Michael Flynn - Eifelheim

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

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 authors imagination or are used fictitiously.

EIFELHEIM

Copyright 2006 by Michael F. Flynn

All rights reserved.

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

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 Frstenfeld 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!

Sharon Nagy. A cosmologist and longtime domestic partner of Tom

Tom Schwoerin. A cliologist (mathematical historian) and longtime domestic partner of Sharon

Judy Cao. A librarian, later Toms research assistant

Jackson Welles. Sharons chairman

Hernando Kelly. Post-doc in nucleonic engineering; shares an office with Sharon

Anton Zaengle. An historian at the Albert-Louis University in Freiburg and colleague of Tom

Monsignor Heinrich Lurm. An official of the Diocese of Freiburg and an amateur archeologist

Gus Mauer and Sepp Fischer. Workmen from Freiburg

GEMEINDE OBERHOCHWALD

Pastor Dietrich. The doctor seclusus. Onetime student of Jean Buridan de Bethune, now pastor of St. Catherines Church in Oberhochwald

Brother Joachim von Herbholzheim. A Spiritual Franciscan waiting out a quarrel in the Strassburg friary

Theresia Gresch. Herb woman and healer; Dietrichs onetime ward

Gregor Mauer. Stone mason in Oberhochwald

Lorenz and Wanda Schmidt. Blacksmith in Oberhochwald and his wife

Klaus Mller. Maier of the village. Operates the Herrs mill

Hildegarde Mller. The millers wife

Volkmar Bauer. A strong farmer holding several manses

Seppl Bauer. Bauers son; betrothed to Ulrike Ackermann

Felix and Ilse Ackermann. A farmer in Oberhochwald and his wife

Maria Ackermann. Ackermanns younger daughter

Ulrike Ackermann. Ackermanns older daughter; betrothed to Seppl Bauer