Book Review: "The Hair Carpet Weavers" by Andreas Eschbach

I have read many Sci-Fi novels in my time. From my favourite Sci-Fi novel (if you would call it of that particular genre) “The Island of Dr. Moreau” by H.G Wells to the more modern ideas portrayed in Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One”. I have encountered everything from “Fahrenheit 451” all the back to the original genius of language and narrative depth in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”. If we count novels such as “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale” and the modern classic “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” - yes, I can honestly say that I have read and enjoyed those two. But I will only ever admit here that I have never read the other modern Sci-Fi classic, “Dune”. Instead, I decided to give a different Sci-Fi novel on my TBR a go. “The Hair Carpet Weavers” by Andreas Eschbach is something I thought at first sounded pretty tame but, it turned out to be one of the most engrossing and exciting Sci-Fi novels I have ever read.

Ostvan has been creating his ‘hair carpet’ for a long while, many years in fact. He is known as a ‘hair carpet weaver’ and, believing in the age-old dream of having his carpet displayed at the feet of the emperor on a far-away planet - he plans to leave his legacy in the beauty of knotting artistic carpets up from the hair of his wives and daughters. Meanwhile, a teacher is being punished by a preacher. Yes, but then how does a man from a distant planet arrive on their planet and tell them that their hair-carpet work is not all it is cracked up to be? Why has nobody ever seen the emperor and who is he really? So many things do not add up in the age where there are some who obey the emperor and weave the carpet and some who do not obey - they are called the rebels. It is a strange thought that maybe both of these teams, large in number and strong in beliefs, may be fighting on the same side. All of this, connected by a shady, shadowy figure known mainly as ‘the emperor’. Watch this space opera unfold in extended metaphors about poverty, obedience, religion and a critique of how modernism seeks to endanger the vulnerable through lies, half-truths and twisted psychological fantasy of reward that will never come to light. It is mind-blowing.

I read the entire book in one sitting and honestly, I have to say that there was probably no other way to read it for me. Everything, every story, every character and every minute of the book links up even though the stories themselves seem starkly different. One thing you would want to find out is what all of these carpets are being used for and where all of these hair carpets are now. It is an amazing formation between what is real and what is not. It counts in all of these perspectives, each of a different person, each experiencing a different thing and each from a different class, ideology, occupation etc. to the one before them. It is not just about the hair carpet weavers, it is about the secrets and shades that keep these people in submission. The question of why is so very important but if you do not read the entire book then nothing in the last chapter (epilogue) will make any sense at all.

I adored the book and honestly, I have to say that I was wrong about my first impressions of it. It was a massively entertaining piece of dystopian writing.