Rating: Summary: The 13th Warrior Review: Michael Crichton's "The 13th Warrior" is a compelling tale of Ibn Fadlan and his unorthodox adventure with a horde of Vikings who have been beckoned to a kingdom to defeat a monster that attacks under a veil of fog. Throughout the book I had no idea whether I was reading fiction, non-fiction, or mythology. Crichton is very believable and entertaining retelling this ancient story. The build-up and suspense of "The 13th Warrior" is worth reading and for pure Science fanatics, there are some fantastical postulations towards the end of the book.
Rating: Summary: Good, but I had higher hopes... Review: I had high hopes coming in to this book. I enjoyed the movie, and had heard that the book was much better. Sadly, it was all too straight forward, quick (both in story progression, and just in how little time it took to read), and felt like Crichton rushed it. The pretense (a more exciting retelling of Beowulf) is little more than that. It seemed like there were a few elements put in to remind you that this was supposed to be related to Beowulf, but not a whole lot of thought beyond that. The storytelling was also extremely straight forward (good for a younger reader, though I don't feel that the subject matter lends itself to that audience), though this may be a shortcoming inherent in choosing to write a book as though it were a journal from a thousand years ago. Sadly, I think that this may be one of the very rare examples of the screenplay being better written than the source material. At least they didn't feign any Beowulf basis, and just presented a story as it. I'd recommend watching the movie, and imagining how good the book it was based on SHOULD be...
Rating: Summary: book review Review: EATERS OF THE DEAD is an excellent book about vikings and were they went to get weapons and resources. I think anyone looking for a great book about vikings should read this book by Michael Crichton. I liked this book because it was an action packed book full of excitement
Rating: Summary: ... Review: I liked th book th 13 Warrior alot. Their was lot's of action. Their were some gruesome parts but that added to the feel of it. This book is about battle and is good for those who like action. My facorite part is when the so called "beast" come to battle for th 2nd time. Their aare lot's of fights and I wanted to read faster to find out how it ends. I was tempted to read the ending but didn't. I could actually picture the charecters in this story. They are wonderfully detailed and show how they feel about war.I can picture how the main charecter from a Middle Eastern country comes to the North and totally makes a fool of himself cause he doesn't know anything about fighting or their costumes.
Rating: Summary: Crichton's best! Review: Eaters of the Dead was a book good enough to be made into a movie. A wonderful story of adventure. It reminds me a little of The Fellowship of the Ring. However, this is based on a very old manuscript(16th Century) but is said to be true! If it is, the story is even more incredible.
Rating: Summary: Enjoyable Review: The book 10 times better than the movie!
Rating: Summary: Don't bother Review: Save yourself. The pacing is wretched. The names are hard to follow, too
Rating: Summary: How versatile can a man be? Review: Mr. Crichton has in this book shown how adaptive he can be. He deliberately adopts a different style in this book than in the others that I have read and he pulls it off excellently. The idea of writing a story that is originally an actual historical document is impressive in it's originality. The idea of using that psuedo-document as a link to a mythological legend is also impressive. The style was somewhat dry to read, and the fight with the dragon was perhaps the most mundane I have ever encountered, but overall the book was very well done. My chief complaint is that he did not spend enough time developing the Eaters into more than a caricature of Neanderthals, but he did write this book over two decades ago. The battle scenes were not very exciting in the modern sense of the reader/viewer, but were exciting that he had kept to the writing style to which he had committed when writing this story. Over all, read it. And if you can read it before you see it.
Rating: Summary: Truly Disappionting Review: I remember back in 8th grade when I bought Eaters of the Dead and was so excited to read it, I could barely wait to finish the book I was currently reading. Boy, should I have waited. I'm re-writing some of my reviews of old books that I've read, and I decided to start with this: the only novel I have ever given a one star to. Eaters of the Dead offers nothing I thought it would, the action is chessy and not convincing. The characters in the novel are dull and confusing, as is the entire novel. I really didn't get the battles or journeys to battle the Wendol. And they weren't anything special on top of that. Too bad, Eaters of the Dead could have really been something.
Rating: Summary: Eaters of the Dead Review: Jimmy PCC English Period 3 In "Eaters of the Dead," by Michael Crichton, there were many interesting events. The book starts by having a representative for the Caliph of Bagdad comes and observes the Vikings in Scandinavia. The representative name is Ahmad ibn-Fadlan and this story is base on what he wrote in his journal about the northsmen. Ahmad goes into a Viking camp where there leader has just died and his predecessor Buliwyf decide to allow Ahmad to stay and observe. Then something happens and the king Rothgar send his son to tell Buliwyf that he is needed if the far country. Ahmad is chosen as one of the thirteen warriors that will travel to this far of land and fight. Once in the land of Rothgar, Buliwyf and his men are treated to a feast, but then that night the mist rolls in and the eaters of the dead attack Rothgars hall where Buliwyf and his men detour there attack. A while later Buliwyf decides to go and attack the eaters of the dead but find that they have left there homes to go to the thunder caves. This is were Buliwyf and his men defeat the eater of the dead once and for all. Michael Crichton does a lot of things well in this book, such as the way he is able to have a story going on and add facts about the Vikings custom and ways of life. This was very interesting because you were getting more than just a story out of it, you gain knowledge. Having more knowledge about how Vikings live helps to build to the theme buy knowing what they were afraid of or what they valued. Because this story is base on a journal of a man, it is very will done in the fact that it never starts to be like a research book. a thing that could have been better were the foot notes. These often were long and confusing by the time you were finished reading it you forgot what you had read. The author could have shorten them up and made them more straight forward. The theme is clear, it is to learn more about the Vikings and not to look at them as barbarians but as different kinds of people. This is shown at the end of the book when Ahmad is saddened when leaving the Vikings and, instead of calling them uncivilized as he does in the begining of the book, he realizes that they are as civilized as the Arabs, if not more. Overall this book had a very clear theme and every thing related to that.
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