And the first one was by Harold Robbins

[supergee]

Ada Palmer & Jo Walton discuss tapestry novels. [Uncanny Magazine]

Thanx to oursin

Comments

[oursin]

Pondering on this I think it's a form that goes back further, if only because I can recall a hypothetical one posited by my darling GB Stern in one of her 'ragbag chronicles'. She was riffing off something that was around in ?30s/40s and suggested (though also remarking it would be Very Long) novel which starts in theatre, First Night impending, only seats which are taken are those for the critics: and by the time curtain is up, all are filled, standing room only, story is how audience all get to that state, with presumably cameos for the thesps.

[arlie]

I don't think I've ever read a tapestry novel, and I'm not sure I ever want to. I'd also never heard the term.

What I expected this term to refer to was what the article calls a braid novel, particularly the kind I've seen a lot of in the last 20 years of SF - a huge cast of characters, most/many of whom recur, with the viewpoint flitting among them, generally in 3rd person. If it's a braid, it's a braid created by a small child's first attempts at braiding hair - loose ends bursting out in all directions, along with lots of broken strands. (As you can guess, I don't like this style.)

Fortunately there's room for everyone's preferences, somewhere out there.