After the disappointment of Whiteout, the best Follett is back. A bit plain characters, but very well documented and entertaining. Despite the huge number of pages it's a sort of quick read.
I'm planning to read the whole Knightsbridge series. And then I will be done with Ken Follett. A good guilty pleasure, but I'm yearning for better literature. ( )

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: 9/15/2020; Viking; 928 pages.)
(Digital: Yes.)

Audio: 9/15/2020; 24:34:40; 978-0593289655; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group; unabridged; 25 parts.

(Film: No).

SERIES:
Kingsbridge (prequel)

CHARACTERS: (not comprehensive, being that I listened rather than read this book, I may have some of these names miss-spelled. )
Edgar – English boat builder
Sungifu – Coome resident - Edgar’s 1st love
Ragna – French Norman noble woman
Wilwulf – Ealdorman of Shiring
Den – Shiring Sheriff
Blod – Welsh slave at Dreng’s Ferry
King Ethelred – English King
Emma – Bride of English King
Aldred – English monk
Wynstan – Shiring Bishop
Wigelm – brother of Wynstan
Iron face – local outlaw/robber

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
Excellent!
If you’ve read any of Follett’s epic historical fiction novels you already have an opinion—go with it as this book replicates the others in the Kingsbridge series in drama, intrigue, craftsman details, array of characters, and the poignant depictions of the struggles, tribulations, and joys of bygone days.
The Evening and the Morning is as rich in character development, intrigue, and historical detail as the epic historical novels that have gone before (or, I might say “after” since this is the earliest time period a Follett novel has depicted). As a prequel to Pillars of the Earth, the timeline precedes all others of the Kingsbridge series, being the late 900’s to the early 1000’s. The good characters are as admirable as any and the bad as loathsome as any.

AUTHOR:
Ken Follett. (June 5, 1949) According to Amazon, “Ken Follett was only twenty-seven when he wrote the award-winning EYE OF THE NEEDLE, which became an international bestseller. His celebrated PILLARS OF THE EARTH was voted into the top 100 of Britain's best-loved books in the BBC's the Big Read and the sequel, WORLD WITHOUT END, was published to critical acclaim. He lives with his family in London and Hertfordshire.”

NARRATOR:
John [Rafter] Lee. Oddly, Wikipedia and IMDb (Wikipedia’s source, so no wonder) make no mention of the many books John has narrated, but instead list his filmography (nothing I have seen, but probably because he is British), television roles, and video game roles. Apparently, he is also a playwright and producer.
Mr. Lee has a wonderful voice! He’s one of those narrators I would follow the way I follow good authors. In fact, I see he’s recently narrated an Erik Larson book about Churchill. OK, that’s now one of my holds at LAPL. ( )

Honesty, was a bit disappointed with this. Follett can't get out of his bread and butter - almost every character maps 1:1 with a character from his other series, and not in the good "there's continuity in this series and this book fits with the rest" way but in the bad "that book sold well, if I reskin the characters with new names and a slightly different setting, maybe I can do it again." I think what gets at me is that I wanted a little more realism - a bit more of a sense that I learned something about this point in history - but didn't get that from this book. ( )

I only happened upon Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge series this summer, so unlike fans who read the first book, Pillars of the Earth, when it was published in 1989, I did not have to wait 31 years for the fourth book, which is a prequel to Pillars, taking place in the last few years of the 10th century and the early 11th. For me it was less than two months between finishing Pillars, World Without End (2007), and A Column of Fire (2010), so I had not really forgotten much. These are books that can be read as stand-alone without losing anything because there are centuries separating the stories, so the characters are different in each book. Instead the tie among the books is the place: Kingsbridge, a fictional place in south England.

I enjoy Follett’s research and interesting, though sometimes predictable, storytelling. His writing is nothing special but reads well. There were a few times in this book that he used phrases or referenced items that I feel skeptical about being period-appropriate, and that was distracting to me. He acknowledged in the Acknowledgments at the end of the book that the Dark Ages have left us few records, neither writings about daily life nor surviving buildings, as most were built of wood. He writes: “This leaves room for guesswork and disagreement, more so than with the preceding period of the Roman Empire or the subsequent Middle Ages. Consequently, while thanking my historical advisers, I must add that I have not always followed their advice.” Perhaps he should have. Those distractions aside, I enjoyed this prequel more than A Column of Fire, but less than The Pillars of the Earth. ( )

I really enjoyed this rich character study of Ragna of Cherbourg, Edgar the Builder, Aldred the monk and all the others. Dark Ages indeed.... ( )