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Eaters of the Dead : With an introduction and running commentary read by Michael Crichton

Eaters of the Dead : With an introduction and running commentary read by Michael Crichton

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I liked this book.
Review: The concept of the book is very interesting: taking a thousand year old manuscript of a royal Arab messenger (Ibn Fadlan), from a region of the world (Baghdad) that, at the time, was the center of refined culture, art & architecture and higher learning; and describing a race, culture and climate (the Vikings) that were virtually unknown to the world. Shocking as the Viking way of life was to a foreigner, the ultimate shock was in the transformation of this Arab, and his acceptance into the brotherhood of the Viking war machine and their encounter with a race known only through its chilling terror and destruction of the Vikings when they attack under cover of "the mist".

While Crichton has taken artistic license in the character development and dialogue of this novel, he has footnoted Ibn Fadlan's actual 10th-century manuscript into the novel and woven a well told tale of war atrocities, unreal ritual brutalities, and wanton sexual encounters.

This little known novel towers above his popular stuff: Jurassic Park and The Lost World (which are, by comparison, unreadable). Highly recommended because of its perceived authenticity and that it really is different.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: no matter how you try, you cant put this one down
Review: this book really reaches into your heart and pulls out your deepest emotions. although slow through a little of the story, this book really grabs your attention

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Once you pop, you just can't stop!!! I can't put it down!!!!
Review: JEFFREY WEISS, MAY 9, 1999 I started this book a week ago. I'm not usually a big reader, but since I started this book, it's kind of been like a calling to me, read Michael Crichton, read Michael Crichton. I'm not quite finished yet, actually I'm only about half way through, but still.....It truely is one of the best books I've ever read, another book, you should look at even though it has nothing to do with this book, is Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam Junior. Anyways please read this book, I promise you will enjoy it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Fascinating Story of Adventure
Review: I really enjoyed this novel for what it was, a response to boring stories like Beuwolf and the such. Ibn Fadlan was a remarkable character who was heroic, but massively flawed in his heroism. Michael Crichton wrote this novel in such a way that is was easy to read and understand. B+

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Both true AND fictional!
Review: Contrary to what has been said by many of the reviewers below, this book is in fact based on a real manuscript by the Arab traveller ibn Fadlan in the tenth century who made his way from the Caliphate to the shores of the Volga to treat with the Bulgar kingdom which was then ensconced there (apparently to entice the Bulgars away from their Khazar overlords who were then enemies of the Arab empire). This ambassador of the Caliph faithfully recorded much of what he saw there, among the barbarians, including encounters with the Oghuz Turks and the Norsemen who were then frequent travellers along the rivers of what would one day become Russia. (In fact some thinking has it that the Norse, in the guise of "Rus" -- eytemology unclear -- actually gave their name, along with their ruling princes, to Russia since the first major Russian state, Kievan Rus, was ruled by princes of viking heritage, with the help of second and third generation viking adventurers serving them as mercenaries.) But Crichton's book is not just a reprint of ibn Fadlan's manuscript (which is available, in English, in various scholarly tomes). Crichton enlarged upon the tale he found and appended an apparently fictional second half which takes ibn Fadlan north, in the company of his new-found Norse comrades, to the viking lands, there to face a shadowy menace of unknown origins. In this second half, Crichton blended historical speculation with the Beowulf tale in Old English (the chief of the viking crew which inducts ibn Fadlan is called "Buliwyf") to suggest an ending to ibn Fadlan's adventures which surely never happened. But it's done quite nicely, hard to tell where the real tale ends and the author's fictional enterprise begins, and it keeps you reading right to the final moments. It's not a particularly stirring tale but it's thought provoking and well-paced and a wonderfully interesting way to do an historical novel. Am looking forward to the movie, THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR (named after the reason the vikings insist on bringing their fastidious Arab guest along for the ride), to see how it was done. The tale is simple enough for this sort of treatment so it should make a bang-up film for those of us into adventure and the viking thing. Due out in mid-August of '99. -- S. W. Mirsky

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Without A Doubt Crichton's Worst!
Review: Eaters Of The Dead was so boring that I seriously thought about never finishing it and putting it down to read Cujo by Stephen King (Great Book). But I finished, and I thought that it was an accomplishment. When I bought Eaters Of The Dead I had already read The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man, which were two great Crichton novels. Boy was I shocked! Oh well, don't worry Michael every author has a bad one!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best ive ever read
Review: This book was interesting because of its historical backround, the first half of the book was based on the manuscripts of Ibn Fadlan, but if anyone had cared to read past the end of the story, Michael Crichton tells that the second half of the story is based on the epic Beowulf, so it is in fact a work of fiction. The fact the Crichton wrote the second half of the book so that it blended so well with the first is amazing. I would suggest this book to everbody.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A SUPERLATIVE EXAMPLE OF EARLY ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY
Review: The riveting exploits of the erudite and refined Arab ambassador are the basis for what is Crichton's best work as it is based upon actual events! Many of a core of academic Arabic-speakers ranging from Muslim Spain and Muslim Sicily to Iraq (before the Mongol devastation)were carrying on the Greco-Roman tradition of exploration and compilation of scientific knowledge. Ahmad Ibn-Fadlan gives his honest views of the societies and tribes he encounters. Many are known to us today through archaeological evidence found in the Caucasus, Russia, Ukraine, and Scandanavia. What is revealing is the universal legacy of Latin (along with Greek and sometimes Persian) that remained an important language that many in the Muslim world learned and even the so-called barbarians of the extremities of outside of the Mediterannean world were exposed to this important language. The advanced civilization of the Arabic-speaking world at the time is our only link both to the Greco-Roman past (as many Greeks and Romans were converted to Islam and thus "arabized") and gives us insights into the little known history of the Vikings. Ibn-Fadlan is an example an excellent observor with an open mind and the ability to describe his environment and indeed the people with superb detail. There is little hint of derision as Fadlan is forced to join a band of Vikings and he often marvels them with his ability to "draw sound" and he in turn comes to admire this band of stalwart warriors. The Vikings superstitions are noted by Fadlan, again with little derision and much skepticism. Though child-like in their naivete, the Vikings become Fadlan's comrades as they face various adversaries together. This is amongst the most fruitful attempts to novelize actual historical events and Crichton manages to convey Fadlan's true feelings about the entire matter, mainly fear of death, while giving us glimpses of a world we know little about.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book rules!!!!!!!
Review: Though I read this while in 7th grade, it challenged my understanding of the world I live in. Because of it, I am drawing connections between Beowulf's Grendel and other aspects of European folklore and am now rethinking man's supremicy of Earth

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An excellent translation-a thrilling read!
Review: Most of the other reveiwers in this list are simply misinformed. This is not a work of "fiction". Look up the index of any older book that has to do with viking history, and you will find Ahmed ibn Fadlan's name there. And anyone with any common sense will agree that the "monsters of the mist" or the "wendol", from the description that Fadlan gives of them, must surely be neanderthals. Well,Vikings,neanderthals,thrilling battles,AND it's true...you just dont get much better than that. But dont take my word for it-read it yourself-you won't regret it!!!


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