World Without End

Undoubtedly this sprawling novel is a great achievement in terms of plot, length and historical research, however I'm giving it 3 stars. It's readable but I found myself frustrated by Ralph and Philemon the panto villains who are Irredeemably nasty and always seem to scupper the plans of the heroic characters, the what seemed like an over-reliance on rape as a plot device, particularly in the first half. Not even well-written rape, just problematic rape. Finally, the mysterious letter. I'm not going to spoil it, but I would've liked some sort of explanation as to why Ken came up with that theory, as most novelists do tend to explain what's going on when they use real historic figures. As it was, it seemed like a bit of an irrelevant after thought. Think I preferred the first book, this one seemed to take me ages.