I brought 'Air' on a whim at a Borders' closing down sale. I saw the cover, liked the art and procured it for the less than a McDonald's value meal. I also brought it because I wanted to 'expand my reading horizons' by consuming something other than my standard fare of male heroic violence. I don't believe that I wasted my time; I just think that this book is not written for me. I believe it is written by a very serious person for other very serious people who want to think about things in a very serious manner. I do like serious things and concepts that raise my eyebrows, but I also enjoy humor and characters that have a sense of humor. This novel has none of the latter. The story reads something along the lines of:'A new medium of information consumption is coming and one woman has to teach her rural village how to transition to this new way of life.'It's a good idea and Mr. Ryman does get some excellent mileage out of how a technology deprived community would embrace a massive paradigm shifting innovation such as the Internet. Unfortunately the main character, Mei, gets embroiled in a series of conflicts are directly linked to the primary arc of the book. There's adultery, youth revolt, evil corporations, gangsters and military dictatorships to be fought against with only intellect and words. Although the book only covers a year, I often struggled with the limited time frame. By the time I was on page 200 I thought that at least five years had passed, if not a decade. I constantly had to remind myself that all this was only happening within a week of the previously tumultuous event and Mei could not fail now because, she would not fail. Sometimes I felt as the writer was padding the novel with additional obstacles for Mei to overcome so that he could hit his word count. This meant that I was often wondering what new obstacle would be invented for her to triumph through the idea of, 'Men are stupid.' It started as a logical reason for her to have such immediate success in her rural and religious town. Here was a town where ignorance and arrogance had been so embedded in the ruling class (males) that they could not see they had long fallen short of who they were. Yet once she moved outside of that sphere, it became more difficult the successful men Mei encountered were stupid enough to overpowered by a fast talking peasant. The template eventually boiled down to Mei accusing the man, sometimes subtly, of being stupid or a coward, and then the male antagonist would shrivel up their previously highlighted intellect just so that they could provide three or four humiliating sentences / actions that Mei could use against them later on. At the very end of the novel Mr. Ryman seems to try and adjust this balance with some key scenes that highlight a lack of understanding on Mei's part about men but by this time it is really too late. It had become difficult to read about a woman who cared only for her community when she could also obtain what she deserved. On the positive, the book is excellently written. Its prose is easy to slide into and the way Mr. Rynman breaks up the rhythm of his writing through emails in the end chapters is truly quite extraordinary. Also, the theme of overcoming ignorance and adapting to change is handled in a unique way that made me completely engaged until around page 250 when it started to feel overly extended. As I said previously, this is a very serious book about very serious ideas and if that is your particular Sunday afternoon fun then you should love this. I like Mr. Ryman's writing style and will definitely look out for more of his works. In relation to 'Air', however, the best part of this book was being able to cross it off my reading list.
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 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 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.
What do You think about Air (2004)?
Firstly, I take issue with this book being listed on a best SciFi of the last decade list where I found it.This is NOT a good SciFi book. The fictional science is weak at best, and outright fantasy at worst. This book would be a prime example of why many people see the genres of SciFi and fantasy to be blurred. In my opinion if you're going to write about implausible, bad science, just leave it and call it magic.That is not to say this was a bad book, but simply a bad SCIENCE fiction book.What it is, is speculative fiction which explores some definitely interesting sociological ideas. It has one Good Book aspect, in that it asks a nice compact "what if" and proceeds to elaborate.What if the internet was free and available to EVERYONE? How would that affect third world culture/society?If you ignore the bad science, pure fantasy, and supernatural aspects of the implementation of such a thing, this book because a fascinating culture study. The characters are residents of a small, poor village in a third world country. Each character is very real, very human, very flawed, and endearing. Despite being set in a society in which women are second class citizens, and often not even treated like real people, the females are the primary characters, and they pass the Bechdel test very quickly.So, I liked this book a lot; however I would never recommended it as SciFi, and the pool of friends to which I would recommend it at all is very tiny. The science simply has too many issues. However I would definitely read this author again if the book isn't SciFi or "SciFi".p.s. I'm not even going to address the ridiculous stomach pregnancy and subsequent mouth birth beyond this. Read other reviews for that if you want, but that falls on the absolute worst side of the bad science in this book, I was more comfortable with the supernatural aspects than that bullshit.
—Pants
While I'm only giving it three stars, I found this book strangely gripping and much of it brilliant. It's the kind of flawed work that really gets me thinking about how to accomplish things in my own writing. There are many good descriptions of the plot, so I won't repeat it here. In the broadest strokes this book is about how people in a traditional culture deal with new, transformative technologies. The near future science fictional topics still feel relavant despite the fact that this was written a few years ago. I really loved Chung Mae, the main character, and seeing the world through her eyes. Village life and the technology they encounter is rendered beautifully. But about mid way through this book, the story begins to lose its way. The author keeps piling more and more elements onto the story. They are all fascinating and full of potential, but overall, I did feel that it pulled the story out of balance. In my opinion, if the author could have kept the second half of the story as focused as the first half, it would have been absolutely brilliant. Also, the edition I have is just horribly copy edited. I came across mistakes regularly. I'm not the kind of person who easily spots typos, so if I'm seeing that many, there must me even more. A real shame!
—Rebecca Schwarz
Oh my god I hated this book. Hated it, hated, it, hated it! Fuck, I just got madder and madder the more I read. But I had to finish it, see, because one of my most favorite people, who is a very delinquent, sporadic reader, has been raving about this for like a year. A year!! He loved it! How could that be? This book is ridiculously bad. Due to the guilt I feel about this, I can't do a long, detailed screed. Instead I will do a concise little list of badness, all the ways this book let me down.
—Oriana
