Air (novel)
Encyclopedia
Air, also known as Air: Or, Have Not Have, is a 2005 novel by Geoff Ryman
. It won the British Science Fiction Association Award
, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award
, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award
, and was on the short list for the Philip K. Dick Award in 2004, the Nebula Award in 2005, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2006.
Ryman initially wrote a short story for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
entitled "Have Not Have", which was included in the April 2001 edition. This was expanded into a novel initially titled Air: Or, Have Not Have, and renamed to just Air in all editions since the first.
), and her suddenly leading role in reaction to dramatic, worldwide experiments with a new information technology
called Air. Air is information exchange, not unlike the Internet
, that occurs in everyone's brain and is intended to connect the world. After a test of Air is imposed on Mae's unprepared mountain town, everyone and everything changes, especially Mae who was deeper into Air than any other person. Afterwords, Mae struggles to prepare her people for what is to come while learning all about the world outside her home.
Geoff Ryman
Geoffrey Charles Ryman is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and surrealistic or "slipstream" fiction.Ryman currently lectures in Creative Writing for University of Manchester's English Department. His most recent full-length novel, The King's Last Song, is set in Cambodia, both at the time of...
. It won the British Science Fiction Association Award
BSFA award
The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members...
, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award
James Tiptree, Jr. Award
The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is an annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender. It was initiated in February of 1991 by science fiction authors Pat Murphy and Karen Joy Fowler, subsequent to a discussion at WisCon.- Background...
, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award
Arthur C. Clarke Award
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
, and was on the short list for the Philip K. Dick Award in 2004, the Nebula Award in 2005, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2006.
Ryman initially wrote a short story for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
entitled "Have Not Have", which was included in the April 2001 edition. This was expanded into a novel initially titled Air: Or, Have Not Have, and renamed to just Air in all editions since the first.
Plot introduction
Air is the story of a town's fashion expert Chung Mae, a smart but illiterate peasant woman in a small village in the fictional country of Karzistan (loosely based on the country of KazakhstanKazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
), and her suddenly leading role in reaction to dramatic, worldwide experiments with a new information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
called Air. Air is information exchange, not unlike the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, that occurs in everyone's brain and is intended to connect the world. After a test of Air is imposed on Mae's unprepared mountain town, everyone and everything changes, especially Mae who was deeper into Air than any other person. Afterwords, Mae struggles to prepare her people for what is to come while learning all about the world outside her home.
Reception
F&SF reviewer Robert. K. J. Killheffer praised Ryman's "humane insight and sympathy" and "incisive meditations on the process of social and cultural change," concluding that the novel is "not merely powerful, thought-provoking, and profoundly moving, but indispensable."Release details
- 2004, UK, St. Martin's Griffin (ISBN 0-312-26121-7), Pub date ? October 2004, paperback (First edition)
- 2005, UK, Gollancz (ISBN 0-575-07697-6), Pub date 21 July 2005, hardback
- 2005, UK, Gollancz (ISBN 0-575-07811-1), Pub date 14 September 2006, paperback
External links
- Have Not Have, the first chapter as an excerpt at Infinity Plus.
- Air at Worlds Without End
- Review of Air by Geneva Melzack and Ian Emsley for Strange Horizons.