Review Summaries

• Readers value the originality of the premise and the shock of new technology entering local life. Some also find the novel quieter and more meditative than its large-scale setup first suggests.

Reviews

• 持つ者と、持たざる者。取り残された者、押し寄せる波。

  中央アジアらしき架空の国、Karzistan. Happy ProvinceにあるKizuldahという村が舞台。ネット上で読んだ著者インタビュー記事によるとKarzistanはカザフスタンとトルコを合わせたようなイメージだそうです。著者はマンデーン（Mundane)SFというのを提唱しているんだそうで、タイムマシンやワープなどの登場しない、現実にある科学技術をベースに発展させて近未来の地球世界を描いた作品。ジェイムズ・ティプトリー・Ｊｒ賞他受賞作。 村のファッション・エキスパート、Mrs Chung Maeが住む山村は、２０１９年だというのにテレビもインターネットもなかった。今回、村の有力者が買った一台が村で初のテレビ（双方向機能付き）。そんな田舎な国で、パソコンもケーブルも要らない新しいネットワークAirの実験が行われる。しかし住民は混乱し、実験は失敗。騒動の中で９０歳のおばあさんMrs Tungが亡くなる。居合わせたMaeはMrs Tungの記憶？魂？と融合してしまい、また、Airの世界とも深くつながってしまう。実験以来、Mrs Tungの過去の記憶を見たり未来の映像を見たり、混乱するようになったMae. しかし国連は一年後に全世界で正式にAirを導入するという。テクノロジーに疎い情報弱者である住民は今のままではAirに適応できない、村は破滅するだろうと危機感を持ったMaeは、村人にIT教育を広めようとし、自らも新しい技術を使いこなそうと努力する。 しかし様々な障害が生じ、周囲の人々の野心や思惑にも干渉され、さらに波乱が。恋もあり。進歩的で掟破りの女であるMaeを、保守的な村の住民はなかなか信用しない。 Airの到来は止められない、適応しなければならないと訴えるMae. 彼女はまた、何十年に一度の大水害が村を襲うビジョンを見る。Airと洪水。破滅の危機から村を救いたいと奮闘する彼女。 冒頭のファッション・エキスパート時代のMaeはちょっと嫌な女に感じ、話もそれほど面白いとは感じなかったが、Airの実験後はどんどん面白くなってくるしMaeにも好感を持てた。著者がMaeを誇りに思うというのもうなずける。そして予想外の展開がいろいろと！！ リアリティのある描写も味わい深いが、いかにもＳＦ的な場面もあり。時代の流れに直面する小さな村を描くと同時に、一人の女性の人生と成長の物語でもあります。 著者はカナダ生まれ・アメリカ育ち・英国在住の白人男性ですのに、相変わらずマイノリティの心情をよく分かってらっしゃる、と感心します。彼がゲイであることと関係するんでしょうか。とても繊細な洞察力だと思います。 ※ところで邦訳が出てたんですね。知らなかった。「エア」プラチナ・ファンタジイというのです。

• Difficult at first but ultimately worth it

  I found this quite a difficult read at first; in fact I needed at least two attempts to get into it. Perhaps it was the cultural and geographical distance that presented something of a barrier. However, once I persisted with it, I found it an intriguing and well constructed story with well developed characters and a sound narrative. The juxtaposition of the two catastrophic events: the Air test and the flood makes for an intriguing comparison. I did feel that the Flood and its aftermath turned the story more towards a natural disaster epic and that the final pages tended to 'fade away' somewhat. However, overall it was an enjoyable read.

• Beautiful, Elegant, Enigmatic

  This is a beautiful, elegant and enigmatic story. Its heroine is Chong Mae, a self-styled fashion consultant in what may be the remotest village in Kyrgyzstan in the year 2020. The book is concerned with what happens to Mae and the other people in her village when an attempt is made to test a new form of communications system, Air, which will link all of the people in the world in a kind of mental internet. Although Air is the speculative fiction device that seems to drive the novel, the book is really about sociological phenomena including social organization, the place of the individual in society, the acceptance and rejection of technological change, rural versus urban society, the elements in society that are first to capitalize on technological change, and the role of early adapters. That broad range sounds quite daunting. But when told from the perspective of Mae, it is also about more basic human elements like family, love, friendship and responsibility. By incorporating forces unleashed by the test of Air, we are also able to examine the relationship of the past to the present and the present to the future. With all these elements one might expect Air to be a gigantic sprawling novel, but in fact it operates on an intimate scale, following Mae around while she performs her daily activities, aimed at furthering her own life as well as preparing her village for inevitable technological change. Some of the elements are exceedingly simple and commonplace, yet reflect larger social forces. For example, Mae is attuned to the traditional activities of her village, and, as her vision of the world becomes expanded, can see how there might be a market for the decorative collars handmade by the women in her village. She ends up in internet contact with a fashionista in New York, who helps to make the collars a cutting-edge fashion and political statement. At the same time, Mae develops a relationship with her New York contact that will eventually allow one of her neighbors to preserve her oppositional beliefs to the national government. And yet, this political scale develops in an organic way so naturally from village life that one scarcely notices the transition to national politics. Two elements make the book enigmatic. The first is the appearance of unexpected phenomena that we might find easier to accept in a more technologically developed world at a later date. The second is the author's reason for introducing these phenomena. One expects that they have some purpose in the author's scheme, especially since the author explores a society substantially different from the reader's, to illuminate our understanding. And yet the author is so skillful in his writing that even though we may not immediately understand his purpose, we accept the phenomena. Finally, even the secondary title "Have Not Have" remains an enigma. Don't read this book if you are looking for high adventure amidst titanic events. But if you are looking for an examination of the life of a dynamic individual in a small society, you are sure to enjoy this book.

• Moyen

  Au vu de certaines critiques dythirambiques, je m'attendais à bien mieux. Le départ est accrocheur, avec cet Internet directement dans les esprits qui cause chaos et confusion. Mais ensuite, à part un court passage à la Matrix (légère distortion de la réalité, mouaif) et un chien qui parle, il n'y a pas grand chose de plus qu'un village de paysans qui découvre Internet et essaie de s'adapter au monde moderne en vendant online leurs vêtements folkoriques. Les intéractions humaines et les chamboulements apportés par le "progrès" sont intéressants, mais sans plus.

• Great book!!!

  This book tells you how the survival of old and new technology is gonna take place. It's an amazing novel that everyone should read.

• Beautifully written, sloppily published

  This book was a total surprise for me - a sci-fi fan of over fifty years. A beautifully written and textured novel, very light on the science and heavy on the humanity. An outstanding example of character development. At this level, a highly satisfying book. However, the reading experience is soured by a degree of distraction that I have never encountered in a professional publication. As another reviewer has pointed out, the printing is awful! It is undoubtedly the worst I have ever seen - not just in science fiction, but in any topic. Note however that it is not the printing, but the typesetting that is the problem. I spent 25 years in the printing industry, and this is absolutely the sloppiest typesetting I have ever seen, and cannot conceive how any proofreader would have signed off on this. So bad, it might even described as bizarre. Literally thousands of spacing (look up "tracking" and "kerning") errors, for which the publisher should be ashamed. Otherwise, an engrossing and rewarding read.

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