A Column of Fire by Ken Follett

The Pillars of the Earth
World Without End

The third (and final?) novel in the Kingsbridge series is A Column of Fire. In the first book, The Pillars of the Earth, we were introduced to the town of Kingsbridge in the 1100s as it was attempting to build a cathedral.  The second book, World Without End, moved us ahead in time to the Black Death of the mid-1300s.  A Column of Fire brings us even further ahead it time to the mid- to late-1500s when the Protestants and Catholics were killing one another and poor Mary Queen of Scots was suffering as Queen Elizabeth ruled in England.

I adored the first two books in the series, mostly because we mostly stayed in Kingsbridge and stayed with characters in the town. We learned about daily life in the city, how what was happening in London impacted (or didn't) lives of everyday people. We learned about how people lived, dressed, ate, married, and died. We were in a soap opera and there were illegitimate babies, secret daddies of babies, and people missing for years who would later just pop up out of nowhere.

This book, though. We were barely ever IN Kingsbridge. That's what I'm in it for, Mr. Follett!  I want my characters to be there, not in Hispanolia or Paris or London.  I want far, far less royal court intrigue and much, much more who's sleeping with who and who stole so and so's land.  I want less talk about religious doctrinal differences and more about how that impacts the lives of people who are married to people of opposing views.  I want less talk about naval battles and seafaring tactics and more talk about the lives of the women whose husbands are out at sea.

The soap opera feeling that I loved in the other two books just went away and there we were, stuck with a history lesson. I feel like I get the Catholic/Protestant division during this time. I really understand the line of royal succession. I do. But I wish I understood that less and understood more about our main characters, Ned and Margery, and why they even liked one another. In World Without End, we understand why Caris and Merthin want to be together and we want them to be together, but we also understand why they are kept apart for so much of the novel. In A Column of Fire, I was never convinced by the Ned and Margery relationship, outside of simple sexual attraction, which ain't nothing, but certainly doesn't keep someone going for decades.

It's just...I know Follett can write things that I LOVE. I know he can. So I was disappointed in this book. Follett's novels, Fall of Giants, Winter of the World, and Edge of Eternity make up the Century Trilogy.  I think I'm going to delve into those as my next Follett reads.