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Air by Geoff Ryman
01/02/2004 . Source: Rachel Broome 
pub: St. Martin's Press. 388 page enlarged paperback. Price: $14.95 (US). ISBN: 0-312-18295-3. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.stmartins.com
The central character in this book is Chung Mae, the fashion expert in the most remote village in the world - Kidzulda in Karzistan in China.
At the start of the novel, Kwan, Mae's neighbour, is buying the villages first TV-Net unit. Whilst in town they hear the announcement of the test for Air-like a Net-TV in your head. The test is necessary to set the neural pathways in people's minds before the full Air rollout later. However, when the test occurs Mae is with her elderly neighbour, who dies of shock and through Air, part of her takes up residence in Mae's mind.
When Mae recovers from the shock of all this, she finds that while she has been laid up, the people of the village have learned how to operate the TV and found the fashion channels, thus endangering Mae's living.
Mae becomes focused on learning how to really use the TV. Firstly, to try to regain her competitive advantage in her fashion business. Then later to educate the whole village so they will no longer be 'information have nots' in the new world of Air.
Also woven in with this is Mae's struggle to throw her dead neighbour out of her mind, Chinese gangsters and government, and a truly bizarre pregnancy story.
The characterisation in this book was good. The story rattles along quite nicely. A few little twists and turns to keep you interested and the concept is a fairly novel one. The real strength of this book though is the Chinese angle.
Lots of books use Tokyo or Hong Kong as their backdrop with their neon soaked cityscapes, high rise living and ultra modern and ultra slick technology. Very few stories are set in this near future China showing peasants alongside new industrial towns. The setting and characters and particularly the language are very evocative and just really work.
Other than the pregnancy storyline, which was just odd, there's nothing I didn't like about this story. It's very different from a lot of what's out there but it's very good, too.
Rachel Broome
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