Blurred Line

Geoff Ryman's latest novel has been nominated for just about every award a science fiction novel can be nominated for these days, so I thought it'd be a good read (plus, bonus points to him for being a Canadian). Anyhow, Air centers around life in the village of Kizulduh (circa 2019), the last village to be connected to the Net. What's about to happen, though, is a global test of Air, a new form of the net that people can activate via their own minds and will allow them to keep in constant contact with others, without the need of any sort of machinery. The test, unfortunately, proves disastrous for the village and even more so for the book's main character, Chung Mae, who accidentally has her personality fused with another member of the village. The book chronicles the yearlong efforts of Mae, the only person who truly understands Air, to ready her village for the permanent implementation of the system.

Now, this might sound like a lot of fancy techno-talk, but Ryman's novel would just as at home in a literary fiction collection as it would in a science fiction one. Mae is, without a doubt, one of the strongest and most fully realized characters that I've read in an SF novel in quite some time. Although the problems with Air seem to provide the bulk of the narrative's driving force, the novel seems far more interested in a discussion of transition. At its heart, that's the theme the novel explores, in fascinating ways. Actually, the most interesting part of the novel, for me, was the interactions between the villagers - their social etiquette and structure is done in such a realistic manner that you feel as if Kizulduh is a real place. The pacing, unfortunately, isn't great for most of the first portion of the novel - for the first 250 pages I'd read a chapter and then set it aside for later because I didn't feel that it was really necessary for me to keep going right then. The last 150, however, were riveting.

Be sure to check this one out.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - Air Geoff Ryman's latest novel has been nominated for just about every award a science fiction novel can be nominated for these days, so I thought it'd be a good read (plus, bonus points to him for being a Canadian). Anyhow, Air centers around life in the village of Kizulduh (circa 2019), the last village to be connected to the Net. What's about to happen, though, is a global test of Air, a new form of the net that people can activate via their own minds and will allow them to keep in constant contact with others, without the need of any sort of machinery. The test, unfortunately, proves disastrous for the village and even more so for the book's main character, Chung Mae, who accidentally has her personality fused with another member of the village. The book chronicles the yearlong efforts of Mae, the only person who truly understands Air, to ready her village for the permanent implementation of the system. Now, this might sound like a lot of fancy techno-talk, but Ryman's novel would just as at home in a literary fiction collection as it would in a science fiction one. Mae is, without a doubt, one of the strongest and most fully realized characters that I've read in an SF novel in quite some time. Although the problems with Air seem to provide the bulk of the narrative's driving force, the novel seems far more interested in a discussion of transition. At its heart, that's the theme the novel explores, in fascinating ways. Actually, the most interesting part of the novel, for me, was the interactions between the villagers - their social etiquette and structure is done in such a realistic manner that you feel as if Kizulduh is a real place. The pacing, unfortunately, isn't great for most of the first portion of the novel - for the first 250 pages I'd read a chapter and then set it aside for later because I didn't feel that it was really necessary for me to keep going right then. The last 150, however, were riveting. Be sure to check this one out. Cavan blogged at 11:37 PM \| 0 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart