Publication
St. Martin's Griffin (2004), 402 pages
Original publication date
2004-09
Collections
Subjects
Awards
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 2005)
Sunburst Award (Shortlist — 2005)
Gaylactic Spectrum Award (Nominee — Novel — 2006)
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 2005)
Philip K. Dick Award (Nominee — 2004)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2005)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Winner — 2006)
Otherwise Award (Winner — 2005)
Locus Recommended Reading (2004)
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Description
This remarkable novel is about the effects of a new communications technology, Air, that works without power lines or machines. As pervasive technology ensures the rapid spread of pop culture and information access, few corners of the planet remain untouched. One of those few is Kizuldah, Karzistan, a tiny rice-farming village, predominantly Chinese Buddhist but with a strong Muslim presence, among whom sharply intelligent though illiterate Mae Chung, a self-styled fashion expert guiding the village women in dress, make-up and hairstyling, is an informal leader. When the UN decides to test the radical new technology Air, Mae is boiling laundry and chatting with elderly Mrs Tung. The massive surge of Air energy swamps them, and when the test is finished, Mrs Tung is dead, and Mae has absorbed her 90 years of memories. Rocked by the unexpected deaths and disorientation, the UN delays fully implementing Air, but Mae sees at once that her way of life is ending. Half-mad, struggling with information overload, the resentment of much of the village, and a complex family situation, she works fiercely to learn what she needs to ride the tiger of change.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Raven
The protagonist of this novel, Mae, is the "fashion expert" in a small, isolated, very poor mountain village in a fictional Central Asian country. She is illiterate, as are most of the villagers. Her life is small and ordinary. And then comes Air: the internet without wires or screens, information
For the first 200 pages, this is a story of loss and change: Mae understands more than anyone that the old ways are going to be lost, but that the villagers must learn, must adapt or die, and she sets out to change them, hopefully for the better, but for the inevitable. She, herself, is changed by it as much as anyone, and the novel starts off depicting this beautifully, in a clear measured style that matches the content nicely. But after the halfway mark, the plot twists start to get ever-more twisty, ever-stranger, and not in a way that works - there was a specific point, regarding human biology (you'll know it when you see it) where my suspension of disbelief was just shot down. Both the macroscopic and microscopic plots suffer from this after a while - both Air, and Mae's personal life, get ever more involved and thus less engaging.
So, after a point, while in principle the idea is very sound indeed, and it has flahses of beauty and insight, I'm not quite sure I like this, and what exactly I can take away.
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direct to the human brain by telepathy, and it's going to change everything. For the first 200 pages, this is a story of loss and change: Mae understands more than anyone that the old ways are going to be lost, but that the villagers must learn, must adapt or die, and she sets out to change them, hopefully for the better, but for the inevitable. She, herself, is changed by it as much as anyone, and the novel starts off depicting this beautifully, in a clear measured style that matches the content nicely. But after the halfway mark, the plot twists start to get ever-more twisty, ever-stranger, and not in a way that works - there was a specific point, regarding human biology (you'll know it when you see it) where my suspension of disbelief was just shot down. Both the macroscopic and microscopic plots suffer from this after a while - both Air, and Mae's personal life, get ever more involved and thus less engaging.
So, after a point, while in principle the idea is very sound indeed, and it has flahses of beauty and insight, I'm not quite sure I like this, and what exactly I can take away.
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LibraryThing member MuseofIre
Terrific and charming, up until the last five or so pages.
LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
I read this years ago but still remember whole sections; it absolutely astounded me. It's the tale of Mae, who lives in the not-quite-distant future. Mae is the exact opposite of an expected main character: middle-aged, not white, a woman, not a revolutionary or particularly gifted or chosen in any
Last year I saw Geoff Ryman speak, and he mentioned his ambivalence about Air...he felt it leant too heavily upon the idea of a technological marvel that changes the way the world works. Those of us who read scads of sf have encountered this before: the Singularity, the paragon of inventions, the perfect program, whatever--the one piece of tech that revolutionizes the world. In these stories, a macguffin does all the hard work, and all the painful history and prejudice and failings of humanity fall by the wayside. But in truth, I think [b:Air: Or Have Not Have] problematizes that idea in exactly the right way. Air is just another piece of tech; it will absolutely change some things, but as Ryman shows, inequalities have an impact on how people use it and can access it, and people themselves remain a deeply important part of the story. This book isn't about Air, the magical new telepathic internet. It's about Mae, and what she feels for and does about her community. I highly recommend this book to anyone, even if they ordinarily can't stand science fiction.
