I'm writing this review quite awhile after having listened to it. I may have given the book a slightly lower rating when I first read it, but it's long term effect on me pushed it to the top. When I think back on the books I've listened to over the years, some I thought were great at the time had no lasting impression. The story of Eifelhiem is unique, haunting, and will stick with you long after you've listened.

At first the story seems slow but it takes time to know the characters and learn the culture and environment of the story. The mixture of the stories of scientific discovery and history made, for me, an addictive combination. The story is a bit dark though and I would hope a sequel would offer a more hopeful outcome. This story demands a sequel.

Award winning novels should be incredible. I am a great fan of the medieval time period and the sci-fi/fantasy genre. Did I miss something? The plot sounded interesting, but that was where the appeal ended.

I never fell in love with, much less cared about any of the characters in this story. Despite all their dialog, I never understood their motivation or true character. Some of their actions were so ridiculous, I laughed out loud! The descriptions of the 1340's scenic areas were lovely, but that just wasn't enough to carry the book.

I was hoping the ending would make tolerating the hours of dialog and detail worth while. As others have said, it was predictably anticlimactic. Sigh... maybe, its just me?

A town disappeared eight centuries ago and was never rebuilt. And it was a hub town--those around it are still there but the hub is vacant. Why? The author's descriptions of the 13th century are so detailed and moving that those of the current times seem stark in comparison. I've read far enough to know that aliens are involved--yup, star travelers that are at once more intelligent and less moral. They can't understand why a landholder would negotiate with his workers.

I found myself drawn into the story, and eventually deeply moved... very well researched and richly drawn characters. The novel succeeds both as a simple "what if" first contact in the middle ages, but also in making us care about the characters, and in a shared celebration of scientific and human discovery.

The narration worked fine for me. Really well done novel, transcending the genre.

Eifelheim has the virtue of being an intriguing character study, with both human and alien characters at hand. It is clearly based on a prodigious amount of research, and the medieval sequences are very well rendered. I very much appreciated the nuanced nature of all the characters of Oberhochwald - all of the primary ones are complex in interesting ways.

That said, I think it would have been a better book without most or all of the modern sequences. Tom is very possibly the most grating character I've ever encountered in an audio book and Sharon wasn't that much better. I don't think that readers would miss much by forwarding through the modern sequences (until the last couple).

That said, I did very much like the book - entirely for the medieval sequences. Flynn deserves credit for his painstaking reconstruction of an obscure era and Heald does a very nice job bringing Father Deitrich to life.

The plot line is unique, yet the story runs on. needs more action, less discription

This was a wonderfully conceived and thoughtful SF/Historical fiction novel... The placement of alien castaways in 14th century Europe is unique, and powereful... The friendships developed between aliens and the townspeople is heartwarming... The lot of the aliens is sad, but they accept and integrate, even religiously, sorta... Slow moving so won't appeal to those looking for action... It will appeal to those that enjoy well written byplay w/ deeply philosophical leanings...

For the reviewers who think that the word being said is equivalent to the English word for "he who inherits" - you are mistaken. The German word (this story is taking place in Germany) being used DOES pronounce the "H" and literally means "mister", is often used as an honorific and IS pronounced a bit like the word Hair.

Rude, I know, but that is what I said to myself anytime either of the present day characters were speaking, and much of the time that the historical main character was speaking, as well. The storyline here had potential, but it was ruined by the seemingly endless and extremely boring philosophical and scientific dialog. The characters here just like to hear themselves talk. It was like having to endure hours of commercials to get a few minutes of actual programming. Skip it. I kept thinking that possibly, the ending would make it all worthwhile. It didn't.