“Autistic is different, not bad. It is not wrong to be different. Sometimes it is hard, but it is not wrong.”

Speed of Dark is the second stand-alone novel by American author, Elizabeth Moon. It is set in the near-future. Lou Arrendale is an autistic man in his late thirties, working as a bioinformatics specialist with several autistic colleagues in the Analysis Section of a large Pharmaceutical company. Born too early for the curative treatments available to infants later born with this condition, Lou is part of a select group of autistics whose unusual needs are supported as their unique skills are utilised. Lou lives independently, supporting himself and enjoying the routines that make his life reassuringly predictable: shopping on Tuesdays, cleaning his car on Saturdays, church on Sundays and fencing practice with his friends Tom and Lucy on Wednesdays. He loves the stars, classical music and, lately, Marjory, one of his fencing friends.

But things are changing in Lou’s life: the new division head, Mr Crenshaw, seems to dislike the autistic employees; Tom is encouraging Lou to fence in a tournament; someone is vandalising his car. Lou feels he is changing too. He and his colleagues are being coerced into a new clinical trial for an experimental treatment to alter their brains, to remove their autism, to make them “normal”. But will this treatment change who they are? Reactions to this opportunity are understandably polarised.

Moon uses two narrative strands: Lou’s experience is told in the first person; characters observing him (Tom Fennell, Pete Aldrin) are told in the third person. Moon’s experience with autism is evident in every paragraph: Lou’s voice is authentic and Moon touches on many topical themes, some particularly relevant to those on the autism spectrum: the ethics of chemical restraint, the medicalisation of variations from the norm, bullying and intimidation, what defines self and the importance of memory. This is a powerful and thought-provoking read.