Michael Flynn's "Eifelheim" (novel): When aliens visited a German village

Most of the story is simply a description of everyday life in a German village - in fourteenth century. Aliens enter to provide color. There is a small thread running, in parallel, in twenty-first century (in the US, I think).

I haven't really read the whole book. In nearly 2 weeks, I am barely about half way through. And I am not sure I will finish it; if I do, I might revisit this article.

1. This story goes on way too long. Or may be I am not patient enough.
2. I have zero background in medieval European history. While I can generally follow the story through, someone with right background will probably enjoy it more.
3. I have zero background in Christianity. And this book is deeply into it.
4. It uses a lot of not so commonly used words of English. Particularly densely in early pages, but also in later pages. It's my third language; may be those with English as first language will feel less frustrated.

In spite of this, it didn't really bore me (in fact, at times, it's humorous). Whenever I could make myself pick it up. But it's becoming more of a psychological strain picking it up!

This novel is available both in paper form, & as a free PDF download.

Story summary.
An alien ship, carrying researchers & holidaying folk some place, takes a kind of wrong turn & ends up crashing on earth - near the German village of Oberhochwald. While these aliens ("Krenkens") are star farers, much of their technology is roughly at the modern human level - as we learn through the book. Year is 1348 AD.

The event disturbs the routine life of villagers. We learn about the normal village life, a little about the aliens customs, & uneasy acceptance of the aliens by villagers. Where I left the story, aliens have been in the village for nearly a year.

Turns out that a few years after aliens' visit, the village was abandoned & renamed "Teufelheim" (meaning "Devil-home") - later corrupted to "Eifelheim". Devil is a reference to aliens. And the village has never been resettled. I suppose the reasons for abandoning & renaming are to be found in part of the book I haven't read.

All through, a very small parallel thread is running in modern times. Dr Tom Schwoerin & Sharon Nagy are a couple living together. Tom is some kind of analytical historian; Sharon is a super-smart physicist. Tom find Eifelheim anomaly, & is curious why it has never been resettled. Sharon keeps making mind-boggling discoveries in fundamental physics: that speed of light & Planck's constant are not really constants; that actual time elapsed in a second decreases (or is it increases?) as the universe ages; that galaxies are moving apart at speeds that cannot assume arbitrary values but are quantized. There might be more in pages remaining.

See also.

1. Arthur Clarke's "Trouble with the natives": A short piece of humor about the adventures of aliens in an English village.
   

Fact sheet.
Eifelheim, novel, review
First published: 2006
Rating: B
Nominated for Hugo Award 2007 final round in novel category

Michael Flynn's "Down, Sunset and the Colours of the Earth": Bermuda triangle retold

While the subject is well hashed - ships & things mysteriously disappearing in a well-demarcated area in the sea - prose is good. But it won't pay to read it as a single story; read it over several sittings as a collection of may be a dozen short stories on the same subject, & you will likely enjoy it.

Full text of this story is available online.

Story summary.
At an unspecified date, the ship MV Hyak on a regular ferry run from Seattle to Bremerton disappears almost as soon as it leaves the port. Ship was carrying a 1,000 passengers.

Later investigations reveal that at the time of disappearance

1. the area had thick fog,
2. there were strong air & water currents towards some point withing the fogged area, &
3. readings from three different radar stations found that the ship was simultaneously at three separate locations just before its disappearance!

More investigations suggest radar anomaly had been around for a while. And that there is some point within the area that is pulling things towards it. Over a period of time, this phenomenon is observed repeatedly in the area - sometimes lasting days. Affected area is cordoned off.

There is speculation that some kind of singularity (black hole?) or wormhole periodically opens in the area. There is also speculation that it has mysteriously moved from Bermuda to this location. But nothing is proved.

This main story is perhaps 10% of the whole story. Rest is a collection of several human interest stories of the bereaved families & friends. Each is readable, but I had to split them over several sessions. Fortunately, there are clear markers identifying these smaller stories.

Fact sheet.
"Down, Sunset and the Colours of the Earth", short story, review
Rating: B
First published: Asimov's Oct/Nov 2006
Nominated for Hugo Awards 2007 in novelette category

Related: All Hugo Award stories.