A Column of Fire (Kingsbridge #3)

For someone with only a vague grasp of the politics of England and Western Europe at this time, I enjoyed the historical backdrop to the story. I would understand people with good knowledge of this period being somewhat frustrated, but this book provided me a relaxed way to understand the background to what is the culture I inherited.

I thought I was going to listen to the third part of the Kingsbridge series, but instead this is more like a Ken Follett\’s history lesson. It starts off well in Kingsbridge, but suddenly changes completely – it is as if mr. Follett decided he doesn\’t want to continue the Kingsbridge series after all, but instead is just narrating history. There are several well known historical events, the characters are observing most of them and narrating them to the reader. While that is fairly interesting, it\’s not really historical fiction any more. This book is similar to the third part of the Century trilogy, where there is little story and the characters are just present in all important historical events. I thought book 1 was great, and 2 good – 3 is a lesson of history not set in Kingsbridge (most of the time). As an audiobook, it is still quite good, thanks to the excellent John Lee.

This was another classic Ken Follett read for me. Full of interesting characters on both sides of the historical divides which Ken is so good at depicting and washing over his fictional Kingsbridge, and its beloved townsfolk and characters. I like his interpretation (fictional) of how the real events of the day unfolded, and why, and how the Kingsbridge folk were involved. Some of the plot was a little bit predictable, but the characters were full of intrigue and listening to it on Audible with John Lee\’s narration and superb characterisation and accents – particularly of Pirre Ormonde de Geez … who was an absolute sleaze! 🙂 Thoroughly enjoyable read/listen! highly recommend for anyone who vaguely enjoyed Pillars of the Earth or World Without End, both of which are not a required pre-read at all.

John Lee is a legend & the long awaited 3rd book was worth the wait! #religioustolerance #historical #europe #guyfawkes #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Listened to this book every waking moment I had! Great story by Ken Follett and great storytelling by John Lee!

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