Like all the other Kenn Follett books I've read, Pillars of the earth has a good-enough plot, good-enough characters, is written in good-enough prose, and comes to a satisfactory-enough ending.
It's not great but it's not horrible.
I enjoyed this story of the decades-long building of a (fictional) cathedral in South West England and the politics surrounding it.
As always I feel that Follett's characters tend to be a little too drawn in black and white, and the plot twists seem a little too pat. At some point it does become a bit predictable.
There were a few moments where I said "Oh, come ON now!" Like, when Tom the builders sturdy wife dies in childbirth and a day or so later he's having wild sex with a wild woman from the woods, eveen though they are both starving and their children are starving next to them. Or when one character tracks down another character who has left the country.
To some extent I always feel like he's following a recipe: a pinch of sex here, a dastardly deed there, a reversal of fortunes here, a long description of architectural methods there....
Overall it's an easy read and fans of historical fiction should enjoy it.
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