Bob's Reviews > Die Säulen der Erde

Big disappointment..

Although I love historical fiction, this one was just ultra boring.


- Characters: One would think that you get the feeling of "knowing" the main characters after reading such a long story. Well, that's not the case with this one. All the characters seem extremely shallow. You basically just see one side of each character, all the time, until the end of the story. I really struggled to get attached to the protagonists. What also really bothered me ist the fact that Follett practically just divides all the characters into two groups: good and evil; there isn't anything in between.

- Plot: The story could have been told in 500 pages max.. I really didn't mind things like the detailed architectural explainations. I dont recall there to be that many of them anyway.. What really pissed me off, was just the back and forth in this story which rises to a degree that is just ridiculous. When I was about half way through the book I just didn't care about what was going to happen anymore because there were already so many ups and downs and they just keep alternating until the end of the story.

What I also didn't like was the patronizing story telling. Every now and then Follett wraps up what happened earlier in the story in the form of the protagonists thinking about the past. It just felt as if he didn't trust me to remember what I just read 50 pages earlier. Aside of that he pinpoints to specific objects mentioned, foreshadowing what is about to happen like 30 pages later.