat, I thought "how fucking good you do, Ken Follett." Without a doubt, he was a very special guy who could continue a saga with full guarantees.
Writing that second part, in which every writer would shake his legs, and making it even better was just a matter of absolute confidence in overcoming.
It did not matter that after "The Pillars of the Earth" his intention was to continue to dominate the top sales positions. The point is that he had done a second part better than the first, long ... The intensity of the narrative gained in part due to the critical circumstances of the specific time. But the role of Caris transcends everything.
The woman who harbors the greatest of secrets and whose time spends in restlessness and the impossibility of fulfillment, like a new Eve on whom sins and guilt are focused. Caris carrying the worst of that time on her shoulders.
She is frankly the biggest of the plot hooks. I have never turned a few pages faster waiting for a possible compensation for good Caris.
The pillars of the earth
I think everyone read this novel. Its impact was so great that it ended up being read by skeptics and old readers who had lost the habit of reading.
Ken Follett brought us all to the dark Middle Ages for the simple purpose of learning about the building of a cathedral.
Except that it is precisely that, what passes from when the foundations are established until the last pinnacle can be set, the excuse to get hooked on the evolution of lives exposed to a thousand dangers; to the darkness of religion sifted from the most evil interests; necessarily buried passions and illegitimate children; to despair for not seeing the exit in some destinations marked for the characters.
Surprises, twists, revenge, passions. The pillars of the Earth clearly supported the architecture of human civilization.
Other recommended historical novels by Ken Follett…
the armor of light
Kingsbridge is already a stage made in Follett in which we attract millions of readers with that aftertaste of home. Follett's vivid accounts of events from different eras focused on this magical space make it a melting pot of all the ages of old Europe. This time we reach the end of the XNUMXth century to enjoy a moment of epic survival.
The clash of progress and tradition and a war that threatens to engulf all of Europe in the most ambitious and epic novel from the master of historical fiction. 1792. A tyrannical government is determined to turn England into a powerful trading empire. Meanwhile, Napoleon Bonaparte begins his ambitious rise to power and, amid great social unrest, France's neighbors remain on high alert.
Industrial innovations relentlessly take hold, upending the lives of workers in Kingsbridge's thriving textile mills. A world of new and liberating opportunities opens up, linked, however, to the most ruthless cruelty. Rapid modernization with its brand new but dangerous machinery is rendering many jobs obsolete and tearing families apart.
And as the outbreak of international conflict seems ever closer, the story of a small group of people from Kingsbridge - including the spinner Sal Clitheroe, the weaver David Shoveller and Kit, the resourceful and determined son of Sal - will become in the symbol of the struggle of an entire generation that wishes to progress and fights for a future without oppression...
The darkness and the dawn
The popular saying goes that you should not return to the places where you were happy. Ken follett he wanted to risk coming back.
A certain melancholy invades millions of readers who made “The pillars of the Earth” a shared reading in parallel a few good handfuls of years ago. Because word of mouth, when this term did not yet sound like contagion, worked like never before for a total work of historical fiction, mystery and even thriller.
However If Ken Follett has wanted to come back to tell us everything from a new beginning, how can we not accompany him? Perhaps this way, little by little, we will arrive at the beginning of everything, the exile from Paradise. An exit from Eden that disposed of human beings with their bloody free will, that divine "stab as you can" with the flavor of eternal punishment.
En The darkness and the dawn, Ken Follett embarks the reader on an epic journey that ends where The pillars of the earth starts. Year 997, end of the Dark Ages. England faces attacks from the Welsh from the west and the Vikings from the east. Life is difficult and those who wield some power wield it with an iron fist and often in conflict with the king himself.
In these turbulent times, three lives intersect: young shipbuilder Edgar, on the verge of eloping with the woman he loves, realizes that his future will be very different from what he had imagined when his home was razed by the Vikings; Ragna, the rebellious daughter of a Norman nobleman, accompanies her husband to a new land across the sea only to discover that the customs there are dangerously different; and Aldred, an idealistic monk, dreams of transforming his humble abbey into a center of learning admired throughout Europe. The three will find themselves in a confrontation with the ruthless Bishop Wynstan, determined to increase his power at any cost.
The great master of action and suspense narrative transports us to the twilight of a violent and brutal time and the beginning of a new time in a monumental and exciting tale of ambition and rivalry, birth and death, love and hate.
Never
It is true that, once landed on the most resounding international success with his series in different periods of the future of our civilization, it is not easy to get rid of certain references. And stepping into a gloomy prelude to World War III points to The Century. But the point is that we are in our time and underneath history that enigmatic and disconcerting aspect, of almost uchronic significance, underlies what may come. A mystery built with the sobriety of a plot that also seeks to reflect and pose symmetries with our days ...
From the scorching Sahara desert to the West Wing of the White House and the corridors of power in the world's great capitals, the master of action and suspense narrative imagines an unprecedented global crisis scenario in which a small group of Committed and tenacious characters fight in a race against time.
It is never an extraordinary thriller, filled with heroines and villains, false prophets, elite agents, disenchanted politicians and cynical revolutionaries. It sends a warning message for our times and presents an intense and fast-paced story that transports readers to the edge of the unimaginable.
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