Rating: 
Summary: decent film, terrific novel
Review: About fifteen years ago a Star Trek enthusiast gave me his copy of "Eaters of the Dead". "If you like the Klingons," he said, "you'll LOVE this!" Indeed, the Viking warriors of this novel are the veritable templates of the alien warriors of Ford's "The Final Reflection". Having seen "The Thirteenth Warrior", I had an urge to reread the novel which inspired the video. I'm glad I did! "Eaters of the Dead" is even better than I remembered it, a fast-paced adventure that takes only a few hours to finish. It's a masterful retelling of the Beowulf saga, cleverly combined with the manuscripts of Ibn Fadlan, a historically authentic person. Ibn Fadlan was an Arab aristocrat who resided amongst the Rus in 921 and recorded many of their rituals, most famously a chieftain's ship-funeral on the Volga. Although Ibn Fadlan never actually journeyed with the Northmen, Crichton's idea of a cultured Moslem's immersion in a fierce heathen society makes for an enjoyable contrast in characters. Crichton's plentful footnotes detailing the Arab and Rus perspective convey a feeling of realism to what is basically a fantasy adventure. And after having recently endured the Christian-supremicist propaganda of "Vladimir the Russian Viking", it was a great treat to read a story which accords respect to Paganism and Islam. So much so, I'll forgive the goofy concept of Neanderthals as antagonists. After all, Crichton is the author who gave us the cloned dinosaurs of "Jurassic Park" -- so I suppose, why not also a Clan of the CaveBear surviving into the Heroic Age? The film stays fairly true to the novel, with a decent performance by Antonio Banderas as the reluctant, but ultimately heroic, thirteenth warrior.
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD BOOK
Review: IF YOU LIKE THAT DARK AGES STUFF, YOU'LL ENJOY THIS BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: A great action/adventure novel, but pure FICTION
Review: I would encourage any fans of the action/adventure genre to give this book a read. It is well worth it.However, please do keep in mind that although the book is billed as based on the historical account of Ibn Fadlan's journey's amoung the Rus, it is a work of FICTION. In this story, Crichton mixes a little Ibn with a lot of Beowulf and his own fertile imagination. But don't take my word for it. You can see for yourself: Smyser, H.M. "Ibn Fadlan's Account of the Rus with Some Commentary and Some Allusions to Beowulf." Franciplegius: Medieval and Linguistic Studies in Honor of Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr. eds. Jess B. Bessinger Jr. and Robert P. Creed. New York: New York University Press. 1965. pp 92-119. Furthermore, the book, and the subsequent movie, "The Thirteenth Warrior", are far from historically accurate. In fact, very little of it is even remotely accurate. I'd give specific examples, but I'm limited to 1000 words, and others have already done so and far better than I could.
Rating:
Summary: Buliwyf is Beowulf, Wendol is Grendel, ...
Review: After reading this book(Korean translation) and watching Beowulf(starred by Christopher Lambert) and The 13th Warrior(starred by Antonio Bandaras)--- all with the same story --- I got more interested in what the original epic of Beowulf reads. About 20 years ago I read a story of Danish hero and now I see it was the Beowulf story. The impression I got then was so strong -- partly because of the splendid illustrations-- and now I'm glad I can get the epic from the web freely, though I wanted a nicely bound copy and ordered it at Amazon.com. I even wish to learn the old English to read it in the original tongue, though it may be much boring. So, this book is a nice and exciting, and feasible retelling of Beowulf, anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Good Story
Review: This book is an excellent story about a Muslim who unwillingly comes on an expedition with 12 vikings to kill some monsters. Vikings revere the number 13, and their prohecies say that in order to kill the monsters, the 13th warrior must be a foreigner. I thought this book was pretty good, but it had only a few flaws. It was a little slow-moving at parts, and we never know what happens after he leaves for home. But the imagery this book creates is very good.
Rating:
Summary: Very good yarn
Review: Michael Crichton chronicles the travels of Ibn Fadlan in the year 922AD as he travels with a band of twelve Viking warriors on a quest to save their homeland from the terrors that live in the mists. Fadlan is an Arab who's forced to accompany the Vikings as the 13th warrior (there must be 13 warriors to fulfill the quest and one must be a non-Northman). However, as an Arab he comes from a more civilized culture and this serves as a fine device to contrast his civilized ways with the barbarisim of the Northmen. However, by the end of the quest it is Fadlan who has changed. Like all Michael Crichton novels the characters are richly drawn. The story is written as if the author is translating Fadlan's manuscript and is complete with authentic sounding footnotes. I found this worked very well as a storytelling device. It leant great authenticity to the story, even though as Crichton explains in his endnotes, it is really an attempt to show that epic poems such as Beowulf really might have had an underlying basis in fact. But that doesn't mean that this story is boring. Far from it. It's an exciting tale and I recommend this book highly.
Rating: 
Summary: Not great, but not bad
Review: The Movie was very entertaining, the book was very dry and slow reading, Please DO NOT take this book, or the movie as a true showing of the life of the Muslam, or the Viking. In Michael Crichton's postscript, he states that it's a work of fiction. In an interview, he said he was attempting to bring the legend of Beowolf to life. Read the book if you like, but enjoy the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Skip It
Review: The skinny: (1) Not like other Crichton books. (2) Written as a literary exercise, to see if he could duplicate the feel of ancient narrative manuscripts in dull translations with copious footnotes. (3) He succeeded. (4) You've been warned.
Rating: 
Summary: It hurts
Review: I don't know if Michael Crichton wrote the book to insult the muslim on purpose, or just ignorance with 'em. The reason I'm telling this is after I read this book, I found too many mistakes concerning the habit of muslim. Not until I read the end I read that he admitted that this book is, "Of course, in writing a novel, I intended to create a fantasy of my own.", a mere novel, wich story has been created from the very head of the author. But whatever it is, it gives false impressions about muslim. Such as, inthe very beginning of the book, he wrote that Ibn Fadl did zina, the premarriage sexual activity, "to pass the heat of the afternoon". From that point I have loose my interest in reading the whole book, but I continued indeed. And in describing the tradition of the Turks, he made them look like abunch uncivilized, barbabaric people than the European themself. That's ridiculous. The Turks were one of the bravest muslim in history of all time, not until the very Kemal At-Turk himself destroyed the tradition of the muslim of course. One more thing I would like to complain, Michael made the Arab, whom are the bravest warrior known, look like a child compare to the vikings, and yet there's no prove concerning that fact. Mr. Michael, do I have to inform you, that even this book is only a novel, it can influence the thinking of many people (just like the bible) ? And we can all imagine, if you start telling a lie, than you are not a real writer.
Rating:
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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