The Carpet Makers

A desiccated and dusty planet where carpet weavers spend their entire lives hunched over a loom, weaving a carpet made of hair drawn from their wives. It takes a lifetime to produce a single carpet which is sold to line the Emperor's palace. The proceeds are passed to the son who will spend his life weaving his own carpet and so on through the generations.

In a single first chapter this entire system is outlined and explained with a beautifully strict economy of words. It's tightly woven (sorry) and was originally conceived as a standalone short story.

From here Eschbach pulls back the lens and each chapter introduces another character and furthers our understanding of this galaxy spanning system of fealty to the godlike Emperor.

I don't want to say much more. Each narrator is introduced and discarded and it's a credit to Eschbach that he is able to keep introducing new, fleshed out and realized characters without getting bogged down. The book is like a series of grim but wonderfully rendered and interconnected short stories.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the conclusion but getting there was so enjoyably readable.