This is a spoiler laden review.
The first sentence to this novel informs us that Mae's village is the last to go online; the ramifications of its introduction unfold very quickly. Set in the mid part of the twenty first century, Air brings us to a fictional Central Asian country steeped in ancient tradition. The small and ancient and poor and bucolic and isolated village of Kizuldah, in land locked Karzistan, meets us up with a middle aged woman named Chung Mae. She is the village "fashion expert". She and her entire village will soon be forcibly introduced to the new technological marvel that is Air. This Air is best described as a telepathic internet which reaches into the minds of all - whether they are ready or not. Air's first introduction into the village is however a disaster. Unfortunately, two women end up dying. Chung Mae is forever changed by this mother-of-all invasive intrusiveness. Mae ends up capturing the memories of one of the dead village patrons and her fellow villagers understandably believe she is mentally unstable. Chung Mae is not an educated woman, in fact she cannot read, but she is a smart business woman who immediately recognises the near endless possibilities that AIR can bring to her people. She also recognises its dangers. This double edged sword is one of the wonderful themes littering the interaction of all the villagers. The villagers are afraid and do not trust Chung Mae, she in turn because of her love for the two thousand year old village and its inhabitants does all she can to bring security and prosperity to an ill informed and traditional (uneducated & suspicious) mass. The old woman who now shares Chung Mae's mind is slowly driving her crazy. We are lead to believe that it is because this second identity sharing one mind influences Chung Mae into taking chances she otherwise would not have dared dream. Chung Mae's also believes she possess the power of prescience concerning her village's fate. She makes the mistake of both telling close friends and ends up having an affair with a man who lost his wife. She is found out and loses her standing in the village. Now a persona non grata, all her self resolve and well meaning altruism takes hammer blow after blow. This truly was a wonderful that I fully intended to give a perfect score... however, the last sixty pages which redeem Chung Mae to one and all itself bored me. There was no longer a sense of wonder as I reached the final quarter of this novel. This tough woman tries like hell to prepare the village for the change ahead but the flood which comes and destroys the village was metaphorically blatant and crass. Any reader at this point knows that the flood is coming. Still, I feel richer for having read such an original novel with such a strong central female character.

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