Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Book Review: The Carpet People

"Some things you should care about enough to do badly."


My BFF Bookmonkey is a dyed-in-the-wool Terry Pratchett fan, and rightly so. Not for nothing does the cover of this book call Mr. Pratchett "Master Storyteller".

I asked Bookmonkey if I might borrow all his Discworld novels and finally see what I've been missing. What a fantastic debut!

"The Carpet People" is the 1971 and 1992 novel by Terry Pratchett and Terry Pratchett. Meaning that it was extensively revised for its reprinting after T.P. got famous. (Oh, dear. T.P.? Nah, it's fine, I'll leave it.)

It's a sword quest of the fantasy variety, in the microscopic hair forests of somebody's carpet.

What a fun concept! I really liked this idea. Their biggest city is smaller than the dot at the end of a sentence. Their bronze mail is forged from a penny the size of a whole country. Their wood they chop from the Woodwall, with varnish imported from far off "achairleg".

A strong brother, the not-so-much-so brother, a king, and a warrior lead the Munrung tribal exodus, driven from their homes by the disastrous natural force called Fray.
My favourite character was the shaman; practical, philosophical Pismire.



The last termagant (seen here in T.P.'s original illustration) is also a highlight.


It made me think twice about vacuuming the rug today. Naw, I'm just kidding.

I never vacuum.

1 comment:

rohit said...

Must be an enjoyable read The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett. loved the way you wrote it. I find your review very genuine and orignal, this book is going in by "to read" list.