A Sword & Sorcery Classic: Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead
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Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (Bantam Books, April 4, 1977)
Michael Crichton (1942 – 2008) apparently always wanted to be a writer but earned an MD from Harvard Medical school in the meantime. He wrote while in school, publishing several novels under the name John Lange (he borrowed the name from anthropologist Andrew Lang). I only have one of these books — Zero Cool — but haven’t read it. Crichton’s writing was going well enough by the time he got his MD that he never practiced medicine, choosing to write and direct movies instead. He directed Westworld and Coma.
The first book I read by Crichton was The Andromeda Strain, found in my high school library. It was a compelling read about an alien disease sweeping Earth, but the ending was disappointingly anti-climactic. Our library also had his The Terminal Man, and I read that, though I don’t remember much about it. Later, of course, I read many of his big thrillers, Congo, Sphere, and Jurassic Park, and I enjoyed them enough to buy everything he’d written under his own name.
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You may be wondering why Crichton is featured in a column dedicated to Sword & Planet and Sword & Sorcery.
Well, his appearance here is based on the strength of one book — Eaters of the Dead, which is probably one of his least recognized books but certainly my favorite and one of my favorite heroic fantasies of all time.
It was made into one of my favorite movies of all time — The Thirteenth Warrior.
How favorite? Well, I don’t collect movies. I’ve personally bought less than 10 to keep. The Thirteenth Warrior is one, along with The Thing, Excalibur, Once Upon a Time in the West, Trinity is Still My Name, Wrath of Khan, and Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Eaters of the Dead is largely a retelling of Beowulf, but it uses a surviving population of Neanderthals to replace the Grendel. It has lots of physical conflict as well as hints of sorcery.
Although fiction, it has the feel of real history and really captured my imagination.
Certainly, conflicts between Neanderthals and more modern humans occurred, and there was apparently plenty of mating between the two species/sub-species. It’s doubtful they were like this but it’s still fun to imagine.
I wish Crichton had written more S&S.
Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.
The John Lange novels are fun, shorter, and usually move along nicely. Binary is probably the best of them.
Eaters of the Dead, along with Congo, are my favorites out of all of Critchton’s books. I’ve recommended Eaters to anyone who’ll listen, but always with the caveat that they read the Bantam edition. Those wild Ian Miller illustrations…
one of these days I’ll get around to a Lange novel. and I’ll certainly pick up any I see in the wild
“[A]mong the S&S-reading crowd I know, it’s a near-totemic work of art. I would bet my life that many S&S fans of my acquaintance can recite the final speech of Buliwyf and his men as they face off against the wendol one last time. There is no film that seems as true to the heart of S&S (even if there are no magical elements in this film or book) than this movie.” – Fletcher Vredenburgh, “Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton”, Black Gate (Jan. 10, 2017)
Somewhere, Mr V. is smiling …
I haven’t watched the 3th warrior in a while so it’s due for a rewatch. I’ve certainly quoted that dialogue many times. One of my favorites is, “don’t worry, little brother, there are more.”
I am smiling right now!
cool
I happened across Eaters of the Dead mass paperback on the book rack at a grocery store back in the mid 90’s. It really blew me away.
If I remember right the book was reprinted at that time for the upcoming movie, but I believe the movie, 13th Warrior was delayed from release for a year or two and when it finally came out, I think I went and watched it by myself one night. I do remember driving all the way across town to see it at the only theater it was playing at, at the time. Big fan ever since.
I took my teenage son to the movie when it was out and gave him a copy of the book. I don’t if he still has the book after his various moves but we do talk about the movie once in a while.
I read “Andromeda Strain” in junior high and “Eaters of the Dead” in high school when the Bantam edition first hit the stores, not long after having read “Beowulf.” I think “Eaters-” is far and away Crichton’s best book and I lament he didn’t stretch himself more in this direction as I found his later work more formulaic and rather disappointing.
It’s one of the very few books I recommend to people and whenever I meet someone who loved it as much as I do it’s like encountering someone from the same secret society. I recall Ian Miller went on to illustrate a batch of mass market Bradbury titles.
I agree that it’s crichton’s best book. Rose to the level of true art
I’ve only read one of Crichton’s books (Jurassic Park) so I’m not qualified to comment on his work. Just wanted to thank you for the reference to the illustrations of Ian Miller. I remember coming across the Tolkien Bestiary when I was in junior high and checking it out several times from the library, loved the look.
yes, the illustrations really add to the work.