Who needs science fiction for a fantastic plot when a global energy crisis looms?
Andrew Leonard Mar. 27, 2007 | Energy Bulletin alerts us today to a 750-page German novel on peak oil, “Burned Out,” reported to be a techno-thriller à la Michael Crichton, by the German science fiction writer Andreas Eschbach. The novel hasn’t been translated into English, which makes it a bit challenging for non-German speakers like myself to evaluate its merits, but I do happen to have read the one Eschbach novel that has been published in the U.S., “The Carpet Makers.” And it was mighty fine — a convoluted tale that begins with a planet whose population is devoted entirely to making elaborate carpets out of human hair, and ends with interstellar war and vast mysteries revealed. Eschbach, even in translation, is a gifted writer. I pick up many new science fiction novels that arrive in the mail and discard them after reading the first paragraph. But this is how “The Carpet Makers” starts: Knot after knot, day in, day out, for an entire lifetime, always the same hand movements, alway
