Eifelheim by Michael Flynn

A contemporary historian and a physicist become obsessed with a small German town that disappeared in 1349.

Meh. I wanted to slap the two main characters (in the modern era). The attempts at communication between the Krenken and the priest were interesting, however.

In 1349 an alien ship crashes in the woods nearby the small town of Oberhochwald in Germany. The aliens are weirdly wonderful – as in fact are some of the humans.

Short Review: This is a first contact story, but based around a 14th century german village. There is also a second modern story line about two academics, one a historian that finds the village and researches it. And the second academic is a physicist that is working on faster than light travel.

The german village story line is the main one and it is well researched and detailed about the life of the villagers and real history around the time. Lots of good discussion around aliens and how they could be conceived of in regard to Christianity and moral theories of belonging. The Christianity is well presented, but this isn't a ‘christian fiction' book.

I thought the german village story got a little bogged down in the middle, but overall I really enjoyed the book.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/eifelheim/