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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This story weaves through many different lives across galaxies who all intersect in one way or another. Very intelligently layered and then unveiled. I felt drawn into each individual story. There were so many little secrets that were revealed. And not every story was tightly wound back up but gave you enough to come to your own conclusions -- in both storyline & in emotion that built up from the start of the chapter to the end. There were chilling, sad, thought-provoking, hopeful, surprising, and shocking endings to each chapter... you never knew what to expect. But I think Eschbach saved the best heart-wrenching moment for his ending. It gave us a personal acknowledgment (a bit of a release too) to what was lost in just one family. The book starts out with one murderous act, and its repercussions resonates throughout the next generation. The book really highlights how one person's small or large actions ripple across years and affect an unknown amount of people be it rulers, fathers, soldiers, etc, who start these acts.
I enjoyed the entirety of this book's journey. Its sci fi, but it also has this ancient world feel when you land on the planets with their heavy traditions, society hierarchy, isolation, superstitions, and so on. Its also about the aftermath of a dictatorship and changing people's beliefs and fears. Its about changing entire civilizations' relationships with its population as the news of the end of this dictatorship is spread. And its amazing how there's so much work accomplished, yet there is so little change. There are so many acceptance issues because these people have been brainwashed for generations. How easy is that to picture happen now-a-days?... extremely!
There is one issue Eschbach does not resolve and that's regarding the Emperor's ability to live for thousands of years. But as the character Emparak said at the end of the book when asked about what the vast library contained: "Other histories." The door is so open! I wish there was more. What other secrets is Eschbach hiding in there?
"Understanding alone cannot withstand time; it changes and fades away. But shame is like a wound that is never exposed and therefore never heals." You feel this thought throughout the chapters and with each character. Its an illustration of the atrocities that will never be forgotten. Sadly, great evil cannot be erased or pushed under the "rug" forever. When I finished the book, the term "collateral damage" came to mind instantly. This book was an entrancing story about all the common people affected by two men's heated words and vengance.
This is one of those phenomenal works. It stays with you, it changes perceptions, it makes you curious, and it gives you a thirst for more. I would gladly experience it again and again! I loved it on many levels. Truly one of the best science fiction works of this century. Its both historical and futuristic, which is the perfect combination for someone like me!
I enjoyed the entirety of this book's journey. Its sci fi, but it also has this ancient world feel when you land on the planets with their heavy traditions, society hierarchy, isolation, superstitions, and so on. Its also about the aftermath of a dictatorship and changing people's beliefs and fears. Its about changing entire civilizations' relationships with its population as the news of the end of this dictatorship is spread. And its amazing how there's so much work accomplished, yet there is so little change. There are so many acceptance issues because these people have been brainwashed for generations. How easy is that to picture happen now-a-days?... extremely!
There is one issue Eschbach does not resolve and that's regarding the Emperor's ability to live for thousands of years. But as the character Emparak said at the end of the book when asked about what the vast library contained: "Other histories." The door is so open! I wish there was more. What other secrets is Eschbach hiding in there?
"Understanding alone cannot withstand time; it changes and fades away. But shame is like a wound that is never exposed and therefore never heals." You feel this thought throughout the chapters and with each character. Its an illustration of the atrocities that will never be forgotten. Sadly, great evil cannot be erased or pushed under the "rug" forever. When I finished the book, the term "collateral damage" came to mind instantly. This book was an entrancing story about all the common people affected by two men's heated words and vengance.
This is one of those phenomenal works. It stays with you, it changes perceptions, it makes you curious, and it gives you a thirst for more. I would gladly experience it again and again! I loved it on many levels. Truly one of the best science fiction works of this century. Its both historical and futuristic, which is the perfect combination for someone like me!
At first this seems like a simple, but unusual, story of a planet whose whole purpose is the creation of carpets made of hair to sell for their Emperor-God. The carpets are made from the hair of the carpet makers wives and daughters and will take their entire life to create just one. As the story unfolds you gradually learn all is not as it seems and something quite sinister is happening.
This was a mesmerising tale which kept me glued to the pages so much I read the whole book in a couple hours. I just had to know what the truth was and I have to say I didn't see it coming. The twist was pulled off superbly.
There were some negatives though. The way the book was told was very disjointed and often jarring and disorientating from one chapter to the next. You'd never know how much time, if any, had passed until later on. I also felt there were a few plot lines that were never resolved. They just disappeared.
Overall though this was a great book. I highly recommend it.
