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Review
"One of recent science fiction's acknowledged masterworks. Enthralling." (Matt Coward Morning Star )
NEW STATESMAN
"Combining classic SF imagineering with Ryman's characteristically idiosyncratic take on magic realism."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you're reading this, you already know about the power of the internet. Cast your mind back to before you had it. How did you sort out arguments about which film that actor on TV was in? Where did you get your books from? How did you know how much money was in your bank account? Where did you book your holidays? How on earth did you kill time at work?!?
Now imagine the next stage of the Internet: skipping the computer out altogether. Making the entire wealth of the internet accesible to your brain, for free, all the time.
This is exactly what happens to the last village in the world to go online, Kizuldah, a tiny hamlet in the nation of Karzistan. Imagine a world without telephones and running water suddenly being exposed to such a wealth of information, and you are in the world of Air.
The protagonist, Mae, is an illiterate peasant with lofty aspirations. She sells her services in the village as a "fashion expert", eking a living by making dresses and accompanying the wealthier women into town to get their nails done. Following the arrival of an internet-enabled TV in the village she rapidly figures out that with easy access to information, her services will become surplus to requirements, and so she begins an entrepenurial quest to stay ahead of everyone else. As she progresses in her understanding of the web, she also realises that it will effectively destroy the way of life in which her village has always lived. Then again, she is realistic enough to know that there never was a "golden time", that life was always hard and people always adapted.
This is a great book. The protagonist is astutely observed, the village a well-developed setting, and the sci-fi elements eminently plausible. This is one of those novels I burned through in a couple of days, have put away in my cupboard, and will probably come back to next year just to visit Mae and the others.
It's a book that falls outside staid and tired genres we are all so used to. Whatever kind of book you're looking for, this is the one. See you in Kizuldah.
Now imagine the next stage of the Internet: skipping the computer out altogether. Making the entire wealth of the internet accesible to your brain, for free, all the time.
This is exactly what happens to the last village in the world to go online, Kizuldah, a tiny hamlet in the nation of Karzistan. Imagine a world without telephones and running water suddenly being exposed to such a wealth of information, and you are in the world of Air.
The protagonist, Mae, is an illiterate peasant with lofty aspirations. She sells her services in the village as a "fashion expert", eking a living by making dresses and accompanying the wealthier women into town to get their nails done. Following the arrival of an internet-enabled TV in the village she rapidly figures out that with easy access to information, her services will become surplus to requirements, and so she begins an entrepenurial quest to stay ahead of everyone else. As she progresses in her understanding of the web, she also realises that it will effectively destroy the way of life in which her village has always lived. Then again, she is realistic enough to know that there never was a "golden time", that life was always hard and people always adapted.
This is a great book. The protagonist is astutely observed, the village a well-developed setting, and the sci-fi elements eminently plausible. This is one of those novels I burned through in a couple of days, have put away in my cupboard, and will probably come back to next year just to visit Mae and the others.
It's a book that falls outside staid and tired genres we are all so used to. Whatever kind of book you're looking for, this is the one. See you in Kizuldah.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was laree at the start - set in a fictional central Asian republic in the very near future - not my thing at all, but this is a marvellous work, believable in almost every respect. The characters live, the world is so real, I can still see/smell/taste it now, almost two weeks since I turned the last page.
The politics, national and local, felt very real. The story is compelling, blending of the mystic and quantum science against an all-too-familiar (to me) background of small-nation military-political posturing, the clash of modernity with traditional belief and religious morality all brought to life by a collection of brilliantly-drawn characters - there was almost nothing I disliked here, until the belly-baby.
The belly-baby was simply bizarre and... I kept waiting for it to make sense, feeling sure it must have some deeper metaphorical meaning but - either I'm missing something very fundamental or there was no meaning and it was a simple piece of grotesquery hurled in to the mix for the sake of it. This would have been a five star book without it - the story would have been immensely improved without it.
The politics, national and local, felt very real. The story is compelling, blending of the mystic and quantum science against an all-too-familiar (to me) background of small-nation military-political posturing, the clash of modernity with traditional belief and religious morality all brought to life by a collection of brilliantly-drawn characters - there was almost nothing I disliked here, until the belly-baby.
The belly-baby was simply bizarre and... I kept waiting for it to make sense, feeling sure it must have some deeper metaphorical meaning but - either I'm missing something very fundamental or there was no meaning and it was a simple piece of grotesquery hurled in to the mix for the sake of it. This would have been a five star book without it - the story would have been immensely improved without it.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I admit I love Geoff Ryman's work, even though you can never be quite sure what you're going to get with him. This is, I suppose, technically a straightforward science fiction novel in that the mechanism that moves the plot is a speculative expansion of Internet technologies into a sort of technologically created global telepathy. But Ryman's talent is in the way he locates the story in a wonderfully realised world - a distant Asian village - and makes us care about a flawed but fascinating central character, Chung Mae.
Tender, funny, scary, and enormously clever. I really can't recomment this novel highly enough.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Modern masterpiece
Air is a parable for change. In 2020, it's the latest communications technology, which enables users to access the internet via their own minds. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Sam Woodward
50% The Matrix, 50% The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency
This book is a strange mash of styles. Set in 2019, on the one hand it's a tale about the thousand-years-old traditions of a Karzistan village and the impact things like TV has on... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Mr. Stuart Bruce
Can I have 2 weeks of my life back please?
After having read reviews of this book and having previously read The King's Last Song I was really looking forward to reading this book. How disappointed was I! Read more
Published on 9 Sep 2009 by M. Harper
Great book
I would higly recommend this book to everyone, I have been searching for a while for a good new author (A good new book to be honest) and I was quite suprised it was this book that... Read more
Published on 25 July 2008 by Pro Vers
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