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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beowulf meets A Thousand And One Nights, Jun 5 2004
Michael Crichton, never at a loss at putting a whole new slant on the tried and true, has given us a fascinating tale that combines some of the best elements of what might have happened if Sharazad had met up with Beowulf instead of the sultan Shahriyar. In "Eaters of the Dead" (an unfortunate title if there ever was one), Crichton introduces us to Ibn Fadlan, the story's narrator, a young Arabian who has had the misfortune to capture the heart of the young and beautiful wife of a rich old merchant. Ibn Fadlan is unwillingly sent out of harm's way on a mission to the faraway kingdom of Saqaliba. En route to his destination, he meets a group of Scandinavians, led by a brawny warrior called Buliwyf (the ancient spelling of Beowulf?). Ibn Fadlan thinks the Scandinavians are beyond gross; their habits are disgusting, they're little more civilized than animals -- but he finds an affinity with Buliwyf who can communicate in the common currency of the Latin language, still alive in the 10th century when this story takes place. Buliwyf convinces Ibn Fadlan to come with him and his men to Scandinavia, where they are being terrorized by a mysterious and monstrous entity that emerges from the mists and leave carnage and bloodshed in their wake.In "Beowulf" this entity was, of course, Grendel, but in "Eaters of the Dead" the monster turns out to be a group of cannibalistic Neanderthals who sow terror everywhere they appear, and with good reason. As in "Beowulf", there is a battle to the finish in which only one side can survive. During Ibn Fadlan's stay in the Scandinavian village, while preparing for the final confrontation, he learns a lot about his new friends and discovers that, while they may not be as cultured as his Arabian kinfolks, they are far from being the barbarians the first appeared to be. Ibn Fadlan tells us his story as entries in a journal, each one more fascinating than the next, and the ending reads like a journal broken off, for reasons we never find out. The last words are "Now it happened that..." What happened? Crichton's genius as a storyteller is leaving us wanting to know more about this Arabian world-traveler and what kind of subsequent adventures he met up with before he returned home -- if he ever did. Crichton, whose interests seem to be encyclopedic, based this book on a real manuscript by an Arab traveller called ibn Fadlan who in the year 921 A.D. traveled from Arabia to Bulgaria as an emissary of the Caliph. The manuscript is available in several modern translations, including English, but Crichton's book is probably a lot more fun to read. "Eaters of the Dead" was a sleeper, originally published in hardcover (I still have my copy) but it didn't take off until years later, after the release of the film "The Thirteenth Warrior" with Antonio Banderas playing the protagonist. In making two ancient cultures come alive for the reader, Crichton shows himself again to be a master storyteller.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fruits of a Dare, Jul 11 2004
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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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting read, Feb 8 2004
This book is presented as an account of an Arab traveler taken along a quest with Vikings around a thousand years ago. Crichton does a good job of presenting the text as an historical account and in many ways this reads as an interesting historical narrative of true events. The story is a fairly quick read and I think any that enjoy action/adventure stories set in the distant past would like it.Because of the footnotes and eyewitness type narrative done in a fictional novel, it's hard to know what customs and beliefs presented are actual and what are totally made up. It all reads as true to life, and I suppose that is what makes it so interesting. I'm going to guess that Crichtons presentation of customs and rituals such as the one in which the Viking men can and do take any of the slave woman at will, often several times a day, is completely made up, a males fantasy indeed, however it makes for interesting reading and I'm sure it's intertwined with some customs that are actually factual. I saw the movie when it first came out, and that fact didn't diminish the reading of the novel. I'd also like to point out that, unlike Timeline, in which Crichton takes characters back in time in a time traveling machine, this book supposes an eyewitness account of a foreigner traveling to distant lands back at the time the adventure happened and that Crichton merely translated the story for us from several scholarly texts. I liked this approach better as it wasn't as fantastic or as hard to shallow. In any case, while this book is hardly classical literature, it's a fun read and I give it a good recommendation.
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