Publisher:
Orbit
Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron
Publisher: |
Orbit |
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Date: |
2002 |
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Size: |
424 Pages |
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Format: |
Paperback |
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Price: |
£6.99 |
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ISBN: |
1-84149-141-1 |
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Reviewed by: |
Rod Cameron |
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Review Date: |
November 2007 |
Having read a number of Elizabeth Moon’s space opera works including the Vatta’s War series :Trading in Danger (2003), Moving Target (2004), Engaging the Enemy (2006), Command Decision (2007) I was intrigued to see what she made of a completely different genre. Speed of Dark is science fiction but only just, in the sense that it is set a few years in the future when medicine is able to make radical changes to the human brain using nanotechnology. Speed of Dark concerns Lou who is different to ‘normal’ people. Although autistic, he is highly intelligent, but has difficulty in coping with people and their incorrect, often cruel, assumptions about him. In a similar fashion to Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2003), Speed of Dark gives a valuable insight to the ‘normal’ reader of a very different way of thinking.
But this work has a much deeper plot-line than The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in that Lou is given the opportunity to be made ‘normal’. The second half of Speed of Dark examines his feelings as he tries to decide whether he truly wants to be changed or is just reacting against being bullied by people who should know better. Speed of Dark has a lot of similarities with Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon (1966) in that both works raise questions in the reader’s mind about the merits of mind-alteration and indeed about how normal ‘normal’ really is. Speed of Dark is well written, well characterised, and an excellent thoughtful read. Don’t hesitate to buy it if you come across it.