The Pillars of the Earth's third and final book is out now
A real page-turner
The Pillars of the Earth is a historical novel (the real kind, with pages and everything) dense with intrigue, murder and revenge centered around a fictional 12th century English town's plans to erect a cathedral. Adapted to digital, interactive format in a style not entirely unlike Telltale's choose-your-own-adventures by experienced point-and-clicker creators Daedalic, by all accounts, this is something I would have deeply enjoyed, having eagerly consumed every episode of Cadfael and a few of the novels, but I'm sadly late to this party. Fashionably so, at least.
Today, the final part of The Pillars of the Earth was released, completing the 21-chapter digital adaptation of Ken Follett's novel. Perfectly timed for a spot of lazy Easter weekend reading.
Back in August of last year, Philippa went and gave the first 'book' of the trilogy (the first 7 chapters of the story) a long, hard look, and found it compelling enough to tempt her into skipping straight to reading the original so she wouldn't have to wait nearly a year for Daedalic's adaptation to be completed.
While informed heavily by the original novel, the game does offer some leeway to alter your path through the story. Not quite as much as you'd expect from a Telltale game, but enough to let you alter the tone and texture of the story, if not the overarching thrust of it all.
Philippa wasn't the only one enamoured by the first book either. Pillars of The Earth has picked up no shortage of critical praise from all quarters. Perhaps this is an indication that more traditional writers still have a thing or two to teach their game-writing cousins, although Daedalic have clearly brought some real artistic talent to the table as well.
Accompanying the final release, The Pillars of The Earth is heavily discounted for the next two days on Steam and GOG, bringing it down to £13.49/$15. Those who had completed Book Two should only need update their game, and you should find yourself seamlessly resuming from where you left off.