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way. But her personality is so vibrant, and Ryman writes her world so well, that I couldn't imagine a more appropriate heroine. Last year I saw Geoff Ryman speak, and he mentioned his ambivalence about Air...he felt it leant too heavily upon the idea of a technological marvel that changes the way the world works. Those of us who read scads of sf have encountered this before: the Singularity, the paragon of inventions, the perfect program, whatever--the one piece of tech that revolutionizes the world. In these stories, a macguffin does all the hard work, and all the painful history and prejudice and failings of humanity fall by the wayside. But in truth, I think [b:Air: Or Have Not Have] problematizes that idea in exactly the right way. Air is just another piece of tech; it will absolutely change some things, but as Ryman shows, inequalities have an impact on how people use it and can access it, and people themselves remain a deeply important part of the story. This book isn't about Air, the magical new telepathic internet. It's about Mae, and what she feels for and does about her community. I highly recommend this book to anyone, even if they ordinarily can't stand science fiction.
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LibraryThing member ayoungenator
The effects of unstoppable internet access on a remote village's culture and social structure. I thought at first it was going to be a bust since I did not like the main character, but she grows into a surprisingly likeable heroine.
LibraryThing member ColinFine
Superb!
At first I agreed with another poster that the last few pages were not satisfying, but after discussing this with somebody and rereading it, I've changed my mind.
At first I agreed with another poster that the last few pages were not satisfying, but after discussing this with somebody and rereading it, I've changed my mind.
LibraryThing member ggarchar
Captivating! Mae is someone to admire for her determination to survive the immense changes we're expected to endure in our futures.
LibraryThing member seawolfsanctuary
I could only hack half of this; while it seemed much too slow for my tastes, I can see why others would enjoy it.
LibraryThing member lambada
A deeply moving account of an isolated villager's perspective on the large leaps in modern technology, and how she rises to the challenge of adapting and making their voices heard.
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
I like to think of Air as the third-world counterpart to Feed. While both novels show a not-too-distant future where the Internet is implanted in our brains, Air shows it from the perspective of the last village in the world to get normal Internet-- a place thus totally unprepared for the magnitude
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of the change coming their way. The main character is Chung Mae, who has a bad experience during the Test of the new Air system, and thus is the only villager who has any inkling about the impending change. Ryman explores the impact of technology on the third world from a wide variety of perspectives, and gives no easy answers. I quite liked the book and its ideas (I wouldn't be teaching it otherwise... well, maybe), but I do think the pregnancy subplot is profoundly weird and entirely pointless. Also it moves a little slow at times. But it's a different perspective from a lot of sf, and it feels very real for it. Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
There are a lot of interesting ideas in this near-future science fiction novel, but I don’t think they came together in the end.
AIR is set in the year 2020, in a remote village in a fictional country west of China. The villagers are a mixture of Chinese, Muslims and the fictional natives, the
This is just the first in a series of incredible things that happen to Mae, and I was never sure whether these events were literally happening, whether they were occurring in some virtual, Air-created world, or both. Ryman was playing with these ideas, I think, but couldn’t get them to gel. The plot proceeds in fits and starts, sometimes dragging for pages and pages, sometimes rocketing along; the novel never finds its rhythm. In addition, my copy was riddled with typos and grammatical errors, which were very distracting.
So while I mostly enjoyed the novel, Ryman never quite convinced me of its reality.
