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johnbyers1500's review against another edition
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Overall bad book but some amazing parts within. Finished @ ornl
penguingin's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
dryden's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
ericthec's review against another edition
4.0
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.
kayteeem's review against another edition
Bogged down in this one near the start, and went on to other books.
mahmabaer's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
The story is broken into two narratives -- one takes place in Middle Ages in rural Germany, in the town of Eifelheim, and the other takes place in modern day (I believe) US. The story from the past is excellent, compelling and a fascinating read, one well worth the time and investment. However, the story taking place in modern times involves one of the least pleasant characters I have ever read. Sharon Nealy is self-centered, egotistical and arrogant, speaks down, and belittles her partner Tom, shows great disdain for his work and interests, and finds him an obvious nuisance, to the point that she treats him as a child. I found her so distasteful and unpleasant that I almost skipped the chapters pertaining to the modern telling of the story. In retrospect, the entire modern narrative was completely unnecessary, and the narrator was rather pointless, I'm still not sure why he was actually included in the book, despite how brief his interjections were. It's too bad, because the actual story, the meat of the narrative taking place in an unassuming rural village in Germany, was wonderfully told, had fascinating characters and development, and lots of intriguing thoughts. I was anxious to hear how it progressed, and yet, everytime the narrative changed to modern times, I rolled my eyes and audibly groaned.
ETA: I get the impression that the end was rushed as well. It doesn't so much end as it does... stop.
Skip the modern chapters and stick with the past. It's a much better read.
ETA: I get the impression that the end was rushed as well. It doesn't so much end as it does... stop.
Skip the modern chapters and stick with the past. It's a much better read.
oltombom's review against another edition
4.0
Part of this book is set in the present and the rest is set in 14th century Germany. Overall, I thought the 14th century storyline was very good, but I found the modern part unnecessary and annoying.
Fortunately, the majority of the book is set in the past. In it, an alien spaceship crash lands in medieval Germany and the main character priest, Dietrich, and the people of the nearby village have to learn to live with the aliens. There are lots of really cool details about life, philosophy, and science at the time. Not everything is perfectly done, but on the whole I enjoyed this storyline a lot. Its major flaw is that it doesn’t have an actual ending, it just stops and switches over to the present-day storyline to sort of wrap things up.
On the other hand, the modern part is about an insufferable historian (Tom) and his much less annoying (but still not great) physicist girlfriend, Sharon. Their storyline adds nothing to the main medieval plot. It could (and should have been) removed and it would have been a shorter and infinitely better book. Tom is trying to learn about the events of the medieval village that the other storyline takes place in. Sharon comes up with a theory that ends up helping to explain how the aliens could get to Earth.
My biggest problem with the book is how its women characters are written, and the way some of his male characters act toward the women.
The more glaring problems are in the modern day portion of the book. Historian Tom often dismisses the interests and ideas of his physicist girlfriend. He can barely muster up the energy to listen to Sharon talk about her work, but he expects her to listen to his ideas. To be fair, Sharon doesn’t care about Tom’ ideas either, but she does a better job at pretending than he does.
Tom also garners the romantic interest of a university librarian (Judy) who volunteers to help him with his research. I find it hard to believe that anyone could be attracted to Tom, let alone two different women at the same time. Not only does Tom dismiss the ideas of his actual girlfriend, Sharon, he rudely dismisses Judy’s intelligent suggestions. In addition to that, Tom spouts out full, untranslated sentences in German when he gets excited for no apparent reason. Tom isn’t German, it’s just stupid and annoying. Fortunately Tom doesn’t cheat on Sharon with Judy(though Sharon and Tom are sort of in an open relationship). However, Sharon gets jealous of Judy. But the jealousy and Judy’s interest doesn’t actually have any effect on the rest of the story. The problems just go away and aren’t mentioned again.
The medieval part of the book is less obviously bad when it comes to women, but when taken in conjunction with the modern stuff, you start to realize that the author probably doesn’t have the healthiest view of women.
One of the prominent side characters is a married woman who constantly sleeps around with all of the men in the village. The woman is portrayed as doing something bad, but the men who sleep with her are not portrayed as doing anything wrong. Also the woman’s husband is written as a great, long suffering man who just wants his wife to love him, but that she just can’t control herself. The woman never suffers any real consequences, her husband and the priest of the village sadly tolerate her. All of that seems very unlikely in a small medieval village.
Another prominent side character in the medieval portion is Dietrich’s adopted daughter. She is the only major side character (I think) to not accept the aliens, and just to hate them as demons. There are other villagers who don’t accept the aliens, but I believe that all of the male side characters eventually learn to accept the aliens.
