Air; or, Have Not Have by Geoff RymanA revolutionary communications technology causes upheaval in the third-world fictional country of Karzistan, and Chung Mae is the only person who can prepare the people of her town for the full implementation of Air in a year's time. Ryman tackles issues such as globalization, the treatment of the third world by the first world, and rapidly advancing technological and social change. All that, and an absolutely compelling character study of a fashion expert in a fictional country at the conjunction of China and Kazakhstan (which shares cultural and religious ties with both Asia and the Middle East).