This was a mesmerising tale which kept me glued to the pages so much I read the whole book in a couple hours. I just had to know what the truth was and I have to say I didn't see it coming. The twist was pulled off superbly.
There were some negatives though. The way the book was told was very disjointed and often jarring and disorientating from one chapter to the next. You'd never know how much time, if any, had passed until later on. I also felt there were a few plot lines that were never resolved. They just disappeared.
Overall though this was a great book. I highly recommend it.
It is hard to talk about this book properly without giving spoilers, but here I go anyway.
The writing style is unique in that, although it continues the story in a linear way, is told from the perspective of a different character for each chapter. Often times the story will skip ahead by years from chapter to chapter but I wasn't confused by this after I realized what was happening. The story itself is more than just the fall of an empire and the odd cult of hair carpet making. You eventually realize that the why is so mysterious, but once you find out it is just insanity. This whole book kept me interested from start to finish, and I loved it! I only wish there was more, that maybe it had been longer.
The writing style is unique in that, although it continues the story in a linear way, is told from the perspective of a different character for each chapter. Often times the story will skip ahead by years from chapter to chapter but I wasn't confused by this after I realized what was happening. The story itself is more than just the fall of an empire and the odd cult of hair carpet making. You eventually realize that the why is so mysterious, but once you find out it is just insanity. This whole book kept me interested from start to finish, and I loved it! I only wish there was more, that maybe it had been longer.
I went into this mostly blind knowing only that the main thrust of the story involved artisans that wove amazing carpets so I was not expecting something so dark and heavy. The narrative structure took a while to get used to because each chapter had its own pov character that differed from the one before and while the stories were all about the same world there wasn't the traditional story narrative binding them. This was definitely crafted beautifully but I don't know if it was the depressing situations being presented or the oppressive system of government that made this so hard to get into. I didn't really enjoy my time reading but I always wanted to see what would happen next and what new layers of the world would be revealed.
This book reminded me a lot of Asimov's Foundation series in its style. The story is woven together well (no pun intended), with all of the disparate characters and storylines slowly coalescing into a single plot line. And the world building is pretty interesting. But the characters are one-dimensional (also similar to Foundation) and overall plot is thin with an unsatisfying conclusion.
[what follows are excerpts from a longer "review": love this book...
"As a writer of Short Story, Eschbach is aware of the need to craft the impressive scope of millennium not into the volume of page and text, but into the awe of a word or phrase: or in the case of The Carpet Makers, in the use of easily contemplated and calculated horror.
You do not have to wait for the horror, nor will you be able to dispose of it quickly. As the collection of vignettes build, the terrible and tragic deepens, and thus the scope of time is simultaneously grasped and impossible to imagine.
I really don’t want to spoil the potential ecstasy for each entry in The Carpet Makers, because if you are like me at all, the well turned plot is a joy forever. My breath was quick when I finished reading “I: The Carpet Makers.” I did not see that end in coming. I wasn’t expecting it. And why? Cause who would dare end a story that way?! Besides maybe Kate Chopin. I had a pleasured sigh for every single story, or that “of course” chuckle. I even hugged the book a couple of times.
Each entry is a short story, and as Sean noted “each [are] tangentially interrelated. Intimate conversation here, galactic orientation there. This particular device removes any one character from our story as important. Well, any character, save one. The Emperor.” Each story references the previous entry, a fine thread; however, each is written as its own. You are made to feel for the characters (whether out of sympathy or disgust) in each of the stories. There are ideas held within each that are of interest and worthy conversation. But all are collected into greater focus. The Carpet Makers is not about “any one character…save The Emperor;” the Emperor, and Vengeance.
[...]
If a reader is looking for a formulaic science fiction novel, The Carpet Makers is not it. This is where the reader of mainstream sci-fi may find disappointment. However, that Eschbach chooses not to sustain a plot for more than 304 pages does not mean a plot is not sustained. Can you tell that the comments by Publishers Weekly bothered me? A storyline is held, even as it is revealed. The ability to write the summary, as Publisher’s Weekly has, supports this. And even if the article sees the revelation as “an afterthought” the revelation is present. And it is satisfactory, despite its possible irrationality.
I said that The Carpet Makers collects its short stories into a greater focus; each entry a short story to be woven and laid into a whole. I neglected the epilogue which belongs to the book. The epilogue brings the stories together into a sense of resolution. The over-arching themes and story’s catharsis is housed here. Don’t read it or the last page before reading the rest. You won’t understand it.
