(#157911) THE SPEED OF DARK. Elizabeth Moon.

THE SPEED OF DARK. New York: Ballantine Books, [2003]. Octavo, boards. First U.S. edition. A "highly charged near future tale, told in the first person, of an autistic young man employed, with other autistic men and women, in a high-tech firm that, at least initially, values them for their autism-derived skills at pattern recognition. Unfortunately, a senior executive of the firm attempts to impose a coercive cure on his autistic employees, leading to a moderately complex interrogation of the moral issues involved (Moon allows comparisons here to mind-altering techniques that are applied to criminals in this world, which is only heartbeats ahead of our own), though the book has been criticized as offering a simplistic presentation of the inner nature of humans so estranged from 'normal' intersubjectivity. (The seemingly surreal psychic austerity – like chthonics gazing past the viewer out of an M C Escher painting – of the Antinomials in Paul Park's SOLDIERS OF PARADISE (1987) arguably constitute a more ambitious portrait of the alien within the human frame as illuminated by the tools of Fantastika.) But Moon's novel comprises a fierce advocacy of the argument that as participants in that human frame, autistics are more different than they are 'improper;' this passion is rooted in real-life experience, since in 1983 Moon and her husband adopted a son who proved to be autistic. SPEED OF DARK is an important text within the SF canon." - John Clute (SFE online). "A quiet and unusually thoughtful work." - Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-777. Winner of the 2003 Nebula Award for Best Novel. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. (#157911).

Price: $250.00

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Printing identification statement for this book:
"First Edition: January 2003 / 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" on copyright page.