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Avg. Rating: 4.5
An unusual and challenging treasure
Michael Flynn has done the unexpected -- combined historical fiction and hard science fiction into one engaging and coherent book that never condescends. The book alternates between today, in the U.S., where two scientists are trying to solve the mystery of what happened to Eifelheim in the middle ages to bring about its desertion, and the middle ages in the German village of Oberhochwold, which is about to experience first contact with an alien race and the devastation of the plague. What I like about the book is that it doesn't spoon-feed the reader either the middle ages or the hard science. If you know, for instance, that Pedro of Castile is the infamous Pedro the Cruel, great, it will enchance your enjoyment of the book, but if you don't, it won't make a large difference, the reference is in passing. There were a couple of pages of dialogue that I couldn't understand at all since my knowledge of the middle ages in Germany is somewhat spotty, but I still liked the book. If you know nothing about the middle ages and nothing about physics, however, the book will probably be somewhat difficult, although there is still much to like. Believable characters who are always sympathetic, if not always likable, and a great sense of both life in the middle ages and the way scientific discovery works. A bit cute in having the main priest coin multiple scientific words (microphone, photograph, etc.) from his knowledge of Greek 300 years before they ever appeared in English, but interesting nevertheless. Well worth the effort if you want a moving book about the middle ages with a comparison of viewpoints from then and now about the nature of the universe.
Surpasses its Genre
It is a rare Sci-Fi novel that carries any weight behind its pretense. Ender's Game falls into this category, as would virtually anything by HG Wells. Donaldson's Gap series tries hard but ultimately reads as an experiment in the trichotomy of villian, hero, and victim. Most other Sci-Fi works fall into the Asimov abyss of technical cheese whiz. Eifelheim, however, is firmly planted in literature, as opposed to Sci-Fi. There is much more behind the story than mere novelty. Ultimately this is a study in sociology, and a convincing one at that.
As other reviewers have noted, the preponderance of the book falls into the "Dark Ages" period, rather than the modern/near-future time. This, to me, is natural and necessary - as the reader shouldn't need as much social context. Or one would hope - I fear that the lack of exposure to the real workings of science makes the modern reader almost oblivious to Flynn's accurate satire of the scientific community. In his contrast of pre and post enlightenment dogma (revealed truth vs. academic truth), Flynn throws some cold water on the frothing pseudo-rationalists of modern culture. The contrast between "freedom of truth" in the 1300's and modernity is apt, considering the nascent university structure of the 1300's. For all of the hand waving about the triumph of science as an incarnation of reason, if anything modernity has degenerated into an amalgam of ego and phenomenology. One has only to witness the current global warming "debate" to see a modern and less rational form of the inquisition on display. To top it all off, Flynn inserts a cameo by William of Occam (Ockham) - that unlikely darling of the pop-science crowd. This last bit being a clever poke at the thin facade of modern science's excuse for metaphysical relevance.
Although far from an apologetic for organized religion, Eifelheim at least deals with early Europe respectfully, avoiding the trap of cultural relativism's self-loathing (a trap that Eco is unable to avoid). The characters are believable; flawed and multifaceted, and while I can't speak to Flynn's command of idiomatic German, the picture he paints of "Dark Ages" life rings true.
I can see how this novel threatens its readers, particularly within Sci-Fi fandom. It seems to be a deep psychological need for people to perceive themselves as at the summit of civilization and knowledge - a need at least as deep as the dialectic need to perceive a coming apocolypse (global warming, population bomb, biological disaster, energy crisis, etc). Eifelheim threatens our modern conceptions by portraying a "Dark Ages" world that, in response to both disaster and the challenges of unexpected truth, was at least an equal to our grandious construction. Whether this picture is wholly accurate is a matter for reasonable historians and sociologists to debate. But at least Flynn is willing to pose the question: how far have we really come?
You can call me Eifel, or you can call me Heim...
This book rates five stars for historical research, negative three stars for the science lectures that are annoying because Michael Flynn tries to be clever and occult with quantum mechanics and string theory. If MF wants to preach physics, do it without the magical claptrap with a clearly written textbook -- but those species of books are as rare as the dodo bird, and MF has enough of a problem writing a simple SF novel, so...
For all the intellectual gymnastics employed in making this story seem, well, intelligent, there is little insight in good problem solving technique here -- which is a measure of IQ, by the way, rather than how much data one can remember, or how many papers one gets his name on. For instance, these ET grasshoppers were missing an amino acid in their diet and so had to cannibalize to survive. Why didn't any of these ETs or the supposedly intelligent humans in the medieval section of the story figure out to try feeding them grasshoppers? Come on! Am I the only guy here who feels like a Sheriff Carter? Why do I always have to cut through these problems that these ego-stroked moron writers create for themselves with a brilliant solution that should have come from the writer's own head? I repeat: I feel like Sheriff Carter in Eureka!, who always seem to solve the problems of the whole village of supposedly geniuses, despite not being very bright in the estimation of the population he's been entrusted to watch over. I may not have that many impressively meaningless degrees that MF has, or as prestigious a list of useless papers that he's generated, but I still know which orifice that I'm talking out of; and it isn't covered with underwear![[ASIN:0441012523 Camouflage]]
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