In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and has never been resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. Tom indeed becomes obsessed. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn't and that violates everything Tom knows about history. What's was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago? Father Deitrich is the village priest of Oberhochwald, the village that will soon gain the name of Teufelheim, in later years corrupted to Eifelheim, in the year 1348, when the Black Death is gathering strength across Europe but is still not nearby. Deitrich is an educated man, knows science and philosophy, and to his astonishment becomes the first contact between humanity and an alien race from a distant star when their interstellar ship crashes in the nearby forest. It is a time of wonders, in the shadow of …
In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and has never been resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. Tom indeed becomes obsessed. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn't and that violates everything Tom knows about history. What's was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago? Father Deitrich is the village priest of Oberhochwald, the village that will soon gain the name of Teufelheim, in later years corrupted to Eifelheim, in the year 1348, when the Black Death is gathering strength across Europe but is still not nearby. Deitrich is an educated man, knows science and philosophy, and to his astonishment becomes the first contact between humanity and an alien race from a distant star when their interstellar ship crashes in the nearby forest. It is a time of wonders, in the shadow of the plague.
Tom and Sharon, and Father Deitrich, have a strange and intertwined destiny of tragedy and triumph in this brilliant SF novel by the winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award.
This sci-fi is as hard as nails. You can't call the plot unusual — an alien ship crashes on Earth — but you'll learn more about medieval Germany and theoretical physics than you'd do in an average college class. Exceptionally detailed, true to facts, and very well written.
Eifelheim is a science fiction novel written as historical fiction, following two parallel stories:
The present-day story is interesting, but hard to follow just because the viewpoint characters are very…self-absorbed.
Fortunately, most of the book focuses on the middle ages and the story of how a tiny German village encounters and eventually learns to live with the stranded aliens. It paints a detailed picture of life in the 1300s and how their strange visitors disrupt it, and it’s fascinating to look at how someone highly-educated in science and philosophy, but with a …
Eifelheim is a science fiction novel written as historical fiction, following two parallel stories:
The present-day story is interesting, but hard to follow just because the viewpoint characters are very…self-absorbed.
Fortunately, most of the book focuses on the middle ages and the story of how a tiny German village encounters and eventually learns to live with the stranded aliens. It paints a detailed picture of life in the 1300s and how their strange visitors disrupt it, and it’s fascinating to look at how someone highly-educated in science and philosophy, but with a medieval European mindset, might see concepts like space travel, electricity, or even evolution. How do you explain coming from another planet in another star system to someone who believes that the Sun moves around the Earth, the stars are all the same distance away, and the “world” encompasses all of the above?
Wonderful science fiction book on an alien ship crashing by remote German village on the eve of its devastation by the Black Death. The village priest, an intellectual who had to hide in the area after taking part in peasants' rebellion, understood that the aliens are thinking creatures in distress. Thus he managed to convince the villagers and the lord of the manor to assist them. He also managed to convince the aliens to accept his ideas of charity. Later, while some of the aliens left, others remained to assist during the Black Death.
Another part of the story is a contemporary couple - a physicist and a historian. The historian researches the village in question and the odd stories told about it in the area. The notion that the aliens were in the area was raised when his physicist partner accidentally noted the similarity between a medieval sketch and …
Wonderful science fiction book on an alien ship crashing by remote German village on the eve of its devastation by the Black Death. The village priest, an intellectual who had to hide in the area after taking part in peasants' rebellion, understood that the aliens are thinking creatures in distress. Thus he managed to convince the villagers and the lord of the manor to assist them. He also managed to convince the aliens to accept his ideas of charity. Later, while some of the aliens left, others remained to assist during the Black Death.
Another part of the story is a contemporary couple - a physicist and a historian. The historian researches the village in question and the odd stories told about it in the area. The notion that the aliens were in the area was raised when his physicist partner accidentally noted the similarity between a medieval sketch and her own machinery.
Overall, a slow going story about the excitement of doing research and about the humanity of there who managed to overcome their fears of strangers and to collaborate in survival.
