World Without End Audiobook Review
The Audiobook Edition of the Bestseller by Ken Follett
This is a review of the World Without End audiobook by Ken Follett and read by Richard E Grant. The story gives us an intriguing insight into life in medieval Britain.
World Without End, by Ken Follett, is set in medieval England and is a story that follows the lives of four people whose lives collided together as children, when a shared experience changes them for ever. The different strands of each of their lives are woven together to form a story that is often long and detailed, yet never boring. The hardback version of World Without End is 1120 pages long and there are two versions of the audio book, the abridged version (12 hours) read by Richard E Grant and the unabridged version (46 hours) read by John Lee.
The story follows the main characters whose lives, one way or another, are entwined with the town's Cathedral. The book provides the listener with an insight into medieval life that evokes the horrors of the time, creating vivid pictures that history classes so often fail to achieve. The characterizations are strong and Ken Follett lets us know very early on who the bad guys are!
The Audiobook of World WIthout End
The audiobook in this review is the abridged version, narrated by Richard E Grant, and is a joy to listen to. Richard E Grant will be known from his acting career that included the cult classic Withnail and I. In his reading of the book Richard E Grant manages to inject animation into his reading by introducing different accents and subtle inflections to help differentiate characters, without dissolving into pastiche. This balance kept the book moving along and helped with character identification, which can sometimes be a problem with audiobooks.
One of the challenges of listening to an epic audio such as World Without End, even in its abridged form, is that it needs to be listened to over many sittings. As such it is possible to lose track of characters or forget some of the twists and turns in the plot. The combination of Richard E Grant's reading and the distinctive writing style of Ken Follett means that the audiobook flows easily and there were no problems keeping track of people and the plot, even over several listening sessions.
Although this book is a sequel to Pillars of the Earth, it is set 200 years later. While there are some common reference points between the books (they are both set around the same town and cathedral), World Without End is complete in its own right, and it is not necessary to have read the first book in order to enjoy the second. Pillars of the Earth was chosen by Oprah's book club and there is plenty of interesting information about Ken Follett and his work on the Oprah Book Club website.
Who Should Listen to the World Without End Audiobook?
Without a doubt this book is recommended listening to anyone who would like to find out more about this bestseller or about Ken Follett's writing but who does not have the time to sit down and read the book or listen to the full 46 hours of the unabridged version. Although the book is abridged, the story still flows and there are no loose ends or unexplained characters that can sometimes creep into abridged books.
World Without End audiobook in its abridged and unabridged form can be found from book stores and specialist retailers. The digital audiobook is available for download from Audible.com can easily be loaded onto an mp3 player for listening.
Information for Book Clubs
There are many discussion questions about World Without End for book clubs and these also relevant for audiobook listeners. Some of these are listed below:
Further Information
World Without End Audiobook ISBN - 9781405090568
US Publisher - Penguin Group
Take a look at some of these related articles for further reading about Audiobooks:
- Audiobook review of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
- Profile of audiobook online retailer, Audible.com
- Information about free audiobooks from Librivox.org
