As Europe erupts, can one young spy protect his queen? Number-one New York Times best-selling author Ken Follett takes us deep into the treacherous world of powerful monarchs, intrigue, murder, and treason with his magnificent new epic, A Column of Fire.

A thrilling listen that makes the perfect gift for the holidays.

In 1558, the ancient stones of Kingsbridge Cathedral look down on a city torn apart by religious conflict. As power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship, loyalty, and love.

Ned Willard wants nothing more than to marry Margery Fitzgerald. But when the lovers find themselves on opposing sides of the religious conflict dividing the country, Ned goes to work for Princess Elizabeth. When she becomes queen, all Europe turns against England. The shrewd, determined young monarch sets up the country's first secret service to give her early warning of assassination plots, rebellions, and invasion plans. Over a turbulent half century, the love between Ned and Margery seems doomed as extremism sparks violence from Edinburgh to Geneva. Elizabeth clings to her throne and her principles, protected by a small, dedicated group of resourceful spies and courageous secret agents.

The real enemies, then as now, are not the rival religions. The true battle pitches those who believe in tolerance and compromise against the tyrants who would impose their ideas on everyone else - no matter what the cost.

Set during one of the most turbulent and revolutionary times in history, A Column of Fire is one of Follett's most exciting and ambitious works yet. It will delight longtime fans of the Kingsbridge series and is the perfect introduction for listeners new to Ken Follett.

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Listening Length	30 hours and 19 minutes
Author	Ken Follett
Narrator	John Lee
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	September 12, 2017
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B01MS7CCFD
Best Sellers Rank	#981 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #2 in Historical Mysteries (Audible Books & Originals) #15 in Fiction Sagas #19 in Historical Mystery

Customer reviews

5 star		73%
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3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Chris Melzer (ChrisDMelzer@aol.com)

A real Ken Follett – and that is great (with minor flaws)

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2017

We waited three years for a new Ken Follett novel and almost ten for the next, the third, book of his Kingsbridge story. So here is his new novel, the name is “A column of Fire” (I never get his naming) and it is a real Ken Follett – with all pros and cons. If you know novels by Ken Follett, you know what you get: Tension, entertainment, a lot of well researched knowledge – and unfortunately a little black and white where you expect more gray.

Two things first: Ken Follett gets back to Kingsbridge, his fictional town in England, for the third time, ten years after “World Without End” and 28 (!) years after “The Pillars of the Earth”. But it is not really a sequel. Yes, he makes a lot of references. But the plot is individual and you can read absolutely this book without even seeing the two others.

Second point: This is not a medieval novel, as some say. It plays in Modern History, right after the reformation by the German monk Martin Luther (these days exactly 500 years ago). It plays a little later in the 16th century when in England first the Catholics burnt the Protestants and then the Protestants burnt the Catholics on the stake. When France was devastated by terrible wars of religion. And when Spain reached the heyday of its power – and gave it away to an awakening England, powered by religious tolerance (kind of) and the beginning of democracy (kind of).

Main character is Ned Willard (I almost wrote Ned Flanders). He has a great future as a merchant. And because this is a Follett we would become of course an honest merchant with values that match perfectly our values in the 21st century. But there are evil villains, sexist and racist, very bad according to these our values and these guys giving him a hard time.

And that’s the problem with this Ken Follett like with (almost) every Ken Follett else: The good guys are almost perfect; the bad guys are just mean and without any good quality. Everything is black or white, good or evil. But experience told us that the world is gray and evil characters are more interesting if they are complicated.

If this is NOT your first Ken Follett novel you probably know what I mean. And if this is not your first Ken Follett novel you will also read this one. Because they are real page-turners. Because Follett is such a good writer that you never lose track, also there are so many persons and plots. This guy can write and he never stops thinking about his readers. Und you read this books because you can learn so much about history. Here as well: The most important events of the 16th century are described with many details. Yes, I love history. But with books like that everyone can experience the glamour of history. And after about 1150 pages you are sad that this is over. Not the common reaction to a history book.

You like that review? Than I am grateful for a vote. If not please leave a comment. Because to help other readers is the sole purpose of this review. And sorry for the English, not a native speaker (German).

3,520 people found this helpful

Helpful

Rachael L Adamczyk

Very Disappointing.

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

Pillars and World Without End are my favorite books of all time. I'm also very interested in religious history and persecution, so I highly anticipated the release of this book.

Unfortunately, it was just really bad. The book had nothing to do with Kingsbridge, which was disappointing, but I could have gotten over that, IF the book had contained rich characters and plots like the first two books. Instead, this book featured super boring characters who meandered their way through 900 pages of ABSOLUTELY NO PLOT. Additionally, there were about five new people introduced per page, all with similar names (Francis, Henri), and you never knew if they were going to be major characters, or if they would never be mentioned again. I seriously started taking notes. I have about five handwritten pages of names....and I'd say about 10% turned out to be recurring characters. The other 90% had no impact on the plot.

