Air (Gollancz S.F.)
A science-fiction novel centered on a woman in a Central Asian village as a new global communication technology transforms community and bodily experience. The arrival of technology exposes questions of gender, family, poverty, and modernization.
Work Information
An air-like technology that connects the world begins to alter village life and selfhood.
Air is a 2005 novel by Geoff Ryman and won several science-fiction awards, including the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. No Japanese translation was confirmed, so the identifiers here refer to the English original.
Review Summaries
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The novel is valued for grounding social change not only in a large idea but also in everyday village life and bodily perception. It avoids simple technological optimism and leaves a complicated aftertaste.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Gollancz
- Published
- 2005-07-21
- Pages
- 400 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 16 x 4 x 24 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780575076976
- ISBN-10
- 0575076976
- Category
- 洋書/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction
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.
Geoff Ryman was born in Canada in 1952 but moved to America when he was eleven. He moved to London in 1973. He began writing science fiction in 1976. His other novels include Was and 253. He currently lives and works in London and Oxfordshire.
Related Literary Awards
- Otherwise Award Edition 15 (2005) ・award