I have loved Ken Follett ever since I stumbled on ‘Pillars of the Earth’ while wandering through the Montreal central library after two days of a brutal Bar exam. He’s fairly formulaic but I thought this was part of his charm, until I read ‘The Armour of Light’.

It just felt like everything was a gross caricature of his signature style: the main antagonist was cartoonishly villainous for no reason, the romantic relationships just happened without rhyme or reason (or depth!), the social changes were…emotionless? I don’t know how to describe what was lacking. Compared to the Fall of the Giants cycle, where you did get genuinely engaged with the labour struggles of the working class characters, everything just felt trite in this book.

I think I’m just going to pretend that only the two first books of that series exist now.

Anyone else feeling let down by this one?

  • specialagentmgscarn@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    My favorite one of his is A Dangerous Fortune, though I haven’t read it since I was in high school. I don’t particularly want to reread it now, for fear that it won’t hold up. I haven’t read this latest Follett, but if you’re looking for something great set around Waterloo, Vanity Fair is absolutely wonderful.