The Pillars of the Earth

I'm late getting on this train, picking up Ken Follett's PILLARS OF THE EARTH only after several friends encouraged me to hop aboard. For the most part I enjoyed it -- Prior Philip is a likeable and engaging character -- but in the end I found the book too long by almost half. Fairly early on I discovered I could skim significant chunks of narrative without losing the gist of the story by simply reading the first sentence of a paragraph, then skipping to the first sentence of the next paragraph, and so on, until I'd landed where I could again settle in on the tale.

Around page 750, though (of 973 pages total) I began to wonder if the book would ever end -- and then having reached it, I was a little disappointed.

SPOILER ALERT: When William Hamleigh died by hanging rather than Aliena's sword, I felt cheated. She, more than anyone, deserved the satisfaction of killing him -- and had long ago established she was capable of the deed -- for all she'd endured at his hand. Mr. Follett did us (and his character) an injustice by not allowing her the privilege -- and I'd be curious to know if in hindsight he wishes he had.