A Column of Fire

A Column of Fire was an ambitious project. It takes the reader to a Europe in the grip of religious war . The whole of Europe then was Christian yet these people fought like rabid dogs with each other by calling themselves Catholic and Protestant. Plots were conspired to replace the Kings and Queens, sympathetic to either of the denomination. Such was the situation that if one was a Protestant under the Catholic ruler , he/she would simply be slayed for that very reason. Conversely , under Protestant regime Catholics were butchered for treason. To make things complicated most of the royal families and aristocracy had members half Catholics and half Protestants . A Column of Fire starts from the beginning of the end of ultra catholic Mary Tudor , runs through the period of Elizabeth - I - a Protestant, and settles down in the era of James Stuart - who was either of the two depending on the situation . The story takes the reader to France , particularly Paris , to Spain , to Scotland , and of course England - London, and to a fictional town of Kingsbridge. It covers many things but the massacre on St Bartholomew's Day were 60,000 Protestants were slaughtered on the streets of Paris was quite graphic. Mary Stuart - the queen of the Scot and Mother of the James Stuart - her beheading by Elizabeth - I was shocking. Reader has seen her entire life right from when She was just 10 years old and in the end one can't stop feeling sorry for her . Gun powder treason plot , defeat of Spanish Armada by English navy, capture of English colony by French etc., are some of the notable events that a reader will come across. The author leans towards Protestant faith. Elizabeth -I is shown as loving , sensitive, and a mercurial queen. Protagonist of the story Ned Willard and his love triangle with Margery and Sylvie feels very warm and romantic types will enjoy the heart breaking events. Margery and Sylvie are shown as strong characters. All in all A Column of Fire is a top class novel. Writing is easy and fuels the imagination and after few pages , readers, mind will start seeing the images as one reads on.. this is a hall mark of a good writing.

I read Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth when I was fourteen, and it was like being hit on the chest with something heavy (maybe the book itself - it was one of the longest and heaviest I had read till then). I loved it absolutely - the descriptions of the cathedral being built in Kingsbridge, the beautiful women and their drama-filled lives, the rich imagery and narrative. Years later, visiting an actual medieval cathedral for the first time, many of the terms the audio guide used were familiar, because I had already "lived" through the building of a cathedral.A Column of Fire is the third book in the Kingsbridge series. Strictly speaking, it's not a sequel - it's set many centuries after the first one, and the only thing that connects the books is the setting of Kingsbridge. I'm not sure how World Without End (the second in the series) is, but A Column of Fire isn't set only in Kingsbridge. A lot of the action takes place in other places - Paris and London being the main ones.One of the main threads in the book is the love story of Ned Willard and Margery Fitzgerald. The two are a young Kingsbridge couple in love, but Margery's family is against their union. A rich Catholic merchant family, they want her to marry into nobility and raise their social status.The Ned-Margery love story plays out against the backdrop of almost fifty years of Protestant-Catholic conflict in France and Britain in the sixteenth century. The ebb and flow of these two opposing views on Christianity makes for fascinating reading - how something as simple as a change in monarch can change the religious tendencies of an entire country. There were killings aplenty on both sides in the name of religion.Ken Follett takes actual historical events and adds to them some great characters to show us how these events impacted ordinary lives - Ned Willard of the Secret Service (a tolerant Protestant), Margery Fitgerald (a Catholic), a French villain by the name of Pierre de Aumand (a Catholic who instigates Protestant killings to further his own ends), a Protestant book-seller named Sylvie Palot.Personally, I didn't know much of the history of this period before this book. But that didn't prevent ACoF from being an engrossing read. It's a great introduction to famous personalities like Queen Elizabeth the first (she of the white face and red hair), Queen Mary Tudor of the Scots (imprisoned for decades by Elizabeth) and Duke Scarface of France. And you also get a ring-side view on historical events such as Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, Queen Mary's wedding to the French king, the failure of the attempted Spanish invasion of Britain, and the St Bartholomew's Day masscare in Paris in 1572.If I have one quibble, it is that it feels like Follett is breezing through history at too fast a pace. Fifty years is a long time to cover even for a history book. But there were certain threads in the book that could have been excluded (Ned's brother's, for example).Also did it meet the expectations I had from reading Pillars of the Earth almost two decades ago? No, it didn't. But I'm not sure I can blame Follett for that. Maybe I was more wide-eyed and open to such immersive reads then? Growing up can sometimes be a pain.

