Authors: Michael Flynn

Eifelheim

BOOK: Eifelheim

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Praise for
Eifelheim

A HUGO AWARD FINALIST
Chosen as one of
Kirkus Review’s
Best Books of 2006

“Bursting with pungent historical detail and big theme musings, this dense, provocative novel offers big rewards to patient readers.”

—
Entertainment Weekly

“Flynn’s combination of science fiction, historical fact, and logical deduction makes for a fascinating and addictive read.”

—
Rocky Mountain News

“With a sure grasp of both speculative science and medieval history, Flynn compellingly weaves past and present together in a dialog of faith and science. With neat turns of plot and intriguing medieval and modern characters … Highly recommended.”

—Library Journal
(starred review)

“Heartbreaking … Flynn masterfully achieves an intricate panorama of medieval life, full of fascinatingly realized human and Krenken characters whose fates interconnect with poignant irony.”

—Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“Meticulously researched, intense, mesmerizing novel (based in some part on a 1986 short story) for readers seeking thoughtful science fiction of the highest order.”

—Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)

“An arresting revision of many contemporary assumptions about human nature … As usual, Flynn’s content and form render his work both engaging and engrossing.”

—
SFRA Review

“In Flynn’s masterful hand, even the most fateful conversations take delightful turns as human and alien discuss the heavens and how to return to them.
Eifelheim
is both speculative fiction and morality tale.”

—Sunday Free Press

“[Flynn] makes both—the medieval German town and the modern couple trying to determine the likelihood of interstellar travel—real, physical, and emotional…. A remarkably rich and dense work.”

—Bookgasm

“Wonderful, mesmerizing. A finely written and deeply considered SF novel that deserves to stand with the classics in the field. It reads like Arthur C. Clarke channeling Einstein channeling Thomas Aquinas—and that’s only the beginning. This book should be garlanded with awards, but more important, it should be in your hands, and you should be reading it.”

—Robert Charles Wilson

“Michael Flynn’s
Eifelheim
is a gripping multilayered masterpiece that pulls off the extraordinary feat of imagining a convincing first contact with aliens that might have taken place in 1348.”

—Brian Stableford

ALSO BY MICHAEL FLYNN

In the Country of the Blind
*
The Nanotech Chronicles
Fallen Angels
(with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle)
Firestar*
The Forest of Time and Other Stories*
Lodestar*
Rogue Star*
Falling Stars*
The Wreck of the River of Stars*

*
denotes a Tor book

EIFELHEIM

Michael Flynn

A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
NEW YORK

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your personal use only. You may not print or post this e-book, or make this e-book publicly available in any way. You may not copy, reproduce or upload this e-book, other than to read it on one of your personal devices.

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.

NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

EIFELHEIM

Edited by David G. Hartwell

Map by Ellisa Mitchell

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor
^®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 978-0-7653-4035-1

First Edition: October 2006
First Mass Market Edition: August 2009

Printed in the United States of America

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

JEAN BURIDAN DE BETHUNE
the Paris Master

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank especially Dr. Mohsen Janatpour, now of the College of San Matteo, for his help in creating Janatpour space for the original novella, back in 1986. Variable light speed using Kaluza-Klein dimensions, three-dimensional time, and quantized time seemed pretty far-out in those days. Still does, come to think of it.

Vielen Dank
, too, to the staff at the Fürstenfeld Museum for background data on Ludwig der Bayer, William of Ockham, and German art and culture of that era; also to Fr. William Seifert for background on pre-Tridentine liturgical developments.

I would also like to thank Stan Schmidt, editor of
Analog Science Fiction
magazine, for publishing the novella from which the “Now” portions of this book derive, and Eleanor Wood, my agent, for pestering me into writing the medieval portions of the book. Finally, also, to Tor editor David Hartwell, who helped me chop the unwieldy first draft into shape.

NOTE ON THE CALENDAR
. Although the civil year
III Caroli, rex germanorum
, began on 1 January, the Year of the Lord
(Anno Domini)
did not begin in some places until 25 March, the Feast of the Incarnation. Thus the first three months of what we would call “1349” were still “1348” in some parts of Europe. Other regions counted the years of the Lord from the Nativity rather than the Incarnation, and still others used the civil year. The Greeks used a different system. A merchant caravan could thus travel from year to year as easily as from place to place!

CONTENTS

List of Characters

Map of Oberhochwald and Vicinity

Preface: Anton

I. August, 1348: At Matins, The Commemoration of Sixtus II and His Companions

1. Now: Sharon

II. August, 1348: At Primes, The Commemoration of Sixtus II and His Companions

III. August, 1348: At Compline, The Vigil of St. Laurence

IV. August, 1348: The Feast of St. Clare of Assisi

2. Now: Tom

V. August, 1348: The Feast of St. Joachim

VI. September, 1348: The Stigmata of St. Francis