ANST - 13th Warrior Warning

[Decker, Terry D.]

> > (2) Which is NOT in any way, shape or form based on Ibn Fadlan's actual
> > accounts of the Varangian Rus.
> 
> According to a recent interview with the author, he begs to differ.  But
> did say
> he took artistic license.  But I figure any movie that uses Carmina Burana
> in the
> soundtrack has at least one redeeming feature.
> 
> And thanks for the real view.  It will help me keep perspective.
> 
> EdM
> 
The most recent paperback version of Eaters of the Dead has a number of
notes by the author about the sources, the writing and the logic of the
novel.  Ibn Fadlan's accounts were incorporated into the first three
chapters of the book, according to the notes.  Artistic license was taken in
the book.  

Read the book for fun (hey, it's FICTION).  Forget about comparing it to
Beowulf.  Crichton was writing about the adventures of a misplaced Arab, who
falls in a band of rough and tumble adventurers, and becomes involved in a
bloody clash between two cultures.  Presumably, the conflict is the source
of the epic poem, but everyone knows reality is better in the retelling than
the doing and that storytellers always put their own slant on things.  Even
the work of Ibn Fadlan.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but the trailers lead me to believe it will be
visually spectacular, totally incorrect, and similar to the book only
because the makers were too lazy to totally creat their own storyline.

Bear
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