''Air'', also known as ''Air: Or, Have Not Have'', is a 2005 novel by

Geoff Ryman Geoffrey Charles Ryman (born 1951) is a Canadian writer of science fiction, fantasy, slipstream and historical fiction. Biography Ryman was born in Canada and moved to the United States at age 11. He earned degrees in History and English at UCLA ...

. It won the

British Science Fiction Association Award The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, m ...

, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and the

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. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award i ...

, 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'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher a ...

'' entitled "Have Not Have", which was included in the April 2001 edition (later reprinted in the June 2014 issue of

Clarkesworld Magazine ''Clarkesworld Magazine'' (ISSN 1937-7843) is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It released its first issue October 1, 2006 and has maintained a regular monthly schedule since, publishing fiction by authors such as Elizabe ...

). 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 Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

peasant woman in a small village in the fictional country of Karzistan (loosely based on the country of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

), and her suddenly leading role in reaction to dramatic, worldwide experiments with a new

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

called Air. Air is information exchange, not unlike the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, 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. Afterwards, Mae struggles to prepare her people for what is to come while learning all about the world outside her home.

Reception

F&SF ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiva ...

'' 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.""Books", ''

'', April 2005, pp.38-40

Trivia

* A country called ''Karzistan'' also appears in the video game '' Beyond: Two Souls'', where it's an East Asian country having a similar condenser, a portal to the ''Infraworld'' (the ghost world), like the United States. The protagonist Jodie Holmes has to destroy the condenser during a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

mission.

Release details

*2004, UK, St. Martin's Griffin (), Pub date ? October 2004, paperback (First edition) *2005, UK, Gollancz (), Pub date 21 July 2005, hardback *2005, UK, Gollancz (), Pub date 14 September 2006, paperback

Notes

References

*"AIR (Book)." Kirkus Reviews 71.20 (15 Oct. 2003): 1248. *Cannon, Peter, and Jeff Zaleski.. "AIR (Book)." Publishers Weekly 250.45 (10 Nov. 2003): 47-47. *Johnson, Roberta. "Air (Book)." Booklist 100.7 (Dec. 2003): 655-655.

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. {{James Tiptree, Jr. Award Winners 2005 British novels Novels by Geoff Ryman James Tiptree Jr. Award-winning works 2005 science fiction novels Canadian science fiction novels St. Martin's Press books