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Eaters of the Dead

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Eaters of the Dead

By: Michael Crichton
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

The year is A.D. 922. A refined Arab courtier, representative of the powerful Caliph of Baghdad, encounters a party of Viking warriors who are journeying to the barbaric North. He is appalled by their Viking customs - the wanton sexuality of their pale, angular women, their disregard for cleanliness...their cold-blooded human sacrifices. But it is not until they reach the depths of the Northland that the courtier learns the horrifying and inescapable truth: he has been enlisted by these savage, inscrutable warriors to help combat a terror that plagues them - a monstrosity that emerges under cover of night to slaughter the Vikings and devour their flesh....

Eaters of the Dead was adapted to the screen as The 13th Warrior, starring Antonio Banderas.

©1976 by Michael Crichton; Copyright renewed 2004 by CrichtonSun LLC. (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Action & Adventure Historical Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Warrior Middle Ages Science Fiction Scary Viking
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Everyone leaving negative reviews are clearly wanting a fantasy book and don’t care about history. If you enjoy mystery and history this book is for you

Novel for historians

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Eaters of the Dead is a strange and fun book. Unconventionally, it's told as if reading an old translated manuscript, with fake foot notes and translation explanations to boot.

If you liked the film that was based of this, you'll probably like the book. Alternatively, the protagonists journey through cultures completely alien to him makes it exciting and feel almost fantasy. It's a short listen, so give it a chance.

Well voiced and a strange and interesting story

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This was not really the same as all the other Crichton books I have read, it was told in quite a different style. It’s based on a fictional manuscript from hundreds of years ago, that has been pieced together. It has a lot of commentary to explain the details, which was quite different but was necessary.
I think it is a little bit similar to Congo in the storytelling style, but with less action and technology of course.

It ends quite abruptly, and there is not as much action or explanation as I’m used to in his other books.

It was interesting, the historical details about the “North Men” and their lives and customs, also the first-person point of view of a Muslim from that time period was very interesting.

I think I need to listen to this again to figure out if I liked it or not. It was really quite different to all his other works, and I wasn’t expecting that, so I’m a bit undecided if I really liked it or not.

If you are looking for something like Micro, Prey, Sphere or Jurassic Park, I don’t think it’s very similar and you will probably be disappointed.

There is very little action and excitement, it was the story of a journey and there were some action bits, but not as much as I was expecting.

Not my favourite Crichton, but enjoyable.

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I am a huge fan of! the 13th Warrior! And you can see where they’ve got the movie out of the book it’s different, not exactly storytelling but like you’re in uni. Not my normal listening. It’s good that it short to because I couldn’t of taken much more of it. but I did enjoyed it.

the movie has followed the book

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Dull, dull and more so. It’s been written in a historical view via ancient texts in a Cambridge or Oxford lingo that gives it not an ounce of heart or adventure nor a connection to characters. Kudos to the screenwriters in making the film and giving it the soul the book desperately needed.

I was So Wrong to Purchase

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