Pillars of the Earth
This epic (I am pretty sure it is long enough to be called an epic) was so well written I found myself rereading the physical descriptions of buildings, town, spaces and people over and over to visualize it just as Ken Follett had intended it to be imagined because it just felt right. I didn't read this book until after its counterpart had been released in paperback in 2008ish. Follett did an amazing job of painting the characters in such a way that you, as a reader, get drawn into the cultural politics of the twelfth century. I also enjoyed the way he developed the characters through greed and desire to point to the hypocrisy of power and religion. It takes an amazing story teller to make you feel sympathy for the "bad guys" and Follett does this better than almost anyone (except for William I hate him, he gets no sympathy), the way he crafts his characters makes it difficult to finish the book because you feel like you have made new friends and don't want to say goodbye to them.
8.5/10 (Historical Fiction 12th century)
World Without End
This second book takes up two hundred years after the first one and is even better in my opinion. I loved it! I was going to take a break from historical fiction after The Pillars of the Earth but then I didn't and was I ever glad I didn't - this book was amazing. The characters were great as I have come to expect from Follett but this had even more unexpected events which made it into a real page turner. It seems that Follett has done an even better job of touching on historical events to add a layer of authenticity in this novel than he did in the first one (and I was impressed with the first one as well).
9/10 (Historical Fiction 14th century)
If you enjoyed these books try:
The Cousin's Was Series - Phillipa Gregory
Game of Thrones Series - George R R Martin
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
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