From the Bookshelf of The Alternative Worlds…

The Carpet Makers

Andreas Eschbach,

Doryl Jensen (Translator)

Start date: June 1, 2012

Finish date: June 30, 2012

Discussion: The Carpet Makers

Why we're reading this: Open Selection for June 2012
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The Carpet Makers

Advice? Brainstorming?
By Sarah , Opens the Pod Bay Doors · 29 posts · 15 views

last updated Jul 02, 2015 06:21PM

The Carpet Makers - The Last Chapters and the Whole
By deleted member · 8 posts · 18 views

last updated Jun 28, 2012 05:10PM

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What Members Thought

Mar 17, 2011 Ryandake rated it it was amazing

Shelves: the-good-shit

even better the second (or possibly the third) time around.

the novel is a series of interlinked short stories, more or less. this time around reading it i had the feeling it was a tapestry, altho possibly not made of women's hair.

that's what the carpet makers make: carpets out of women's hair. their wives' and subwives' hair. fear not, no women are harmed in the making of this carpet. well, not just for their hair, anyway.

the carpet makers work their art as honored members of their society. a ca even better the second (or possibly the third) time around.

the novel is a series of interlinked short stories, more or less. this time around reading it i had the feeling it was a tapestry, altho possibly not made of women's hair.

that's what the carpet makers make: carpets out of women's hair. their wives' and subwives' hair. fear not, no women are harmed in the making of this carpet. well, not just for their hair, anyway.

the carpet makers work their art as honored members of their society. a carpet maker makes only one carpet in his (yes, always his) entire life. its selling price pays for his son's lifework: making another hair carpet. generation after generation, making hair carpets, and where do they all go?

to the Emperor, who reportedly adorns his palace with them.

but all is not quite as the carpet makers have been led to believe, and the truth about where the carpets go and why is unbelievably appalling.

but no spoilers here!

eschbach is a genius. this novel begins with the story of one otherwise utterly ignorant carpet maker, and in succeeding stories, tells you the history of an intergalactic empire that spans 250,000 years. eschbach tells you this history in a mere 18 chapters. the genius of it is that each chapter is just one more story of a very human individual--he weaves the history so tightly into the individual's story that the reader never feels she is being info-dumped or given a lesson at all. we are simply reading one person's story, and then another, and another, and each is a perfectly formed and perfectly distinct gem.

as a writer, i stand in awe (the real kind) of what he has accomplished here. as a reader, i am alternately deeply moved, or amused, or horrified, or fall into the deepest of sighs that says, yes, that's how life is (even when it's not pretty, but also when it is).

i cannot recommend this book highly enough. i read at least 100 books a year, and in 45 years of reading like a mad librarian, i can count on my limited digits the number that i find to be of this caliber. this book is a serious literary and storytelling accomplishment, and i hope that this review convinces you to give it a try.

perhaps we can then all get together and convince Tor to have more of Eschbach's works translated. to date this is the only one i know of in English. we are impoverished by this lack... Tor, are you listening? ...more

72 likes · Like · see review

Jun 27, 2011 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories, sf

The Carpet Makers is constructed like a carpet, weaving narratives together to tell a story that is at once immense in scope and driven by attention to the tiniest detail. Each chapter is a short story focusing on a different character. No perspective is repeated, but themes and characters recur, as seen through the eyes of others. Often we encounter a character several chapters before his or her significance becomes apparent. The end result is a book that is satisfying as a whole, with several ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

May 10, 2012 Nicky rated it it was amazing

Shelves: speculative-fiction

This book has to get five stars from me because it's the first book in quite a while that I would've stayed up late into the night to finish, even if I was exhausted. From the first chapter, it weaves a compelling mystery and builds a whole new world. The writing itself is beautiful; the translation is excellent, with no sense of a gap between me and the text, which I often do get with translations. I think I'm going to have to parcel it up and send it on a round of my friends to read.

I'm not ac ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Aug 16, 2017 Nicky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I loved this, the first time I read it, and it’s stayed with me ever since — not all the details, but an overall impression of great craft in the writing (and no doubt on the part of the translator, too) and a mystery which, once solved, seemed amazing. It’s not a format I’d usually like, since it doesn’t follow a single character or handful of characters through a story, watching them develop and react; instead, each chapter is linked to the previous, but has different characters. Some of the c ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 18, 2012 Maree rated it really liked it

I have to say that The Alternate Worlds is just an awesome group to be reading books such as this with. This month, this book was taken apart almost chapter by chapter and commented on and discussed and I loved the thought and detail that went into the responses. It just means so much more than the 'oh I really liked it, it was a good book!' posts on some of the younger groups.

And...on to the review!

I really appreciated the structure of novel - each chapter was kind of like a short story in itse ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 30, 2008 Carolyn rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

When I finished reading this book, the only thing that came to mind was "What was the point?" I didn't feel that there was much to the plot, or any good character development - basically felt that reading it had been a waste of my time. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 07, 2012 Suz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, science-fiction

This book has a weird premise, which is why I bought it to begin with. On a planet, there is an entire system set up around one produced good: Carpets. Carpet-Makers are the most honored members of society. They spend their entire lives making a carpet out of human hair. They use the hair of their wives and daughters. They’re the only people in society allowed to have multiple wives - so they can have multiple colors from those wives as well as producing more colors/hair through their daughters. This book has a weird premise, which is why I bought it to begin with. On a planet, there is an entire system set up around one produced good: Carpets. Carpet-Makers are the most honored members of society. They spend their entire lives making a carpet out of human hair. They use the hair of their wives and daughters. They’re the only people in society allowed to have multiple wives - so they can have multiple colors from those wives as well as producing more colors/hair through their daughters. They are allowed one son, to continue the carpet making tradition. They toil away at this task day and night, every day; the work is so intricate that it takes their entire lives to produce one carpet. When the carpet is completed, it is sold, and the price of that hair carpet sets up the next generation (no really, it’s enough money for the family to live off on their entire lives), with the son of the carpet maker marrying and starting his carpet, to toil at until his son is ready to marry and begin the cycle all over again. That is their entire lives. And the economy and society of the entire planet revolves around these precious hair carpets. This is how it has been for untold generations.

They make these carpets to honor their God-Emperor, or at least that’s what they believe/know to be true. These carpets are supposedly shipped off world to adorn the palace of this immortal emperor who has all power and has ruled for however-many millenia.

And then it all changes. And the mystery of the hair carpets is discovered.

This book was interesting - not just in the actual story, but the way it is told. It has amazing writing - each chapter is a short story (so the book is basically a series of short stories) with a one or two (or whatever) character/thread link carrying you from one to the next. It’s usually a pretty tenuous link, but the book is about the story, about human nature - not the characters themselves.

But even without the book being about the characters, most of the chapters encompass something about the main character from the story that is so strong and shocking that at the end of the chapter, I’m left with a “WTF/Whoa/OMG” moment. Some of these chapters just break my heart.

Actually, this whole book pretty much kills me. Eschbach gets more said, more done, more story told, and more emotions out of my gut in 10-15 pages than most authors can get in whole trilogies. It’s a very short book, and it covers a story that takes place over 80,000 years and it’s absolutely amazing. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2011 Lori rated it really liked it

Highly recommend! There are quite a few twists and surprises that I didn't expect, and usually I'm pretty good at that.

We start off on one world with a inhibited society ruled by a never seen Emperor who has a complete religion and culture based on his godness and the society is only to serve him. Very restrictive and inhibitive revolving around the craftsmen who spend their entire lives to make hair carpets using the hair from their wives and daughters.

I was completely settled in to this one ...more

5 likes · Like · see review