Unlike Pillars & WWE (and most of follett's other wonderful books), I never cared about any of the characters, or knew what motivated them. I found myself constantly thinking "wait, why are they doing this?" Or "wait, when was the last time these two characters interacted with each other? It doesn't make sense that they're enemies!"

This was just a complete mess. I really looked forward to this book for months, and I hesitated to write this review until I was finished with the whole thing...hoping against hope that it would get better. It didn't. I'm so disappointed.

257 people found this helpful

Helpful

R. R. Williams

Ken Follett in all his glory....

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

So! The third installment of Kingsbridge is HERE and I am absolutely loving Column! 5 stars all the way, everything you'd want from Ken F. in a book. I want to talk directly to the reader who has not yet read any of the 3 Kingsbridge books. You must start with Pillars of the Earth. It's the greatest book I've ever read and it unearthed my passion for historical fiction. Even IF you're not into historical fiction, it's impossible that you wouldn't love this book or its series or any of Ken's novels. Pillars has had a lifelong impact on me. It's that book that just stays with you after you've finished the amazing journey it will lead you on. I'm not a master with words or reviews, but if you've yet to read any of these all I have to say is: you're in for a treat!

527 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Bill

Not a story of Kingsbridge Cathedral, more historic fact than fiction

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed reading this book for the most part, but what it is not, is a continuation of the previous 'Kingsbridge' novels. I had rather imagined I was going to be reading about the troubles affecting the Cathedral and the people of Kingsbridge during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but that major historic event seems to have passed us by and the book opens during the reign of Queen Mary. The Cathedral and Priory almost don't feature at all in the 600+ pages within the book and the people of Kingsbridge only get a smattering of mentions. In fact, 3/4s of the book are set in France, Spain and Holland.
What I found rather irritating was the constant and abrupt switching from one story line in France, to a completely separate story line in Spain and then to Holland and back to France. It was like an episode of EastEnders or Dallas constantly flipping between characters and scenes. And there are quite a lot of characters in this book! I also found that what I was reading was a factual history lesson interspersed with fictional characters - the 'story telling' which made the previous books so enthralling, didn't really evolve, it was simply a flowery version of historic fact. If I had wanted to read a history book I would've bought something by Simon Sharma. I also became rather annoyed when some of the main characters, in whom readers had invested quite a lot in the 600+ pages, came to what seemed like premature ends, almost as if Ken Follet got bored writing about them and finished them off without any significance. If it was meant to provide 'shockers' it didn't work - in fact I was rather disgusted with one characters unjustied end that I just slapped the book shut with an irritated 'hmph'.
All that said, I quite enjoyed the book, but it just wasn't what was expected or indeed what it should have been. I did learn something about the history of Protestant and Catholic issues in 16th Century Europe.

66 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Great continuation of the Kingsbridge saga.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

A great continuation of the Kingsbridge Saga. Set in the Elizabethan era with less content about Kingsbridge and the priory and the conflict between the prior, townspeople and earls, and more about Queen Elizabeth's secret service, and the battle between Catholicism and Protestantism throughout Europe, and the plotting against the Queen.

If you enjoyed the first two, you will definitely enjoy this one.

36 people found this helpful

AliG

... fan of Ken Follett and Pillars is probably my favourite book. World Without End was ok but this ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

I've always been a fan of Ken Follett and Pillars is probably my favourite book. World Without End was ok but this was the literary equivalent of Forrest Gump - a bunch of random people who happen to be witnesses to major historical events.
Whereas Pillars is primarily a great story with strong characters which culminated in an actual historical event this reads like a docu-drama.

I hope he returns to form soon as this was predictable and disappointing.

25 people found this helpful

Chenaie

Awful!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

I have read all of Ken Follett's books and looked forward to this with eager anticipation. Normally, his books are 'page turners' - this is a page burner! Way below his normal standard - too many characters in too many locations and not really very interesting. To paraphrase meatloaf - this book's a lemon and I want my money back!

25 people found this helpful

Evered

No smoke without fire

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2018

Verified Purchase

Certainly not as good as "Pillars of the Earth" . It seemed as if Ken Follett had a tick list of every event of note in Elizabethan & Jacobean times and just had to include his characters in them all. Spanish Armada, Gunpowder Plot , Execution of Mary Queen of Scots you name it his heroes and heroines were there. I was waiting for the execution of Charles 1st next but fortunately his main hero died of old age just in time. On the other hand if there are gaps in your knowledge of 16th century politics ( particularly the religious in fighting ) then this is an ideal book to get clued up without suffering from choosing the wrong side (Catholics, Protestants, Hugenots etc) like so many thousands did. And what horrible deaths!

12 people found this helpful

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