In the meaninglessness (senselessness) that pervades the book, we find the human heart on the last pages. And we can sense this, and find meaning. When humanity feels lost in its inevitability, we are gifted a perspective that would provide possibility; and plausibility. For all the times the question Why arises in the text, we are finally given an answer we want to relate to, on a human scale and a universal one: Love. For all the other times we’ve found an answer to Why we didn’t want to find relation to the answer: Vengeance. In the end we are rescued from inevitability, and gifted possibility. However, both Love and Vengeance; inevitability and possibility; are not without elements sacrifice.
[...]
The Carpet Makers is a lovely and exciting book.
In thinking about my notes, I realized that I had made Vengeance the human inevitable, and Love the human possibility. My sunny disposition, I suppose; or the lure of each story leading into the epilogue. What difference can be read into this book if Love were human inevitability, and Vengeance their possibility. If Vengeance is the possible answer than the senselessness of the violence bleeding through the pages and stories is an interesting answer to the question of Why. Why are things the way they are? As it is, the goings-on make the Love and the Rational the senseless response, and Vengeance the only logical one.
~L(omphaloskepsis)
http://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/long-and-pt-2-the-carpet-makers/
"As a writer of Short Story, Eschbach is aware of the need to craft the impressive scope of millennium not into the volume of page and text, but into the awe of a word or phrase: or in the case of The Carpet Makers, in the use of easily contemplated and calculated horror.
You do not have to wait for the horror, nor will you be able to dispose of it quickly. As the collection of vignettes build, the terrible and tragic deepens, and thus the scope of time is simultaneously grasped and impossible to imagine.
I really don’t want to spoil the potential ecstasy for each entry in The Carpet Makers, because if you are like me at all, the well turned plot is a joy forever. My breath was quick when I finished reading “I: The Carpet Makers.” I did not see that end in coming. I wasn’t expecting it. And why? Cause who would dare end a story that way?! Besides maybe Kate Chopin. I had a pleasured sigh for every single story, or that “of course” chuckle. I even hugged the book a couple of times.
Each entry is a short story, and as Sean noted “each [are] tangentially interrelated. Intimate conversation here, galactic orientation there. This particular device removes any one character from our story as important. Well, any character, save one. The Emperor.” Each story references the previous entry, a fine thread; however, each is written as its own. You are made to feel for the characters (whether out of sympathy or disgust) in each of the stories. There are ideas held within each that are of interest and worthy conversation. But all are collected into greater focus. The Carpet Makers is not about “any one character…save The Emperor;” the Emperor, and Vengeance.
[...]
If a reader is looking for a formulaic science fiction novel, The Carpet Makers is not it. This is where the reader of mainstream sci-fi may find disappointment. However, that Eschbach chooses not to sustain a plot for more than 304 pages does not mean a plot is not sustained. Can you tell that the comments by Publishers Weekly bothered me? A storyline is held, even as it is revealed. The ability to write the summary, as Publisher’s Weekly has, supports this. And even if the article sees the revelation as “an afterthought” the revelation is present. And it is satisfactory, despite its possible irrationality.
I said that The Carpet Makers collects its short stories into a greater focus; each entry a short story to be woven and laid into a whole. I neglected the epilogue which belongs to the book. The epilogue brings the stories together into a sense of resolution. The over-arching themes and story’s catharsis is housed here. Don’t read it or the last page before reading the rest. You won’t understand it.
In the meaninglessness (senselessness) that pervades the book, we find the human heart on the last pages. And we can sense this, and find meaning. When humanity feels lost in its inevitability, we are gifted a perspective that would provide possibility; and plausibility. For all the times the question Why arises in the text, we are finally given an answer we want to relate to, on a human scale and a universal one: Love. For all the other times we’ve found an answer to Why we didn’t want to find relation to the answer: Vengeance. In the end we are rescued from inevitability, and gifted possibility. However, both Love and Vengeance; inevitability and possibility; are not without elements sacrifice.
[...]
The Carpet Makers is a lovely and exciting book.
In thinking about my notes, I realized that I had made Vengeance the human inevitable, and Love the human possibility. My sunny disposition, I suppose; or the lure of each story leading into the epilogue. What difference can be read into this book if Love were human inevitability, and Vengeance their possibility. If Vengeance is the possible answer than the senselessness of the violence bleeding through the pages and stories is an interesting answer to the question of Why. Why are things the way they are? As it is, the goings-on make the Love and the Rational the senseless response, and Vengeance the only logical one.
~L(omphaloskepsis)
http://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/long-and-pt-2-the-carpet-makers/
Would someone please do an English translation of some more of his books? C'mon, I want to read the Jesus Video!
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No