The Carpet Makers

There was a time when I would routinely devour several volumes of science fiction and fantasy a day, but these days there is little time for such luxuries, so I'm careful to ration my fiction reading list. I got lucky with this one. I was a bit worried by all the hype surrounding the book, but a powerful endorsement from Orson Scott Card, in my view one of the finest writers in the genre, persuaded me to read it. And I am delighted that I did. This extraordinary book fully deserves the praise that has been lavished upon it. The writing is simple but deeply evocative. I am often disappointed by translations that fail to capture the nuances of the original, but the translator of this book - Doryl Jensen - has done an outstanding job. The book is actually a series of inter-related short stories woven around a central theme. Thus there is little in the way of character development. Surprisingly, this is one of the few books where that does not detract from the power of the tales. The answer to the central puzzle of the book is astonishing, and I hope that no one publishes any spoilers, because it is worth waiting for! Suffice to say that this is an extraordinary meditation on blind obedience, freedom, vengeance and the arrogance of power. Highly recommended.

"The Carpet Makers" illustrates the best possible kind of what I consider "classic" SF. While there are interesting characters, the real point of the book is the slow revealing to the audience of how this universe works and why it came to be that way. In the course of this, the author strays far and wide: the laborers on a dusty planet weaving carpets that take a lifetime; a bunch of revolutionaries trying to run a government now that they have won; a paralyzed king in a forgotten palace watching his world be slowly destroyed; and many others. Each vignette seems at first to stand almost alone, each bit telling *almost* a complete story. But as the book progresses, the warp and weft of the entire story starts to come into view, and one starts to see how all the vignettes tie together. Only at the very end of the book is the answer to the central question: "Why are the carpet makers making carpets?" revealed in its entirety. Many themes are dealt with here: economics, raw power, the problems of revolution, the problems and uses of religious motivation, how economics can cause obsession, imperialism, and others. There is a lot that is beautiful in the book. I really couldn't recommend it more highly. It exemplifies some of the best that science fiction has to offer. It may even be suitable for those among us who spurn speculative fiction and choose only literary fiction. The translation is wonderfully elegant and atmospheric. A masterpiece.

Reviewed by Sherryl King-Wilds for fantasynovelreview.com An entire province of stars has been lost and isolated from a vast empire for 80,000 years until found by rebels. As the rebels explore the province, they discover thousands of inhabited planets that mimic each other in religion, culture, and caste. Also, each planet's industry centers on the production of hair carpets. Woven from the fine hair strands of the male weaver's wives and daughters as a sacred duty to the Emperor to adorn the imperial palace, the hair carpet takes nearly a lifetime to finish, but its sale will supply the one son allowed per carpet maker with a lifetime of money, so he too can make a hair carpet for his son. This cycle has repeated uninterrupted for thousands of years. The rebels, however, have begun to spread the news of the Emperor's death to each planet. Chaos runs amuck as the religion of the carpet makers raises its head, dictating that such talk is heresy. The Emperor is almighty, he cannot die. The punishment for heresy is death, even if a father's own son speaks so. The number of carpet-making worlds keeps rising as the rebels explore more and more territory in the lost province. The implications for the number of hair carpets being produced and that have been produced over the millennia baffle the rebels, for not one hair carpet has thus far been found in the late Emperor's palace. Questions abound. Why are so many planets alike? What purpose do the hair carpets serve? Where are the hair carpets really going? This book's storyline does not doggedly follow the life of one person. Instead, it follows the carpets, shifting point of view to different members of each caste level as the carpets pass from hand to hand and go on to serve a shocking purpose at their final destination. I much enjoyed reading The Carpet Makers because, unlike so many books these days, I could not predict the ending. The writing granted me a smooth, enthralling read, and the story, itself, kept me perplexed until the last few pages--talk about a grand finale! The conclusion might make a reader hoot with laughter or howl with outrage, possibly both. Or it might bring the reader to tears. If nothing else, it will elicit a moment of silent awe. Bravo, Mr. Eschbach. I applaud your originality. Grade: A+

The Carpet Makers is more of a collection of short stories all on a central theme than a real novel, but that just allows Eschbach to develop a more complete picture of the galactic society he's created, as we get to see it from all sides and different perspectives. The carpet makers are members of a rigid, strictly-controlled society wherein each man spends his life weaving an intricately structured carpet made solely from the hair of his wives and female children. Upon his death, the carpet goes to his son, who sells it and begins work on his own carpet. The whole thing is so carefully and intricately laid out, that the more detail we get about the larger society, the more heartbreaking the whole thing becomes. Don't read too many of the reviews/descriptions, because you don't want to know too much of the plot beforehand. As the stories gradually move farther and farther away from the simple planet/society of the carpet makers to the seat of power of the galactic empire, the book becomes more and more powerful and is a truly compelling look at abuse of power and the difficulty of overturning the social order, no matter how flawed or outdated it has become. Though translated from German, the book is never stilted or strange. The story flows beautifully and was one that I could not put down until I was finished. Hopefully, we'll see more of Mr. Eschbach's work translated for English-speaking audiences.

This work is a striking science-fiction examination of absolute power on an inter-galactic scale. The translation from the German is excellent and the ideas presented are profound. Mr. Eschbach is obviously a student of Orson Scott Card and the book is rife with references to such Card stories as Unaccompanied Sonata, Kingsmeat, Fat Farm and others. In fact, the feeling of reading this work took me back to my discovery of Card in the pages of OMNI magazine. Suffice it to say that the story revolves around the "hair carpet" a breathtakingly intricate work built up of individually knotted strands of human hair. Only men can be a carpet maker and they, of necessity, spend their entire life on one carpet. Ultimately, the work consumes the life of the maker only to finance the next generation's toil. As only one son can inherit, the household must consist of several wives and a house full of daughters to produce a requisite variety of hair colors. Extra sons aren't given a job out in the fields... The work is less a novel and more of an expanded short story; the author paints a broad picture by the use of inter-related episodes that roughly tie together. The underlying theme and story provide a framework strong enough to carry the work without the need for one fully-developed character. In fact, spending more time on characterization would have detracted from the impact of this work. I honestly could not put the book down until it was over. The ending is that killer-twist so reminiscent of early Card stories. The themes are profoundly German; there is a distrust of power in all its varieties, whether derived from religion, government, family or social expectations. Regardless of how you approach the work be prepared to think about the ideas presented for days. Mr. Eschbach is on my must purchase list. TOR would do well to start translating his work as fast as possible.