Spy Thriller Writer Gives Us a 'World Without End'

Review of WORLD WITHOUT END (audiobook 2007) by guest blogger Star Lawrence
Author, Ken Follett; read by John Lee

Leave it to me to Magoo into a sequel before the original, but I did. WORLD WITHOUT END by spy thriller writer Ken Follett not only takes place in 14th century England, but is his second book in that locale. The first was PILLARS OF THE EARTH about the building of the cathedral in Kingsbridge, England.

Like the first thousand-pager, this audio experience is a honker—36 disks, to date my personal best for length. For about half a disk, being an ignorant little half-blind reader, I figured it would cover, you know, a few centuries, but it really delves into only 1327 to 1361. In detail!

As the election for Prior began to put our own elections to shame for chicanery and backbiting and the nuns tried to one-up the monks for quality of medical care, I quickly got into it and could relate. And of course, we have an epidemic—the Black Death—for that "ripped from the headlines" feel.

Basically, the story follows Caris, a businesswoman who has to become a nursing nun or be executed on a flimsy witchcraft charge; her lover (yes--spicy!), Merthin, an ingenious builder; Merthin’s brother, a boorish knight named Ralph; Gwenda, a determined peasant; and her handsome but slightly clueless hubs. See? The women rule. Modern as anything.

This is not a real bodice-ripper, concentrating on the realities of the day, at least as determined by present-day research. You get pretty caught up in it. Will Gwenda and her husband be able to escape the feudal system and get their lands back? Or will she have to work this out in trade with Ralph (OK, that bodice ripped a little)? Can Merthin keep his construction projects going in a bad Plague-ridden economy? Will doctors, so-called, start washing their hands?

John Lee has a stately English accent and does the voices well, without chirping on the female parts.

And I finally found out what pottage is—as in “not worth a mess of pottage.” It’s sort of a chronic stew set to simmer on the stoves of the poorer classes—like a soup made of compost. Yet, they make it sound quite tasty. Time for lunch!

Star Lawrence is owner of the health humor site, Health’s Ass.