The Speed of Dark (original 2002; edition 2005)

Wow, this book was compelling, suspenseful, funny, sad and as a bonus, it was well-written.

The inside of an autistic man's head is where the majority of the book takes place, and it seems to me to be a very realistic portrayal. I loved looking at the world through Lou's eyes. A fair bit felt familiar, including Lou's love of shiny glittering things that move. His experience of music made me ache with the desire to be able to hear what he heard.

Set in a recognizable near-future, this novel gives one a lot to think about and question. I loved this line: "Correctly identifying danger is not paranoia."



( )

Lou is in the last generation of autistic people, everyone younger is now cured before birth. His employer wants him to take an experimental treatment to fix him. Somewhere else in there is a little bit of plot, but more than anything, your 340 pages worth of time will be taken up hashing and rehasing the theme of autistic versus "normal" (if you've never experienced repetitive thoughts, this book will teach you what it is like).

I can't gauge how well the experience of being autistic is replicated in the first person narrative, but it was good at showing an inner dialogue that is different from most. The biggest problem with being inside Lou's head is that it is perfect; The author created a person without flaws. Lou's every action and thought is perfectly justifiable and rational within the framework of the story.

The Speed of Dark is well outside of my wheelhouse even though, being a Nebula Award winner, you wouldn't think that it would be. One would be better off approaching the decision to read this as if it had no science fiction or speculative fiction elements at all, as those elements are very minor and in some places don't serve the story well. ( )

Being glib, I described this book as being all about how autistic normal people are. That's not entirely true, but among the many things it examines is how small the difference is sometimes.

I was all ready to give this four stars until the last two chapters. It was not an unsatisfactory ending, but it changed my relationship with the story entirely. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Still, a great read and an interesting and thought-provoking story.

After thinking about it, I decided what I thought of the ending and the intent of the whole book and gave it four stars after all. Full spoilery thoughts here: http://ginny-t.livejournal.com/641582.html. ( )

in the very near future, Lou is a near-savant autist whose flawless pattern recognition ability makes him valuable to the pharmaceutical company he works for. a new manager decides that removing the supportive environment for the "special employees" is a great way to cut costs, so he threatens to fire them if they don't undergo an experimental new treatment to reverse autism.

this could have been written as a heartbreaking cautionary drama, a corporate thriller, or perhaps a novel of scientific discovery. instead, in Moon's capable hands, this book is an amazingly in-depth glance into how it would be to view the world fundamentally differently. plot definitely takes a back seat to character here; usually, that's a failing, but the trip into someone else's mind is so immersive that a more complex story would have gotten in the way (and almost does, toward the end).

Moon tends to write SF, so in most places this book has been shelved with the adventures-with-lasers. since we all tend to read within our favorite genre(s) and it's neither your typical sci-fi novel nor regular mainstream fiction, this book has been sadly overlooked. highly recommended. ( )

Autism. Near future thriller.

note to self. Copy from A.