Michael Barnes
One of the aspects of Pillars of the Earth I reveled in was the author's unapologetic geekery over Western (England/France mainly) Cathedral building and holding strong when no doubt editors asked 'do we really need to spend this much time on flying buttresses?
And whilst a long novel (mine clocked in at 1100pages) due to the nature of the narrative centre shifting through characters naturally allowed the story to progress without ever feeling slow or dragging.
My only reservation is that like other English/French medieval historical stories written in the 90s I think these days a sensitivity reader would propose changes to the rape and sexual assaults which seem to me to show the evil of the antagonists such as William (the only villain not to get a redemption arc thankfully).
One of the aspects of Pillars of the Earth I reveled in was the author's unapologetic geekery over Western (England/France mainly) Cathedral building and holding strong when no doubt editors asked 'do we really need to spend this much time on flying buttresses?
And whilst a long novel (mine clocked in at 1100pages) due to the nature of the narrative centre shifting through characters naturally allowed the story to progress without ever feeling slow or dragging.
My only reservation is that like other English/French medieval historical stories written in the 90s I think these days a sensitivity reader would propose changes to the rape and sexual assaults which seem to me to show the evil of the antagonists such as William (the only villain not to get a redemption arc thankfully).