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Summary: Norse Mythology doesn't much more exciting than this
Review: In all my years of reading, I've never come upon a better fact-based-fiction writer than Crichton. No other author has found the elusive midpoint between enlightenment and entertainment, which he has never left. This book is just another testiment to the greatness that is Crichton
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Summary: Highly recommended
Review: If you didn't like this novel or compared it to earlier required reading materials, you missed the point. It is a great tale that consumes your interest and places you amoung those in the quest for survival in northern climates and terrains. Don't let the name alarm you. It's not a tale of an ancient Donner party
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Summary: Ever read Beowulf in HS humanities class?
Review: Pretty much a translation of Old English folklore, "Beowulf," which I happended to have read in a HS English class. Another one of those "I'll read it only because MC wrote it," (well he didn't _exactly write_ it) but "glad I read it" books.
It's much more fun to read w/o "thou" and "thee" everywhere.
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Summary: Extremely Dissapointing
Review: As a loyal Crichton fan, I'd have to say I was very dissapointed and at times disgusted with this book. It was extremely fake and pointless, not to mention dull and boring. If your planning on reading a Crichton novel, get Jurassic Park or Sphere (true classics) and forget this book exists
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Summary: The 13th Warrior left me wanting a sequal -- soon!
Review: Usually I read the book first, then see the movie. Not this time. I was not disappointed."The 13th Warrior," movie starring Antonio Bandaras stays very faithful to the book by Michael Crichton. Both are based on a true story taken from the writings of an Arab courtier Ahmad Ibn Fadlan who, back in A.D. 921, was sent by the Caliph of Bagdad to be an ambassador to the King of the Bulgars. Ibn Fadlan had the bad luck to have caught the eye of a beautiful Arab woman who was the young wife of an old and very rich merchant. The merchant complained to the Caliph and wanted Ibn Fadlan banished to some far off and hostile land. While on his way to his new post, this highly refined, educated Arab poet encounters a band of Viking warriors and gets caught up in a horrific quest traveling to Scandinavia with them to save the people of a remote kingdom from a terrifying enemy. The movie and the book give a wonderful look at the contrasts of these two utterly different cultures. Bandaras delivers a stellar performance as the Arab scholar trying to maintain his dignity under some extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Ibn Fadlan finds the Vikings' crude, vulgar, violent and sometimes blatantly sexual customs and personal habits almost more than he can endure, but he does so with a quiet and sometimes comical dignity that makes him all the more likeable. He comes to respect and even like these giant Northmen, especially their brave leader Buliwyf. Once Ibn Fadlan and the Northmen begin their journey together, the action is almost nonstop. The book is done in Ibn Fadlan's voice in narrative style. It is a rather matter-of-fact diary of his travels. But don't let that deter you. It is a fascinating read and one of the earliest and most accurate eye-witness accounts of ancient Viking life. The greatest shock comes at the end of the book when we finally get a detailed description of "the Eaters of the Dead." I hope Crichton is planning a sequal about this remarkable and resourceful Arab poet, Ahmad Ibn Fadlan.
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Summary: When Crichton told stories, and they were good
Review: In recent years, Michael Crichton's work has not been to my taste. This has been due entirely to his tendency to intersperse what are essentially treatises in his fiction. Indeed, there are times when the action of his stories quite literally stops as his characters engage various hypotheses and philosophical points. Wasn't it amazing how everyone seemed to have some vague grasp of chaos theory in "Jurassic Park"? Did anyone find the pages of dissection of gorilla communication through sign-language just a bit prosaic? However, as I have been discovering Crichton's earlier work, I find this problem virtually non-existent. He was using the "mock non-fiction" approach in his novels. But it felt less intrusive and simply enriched the novel proper. Case in point, "Eaters of the Dead". This gem, published in 1976 (ironically, just before "Congo"-the change must have happened over night), is a completely successful attempt to tell the "true story" of the English epic poem "Beowulf". The narrative structure is based on the memoirs of one Ibn Fadlan, a courtier to the Caliph of Baghdad. Ibn Fadlan was a real person, and Crichton has blended aspects of the true memoir into his fictional novel. Ibn Fadlan is on a mission to Europe, but is sidetracked when, during a visit to the Scandinavians, he is drafted by a chief, Buliwyf, to aid the kingdom of Rathar against a fearsome tribe of cannibalistic marauders, the wendol. The strength of this novel is the writing. It reads as such documents read. Matter of fact, largely candid, with certain turns of phrase that are dated. The action sequences are quite chilling. But so are Ibn Fadlan's experiences of the Northmen's culture, as we learn what exactly went into a Viking funeral-it wasn't just burning ships. Crichton creates a fanciful tale, but manages to ground it in reality. At the same time, he is always mindful of his source material. Anyone who has read "Beowulf" will recognize various nods to that poem, which will enhance reading pleasure. However, one needn't a degree in English lit to appreciate this book. Overall, this novel made me feel nostalgic for a time when Crichton's main goal was telling a good story through the integration of historical fact, rather than disguising non-fiction works as novels. Definitely a keeper.