Loved all the Kingsbridge novels. There’s plots abound in a column of fire, and sometimes just a little too much jumping from one to the other. Not difficult to follow once you quite literally ‘catch up with the plot’. Definitely recommend.

can't put item down

Si has leído Los Pilares de la Tierra y te gustó este te va a encantar. Lleno de emociones y acciones.

This book is the third volume in the Kingsbridge series. It is similar to the others in some ways but much different in others. Like the earlier two books, Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, this book is sweeping in scope, covering more than 50 years. People are married, have babies, and the babies grow up. Like the others, this one is set in a historical period and has lots of authentic detail drawn from written sources. But while the others were set in periods that have been relatively neglected by recent authors, both historians and novelists, A Column of Fire happens against the backdrop of the Protestant Reformation and the changes England experienced after King Henry VIII died without a male heir. Here, we the readers are on somewhat more familiar ground. The 16th century has been covered in many movies and TV shows in addition to nonfiction literature. There are only a few novelized versions, most not recent, so I’m not aware of other historical novels set in this period so there’s little to compare it with except the actual history. The author does a thorough job of setting his story, with some fictional characters and other historical persons, in an authentic plot derived from historical sources. I dare say it’s possible to learn the history from this book, always a scary thing to think about when discussing a novel.The familiar history of King Henry’s break with the Catholic church and the chaos that introduced into what was then a provincial and unimportant country is the enabling event that sets the plot in motion. As such, the book differs from most of today’s fiction in that it is driven by theme and plot more than by character, although the characters are deftly drawn. Familiar names come up frequently for the moderately well-read history buff. Erasmus, Calvin, and of course Martin Luther play a substantial role although they don’t actually appear. The Pope at the time also plays a role, alas, not a very helpful one. We meet Guy Fawkes, whose attempted terrorist act closes out the action. The difference between Protestant and Catholic sects is made as clear as it’s possible for a modern book to make it, although to me it leaves a mystery as to what the tie-in between Calvin, Erasmus, and Henry VIII might be. Mary Tudor and Mary Queen of Scots are characters. The book is huge and sweeping because it’s trying to follow the consequences of Henry VIII’s creation of a new breakaway church. It does a good job leaving the story where it did, in the reign of James I in England and Henri IV in France, pointing the way to an eventual reconciliation of the sects of Christianity with the Edict of Nantes on one side of the channel and the Gunpowder Plot on the other. Amazingly for a plot that spans 50 years, it seems taut and action packed. People are put to death for their beliefs and there’s a great tie-in with the Pilgrims’ voyage to America. No American wouldn’t get it.Now for the few, the very few things I didn’t like about the book. It’s small format and therefore rather hard to read. For this long a book, it’s certainly worth making the print and physical size of the pages bigger. Then there’s the use of somewhat less familiar versions of some of the characters’ names. Mary is more often “Queen of the Scots” than the familiar schoolroom “Queen of Scots.” French characters from the nobility have their titles translated into English, except for Philip II, King of Spain, who is “King Felipe.” I am still moderately literate in French from my school days and I remember some of the French characters with their French titles, like the Duc de Guise. It seems odd to see them anglicized. I also found myself confused by the “Marquess” being male and the “Marchioness” being female.More objectionable though is that the maritime parts were clearly written by a landlubber. The author studiously avoids almost all naval terms. He seems unaware of how much work it is to furl or set sail, and how easy it is to heave to with the sails set, one mast thrusting in reverse and the other ahead, with the result that the ship holds position fairly well but is ready to fill and gather speed very quickly. He’s done his homework on what actually happened in the Spanish Armada, but with a seaman like Ned’s brother Barney telling the story there’s no excuse to dumb it down.In spite of these minor lapses, I felt the book deserved 5 stars. It’s a masterpiece.

Consegna impeccabile ed oggetto corrispondente in pieno a quanto descritto. E' una edizione economica ma si legge piuttosto facilmente. I caratteri non sono troppo piccoli come a volte può accadere.Ken Follett annoia molto raramente.