World Without End by Ken Follett

I just finished World Without End and found it just as good as The Pillars of the Earth. It takes place 200 years later in the same town of Kingsbury with many of the characters descendants of characters in the first novel. You do not, however, have to read the earlier novel to enjoy this one. Both novels encompass violent times (not so different from today if one stops to ponder) so there is quite a bit of it in both novels.