As the Black Death spreads through France and western Germany, Krenken children begin to die, Earth food lacking an amino acid essential to their diet. However, despite all efforts, the village gains a reputation as the haunt of devils. Led by the example of pastor Dietrich, a philosopher and scholar, the majority of the villagers come to accept the Krenken as God’s fellow-creatures rather than demons, which they resemble. They soon learn to communicate with the villagers via their “talking head” and eventually swear fealty to the village’s lord, Herr Manfred. The vessel’s occupants, the giant-grasshopper-like Krenken, were traveling via interdimensional wormhole rather than space when disaster struck. Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, we learn what actually occurred in Eifelheim in the months before the “pest” arrived: An alien vessel crash-landed in the forest. Tom wonders why the Black Forest village Eifelheim wasn’t resettled following a deadly outbreak of the Black Death in 1349 according to all his computer simulations, it should have been. Theoretical physicist Sharon Nagy ponders a new, non-isotropic, 12-dimensional space-time structure, while her live-in significant other, historical-mathematician Tom Schwoerin, studies medieval German settlement patterns. Heinlein Award.Contemporary/historical alien-contact tale, from the author of the magnificent The Wreck of the River of Stars (2003). Tom and Sharon, and Father Dietrich, have a strange and intertwined destiny of tragedy and triumph in this brilliant SF novel by the winner of the Robert A.

It is a time of wonders, in the shadow of the plague. Dietrich is an educated man, knows science and philosophy, and to his astonishment becomes the first contact between humanity and an alien race from a distant star when their interstellar ship crashes in the nearby forest. What's was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago?įather Dietrich is the village priest of Oberhochwald, the village that will soon gain the name of Teufelheim, in later years corrupted to Eifelheim, in the year 1348, when the Black Death is gathering strength across Europe but is still not nearby. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn't and that violates everything Tom knows about history. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and has never been resettled. Condition: Very good plus, very light edge and corner wear, slight spine creases and nicks.

Eifelheim by michael flynn