AIR is set in the year 2020, in a remote village in a fictional country west of China. The villagers are a mixture of Chinese, Muslims and the fictional natives, the
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Eloi. All poor rice farmers, the villagers just got their first combination television/computer. But a new technology is coming called Air that will allow everyone to communicate mind-to-mind. When Air is first tested in the village, the results are disastrous; one of the villagers, Chung Mae, is connected to an old lady when she dies in an accident, and the old woman’s consciousness becomes trapped in Mae’s mind.This is just the first in a series of incredible things that happen to Mae, and I was never sure whether these events were literally happening, whether they were occurring in some virtual, Air-created world, or both. Ryman was playing with these ideas, I think, but couldn’t get them to gel. The plot proceeds in fits and starts, sometimes dragging for pages and pages, sometimes rocketing along; the novel never finds its rhythm. In addition, my copy was riddled with typos and grammatical errors, which were very distracting.
So while I mostly enjoyed the novel, Ryman never quite convinced me of its reality.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
"We are the party of progress in our village. Ah? But there is another party. It goes around destroying the TV sets. My brave boss Mrs Chung Mae tries to teach our children, our women, our men, how to use Air when it comes, she teaches us on the TV. And the Schoolteacher prevents her! The
Air is the future, it is Internet inside your head, and it will be universal. As soon as she hears about Air, Chung Mae realises that her job as her village's fashion expert is threatened, and that her village is in danger of being left behind as the rest of the world surges ahead into the future. She may be a peasant from a small country in central Asia, living in a remote mountain village which has only recently received its first communal television, but Mae faces the coming changes head on.
The book skips between the small world of the village, with its resistance to progress and suspicion of government interference, the rest of Karzistan, as a group of villagers go to the city to attend a conference about the coming of Air, and the wider world beyond, as Mae's new business brings her into contact with the net savvy denizens of New York.
The mood is constantly changing between hopes and fears for the future, the villagers in conflict and co-operating, happiness at government help and fear of government clamp-downs. "Sizzling Sezen's Pop Picks" made me laugh when I was reading her forthright opinions of Karz musicians, but just a few pages later the tone became much darker as Mae and her friends risk falling foul of the Karzistan government.
The only thing I didn't like about this book was the element of outright fantasy introduced toward the end. It didn't add anything and spoiled the whole story for me. Until then this book was heading for 5 stars and a permanenent place in my bookcase.
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Schoolteacher actually tries to stop us learning. He breaks the TV! That is what we face! While all of you are going to the moon!"Air is the future, it is Internet inside your head, and it will be universal. As soon as she hears about Air, Chung Mae realises that her job as her village's fashion expert is threatened, and that her village is in danger of being left behind as the rest of the world surges ahead into the future. She may be a peasant from a small country in central Asia, living in a remote mountain village which has only recently received its first communal television, but Mae faces the coming changes head on.
The book skips between the small world of the village, with its resistance to progress and suspicion of government interference, the rest of Karzistan, as a group of villagers go to the city to attend a conference about the coming of Air, and the wider world beyond, as Mae's new business brings her into contact with the net savvy denizens of New York.
The mood is constantly changing between hopes and fears for the future, the villagers in conflict and co-operating, happiness at government help and fear of government clamp-downs. "Sizzling Sezen's Pop Picks" made me laugh when I was reading her forthright opinions of Karz musicians, but just a few pages later the tone became much darker as Mae and her friends risk falling foul of the Karzistan government.
The only thing I didn't like about this book was the element of outright fantasy introduced toward the end. It didn't add anything and spoiled the whole story for me. Until then this book was heading for 5 stars and a permanenent place in my bookcase.