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Summary: Fruits of a Dare
Review: In the afterword, Michael Crichton writes that this novel arose out of a dare - that anyone could, and would willingly immerse themselves in the world of Beowulf. The novel wrestles with two very intriguing ideas. First that Beowulf was based on actual events (and he actually mentions Heinrich Schliemann, who believed the Iliad was true, and thus helped prove Troy's existence). The second, that the battles described in Beowulf were actually battles between the Cro-Magnon Vikings and a tribe of Neanderthals. To tell his story, he has as his narrator and hero Ibn Fadlan, an Arab traveller who had journeyed among the Vikings in Russia in 921 A.D. He uses the extant writings of Ibn Fadlan to begin the story and describe Viking life, even though he lived at a later time then when Beowulf originated. And all of this would make for some interesting, if rather dry, reading but for one thing: Crichton can write. He lays out a story-line that is both economical and compelling. He says that the first three chapters are rewritten from Ibn Fadlan's manuscript, but for this clue, one could not easily discern where Ibn Fadlan ends and where Crichton begins.
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Summary: Brain candy for Crichton fans!
Review: One of Michael Crichton's earlier works, this entrancing tale is part history, part mystery, and all-out adventure. A masterful blend of fact, fiction, and opinion, Crichton skillfully recants the story of Ibn Fadlan, an ambassador to the Caliph of Bagdad as he journeys North in A.D. 922. Join Fadlan as he accompanies Buliwyf, a legendary Viking chieftan, on his return home to Scandinavia. Buliwyf and his clan must battle the "Wendol", or "monsters of the mist", who threaten to destroy the Norse homeland. With Eaters of the Dead, Crichton has created an entertaining interpretation of an ancient manuscript, captivating the reader with Ibn's hilarious caricatures of Viking life. True to Crichton form, there is a twist to the tale, resulting in an ending that packs a powerful punch.This books literally contains the "stuff that legends are made of." Read for yourself and find out
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Summary: Typical Crichton imagination, yet slower-paced
Review: Eaters of the Dead shares Crichton's imaginative powers with other excellent novels such as "The Andromeda Strain," "Jurassic Park," and "The Lost World." However, written as an historic manuscript, Crichton locks himself into a necessarily slower-paced work. While at times this means that the reader is absolutely convinced that Crichton is dealing with a true historical work, leaving the reader disturbed and questioning what he or she has long assumed, at other times it means that action sequences cannot be written as the fast-paced thrill-packed scenes that we became familiar with in Crichton's other works; rather, the manuscript-approach to this novel means that all of it -- including the action sequences -- must be written as a report, a kind of re-telling of the story. For fans of Crichton's work, this book is certainly recommended; however, for those new to or unfamiliar with his other books, this would not seem to be a good starting point. Nonetheless, I was still left with a certain quantity of chills at the end of the book...
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Summary: Resurection of a Long Dead Adventurer
Review: If you would like to learn more about how people from another place and time lived and thought, then this would be a good adventure for you. If your looking for a fast paced novel with sound byte lines and sub-plots then you will find this book boring. This is more to real life than a mere novel. When I read this I had to laugh for I saw the same reaction by the arab Ibn Fadlan here as Senica the Roman had in his essay on the Germans. But, does not human interaction and shock make life interesting? Often reading very old text can be tiresome but, Crighton makes this trip more fun to the Regular guy or gal by editing out mundane list of villages Fadlan traveled through on his way to meeting the vikings. And, Crighton makes his translation easer to read. You may asks "How do we know this narrative is credible?" And, we have no absolute knowledge on this. However, I found this narrative to be much more candid than other old works i've read. Fadlan avoided supernatural exagerations in his account. This candid approach makes this story more interesting to me.
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