The hair carpet weavers

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The Carpet Makers is an award-winning science fiction - novel by German author Andreas Eschbach . It was published in 1995, was the author's first great success and has been translated into French, Italian, Czech, Polish, Spanish and English. The basis for the novel was the short story of the same name, which appeared in the literary magazine Flugasche in December 1985 ; it now forms the first chapter of the book unchanged.

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On thousands upon thousands of planets in the galaxy Gheera in the universe ruled by the star emperor Aleksandr the 11th there has been the highly respected profession of the hair carpet weaver for tens of thousands of years. The hair carpet weavers use the hair of their wives, concubines and daughters to make hair carpets for the palace of the eleventh star emperor. You have been working on a carpet all your life. If they sell it to the imperial carpet dealers at the end of their lives, the family of the only son in each case lives on the proceeds of this carpet for the rest of his life, and the son in turn knots another carpet for the care of the next generation.

After thousands of years of manipulation by the priesthood, the population of the hair carpet weaver planet sees a godlike being in the star emperor. Speculation or reports of rebellion are considered heresy and are usually punishable by death.

In fact, this revolution took place. With the exception of Berenko Kebar Jubad, the Council of the Rebels is not aware of the fact that the Star Emperor, tired after almost 100,000 years of infinite power and life, had sown the seeds of the rebellion himself 300 years earlier under the name Denkalsar - an anagram of Aleksandr . To the captured rebel Jubad, he describes his plan for the rebels' storming of his palace and his own death in great detail. However, by order of the Star Emperor, people should never know of his involvement in the revolt. Mankind had to live in the conviction that they had won the victory over the emperor on their own in order to be able to look proudly into the future.

About 20 years after the Star Emperor was overthrown, the Council of Rebels happens to come across the phenomenon of the hair carpets. Since there is not a single carpet in the palace of the star emperor, the question arises where the carpets are going.

Emparak, the old archivist of the star emperor, finally reveals the secret of the hair carpets to the young rebel and historian Lamita: The tenth star emperor, despite or because of his unbelievable longevity, struck with a bald head, conquered the galaxy Gheera "because it is there". When visiting their main world Gheerh, the emperor expected a public gesture of submission from the defeated ruler Pantap. Instead, Pantap humiliated him with the words: "Your power may be so great that it compels our submission, but it is not great enough to let hair grow on your skull, bald emperor." The star emperor angrily prophesied that but his power was sufficiently great to cover the whole of Gheerh with the hair of Pantap's subjects, and that he would watch.

As a result, Pantap was chained to his throne and connected to a life support system. The population of the subjugated Gheera system was bombed back into primitiveness. An army of preachers was sent out to establish a seemingly religious system that demanded carpets of hair as an alleged sacrifice for the divine emperor. For thousands of years, Pantap then had to watch the surface of his home planet being systematically destroyed and covered with the hair carpets of his subordinates. The galaxy Gheera was erased from all star maps and data storage media and the star system Gheerh was hidden in an artificial dimensional fold - a vengeance that lasted more than 100,000 years.

Shape / style

The story is told in individual, loosely linked episodes that contribute to uncovering the connections to different degrees. The stories are shaped by the cut-up technique, which allows the reader to read the chapters at once and still be able to put them in a common context.

Awards

expenditure

Translations

  • French: Des milliards de tapis de cheveux. Éditions L'Atalante, 1999, ISBN 2-84172-111-6 (adapted from Claire Duval), new edition J'ai lu, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-290-33013-2
  • Czech: Tkalci gobelinu. Albatros 2001 (translated by Ondřej Müller)
  • Italian: Miliardi di tappeti di capelli. Solaria, Fanucci Editore 2001, ISBN 88-347-1165-3 ( adapted from R. Benatti)
  • Polish: Gobeliniarze. Solaris, 2004 (transferred from Joanna Filipek)
  • Spanish: Los tejedores de cabellos. Bibliópolis, Madrid 2004. ISBN 9788496173040 ( adapted from José María Faraldo)
  • English: The Carpet Makers. Tor Books, 2005, ISBN 0-7653-0593-3 (adapted from Doryl Jensen)
  • Hungarian: Hajszönyegszövök. Metropolis, Budapest 2009. ISBN 978-963-9828-26-1 (translated by Csaba Varga)

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the history on the author's homepage