144
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #213,570 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
I quit after the third rape.
I don't mind a bit of sex in a novel, but this reads like cheesy soft core porn. What's really confounding is that Follett has some brilliant, independent women...and others who are just rape bait. Worse, one of the protagonists seems to enjoy the second time she is raped. This could have been a serious, well researched, historical novel, instead it's full of puns about 'moist clefts'. (ostensibly about masonry). And many anachronisms: I sort of doubt that even the most forward 14 century women felt 'sexy'. Some of the other plots and characters are quite interesting, but I just gave up
