About the Author

Andreas Eschbach was born 1959 in Ulm, Germany. In 1996, his first novel, Die Haarteppichknüpfer ('The Hair Carpet Makers'), won one of the highest awards of German science fiction, the SFCD-Literaturpreis. His second novel, Solarstation, won the other great German science fiction award, the Kurd Laßwitz Preis. His third novel, Jesus Video, won both of them, became a nationwide bestseller in 2000, and was turned into a movie in 2002.

Reviews

"Eschbach's first novel will blow you away. Yes, it's that good." --Analog "A considerable achievement, and one that suggests the presence of a world-class SF voice that we ought to know about." --Locus "Enthusiastically introduced by no less than Orson Scott Card, this far-future novel does credit to everyone concerned, starting with its German author... Despite being broken into short episodes, the novel is one fluidly integrated story. Eschbach is likely to become an international phenomenon." --Booklist "With his first work Eschbach shows that the German SF is not dead." --Olive Faulhaber on The Carpet Makers "Andreas Eschbach is one of the most acclaimed sf writers to emerge in Germany in the past decade." --The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy on The Carpet Makers "Andreas Eschbach is a phenomenon." --Lesen & Leute on The Carpet Makers "Eschbach: take it and read it." --Frank Schirrmacher, FAZ on The Carpet Makers "Andreas Eschbach is incontestably the shooting star of the German SF scene." --Heyne Science Fiction Yearbook on The Carpet Makers

"Eschbach's first novel will blow you away. Yes, it's that good." --Analog "A considerable achievement, and one that suggests the presence of a world-class SF voice that we ought to know about." --Locus "Enthusiastically introduced by no less than Orson Scott Card, this far-future novel does credit to everyone concerned, starting with its German author... Despite being broken into short episodes, the novel is one fluidly integrated story. Eschbach is likely to become an international phenomenon." --Booklist "With his first work Eschbach shows that the German SF is not dead." --Olive Faulhaber on The Carpet Makers "Andreas Eschbach is one of the most acclaimed sf writers to emerge in Germany in the past decade." --The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy on The Carpet Makers "Andreas Eschbach is a phenomenon." --Lesen & Leute on The Carpet Makers "Eschbach: take it and read it." --Frank Schirrmacher, FAZ on The Carpet Makers "Andreas Eschbach is incontestably the shooting star of the German SF scene." --Heyne Science Fiction Yearbook on The Carpet Makers

Set on a low-tech world where the main industry is the manufacture of carpets of human hair, German SF author Eschbach's first novel forms a grim mosaic of stories of myriad people and cultures trapped in stagnation by one powerful man's petty anger. Intended for the emperor on a distant planet, the carpets are so finely made that each carpet maker can only finish one in his lifetime, working with hairs from the bodies of his wives, who are chosen for the quality and color of their tresses. And so life goes, generation after generation, even after rumors and, finally, ships from the new government arrive with word of the emperor's removal. The new interstellar government learns the emperor secretly maintained thousands of carpet-making planets. Why? Eventually, the reader finds out the answer, though the revelation comes almost as an afterthought. While Eschbach's vignettes do form a fragile whole, the structure lacks urgency or focus. There's bound to be extra publicity because Orson Scott Card, who provides an intro, helped discover the book, but while Card fans will enjoy the large-scale world building and historical detail, they may be disappointed by the lack of real characters or sustained plot. (Apr. 15) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.