In the aftermath of a Viking attack on the coastal town of Combe, a young boatbuilder named Edgar moves with his remaining family to Dreng's Ferry. Not much was written down, there were few pictures, and nearly all buildings were made of wood that rotted away a thousand years ago or more. That all changed after the Viking raid; they were forced to become farmers as opposed to the more loathsome option of slavery. Life is hard, and those with power wield it harshly, bending justice according to their will – often in conflict with the king. The main characters were Edgar, who was a boatbuilder and was MacGyver-like in being able to put together a plan quickly and make something work from nothing; and Ragna, a Norman noblewoman, who comes to England when she marries an English earl, and is very smart and courageous.

This leaves room for guesswork and disagreement, more so than with the preceding period of the Roman Empire or the subsequent Middle Ages. The characters, many who are filled with greed and ambition, were so well-developed I felt I knew them. However Ken Follett really knows how to tell a story, wonderful sense of time and place and characters that are likeable and despicable but always memorable.

Hopefully you newcomers found yourself as captivated as I was - because when you eventually finish, you’ll still have the rest of Kingsbridge series ahead of you (which, as one may expect, I am now quite excited to move on to). After Wynstan escapes punishment, Aldred is sent away from Shiring to run the minster at Dreng's Ferry.

The novel follows the stories of three main characters and how their lives cross, and there’s a slew of other characters in England from 997 CE to 1007. I liked this approach because Follett is writing first and foremost about a place —and not a continuing set of characters. I wasn't sure if I was going to review this book because, honestly, I feel pretty ambivalent towards it. For you reading pleasure, I present the long-awaited prequel to The Pillars of the Earth (1989), The Evening and the Morning (2020).If this is Ken Follet at his usual level of work, then fans of his will definitely be justified in their anticipation of his latest book. While there were portions that delved into areas that I did not find as alluring, there is surely something for everyone with this piece, leaving me enthralled with everything I read.