Ken Follett
Historical Fiction 2025 | 704 pages
Circle of Days is Follett’s creative novel about the building of Stonehenge. Though there is only a modicum of real archeological evidence of what occurred in the Neolithic Period in 2500 BCE, when Stonehenge was built, Follett has taken liberties to create the people who envisioned the Monument and built it, as he conducted significant research into the locations and archeology of the times.
Joia is a priestess who has a dream, and a practical vision, of what needs to be created, in order for the priestesses and the others living on the Great Plain, to build a monument that tells time, tracks the seasons, teaches numbers, and even predicts when the leap day occurs.
Joia’s sister Neem falls in love with Seft. Seft is a talented flint-miner who becomes great friends with Joia and moves her dream from an idea into reality with carpentry, strategy, and creativity.
The great stone circle becomes Joia’s and Seft’s life work. But the communities that live on The Great Plain – the herders, woodlanders, and farmers – after having lived side-by-side peacefully for generations, have entered into conflict over resource scarcity. We witness an extensive drought, land seizing, pride, aggression, fear, worry, tradition, and retaliation as the various tribes enter into conflicts and wars with each other. Much is driven by the aggressive, mean, fear mongering, non-empathetic Troon, also known as the “Big Man,” who reminds me of a modern-day politician with a similar name.
The book presents theories about how Stonehenge was built (e.g., moving massive stones without modern tech) as a central plot, acknowledging these are mysteries scientists are still unraveling. Follett uses fiction to imagine the people and their motivations, such as love, power, and community, to bring this ancient monument to life, filling gaps where history is silent.
There is lots of romance, and deep character development. You don’t have to guess what Joia or Seft are going to do next – you have come to learn so much about them. Fun and play and dance and love and the revel (you will read about this), as well as hard work to feed and raise their families, and then to build a stone monument, are pervasive.
I thought the middle section of the book, which is about the issues with the conflicts among the tribes, was a bit overdone, and felt like filler. I think Follett could have communicated the same sense of calamity and tension by limiting his focus directly to the building of the great Monument. But I am not Ken Follett!
While I adored the map in the book, it desperately needed a list of characters. I went looking three times and only found character lists with 8-12 characters. There are MANY more, as witnessed by 704 pages! You may find it beneficial to download one of the character lists and then add other characters on your own as they show up, including who their love interest is, and whether they are a miner, a herder, a farmer, or a priestess.
I was excited when Dan Brown and Ken Follett both released books in September, and I requested them from my library immediately. The wait was three months, but it was worth it. These two authors take me back to a time, a number of years ago, when they were more central to my reading list.
I heartily recommend Circle of Days, and I will soon be reading The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown. As soon as Brian finishes reading and enjoying it, and gives it back to me, that is.
December 2025