All of that to say, I think the author may need to do some work on his views of women. Hopefully he has done so seeing as this book was published in 2006. And perhaps I am being unfair by leaving out all of the times men are portrayed as acting badly and the times that show women in a positive light. In spite of its many flaws, there is a lot of great stuff in the book.
Fortunately, the majority of the book is set in the past. In it, an alien spaceship crash lands in medieval Germany and the main character priest, Dietrich, and the people of the nearby village have to learn to live with the aliens. There are lots of really cool details about life, philosophy, and science at the time. Not everything is perfectly done, but on the whole I enjoyed this storyline a lot. Its major flaw is that it doesn’t have an actual ending, it just stops and switches over to the present-day storyline to sort of wrap things up.
On the other hand, the modern part is about an insufferable historian (Tom) and his much less annoying (but still not great) physicist girlfriend, Sharon. Their storyline adds nothing to the main medieval plot. It could (and should have been) removed and it would have been a shorter and infinitely better book. Tom is trying to learn about the events of the medieval village that the other storyline takes place in. Sharon comes up with a theory that ends up helping to explain how the aliens could get to Earth.
My biggest problem with the book is how its women characters are written, and the way some of his male characters act toward the women.
The more glaring problems are in the modern day portion of the book. Historian Tom often dismisses the interests and ideas of his physicist girlfriend. He can barely muster up the energy to listen to Sharon talk about her work, but he expects her to listen to his ideas. To be fair, Sharon doesn’t care about Tom’ ideas either, but she does a better job at pretending than he does.
Tom also garners the romantic interest of a university librarian (Judy) who volunteers to help him with his research. I find it hard to believe that anyone could be attracted to Tom, let alone two different women at the same time. Not only does Tom dismiss the ideas of his actual girlfriend, Sharon, he rudely dismisses Judy’s intelligent suggestions. In addition to that, Tom spouts out full, untranslated sentences in German when he gets excited for no apparent reason. Tom isn’t German, it’s just stupid and annoying. Fortunately Tom doesn’t cheat on Sharon with Judy(though Sharon and Tom are sort of in an open relationship). However, Sharon gets jealous of Judy. But the jealousy and Judy’s interest doesn’t actually have any effect on the rest of the story. The problems just go away and aren’t mentioned again.
The medieval part of the book is less obviously bad when it comes to women, but when taken in conjunction with the modern stuff, you start to realize that the author probably doesn’t have the healthiest view of women.
One of the prominent side characters is a married woman who constantly sleeps around with all of the men in the village. The woman is portrayed as doing something bad, but the men who sleep with her are not portrayed as doing anything wrong. Also the woman’s husband is written as a great, long suffering man who just wants his wife to love him, but that she just can’t control herself. The woman never suffers any real consequences, her husband and the priest of the village sadly tolerate her. All of that seems very unlikely in a small medieval village.
Another prominent side character in the medieval portion is Dietrich’s adopted daughter. She is the only major side character (I think) to not accept the aliens, and just to hate them as demons. There are other villagers who don’t accept the aliens, but I believe that all of the male side characters eventually learn to accept the aliens.
All of that to say, I think the author may need to do some work on his views of women. Hopefully he has done so seeing as this book was published in 2006. And perhaps I am being unfair by leaving out all of the times men are portrayed as acting badly and the times that show women in a positive light. In spite of its many flaws, there is a lot of great stuff in the book.
violinknitter's review against another edition
5.0
I first heard of this book through A GOOD STORY IS HARD TO FIND podcast. It took me a looong time to get around to actually reading the book, but I'm so glad I did! Being more than a little bit of a history nerd, I absolutely loved the carefully constructed portrayal of late medieval Germany. The way the author tried to portray how a medieval thinker would understand/appreciate advance space-travel technology & science was *fascinating.* The portrayal of faith & religion was nuanced & also fascinating. I can't say enough good things about this book. Thanks, Scott & Julie, for bringing it to my attention!
(One mildly annoying pet peeve... that the priest *routinely* "made up" the correct terms for scientific ideas, from vacuum to microbe. If it had happened only once or twice, it would've been ok. But it happened over & over, too often for this reader's suspension of disbelief.)
(One mildly annoying pet peeve... that the priest *routinely* "made up" the correct terms for scientific ideas, from vacuum to microbe. If it had happened only once or twice, it would've been ok. But it happened over & over, too often for this reader's suspension of disbelief.)
liz_a_k's review against another edition
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0