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Eifelheim
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Mike,
I liked your review and read the book because of it. So I'm very grateful.
I agree with everything you say, especially the clunkiness of the "Now" parts - what made that so bad was that the characters were completely one-dimensional and unconvincing and, well, annoying. I wondered whether there was any point in a contemporary counterpoint to the main story. Perhaps it did something - the idea of the few surviving signs of the story being around, and being understood, as when they find the Grasshopper Last Supper painting near the end, was moving.
But the main narrative just blew me away. One thing you don't mention, Mike, is that the book is also deeply about religion and love.
Besides LeGuin, what other first-contact novels are there, of the "anthropological" variety?
I liked your review and read the book because of it. So I'm very grateful.
I agree with everything you say, especially the clunkiness of the "Now" parts - what made that so bad was that the characters were completely one-dimensional and unconvincing and, well, annoying. I wondered whether there was any point in a contemporary counterpoint to the main story. Perhaps it did something - the idea of the few surviving signs of the story being around, and being understood, as when they find the Grasshopper Last Supper painting near the end, was moving.
But the main narrative just blew me away. One thing you don't mention, Mike, is that the book is also deeply about religion and love.
Besides LeGuin, what other first-contact novels are there, of the "anthropological" variety?
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Reading Progress
July 1, 2008
– Shelved
Started Reading
October 5, 2008
–
Finished Reading
January 2, 2012
– Shelved as:
14th-century-fiction
June 25, 2012
– Shelved as:
philosophy-philosophers-in-fiction
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I second everything Mike says. There's also Joe Haldeman's
Forever War
, which is is one of those military in space! narratives, but in a good way. And whatever you do DON'T read Arthur C. Clarke's
Rendezvous with Rama
series. Yawn. (Of course, that's an evil challenge, isn't it? But, seriously, they suck, esp. the later ones when he starts writing with Gentry Lee.)
the amount of empathy I felt for the grasshoppers at the end - it was a slow build to it - surprised me. This book is very much about love. <3
Wasn't this just a fabulous book? It's a "wow!"
Linda, it's one of my all-time favorites; just amazing. And it totally takes you by surprise.
I'm re-reading your review and thinking that it's time for me to re-read the novel.
Glad you enjoyed this fantastic novel, Simon. It is extremely philosophical, for sure. I'm reading and listening to the audio book for the 2nd time - I can't get enough of this story. BTW - who is Mike and where is his review?
Offhand, besides LeGuin (the gold standard), I'd suggest Orson Scott Card's Ender stuff -- even book one, ostensibly a war novel, ends up in interesting cross-cultural imagining ... but the immediate couple of sequels (particularly Speaker for the Dead) were excellent. Also Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, most everything by Octavia Butler (another favorite), and Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky come to mind...