Best Novella - The Four Profound Weaves by R B Lemberg
Publisher – Tachyon Publications
Published – Out Now
Price – £14.95 hardback £7.28 Kindle eBook
The Surun' nomads do not speak of the master weaver, Benesret, who creates the cloth of bone for assassins in the Great Burri Desert. But aged Uiziya must find her aunt in order to learn the final weave, although the price for knowledge may be far too dear to pay.
Among the Khana in the springflower city of Iyar, women travel in caravans to trade, while men remain in the inner quarter, as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother.
As his past catches up, the nameless man must choose between the life he dreamed of and Uiziya--while Uiziya must discover how to challenge the evil Ruler of Iyar, and to weave from deaths that matter.
All stories deal with change from one state to another. In fantasy we can see the humble peasant become a hero or king, tyranny turn to freedom and isn’t any use of magic about transition from one state to another. Change is at the heart of story and reading RB Lemberg’s magnificent The Four Profound Weaves we have a novella that creates an epic journey in miniature for two characters that have profound consequences for the past and future of the world they live in.
In the desert of a world that is not our own we meet two characters each at a crossroads in their lives. In this world Weavers are revered for the power of magic they can place into their creations. There are four known Weaves – The carpet of Wind that represents Change; The Carpet of Sand that signifies our wanderlust; The Carpet of Song which carries Hope and finally the The Carpet of Bone which means death. If anyone was to have all four a new power would finally be realised.
The Weaver Uiziya has been for forty years stuck since she created her Carpet of Sand. She craves the knowledge from her aunt and mentor Benesret but she knows to create you must destroy that which you love and she cannot bring herself to do this. Entering her location is the Nameless Man who has found their grandchild’s own weave a Carpet of Wind has been taken by an evil ruler who calls himself The Collector who many years ago forced the Nameless Man and his lover to bring a Carpet of Song to him and then they found his promises to release their imprisoned lover were lies from which they never recovered. Uiziya and the Nameless Man agree to go into the Desert and find Benesret to get the secrets of Death and perhaps finally they can both move on.
What impressed me so much reading this is this story’s many explorations of the power of Change wrapped in a mythic world that carries its own mythology and customs that Lemberg paints for us brilliantly. This is a world of Assassins who worship a buried Star; magic lurks in our secret names; or where mysterious diamondflies lurk in the desert and can devour you in an instant . A land where for some people men must be sheltered and women are the protectors and other where gender means very little. Lemberg doesn’t create a world filled with exposition instead we get snippets of how this world work and the onus is on the reader to themselves weave the universe this all sits in. I felt as if I was travelling in a world with an ancient history, I had only just glimpsed the surface of but what I saw was fascinating.
Our two leads who each narrate their own sides of the story are also both representatives of change. Both are trans characters but while Uiziya found out who she was from early in life as a child the Nameless Man waited until their lover died before finally embracing who he really was all along. But despite their previous journeys now both don’t know where they want to go next. Uiziya finds their creativity has stopped and the Nameless Man is afraid to just do what all men are expected to do in his culture and hide away from public eyes. This is the story of them moving past their fears and finding out who they are in the next stage of their lives. Neither gets what they expected instead it places them in huge peril and danger from themselves and others but different purposes and potential futures arise for them to explore even if they way forward is hard.
Pulling the threads behind the scenes we find the Collector who greedily takes all that is precious and beautiful in this world and hordes it for themselves. As well as a force against creativity and the sharing of art they are also someone we find who ruthlessly represses those who want the world and society to change. In particular women who wish to use magic or seek their own world but he also founds on those who change their gender. The Collector is a chilling victim who sees all around him as toys for his own desires and when our duo cross paths we come into the most traditional mythic part of the tale but one I think that creates a battle we see every day of our lives to not conform to the strict rules that others want us to live by.
The Four Profound Weaves lyrically is a tale of Change, Adventure, Hope and Death revealing that this cycle never ends, and we may go through it several times. It is only when we resist further change that we find ourselves stuck and out of hope for ourselves. Lemberg has created a beautiful myth that weaves the threads of story as easily as our characters can create material out of bone or songs. Haunting yet beautiful this is highly recommended.
