Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett

This book is the reason I haven't posted in a while - it's a long book and I'm going to start straight off by recommending you have enough time aside to read it so you can really get into it.

I had seen the adverts on TV for the Channel 4 series and was quite interested in it, but never got around to watching it, I'm now on the lookout for the DVD set!

This book was first described to me as a soap opera with a cathedral being the main character, and that person was spot on. This is mainly set in a fictional town of Kingsbridge (there are several towns of that name in Britain but none in the location described) and it's surrounding areas. This is quite unfortunate for me as I really wanted to go visit this fictional cathedral!

Set in the 12th Century the prologue opens with the disastrous sinking of the White Ship, carrying King Henry I's only son, William along with a large entourage of the royal court. This death eventually threw the question of succession into dispute and led to years of civil war between two cousins, Stephen and Matilda, as the idea of Henry's daughter, Matilda, ruling was not yet accepted by the ruling lords and barons.

This is the background against which the story is set; very uncertain and the peasantry being at the mercy of lords and barons waging smaller wars against each other for land and power without fear of repercussion from the crown. After the prologue we are introduced to Tom Builder and his family and immediately we are shown that he is a man of principle - for himself and the people who work for him. This may not be the best thing, a peasant standing up to the son of an Earl, but it helps show the character of both Tom and the Earl's son William Hamleigh and introduces the reader to the way this novel is going to go.

'Pillars' then follows Tom through cities, towns and tragedy as he tries to find work to keep his family from starving, even almost risking his life over the family's pig. It is through this and through the eyes of other characters introduced that we get around to the building of Kingsbridge cathedral. This works for how the novel is set out and introduces the reader to the historical events taking place in the country, making sure we remember the more powerful forces affecting our characters' lives.

 Follett introduces us to characters slowly and through chapters written in their own point of view, taking his time to weave all the separate stories together until you suddenly see it connect with a flash of realisation. This slow build up may seem tiresome at first and encourage you to put the book down and walk away but please don't as it builds up, connects together and I found the switch between the points of view as a good thing, it kept me reading through the slower parts.

With the obvious distinction between good and bad it is difficult for the reader to make their own mind up about the characters as Follett doesn't seem to believe in shades of grey too much, if a good person does something bad it is always justified and a bad person only does something good if it's an accidental repercussion of an attempt at a bad deed. Now, with a book like this, I don't mind that too much as the story itself allows this to flow into the background whilst the turbulent storylines and plot twists take centre stage. The characters are still padded out and made into real people and not completely predictable, although one or two characters do come close at times.

I was very interested in the building of the cathedral and it was made very obvious that Follett had done his research on this subject. It was described in a way that I found interesting and not patronizing or where I'm expected to already know the basics and just be shoved into the deep-end. I found myself visiting two cathedrals whilst I was reading the book and found it really helped me appreciate all the hard work of all the individuals that were working on these amazing buildings.

This book is definitely an epic and I would suggest putting aside a full week or two so that you can really get into the descriptions and character depths. It isn't the sort of thing you can pick up, flick through a couple of pages and then move on to do something else but it is well worth the time to pick up.

If you like historical fiction with a bit of cathedral architecture mixed in and you're looking for your next big read then this is the book for you. If you like soap opera style books that spreads over about 40/50 years and mainly focuses on a small group of people then this is also the book for you. I'm now waiting for the right time to buy the second book.

Bob Moore: No Hero by Tom Andry **possible spoilers ahead**

I initially downloaded this little gem at a time when I was going on 'free ebook spree'. It was free, the cover looked brilliant and it's about a PI working in a time when super powered beings have become an everyday sight.


Bob Moore is our cynical PI with a specific clientele, 'supers', people born with super powers who are now a rather normal occurence. As a 'tippy' (normal, non powered) it's just that little bit more dangerous for Bob to go on surveillance against supers as is evidenced right at the beginning when one decides to set fire to the tree he's in and then proceed to chase him whilst throwing fireballs in his general vicinity - and at times a lot closer!

The main premise of the story, however, isn't to point out why superheroes really shouldn't wear (pink) spandex but instead follows Bob as he takes on a case for a super from his past. With believable characters, even in this setting, we follow him as he battles against his own feelings towards the super and tries to figure out what is happening on a case that not even the police or other supers believe in.

