Maybe it has something to do with me being in a Tron-mood and seeing the name Flynn on-screen, or that the book’s name triggered some subconscious memory I didn’t know I still had, but a few days back I started reading Michael Flynn’s “Eifelheim”. As mentioned before, Flynn uses 5-dollar words wrapped up in a pound of carbon pulp to make his point. And in that respect, “Eifelheim” is no different from “The Wreck of the River of Stars”: a long-ass book, plentifully seasoned with character descriptions, grad-level vocabulary and an incomprehensible number of segues. But it’s still one hell of a ride!
I’m only half-way into this tome and… well, it’s still trying to grab my attention. With every electronic page turn I feel that all-too-familiar sensation of “next chapter, shit gets real”. And it never comes. And I still continue, still I push through the verbiage and find myself more and more mystified.
The plot? Oh, there is one, but it’s difficult to explain when nothing much really happens. I’ll try: it’s Germany, The Black Forest in 1348, and aliens crash-landed by a small town called Eifelheim. Interleaved with this curious premise is the present-day snippets (I can’t really call these weak collections of words anything as expansive as “chapters”, so snippets it is) concerning two scientists: Tom is a cliologist (“cliology” is the mathematical study of history, something that I am currently inclined to call pseudo-science) and Sharon, a physicist. Tom is investigating the disappearance of Eifelheim (at some point, after 1348, it was deserted and never resettled, something that he is not expecting), while Sharon seems to be on track to… shit, I have no idea. Snippets Isaid and snippets I meant.
And that’s where I find myself, trying to grasp the main character’s religious ramblings (he’s a pastor of Eifelheim), attempting to care about a story that moves with all the speed of a sloth or an anime plot, while at the same time working on getting my heart-rate up while cycling for an hour at the gym. Two awesome challenges, I must say.
And that’s another thing (pardon the OT, but this is, after all, my blog, so I’ll blog as I wish): I’ve gotten back into that wonderful swing of things where I disappear from the office for a few hours every afternoon, to come back nicely refreshed and tired from biking some 30 km. It was swimming before that, but then, like the idiot that I am, I realized that there are birds to be killed: if I’m going to spend an hour exercising, might as well combine it with an hour of reading! And here is were I find myself. It’s a great thing really: leave work for a while, get some exercise and do a hell of a lot of reading.
That’s all for now. May post a mini-review of the book once I’m done with it. Or may just go on another multi-month blogging hiatus. Whatever.