Eifelheim

By: Michael Flynn

Narrated by: Anthony Heald

Length: 17 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and was never resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical-physicist girlfriend, Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn't. Why? What was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago?

In 1348, as the Black Death is gathering strength across Europe, Father Deitrich is the priest of the village that will come to be known as Eifelheim. A man educated in science and philosophy, he is astonished to become the first contact between humanity and an alien race from a distant star when their interstellar ship crashes in the nearby forest.

Tom, Sharon, and Father Deitrich have a strange and intertwined destiny of tragedy and triumph in this brilliant novel by the winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award.

©2006 Michael Flynn (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award nominee, Best Novel, 2007

"Another meticulously researched, intense, mesmerizing novel...for readers seeking thoughtful science fiction of the highest order." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Flynn masterfully achieves an intricate panorama of medieval life, full of fascinatingly realized human and Krenken characters whose fates interconnect with poignant irony." (Publishers Weekly)
"Compellingly weaves past and present together in a dialog of faith and science....Highly recommended." (Library Journal)

Boring

A pretty thin story stretched out for two audio volumes - a short story would have sufficed. The story is rather tantalizing (to find evidence of alien visits throguh research of old documents)but not very aptly told.

What Could Have Been Great....

Is Garbage.

It spins along just fine until you get to an intriguing moment where they find a letter or something from the middle ages, the READ THAT LETTER IN THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE WITH NO EXPLANATION!

The author works very hard here to show just how smart he is. There is no doubt he is smart. I don't care. I wanted a good story. If you are into hard sci-fi you might like it. Un-listenable to the average person.

Interesting but...

Obviously the author put a lot of effort into researching this book and it shows. Problem is the two halves of this story seemed like they were forced to work together not like they were meant to. I really enjoyed the relationship between the priest and the "pilgrims", but the story of the scientist couple seemed like it was stuck on as an afterthought. The scientist couple had the feel of paper dolls on sticks with author hiding below the stage and talking out of the side of his mouth to get their lines in. Zero depth.

It's hard to write a review for this book. In short there are two simultaneous stories here. One of them is good and the other is terrible! If that make any sense.

Not so hot...

I tried to listen to this book twice. Perhaps the plot is just too slow for audio. It got great reviews, and the storyline seemed interesting. I just can't seem to keep an interest in the book.

A snore fest of bland storytelling

this book has to be one of the most boring drawn-outs over detailed drudge reading I've ever done in my life the science fiction part of it is bizarre and poorly described even though I understand it's trying to be told through The eyes of a 14th century priest and his understanding of the aliens. it's lack of action and is attention to bland details mind-boggling. the modern Day stuff is even worse coupled with the constant references to Latin and other languages without any translation given is very annoying and I gave up looking up the various phrases quickly. nothing really happens in this book is the big thing I mean there's this historical account of this alien interaction that is reminiscent of what happened in Siberia but it's just dull and awkward and clumsy and every time you think it's going to get really interesting it doesn't.

What a drag!

This book is incredibly heavy-going to read. I found it impossible to stay awake listening to it. Also, the narrator mispronounces words, notably heir, which he pronounces as hair.
This author Michael Flynn and this narrator Anthony Heald are definitely on my blacklist.
The idea behind the book could have been developed into a really good book. Pity.

good potential, never realized

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?

Would you please just shut up.

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.

I didn't really care for it....

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I liked the idea of the visitors to the middle ages - but Tom, Sharon and Judy annoyed me.

Would you recommend Eifelheim to your friends? Why or why not?

No.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Anthony Heald?

Don't know.

Was Eifelheim worth the listening time?

No.

Any additional comments?

None

Great plot badly rendered

I need to be highly annoyed by a book to write a bad review but this book deserves it. The main problem with the book, in my opinion is the authors overwhelming need to prove his intelligence. From his medieval characters using ten dollar words for no apparent reason as a five or two dollar word would have worked just as well, I got the feeling that the writer was running to his thesaurus so he could use the biggest word he could find, to both of his modern characters being unlikable know-it-alls who can't seem to have a conversation without it turning into a dissertation on scientific theory. I got to a point where I would completely zone out when they started talking. Beyond that, his modern male character has a highly irritating habit of sprinkling his speech with German words with no explanation as to why.

As if all of this wasn't enough there is the reader's constant mispronunciation of a variety of words, the most glaring being the pronunciation of the word heir which he pronounced "hair" the correct pronunciation is "air". The first time this happened I was totally lost for a minute...hair? What hair? Whose hair? How someone who makes a living reading books doesn't know the correct pronunciation of a fairly common word is beyond me. Further, how it got through edits and proof...listeners? mystifies me.

This book is a story with fantastic potential in the right hands, unfortunately the author and the reader were not those hands. Spend you money elsewhere.