Eifelheim

Really enjoyed this one. The exploration of religion and human nature through and E.T. encounter in 14th century Europe was entertaining.

While there was a lot of research went into this story covering both 14th century medieval Europe and theoretical quantum physics, there were too many quotes and references to these subjects that went far beyond the everyday reader's comprehension (at least this reader's comprehension). Dialogue in various languages, including German, French and Latin without translation is very frustrating. Also, this reader found the overwhelming number of characters hard to keep up with and often became lost trying to remember who in the story was who, especially after the aliens were given human names. On the positive side, the story of a damaged craft from another world and the interaction between the alien passengers and the human population of a small 14th century village steeped in ancient Catholic religious beliefs was interesting. The smaller interspersed parts of the story dealing with the interactions between the husband-and-wife scientific partners, one looking into the mystery behind the history of the village decimated by the black plague and never resettled and the other researching new theories within quantum physics was less interesting (less comprehendible).

Short Review: This is a first contact story, but based around a 14th century german village. There is also a second modern story line about two academics, one a historian that finds the village and researches it. And the second academic is a physicist that is working on faster than light travel.

The german village story line is the main one and it is well researched and detailed about the life of the villagers and real history around the time. Lots of good discussion around aliens and how they could be conceived of in regard to Christianity and moral theories of belonging. The Christianity is well presented, but this isn't a ‘christian fiction' book.

I thought the german village story got a little bogged down in the middle, but overall I really enjoyed the book.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/eifelheim/

Meh. I wanted to slap the two main characters (in the modern era). The attempts at communication between the Krenken and the priest were interesting, however.

In 1349 an alien ship crashes in the woods nearby the small town of Oberhochwald in Germany. The aliens are weirdly wonderful – as in fact are some of the humans.

It was perhaps surprisingly good. The characters were enthralling, the vocabulary plausible, the mystery a good hook (but not much more), and the religion vitally integrated. 3 1/2 stars.