"Geoff Ryman - Air" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ryman Geoff)

'Geoff Ryman's new novel is swift, smart and convincing. Air is a wonderful and frightening
examination of old and new, and survival on the interface between'.
Greg Bear

'This is a liminal book: its characters are on the threshold of something new; their village is on the
brink of change; the world is launching into a new way to connect; humanity, at the end of the novel, is on
the cusp of evolution ... its plot is exciting and suspenseful, its characters gripping, its wisdom lightly and
gracefully offered, its language clear and beautiful. Like The Child Garden, Air is both humane and
wise. This novel is such a village. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It becomes finer as I think back
on it, and I look forward to rereading it. I only wish Ryman's work were more widely available and more
widely read, as it deserves'.
Joan Gordon New York Review of Science Fiction

'Ryman renders the village and people of Kizuldah with such humane insight and sympathy that
we experience the novel almost like the Air it describes: It's around us and in us, more real than real, and
it leaves us changed as surely as Mae's contact with Air changes her. This amazing balance that Ryman
maintains — mourning change while embracing it — renders Air not merely powerful,
thought-provoking, and profoundly moving, but indispensable. It's a map of our world, written in the
imaginary terrain of Karzistan. It's a guide for all of us, who will endure change, mourn our losses, and
must find a way to love the new sea that swamps our houses, if we are not to grow bitter and small and
afraid'.
Robert Killheffer, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

'The wondrous art wrought in Ryman's Air shows some of its meaning plainly, calling forth grins,
astonishment and tears. More of its meaning is tucked away inside, like the seven hidden curled-up
dimensions of spacetime, like the final pages of the third book of Dante, beyond words or imagining high
and low. Treasure this book'.
Damien Broderick, Locus

AIR
(or Have Not Have)
by
GEOFF RYMAN

Version 1.0

Copyright © Geoff Ryman 2004
ISBN o 575 07697 6 (cased)
ISBN o 575 07698 4 (trade paperback)

Dedicated to Doris McPherson and what is left of (the original) Meadowvale, Ontario, Canada

CHAPTER 1

Mae lived in the last village in the world to go online.
After that, everyone else went on Air.
Mae was the village's fashion expert. She advised on makeup, sold cosmetics, and provided
good dresses. Every farmer's wife needed at least one good dress.
Mae would sketch what was being worn in the capital. She would always add a special touch: a
lime-green scarf with sequins; or a lacy ruffle with colourful embroidery. A good dress was for display.