A COLUMN OF FIRE by Ken Follett - Review

The pillars of the Earth was published in 1989, and had worldwide success; actually it was the book that made Ken Follett famous. The continuation of The pillars of the Earth is called World Without end, published in 2007, and the third delivery of the storyline is called A column of fire, and it was published in 2017. All three books are historical novels which mix real characters with fictitious ones to give the reader a wide comprehension of one historical moment.

A column of fire, according to Ken Follet's style, is about the story of some influential families, this time of the XVI century.Those families get involved into important affairs (political, military or religious), key moments that changed the world. This time, the scenario is even wider than World Without end: Kingsbridge is the main settlement of the story, but some important sequencies happen in America, in Spain or in Paris. The plot blends personal affairs with the historical facts, and most of those historical facts are related with the change of religion on the Europe of the XVI century, from catholic to protestant and vice versa, depending on the king/queen of the moment. One of the main characters, Ned, spends his lifetime working for Elizabeth I as an spy building the first complex intelligence service in history, with the objective of discovering catholic conspiracies. As usual on Ken Follet's books, love has an important role on the storyline.

Opinion

Usually I like Ken Follet books, and this one is not an exception. Furthermore, I think that this one is my favourite until now. I like historical novel in general, and A column of fire is amazing, historically talking. The baackground comprises fro the religious wars to incredibly complex political conspiracies and the illegal market of slaves. In conclusion, it's an amazing and breathtaking book, I highly recommend it. 

For me reading historical books is so interesting  basically because I don't know a lot about history, so for me almost all the information is new. And if it's writen by Ken Follet... What else can I ask for?