The Carpet People

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Terry worked for many years as a journalist and press officer, writing in his spare time and publishing a number of novels, including his first Discworld novel, The Color of Magic, in 1983. In 1987, he turned to writing full time. It has many funny moments in it and quite frankly, if you find it confusing you're either skim reading and so not doing justice or you missed an import stage of your development in reading.

Before Discworld, Terry Pratchett created a carpet planet. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this, a new audiobook version has been published. This is a story of bravery, of never giving up, of fighting against overwhelming odds, of freedom, of self-determination, of history in the making, and of what sort of future you want for yourself and those you care about:

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Stylistically the book is straight forward, with none of the more complex allusions or random digressions that characterise some of Pratchett's other work, indeed though often humorous, the humour here comes mostly from situation, word play and comical characterisation rather than zany comparisons to our own world. Perhaps my only problem with much of Pratchett's description is that with such an intriguing and alien setting as the Carpet, I would've liked more details than he actually gives to aide imagination, ---- for instance though you are told Snark's are predatory creatures and though their behaviour would imply that they're wolves, they are never described in more detail than noting the colour of their coats, likewise though characters speak of day and night, the sky is never mentioned and while the oblique references to "above" are intriguing, with such a basic aspect of the world explanation rather than mystery would've been far more satisfying. Pismire's name is an antiquated word meaning "ant" (specifically, Myrmicinae, a subfamily of ants of whom some species retain a functional sting; note that the present day Swedish word for said subfamily is pissmyra). They were a strange people, the Dumii. They thought they were as level headed as a table, as practical as a shovel – and yet, in a great big world full of chaos and darkness, they acted as though they really believed in their little inventions, like ‘law’ and ‘justice’. And they didn’t have enough imagination to give in.” It’s definitely an “early” Pratchett, still not quite at the height of his writing powers — but the seeds of genius are already there. The Carpet denizens are not quite yet at the Discworld quality, and the humor is gentler, and the fantasy part is more generic (although, and I can’t emphasize it enough, the sheer idea of Carpet People is pure delight), and the story has a somewhat disjointed episodic oddly paced feel — and yet it’s unmistakably still *the* Pratchett on his way to developing his signature wit and style. Wilkins said: “It’s such an important novel, because we know now what’s standing on its shoulders. I asked him, ‘What would you have said to your younger self about your early efforts, the 1971 edition?’ He said, ‘Must try harder.’ I thought that was a little bit harsh, but that was very much Terry, with his tongue in his cheek … When you look at master craftsmen like Terry, always honing their skills, they do get better. But, for me, The Carpet People is timeless.”

All that said - it was much better than the short stories, and has glimmers of Pratchett as we know and love him, complete with his poignant penny-drops and biting satire delivered as only he can. Tennant creates a clearly defined voice for every single character. The level of preparation he put into his performance is evident in the sheer range of accents, tones and dialects he displays. Each character’s voice wonderfully matches their personality, even those that only appear briefly. At times it’s hard to believe there’s just one narrator. I was convinced Gormaleesh (a cunning Moul) had to be voiced by Simon Farnaby as it sounded so much like him. Plus whenever Tennant switched from his natural Scottish accent to an English one it reiterated just how masterfully he is able to switch between the two. It’s such a treat to listen to a narrator whose honed their craft, showcase it to the best of their abilities as it truly heightens the strengths of the writing. Oh, I know it’s useless to say all this,” he added, catching Bane’s grin, “but I wish that the people who sing about the deeds of heroes would think about the people who have to clear up after them.”

Pratchett dreamed up The Carpet People as a teenager; a 1971 interview revealed that he was “putting the world to rights … with a friend one evening when the friend got up to emphasise a point and started to pace across the room. ‘Don’t do that’, said Terry suddenly, ‘You’ll disturb the carpet people.’” I’ve heard people complain that the book isn’t up to Terry Prachett’s Discworld standards. Well, in fairness, he was only seventeen when he imagined and wrote the original concept (as I think is quite well known by his fans (?), he rewrote it when he was forty-three, although I'm not sure how heavily it was revised). There might be a few little problems with the flow of the narrative, (occasionally you are told things, important things, before they've even been shown), but on the whole I have to disagree with the critics of the book. Also, Bane was originally banished from the imperial court because he Threw His Sword and killed an assassin. This saved the emperor's life, but breached the rule that no one may draw a weapon in the ruler's presence. A few wights, called thunorgs, are born with a different perception that lets them see probabilities, alternate possibilities that history could go down, rather than a single deterministic narrative. They appear to be shunned by the others. The Carpet People tells the story of the Munrong tribe as they try to locate a new home after their home was destroyed by Fray. I adored the adventures of the Munrongs - Snibril, Pismire, Glurk and Bane were all loads of fun. I could see the glimmers of what would become known as Sir Pratchett's brilliance: the social commentary rolled up into a huge ball of fun. As Sir Pratchett was barely out of childhood when this was originally written, I would love to see where the changes were made (from originally published manuscript to the final re-publish). I *think* I know where some of them were made.