The book is set against the turbulent times of a protracted civil war in England (before Henry II takes power.) Follett seems to have a grasp of the historical details from the organization of a monastic priory to the techniques used in building cathedrals. I liked his "good" characters, they were (for the most part) 3-dimensional and appropriately complex. The bad guys were irredeemably evil and therefore uninteresting. Follett tried to give us some insight into why they were so bad, but ultimately it felt like cheap psycho analysis (it was the mother's fault.) 
 However, this book did not have to be almost a thousand pages. Each major section was a repeat of the plot of the previous one: the same evil bad guys making the same good guys miserable, the good guys bouncing back and forcing the bad guys to hit them again. He did keep me hooked with a mystery introduced in the prologue and spun out over the course of 40+ years. I ultimately enjoyed the book, but felt it would have been much better, about two thirds the length.