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LibraryThing member jorgearanda
Air brings to mind the novels of Ursula Le Guin: it is the warm but probing kind of science fiction more concerned with the details of the societal and interpersonal implications of technology than with the technology itself. While the world moves towards a radical connectedness in the form of
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"Air" (a kind of telepathic Internet), the people in a rural village in Central Asia do not even have cell phones. They will be connected, like it or not, and their struggle to make sense of the new world they are forced to inhabit, and to discover opportunity within it, is at the core of this book. The story is a bit too optimistic for my taste, and too mystical, but I appreciate its heart. Show Less
LibraryThing member rivkat
It took me a while to get around to this, but I was very glad I did. Mae is a peasant entrepreneur in an isolated village in a Central Asian country with a history of Chinese invasion and suppression of a minority ethnicity. A botched test of an always-on, no-hardware-needed internet system leaves
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her consciousness entwined with that of an old woman who died during the test, and Mae has to adapt or die. Except I’ve only explained maybe half of the key complications of her situation, which also involves her husband, her family, her lover, the gangster who takes an interest in her, the government man and the rebel girl and the frenemies—this is a book about a person who is only herself as part of a community, but is also quite distinctly herself, to the dismay of many of those around her. Air, the name for the global information system that’s coming, is the internet, but it’s also change, inevitable and deadly and needing to be embraced for all that. There was a bit of magical realism-type plot that seemed metaphorically fitting but otherwise unnecessary, but in general I really enjoyed it—and it’s nice to read about middle-aged women who are the heroes of their own lives, who are mothers but whose lives didn’t become focused solely on the children. Show Less
LibraryThing member devilwrites
The premise: ganked from BN.com: Chung Mae is the only connection her small farming village has to culture of a wider world beyond the fields and simple houses of her village. A new communications technology is sweeping the world and promises to connect everyone, everywhere without power lines,
My Rating: 7 - Good Read
The writing is excellent. I loved the heroine Mae, I loved her character and her journey, her village and the world she lives in the and the world she's trying to be a part of, the world she's preparing her village for. Frankly, I had planned on rating this book an "8 - Excellent" all around, but there's one bit of magical realism that's meant to reinforce the overall message and metaphor for the book, but I just can't reconcile it, not in a book that's so SF-nal otherwise. Still, fans of soft, social science fiction need to get their hands on this book and check it out: it'd be a shame to miss on so many levels. Thanks to my readers, who made this my February Dare!
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay to the nth degree. If you want to remain unspoiled, do not read the full review at my blog. If you have read the book, then feel free to hop on over! As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. Just click the link below to go directly to the full review!
REVIEW: Geoff Ryman's AIR
Happy Reading!
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computers, or machines. This technology is Air. An initial testing of Air goes disastrously wrong and people are killed from the shock. Not to be stopped Air is arriving with or without the blessing of Mae's village. Mae is the only one who knows how to harness Air and ready her people for it's arrival, but will they listen before it's too late?My Rating: 7 - Good Read
The writing is excellent. I loved the heroine Mae, I loved her character and her journey, her village and the world she lives in the and the world she's trying to be a part of, the world she's preparing her village for. Frankly, I had planned on rating this book an "8 - Excellent" all around, but there's one bit of magical realism that's meant to reinforce the overall message and metaphor for the book, but I just can't reconcile it, not in a book that's so SF-nal otherwise. Still, fans of soft, social science fiction need to get their hands on this book and check it out: it'd be a shame to miss on so many levels. Thanks to my readers, who made this my February Dare!
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay to the nth degree. If you want to remain unspoiled, do not read the full review at my blog. If you have read the book, then feel free to hop on over! As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. Just click the link below to go directly to the full review!
REVIEW: Geoff Ryman's AIR
Happy Reading!
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LibraryThing member lquilter
Winner of the 2005 Tiptree Award, this novel sweeps the reader in to the life of its protagonist, which takes us on an ever-stranger ride to a life, and resolution, we could never have imagined. A story that will bowl you over and stay with you. One of the most impressive works I've read in a long
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time. Show Less
LibraryThing member lquilter
Winner of the 2005 Tiptree Award, this novel sweeps the reader in to the life of its protagonist, which takes us on an ever-stranger ride to a life, and resolution, we could never have imagined. A story that will bowl you over and stay with you. One of the most impressive works I've read in a long
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time. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0312261217 / 9780312261214
Physical description
402 p.; 8.5 inches
Pages
402