CIRCLE OF DAYS, Ken Follett

Synopsis
A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT
Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Fair, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family lives in prosperity and offer Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers within their herder community.

A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE
Joia, Neen’s sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain.

A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILIZATION
Joia’s vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life’s work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders—and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare . . .

Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of our age: Stonehenge.

Richard says
I abandoned this book after about 75 pages. For me, it was too mundance, too predestrian. The story unfolded somewhat like a diary or journal of the life of the main character, a flint miner named Seft.

Follett’s constant introduction of new characters with names that seemed to have been created by alpha-sided text: Seft, Neen, Fair and more. This made the story difficult to follow as each new introduction required keeping a mental record of the new person.

I want my reads to engage and entertain. They should not require energy and effort on my part. I disliked the style of this book so much, I abandoned it, something I never do but I am at an age where “if it feels like a waste of time, I jettison it.” Circle of Days felt like a waste of time.