Ken Follett rose to bestseller fame with the publication of “Eye of the Needle.”

The novel was a thriller and thrillers became Follett’s genre. Once an author becomes established in a certain genre, they either don’t leave it by choice or market forces ensure the author stays securely in a certain category bracket.

But Follett successfully moved away from thrillers, while applying his expertise at suspense and pacing, with the release of “The Pillars of the Earth” in 1989.

A massive slab of historic fiction that sold tens of millions of copies, became the No. 1 book in markets around the world and was selected as an Oprah book at the height of Winfrey’s book club influence.

“PIllars” story of the building of a church in medieval England and the people and relationships surrounding the construction and the town captured readers’ imaginations and aroused intense interest and passion.

Follett has since written “Pillars” sequels – “World Without End” and “A Column of Fire” and now a prequel to Pillars – “The Evening and the Morning.” Like “Pillars,” the sequels and the prequel are massive slabs amassing hundreds of pages.

Readers should not look for any of the “Pillars” characters in the sequels or prequels. The books are set hundreds of years apart and are peopled by different generations of characters.

Instead, they are more closely aligned to a people and a place. The books are the long story of a population and a region. 

“Evening” is set at the ending years of the Dark Ages and the start of something new. Like the past volumes, it follows the triumphs, trials, tragedies of a set of characters, a search for love, the spark of hope that cannot be quelled by malice or ignorance though malice and ignorance try mightily to succeed. 

“Pillars” is still the towering best in the series; however, Follett has found a formula here that is intoxicating and contagious. Pages fly, even though they are numbered at nearly 1,000.