March 6, 2005
Geoff Ryman rules.
I have posted on Ryman before; in fact, I began this blog by referring to him, and have posted on him now and then since .
He is in a class by himself.
I just finished Air and have not enjoyed a book that much in ages. I was caught in the dilemma of not wanting to put it down, but not wanting it to end, either.
The main character is a village "fashion expert" in Kizuldah, Karzistan, named Chung Mae. She lives in a small mountain village described as the last place on earth to go on-line, just before a new technology, "Air," is introduced globally. With Air, once one is imprinted one can communicate and access information, well, out of the air. Now, I didn't know whether or not Karzistan actually existed (it doesn't), nor whether the ethnic group referred to, the Eloi, did either (they don't). It's too perfect a nod to Well's Time Machine, so I suppose I shouldn't have had to ask. (Ryman has said that Karzistan is modeled on Khazakstan.)
He is an original writer. And the novel is wonderfully funny: the relationships, the by-plays and squabbles between the characters, the clear-sighted way Mae assesses others. I didn't even mind — much — that she is a redeemer figure. Ryman manages to make even that new. This is an odd, marvellous book: it begins with the quotidian exotica of Mae's life as the local "fashion expert," but by the end it feels like — but isn't — magic realism. In that sense, it echoes the movement in his 253, particularly the ending, though in Air the shift into, well, an altered state, is more gradual.
This is "mundane" sf — "of the world." In an interview, Ryman said:
I think we've been fooling ourselves for a while. I think we need to face up to the loss of oil and the immense impact that will have. Climate change, overpop, yeah, need to be faced with tough challenges. Then we can move on to the life that will grow out of how we adapt, despite loss. That's a tale of overcoming, new solutions, and a renewed sense of wonder about truly new ideas.
In the end I find it difficult to share his optimism, but it is exhilarating to try.
I haven't read all the other books on the shortlist for the Philip K. Dick Award, but I can't imagine that two books this powerful could have come out in the same year.
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We certain agree that Geoff Ryman rules! In case you did not know, he is the guest editor along with Nalo Hopkinson for Tesseracts 9 anthology of Canada's best speculative fiction and short stories.
I was not able to find an email address to send this to so here is the press release about it. Cheers. You have a beautiful blog.
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
Now includes Tesseract Books
Box 1714, Calgary, AB, Canada, T2P 2L7
780-460-1756
janice@hadespublications.com
For immediate release
Contact: Janice Shoults -- 780-460-1756
National identity? No thanks, we're Canadians.
(Calgary, AB) -- Canada's largest genre publisher of Science Fiction and Fantasy will release, on May 1st, 2005, the very best of new Canadian short stories, essays and poems from Canada's top Speculative Fiction (Science Fiction and Fantasy) authors.
Introduced by award winning authors Nalo Hopkinson and Geoff Ryman, Tesseracts Nine presents 23 unique views on how Canadians are different enough to be perceived as unique by the rest of the world.
"Nobody in their right mind wants a national identity." says Ryman. "Canadians are lucky they don't have one." Speculative Fiction is the perfect medium for telling such stories ... because they are fantastic, they are universal! "Does anyone in SF care that writers like Robert Sawyer, Yves Meynard or John Clute are Canadian?" "Contributors to Tesseracts Nine have almost nothing in common. A language perhaps. Not a genre or a geography. Certainly not a greater sense of cold or big empty landscapes; no particular politics or ways of being, or even a delicious post-modern Gallic sensibility."
"Readers of Tesseracts Nine will find both familiar and new authors in this new collection of short fiction, essays and poetry. It showcases the very best in Canadian literature (including French-Canadian authors whose works are translated into English)." says publisher Brian Hades.
Since the publication of Tesseracts One, edited by the late Judith Merrill, the entire Tesseracts series has presented works from over 150 Canadian speculative fiction writers, many of whom have built brilliant careers: Margaret Atwood, William Gibson, Robert Sawyer, Élisabeth Vonarburg and others.
Every volume in the series has been edited by a different team of Canadian writers, publishers and critics. Tesseracts Nine's editors, Nalo Hopkinson and Geoff Ryman, were themselves selected as representatives of modern Canadian innovative and futuristic fiction and poetry. They are, together with the Tesseract Nine authors, the new leaders and emerging voices of Canadian speculative fiction.
Tesseracts Nine edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Geoff Ryman will be available May1st, 2005
For more information about Tesseracts 9, its authors, and the editors, please contact Janice Shoults, marketing director, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.
List of Tesseracts Nine Contributors:
Anthony MacDonald and Jason Mehmel, Jerome Stueart, Yves Meynard, Candas Jane Dorsey, E. L. Chen, Sandra Kasturi, Steve Stanton, Élisabeth Vonarburg, Timothy J. Anderson, Daniel Sernine, Dan Rubin, Nancy Kilpatrick, Alette J. Willis, Rhea Rose, Casey June Wolf, Sarah Totton, Marg Gilks, Claude Lalumière, Peter Watts and Derryl Murphy, Sylvie Bérard, Rene Beaulieu, Pat Forde, Allan Weiss, Sheryl Curtis, Howard Scott, Nalo Hopkinson and Geoff Ryman.
# # #
Publisher's web site:
http://www.edgewebsite.com