World Without End cover art

World Without End

A Kingsbridge Novel

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About this listen

The historical saga that has enthralled millions of readers, Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series continues continue with World Without End.

On the day after Halloween, in the year 1327, four children slip away from the cathedral city of Kingsbridge. They are a thief, a bully, a boy genius and a girl who wants to be a doctor. In the forest they see two men killed.

As adults, their lives will be braided together by ambition, love, greed and revenge. They will see prosperity and famine, plague and war. One boy will travel the world but come home in the end; the other will be a powerful, corrupt nobleman. One girl will defy the might of the medieval church; the other will pursue an impossible love. And always they will live under the long shadow of the unexplained killing they witnessed on that fateful childhood day.

Ken Follett’s masterful epic The Pillars of the Earth enchanted millions of readers with its compelling drama of war, passion and family conflict set around the building of a cathedral. World Without End takes readers to medieval Kingsbridge two centuries later, as the men, women and children of the city once again grapple with the devastating sweep of historical change.

World Without End is followed by the third of Ken Follett's Kingsbridge novels, A Column of Fire.

 Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Medieval Suspense Thriller & Suspense Romance Exciting Middle Ages War

Critic reviews

You won't be able to put it down
Follett’s storytelling skills keep you compulsively turning the pages to the satisfactory ending of good triumphant over evil (Daily Mail)
Sweeping and yet detailed, a powerful story packed with superbly drawn characters and which evokes the period that saw the devastating black death
All stars
Most relevant
Really good, pretty much EastEnders in the Middle Ages - however characters are very similar from previous book. Still worth a listen!

More of the gold standard same

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Would you consider the audio edition of World Without End to be better than the print version?

45+ hours of listening made this book feel like it would never end. I can't imagine reading such a huge tome, although in print form I could at least have skipped over the laborious bits. If you like Ken Follett's writing style though, I'm sure you could enjoy this.

If you’ve listened to books by Ken Follett before, how does this one compare?

Although I found the prequel (The Pillars of the Earth) hard going at times, I had to listen to this book too, to see if the general story arc could be as interesting. However, I was hoping that some of the author's style of storytelling might have improved. It hadn't.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

It's hard to pick out a specific scene, but the building of the bridge and depictions of a peasant agricultural society probably held the most interest throughout this book. I think Gwenda could have been an interesting character but somehow felt she was sidelined and her motivations portrayed too simplisticly. I would be interested in a more punchily written spin off version of Gwenda's life, from childhood to beyond WWE.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were many moments that made me cringe (like his previous book) but not enough feeling of engagement with the characters to provoke a strong response. The ending was very sudden, as though the author felt he'd written enough and it was time to tie up the loose ends in a couple of pages. I'd have been grateful to come to the end, after such a long book, but it came without warning when I didn't have another audiobook ready to go!

Any additional comments?

I can't really imagine myself ever re-listening to this or its prequel, as they are so very long (you get your money's worth for an audible credit!), and the author's style (especially his one-dimensional, laboured sex scenes, which showed no understanding of the fairer sex) has not left me wanting to experience any of his other works (especially if they are this long). The narration was fine on the whole, although I wouldn't go out of my way to seek this narrator out.

Story Without End!

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An excellent story, full of descriptive detail, with an enthralling array of struggle in the 1300’s, with highs and lows of the struggles among the serfs, the nobility and the church.

Riveting read

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All the characters and places were so well described..although
It was very long.. I didn’t want it to end.

Brilliant

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I think I liked this book more then book one. However, the use of the English language is better in the first book. John Lee's performance is outstanding. I kept waiting and wanting those greedy characters to fall from grace and that kept me going. Cannot wait to start book 3.

Excellent As Always

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