Andry has ensured that the world he's created is deep and, more importantly, believable - even if we are talking about superheroes here! The characters are well thought out and put across and even, or especially, the supers are given their flaws. The back story behind Bob and his hatred towards Doc Art wasn't rubbed in your face or just thrown at you to then move on, it was built up and occasionally hinted at until that one crucial moment when it all becomes clear and you suddenly dislike the Doc too. Bob is not made out to be some PI with his moral high ground and even had me wondering how I felt about him at the end as he made his decision. It may not be one the reader will agree with but he is unapologetic about his actions and so he should be.

This first book by Tom Andry was short but so sweet with a narrative that is both cynical and darkly humourous in its telling. I found this to be one of the books I wished to be longer so that I didn't have to put it down and face the end. It's a PI mystery, comedy and sci-fi with a well padded central character that I would love to see end up with his own series on Sy-Fy. With the second book coming out soon (I have it on good authority, honest) I can only suggest you download this book first before going on to get the next one.

Perfume by Patrick Suskind **possible spoilers ahead**

"In eighteenth century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille and if his name has been forgotten today, it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succintly, wickedness, but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent..."

Now I'm not one who normally likes to start my review of a book with a quote of some kind, even if it is the breakdown of the opening paragraph, but this really does give the reader the idea of the direction this entire book is going to go and the style of writing the author uses throughout.

Where most writers will rely heavily on the sense of sight in order to describe a scene or set the mood Suskind has relied on scent, a sense that many of us take for granted but would be at a small loss without. With an unbreakable grip on his dictionary of large, descriptive words the author launches us into a stench ridden Paris that seems so lifelike in it's description you find yourself wrinkling your nose at a smell that's only in your mind.

We are introduced to the protagonist in this story in the most disgusting of settings with it's putrefying vapours and vile smelling fish masking the odour of corpses. His mother has given birth to him at her fish stall and left him under the table with the guts, fish heads and offal thinking he is dead. The mother is swiftly brushed under the carpet and dispatched with so that we can move on to the more important Jean-Baptiste (from here on referred to as Jean or J-B). The first insight we are given into something being not quite right with him is when he is described as not smelling like a baby should and from then on it's all about the scent as we quickly follow Jean grow up differently from other children and with no real moral compass except the one that he bases upon the discovery of scents.

This search follows him from solitary child to tanner's labourer onto perfumer's apprentice through to a journeyman wishing to escape all the scented taints of human 'effluvium' (now my favourite word) and, as such, his years of solitary in a cave. Thankfully these are briefly described and given a well-rounded chapter or so before the catalyst is introduced. Grenouille then moves on to a new mission of finding a scent for himself. This eventually leads him to Grasse and a chance meeting of a new yet familiar scent means that dear J-B coldly goes about honing his scent-catching methods then embarking on a spate of murders. The eventual, inevitable ending seems to have him purposefully end up not too far away or up the social ladder from where he began.


Grenouille, although the main character in this book, did not make me feel any sympathy towards him. He is described and likened to on many occasions as a 'tick': stubborn and clinging on for life but you don't see any good in him. He doesn't come across as completely human, even with his hauntingly sad conclusion on how it must all end, yet this cold and cynical approch didn't amke me want to stop reading.

In general I found this book to be rather engrossing and the style of writing was just fabulous. It was self-indulgent flattery but not enough to make me feel ill, almost like Suskind had a competition with himself as to how many different words could be used to describe general smells. His knowledge when it came to describing the olfactory senses to us poor, unenlightened masses is fascinating. I even found myself sniffing the crook of my armpit (read the book and you'll do the same at one point!). This book is put-downable but only because you need breaks from it in order to take it all in and get it all right in your head before carrying on, as well as the fact that you may want to come up for a breath of fresh air (boom boom tsh).

So, to conclude: I was fascinated with the book but I couldn't say for sure I loved it. I will read it again but I will feel just as disturbed at parts as I did amazed at others. It is a bizarre tale of a strange little man in a decadence ridden time that will have you remembering it for a long time to come.

I would also like to add that I now feel it my mission to use more of these words in my everyday life, you have been thoroughly warned ;P