The year is 922 A.D.
Ibn Fadlan, a courtier of the Caliph in Baghdad and refined explorer, embarks on the journey of his lifetime: travel beyond the edge of the known world to seek out the rumored Northmen, record their civilization's every custom, and return alive. It's this last part that proves difficult for Ibn.
He encounters a viking war party hunting for the Northmen too. And however savage these Vikings appear to Ibn's foreign eyes with their strange customs and human sacrifices, the real terror is their own quarry: the creatures who attack at night to slaughter and devour human flesh.
Ibn Fadlan, a courtier of the Caliph in Baghdad and refined explorer, embarks on the journey of his lifetime: travel beyond the edge of the known world to seek out the rumored Northmen, record their civilization's every custom, and return alive. It's this last part that proves difficult for Ibn.
He encounters a viking war party hunting for the Northmen too. And however savage these Vikings appear to Ibn's foreign eyes with their strange customs and human sacrifices, the real terror is their own quarry: the creatures who attack at night to slaughter and devour human flesh.
WHY I LOVE IT
Eaters of the Dead is Crichton's reimagining of Beowulf, in which the myth's central events are lifted and retold from a new character, a Persian traveller. As a stranger in a strange land, he's our guide to the barbarism and humanity in the north, capturing details that we as contemporary readers would find strange and interesting. Interestingly, Crichton's novel is framed as a historical translation, filled with an academic-style introduction, text footnotes, and bibliography.
That might make it sound dry, but I actually loved the format, which echoes interestingly between fiction and facts. Twenty years later in one of his many Charlie Rose interviews, Crichton expressed a sentiment that harkens back to this largely overshadowed work, when he questioned whether all history is contemporary history; that we bring to the past our own context, and in that way see it through a lens of ideas and values that colors everything.
I actually hated reading Beowulf and that terrible CGI movie starring Angelina Jolie as Grendel. But Eaters of the Dead was a surprisingly nerve-wracking, suspenseful ride. And underneath the horror-adventure, is a reflection on how things haven't changed all that much since 922 A.D.—or at least their fiction. [JG]
That might make it sound dry, but I actually loved the format, which echoes interestingly between fiction and facts. Twenty years later in one of his many Charlie Rose interviews, Crichton expressed a sentiment that harkens back to this largely overshadowed work, when he questioned whether all history is contemporary history; that we bring to the past our own context, and in that way see it through a lens of ideas and values that colors everything.
I actually hated reading Beowulf and that terrible CGI movie starring Angelina Jolie as Grendel. But Eaters of the Dead was a surprisingly nerve-wracking, suspenseful ride. And underneath the horror-adventure, is a reflection on how things haven't changed all that much since 922 A.D.—or at least their fiction. [JG]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
| Michael Crichton (1942-2008) remains the only writer to have a number one book, movie, and TV show in the same year. His novels include Jurassic Park, The Lost World, The Andromeda Strain, Next, and Sphere among others. Collectively his works have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, been translated into thirty-eight languages, and provided the basis for fifteen films. He was also the director of Westworld, The Great Train Robbery, and Looker. |
"A hero's great challenge is in the heart,
and not in the adversary."
— Michael Crichton, Eaters of the Dead
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