Eifelheim - Michael Flynn

Could use some re-tooling, great premise

SPOILERS appear in this review, and deflate major plot threads.


My thoughts on this novel are that the NOW story thread never had sufficient relevance to the Then (main) thread to contribute meaningfully. It is curious that the NOW thread was a short story by this author previously. In this novel, NOW seems to be 10-15% of the novel. In a way, I would think NOW alone would present a better story, and I can see why the author was allowed/offered/asked to make a novel of it.

On the other hand, the author uses the NOW thread to create the final resolution of the story via the trip to Freiburg and subsequently Oberhochwald. It is hard to twine two story threads together when all from the first thread are long dead in thread 2. The interpersonal stuff, the friend helping Sharon on the physics side, and especially the librarian (who actually goes to freiburg with Tom) all seem like pieces of an unfinished relationship story, especially given the dysfunctional nature of Tom and Sharon's relationship.

The Then thread is essentially historical fiction with an anachronism thrown in - aliens, shipwrecked. A fair amount of the later story involves various philosophical and scientific (the two were indistinguishable) discussions which, being confined to trying to explain advanced concepts without language appropriate, became very tedious. I skipped quite a few pages when this started happening.

Later in the story, one alien mentions that his people previously had pagan gods, which to me meant that they should have grasped the concept of religion and particular who the Herr-in-the-sky was. I did think that the early NOW story implied there was a force or actual non-superstition-related reason why Eifelheim remained unpopulated, but the reader finds out that it was only due to the stories from the time of the first plague outbreak.

eifelheim - historical SF?

An especially good book, the first I read from this author.
Modern research is meeting with the past, where intelligent aliens crashed in medieval Europe. A gentle and intelligent pastor is the bridge between the aliens, the european villagers and the modern researchers: a physicist and an historian.

A splendid achievement in Science Fiction, but not for everyone

This fine novel was extremely hard for me to put down, even in its final, depressing chapters. (How cheerful can you be, as the Black Death advances inexorably?) But it may have more pull for the quirky than for the mainstream reader. You need to have a strong interest in all or most of the following: 1) feudalism; 2) medieval theology; 3) central European geopolitics in the 14th century; 4) the far fringes of theoretical physics; 5) first contact. If you can wade fearlessly into these murky waters (and believe me, the theology alone is mind-boggling), you will find this to be one of the best SF novels in recent decades. A walk-on by William of Ockham (of "razor" fame) cemented it for me.

Unique, Literate, Historical, Science Fiction

Historical Fiction - Set in a German village during the middle ages

Science Fiction - Aliens have landed there too!

Literate - Germans and aliens talk about all sorts of thought provoking topics as they get to know each other, including philosophy, class hierarchy and quantum physics.

Special Effects - The black plague, Alien translation devices

This is one of the most unique, engrossing and fun novels I have read in a long time. Highly recommended.

thought provoking glimpse at medieval village visited by aliens

This was a fascinating book. The aliens were well done and their characters were developed. The human-alien interaction was at times very funny. The glimpse of life on Herr Manfred's medieval manor, I think, disabuses us of many modern stereotypes. Fr Dietrich is one of the most interesting and admirable fictional characters I've encountered in a long time. His dialogues with Han von Stern were fascinating and I enjoyed seeing his gradual influence on the Krenken (which, I would argue against another reviewer, was wholly postive). I also liked how Flynn contrasts Fr Dietrich's integrated faith and reason with Br Joachim's unreasoned, emotion-based faith. As Thomas Woods explains in "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization," it was indeed priests and monks like Fr Dietrich who preserved wisdom and fostered cultural development after the collapse of the Roman Empire and kept a candle lit during the dark ages. Finally, at the end of the book, I wondered who lived life more fully: Tom and Sharon in post-modern America or the villagers -- who lived much shorter lives -- on Manfred's estate?