Eifelheim in The Alternative Worlds

Jan 12, 2011 Terry rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, favorites, historical-fiction

An interesting take on the First Contact story. This one takes place in the Middle Ages, as an alien ship crash lands in the Black Forest of Germany near the small village of Oberhochwald. Tied in to this tale of the past is one that takes place in the present as two researchers (and lovers) try to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the village of Eifelheim (once called Oberhochwald) from recorded history and the implications this may have on their separate fields of study.

I found the ta An interesting take on the First Contact story. This one takes place in the Middle Ages, as an alien ship crash lands in the Black Forest of Germany near the small village of Oberhochwald. Tied in to this tale of the past is one that takes place in the present as two researchers (and lovers) try to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the village of Eifelheim (once called Oberhochwald) from recorded history and the implications this may have on their separate fields of study.

I found the tale in the past to be the more compelling of the two, though they do work well together as a whole. Flynn does an excellent job of bringing to life a realistic Middle Ages that doesn't look sneeringly down on the "superstitious savages" of that age. All of the characters we meet in Oberhochwald are fully developed people, none of whom are simply "good" or "bad". In many ways it is actually they, and not the extra terrestrials, who are the real aliens to the modern reader as we struggle to comprehend the worldview that they take for granted. Despite this I found them all to be ultimately sympathetic, human characters. We primarily follow the story of Father Dietrich, the intelligent and sympathetic pastor of the Oberhochwald church as he first investigates, and then befriends the benighted starfarers, but all of the other people from his village whom we see cover tha gamut of human experience and become more than just placeholders for "character type X".

The Krenk, the insect-like aliens from another world, are by turns humorous and frightening in their interactions with the humans of the small village and Flynn again does an excellent job of making even these non-human pseudo-hivemind creatures into fully fleshed-out "people" (without falling into the trap of making his aliens simply humans in rubber suits).

As the story in the past builds up from a mystery into a full-blown tragedy that both we and the characters of the story see as the almost inevitable outcome of the circumstances in which they find themselves, we can do little but watch in fascinated horror. Despite this tragedy Flynn does not leave us without hope: we see in the heroic actions of the characters of this tale (both human and alien) an acknowledgment that goodness can cross all boundaries and we are given examples of selflessness and love that are truly inspiring.

Next to this tragedy of life, love and death it perhaps isn't surprising that the story of two modern researchers grappling with the intellectual enigma of a lost medieval village and the secrets it may hold pales somewhat in comparison. The modern portions of the story still do hold some interest and are ultimately able to bring the tale full circle to a point of completion that is elegant in its resolution.

Highly recommended.

Also posted at Shelf Inflicted ...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Terence rated it liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction

I'm afraid my review here will be brief - the book is due back at the library today and, to be honest, I've been distracted by a very sick cat and haven't had the time or inclination to focus on reading.

That said, overall I found Eifelheim an interesting book and would recommend it. As other reviewers have noted, it's a parallel story: The first part is set in the "Now," where Tom, a historian, and his lover, Sharon, a physicist, are pursuing the elusive answers to mysteries. In Tom's case, it's ...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Brooke rated it it was ok

Shelves: partial-reads

When I realized that several days had gone by that I hadn't picked up a book because I was dreading the idea of finishing this one, I realized it might be time to just send it back to the library. The print was so tiny that it kept giving me headaches, and the pacing was glacial. From reading a group discussion about the book, I desperately wanted to read the interesting bits, but it just wasn't meant to be. ...more

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Apr 08, 2010 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: sf

A clever concept, but something about the style put me off. The pacing was odd, and there were too many characters (and many of them with multiple or similar names). The scenes set in the present, which apparently served as the original novella, featured two characters whose relationship seemed forced. They spoke to each other in intellectual jargon that just didn't feel real. The untranslated foreign phrases - a conceit that was charming in Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America - fel ...more

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Apr 06, 2009 Kara Babcock rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2009-read, from-library, hugo-nominee, science-fiction, historical-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A blend of semi-hard, semi-sweet science fiction with historical fiction, Eifelheim comes across as intelligent yet smug. Michael Flynn concocts a "perfect storm" of coincidences, particularly for the two present-day main characters, to carry his narrative. While every story will rely on coincidence in some fashion or another, Eifelheim's plot resembles a meticulously constructed house of cards built in the windiest location on Earth (a quick Google search turns up no consensus on this point).

Th A blend of semi-hard, semi-sweet science fiction with historical fiction, Eifelheim comes across as intelligent yet smug. Michael Flynn concocts a "perfect storm" of coincidences, particularly for the two present-day main characters, to carry his narrative. While every story will rely on coincidence in some fashion or another, Eifelheim's plot resembles a meticulously constructed house of cards built in the windiest location on Earth (a quick Google search turns up no consensus on this point).

The present-day chapters are tiresome, their characters flat and largely uninteresting. Flynn hints at relationship strife between Tom and Sharon when Tom begins spending more time with a librarian, Judy, who joins him on a quest to research the mysterious disappearance of Eifelheim. However, there's no resolution to what I considered a very interesting aspect of the plot. In the epilogue, Tom and Judy visit the site of Eifelheim, with only a passing mention that Sharon is "busy" elsewhere. Both characters seemed too self-absorbed to ever have entered this relationship in the first place--not that we would know about that, since Flynn provides scant details on their pasts.

In contrast, the historical setting of Eifelheim (then known as Oberhochwald) and its protagonist, Pastor Dietrich, are at least more complex. The conflict over Oberhochwalds unexpected extraterrestrial tenants becomes tense and heated toward the end, as the Black Death descends upon the village. Dietrich's fondness for logic and dialectic invoked fond reminders of The Name of the Rose including Postscript to the Name of the Rose!

Both the contemporary and the historical segments share a common flaw: the entire book is too didactic for my tastes. Now, the aforementioned The Name of the Rose was also didactic. It, however, was carried by a truly interesting mystery. The "mystery" of Eifelheim is mysterious only for the dullest reader. As such, all we're left to observe is the book's smugness as coincidences converge upon Dietrich in Oberhochwald and Tom and Sharon in the present.

Flynn's treatment of science fiction is supposedly "hard", but its edges are kind of squishy. I don't begrudge him the squishiness. He attempts to mate physics with medieval natural philosophy--it's an interesting comparison undercut by the weakness in the story and its characters. Those interested in logic and medieval philosophy are better off reading The Name of the Rose. Arthur C. Clarke has a treasury of short stories, and some of them include pre-20th century first contact, if I remember correctly. In short, Eifelheim is far from a terrible book, but there are many other books that do more justice to its themes. ...more

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Nov 03, 2009 Peregrine rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-in-2010, sci-fi

Reading this book was like spending far too long in an art gallery. There were many. many beautiful images, many depictions of intriguing concepts, but they never came alive for me into story. There was little to no narrative tension, I found, so the reading for me was laced strongly with tedium and impatience. Right now, I'm glad the book is done. Sometimes bits from even a boring book swing back and link with ideas from other books; if so, then I'll be glad to have read Eifelheim. ...more

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Feb 05, 2008 Sandi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, sci-fi, historical-fiction

I loved the way this book combined historical fiction with science fiction. It just blew me away. I don't think I've ever seen alien encounters handled in quite the same way. ...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Eric rated it really liked it

This is my kind of Science Fiction but it did lose it's grip on me in the middle. Maybe too many characters or characters with multiple names. And too many apparently unrelated details. I reverted to the Audiobook (excellently narrated) which brought me back. So it took me more than 2 years from start to finish. Nevertheless, I am giving it 4 stars. Recommended. ...more

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