The anachronisms may serve to bridge the gap between another culture and our own, and reduces the effort necessary for readers' comprehension. Many historical fiction novels, for instance, resort to the merest and most superficial elements to establish their cultural setting, even as they permit pretty grotesque historical anachronisms. The more common "soft" approach is to treat genre as a gimmick, with loose rules and less intensive world-building, but (one hopes) with a correspondingly greater emphasis on narrative and character. It is in these sections that we find the meat of the story, and Flynn's masterful command of medieval history.įor any given literary genre, authors can take either a "hard" or "soft" approach. In addition to the original scenes set in the present day, Flynn wrote a parallel narrative set in medieval Eifelheim itself. From this beginning came the novel, published in 2006. "Eifelheim" was first published in 1987 as a novella, focusing on a pair of scientists who discover the startling truth about the medieval German village called Eifelheim, which had mysteriously disappeared at some point in the late fourteenth century. I decided to look for more of his posts online, and that's when I discovered he was a published author. I first encountered "Ye Olde Statistician" deploying his arsenal of historical, scientific, and philosophical knowledge against a horde of angry trolls on a theology blog. Meet Michael Flynn: statistician by day, well-regarded science-fiction author by night, and veteran troll-hunter in the twilight hours. Imagine if Bruce Wayne's alter-ego (for those of you who sprang from the womb as fully grown adults, that would be Batman) had an alter-ego of its own, even more shadowy and lethal.
The first rule of trolling is this: if at any moment you find yourself sparring with a man called "Ye Olde Statistician," run.
That's right: as in any respectable profession, there are standards and practices to trolling through forums and comment threads. If any of my readers are considering a career as an Internet troll, they should first familiarize themselves with the rules and regulations.
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