Michael Crichton takes the listener on a one-thousand-year-old journey in his adventure novel Eaters Of The Dead. This remarkable true story originated from actual journal entries of an Arab man who traveled with a group of Vikings throughout northern Europe. In 922 A.D, Ibn Fadlan, a devout Muslim, left his home in Baghdad on a mission to the King of Saqaliba. During his journey, he meets various groups of "barbarians" who have poor hygiene and gorge themselves on food, alcohol and sex. For Fadlan, his new traveling companions are a far stretch from society in the sophisticated "City of Peace." The conservative and slightly critical man describes the Vikings as "tall as palm trees with florid and ruddy complexions." Fadlan is astonished by their lustful aggression and their apathy towards death. He witnesses everything from group orgies to violent funeral ceremonies. Despite the language and cultural barriers, Ibn Fadlan is welcomed into the clan. The leader of the group, Buliwyf (who can communicate in Latin) takes Fadlan under his wing.

I really enjoyed it...

This is the first book by Michael Crichton that I have read, and I loved it. In the book, basically, an Arab man in about 925 AD was forced to become an ambassador to a foreign country, and shortly after arrival, is captured by Vikings. With the Vikings, he goes on a mission to save a village that is being plundered by a civilization of cantabiles. This was a really good book that I would recommend to all who enjoy action.
I would give it a 9/10.

Rousing adventure with an intriguing premise.

Fascinating. According to the author's "factual note" at the end, the first three chapters of this book are indeed the manuscript of Ibn Fadlan, relating his experiences with the Northmen in A.D. 922. The tale that's spun from this beginning is fiction, but Crichton manages to mimic Fadlan's style so well that I found the transition seamless.

Who might the "wendol" of Northern legend have been, in truth? Crichton bases his story on one theoretical answer to that question. This richly detailed little book (compared to the lengths of his later works) took me along on Ibn Fadlan's adventure, and made me believe it real for as long as I stayed immersed. That's the best compliment I can give to any author.

Fast-paced & exciting

An Arab ambassador finds himself shanghaied into service with a band of Viking warriors on a mission to confront the "monsters of the mist" that have been terrorizing the villages of northern Scandinavia in an adventure set 1,000 years in the past. Michael Crichton has produced an exciting pastiche of historical narrative combining documents written by an actual Arab traveler with his own imaginative speculations on the origins of the epic poem Beowulf. Disregard the reviewers who found this novel boring. There are not very many conversations, so I suppose they were put off by having to read so many paragraphs of five lines or more. This is a brutal, fast-moving story and a quick read.