3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best, most original reads I've had in a long time!, July 17, 2011
This review is from: Kea's Flight (Kindle Edition)
Kea's Flight is one of those novels that depart from the typical. To
say it is a work of science fiction, set in a distant future where
space travel is the norm, is not to do the novel justice. True, that
is the setting and the general description of the novel, but apart
from that very general description, Kea's flight conforms to none of
the stereotypical plot conventions of the science fiction genre. It is a
pioneering departure in more ways than one. The atmosphere and the
future it creates is original and previously uncreated. And yet it
is also the first novel, complete, polished and written for the
mainstream, that deals with important social questions, including
mainstream attitude to those with Austism and Asperger's Syndrome.
If you are, like me, a fan of Isaac Asimov and his ability to create
alternate realities--so real that you feel like a tourist on holidays,
every time you pick up one of his books--then you will surely love
Kea's Flight.
Being my first exposure to Hammerschmidt, as a fiction writer, Asimov
is the writer whose style I have seen most resemblance. Much like
Asimov, Hammerschmidt and Ricker demonstrate their power to form
alternate realities with the complexity and attention to detail
necessary to allow the reader to suspend their disbelief. This gives
the novel such a "real" feel, that I find myself attracted, once
again, to the novel, after having read it. The setting and characters
were described so skillfully, and their reality is so tangible, that I
have found myself missing Kea and her friends, and feeling a powerful
urge to re-visit them in the "flying dustbin", which is their ship.
Hammerschmidt takes care to develop her characters, to a level of
breathing realism, and her dialog is strong and believable. Given
this, however, her first few chapters, much like Asimov's tend to be,
are involved with character development and setting the scene. So, if
you are the type of reader who requires immediate action and a great
deal of violence or earth-shattering explosions, to keep your
attention, you may prefer a book written with more violent action and
less character development. Whereas, if you are more a fan of
classical literature, then you will appreciate the author's
attention to detail. The pace of the book is leisurely, to begin
with, but it is more than compensated for, in the later chapters, when
the plot begins to quickly and impressively take form. Most good
dialogists, such as Hammerschmidt, lack skill with plot. But the plot
twists of Kea's Flight, in spite of their slow maturation, are
skillfully woven, to the extreme, and no mystery is left unsolved. At
some points in the novel, the resolution to a given plot point was so
unexpected and so clever that I couldn't help but laugh in wonderment.
This is something few authors have been able to do to me.
Kea's Flight is a pioneering work, in that it creates a new world,
unlike other science fiction worlds so far invented. That is, to my
mind, the clearest definition of "pioneering science fiction." But it
is also a pioneering work in that it is the first science fiction
novel, in my knowledge, to deal with questions of prejudice against
those with Autism, Asperger's Syndrome or any other diagnosis termed a
"disability" by mainstream culture. It puts this question into a
highly entertaining and well-written piece of fiction; it is written
by authors who, themselves, have been diagnosed on the Autism
Spectrum; it offers solutions to these social problems that leave you
wishing, at the end of the book, that you could be on the ship with
Kea and her friends, instead of this world, where these illogical
prejudices still prevail; it is not afraid to broach controversial
social issues, such as birth control and alternative lifestyle
choices.
For the pioneering reasons above, I rank Kea's Flight as one of the
most memorable reads I have had in a long time and I recommend it,
particularly to anyone who likes to explore new vistas of science
fiction writing, anyone interested in autism/asperger rights and
anyone who is a fan of Isaac Asimov, like myself.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Sci-Fi Tour of the Asperger Spectrum, February 16, 2012
I usually do not have the patience for novels and prefer reading popular science and travel literature. But when the authors offered me a review copy of this book, I found I could not turn it down. The prospect of heroes diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in a science fiction setting was too good to pass up. We all know people with Asperger's but rarely think of them as central characters in a book, or in our own lives, for that matter. I spent 3 weeks reading (and re-reading) the novel, but it was well worth my time.
In the 25th century humans have done away with abortion, but now are removing and freezing an unwanted fetus. Reasons for doing so vary, but neo natal genetic testing and social pressure encourages parents to get rid of children who are not "optimal." In addition, Earth now has a single dictatorial government, based on loosely right wing religious principles, and it is easy for them to simply send away children who will not readily fit into society. Karen Anderson, a language savant, born with tendency towards autism spectrum disorders, has never lived on earth. Her entire life has been spent on a ship she calls the "flying dustbin" under the care of domineering and paternalistic BGs (benevolent guardians). Feeling isolated and routinely punished for minor violations of unwritten ship rules, Karen eventually finds other passengers with similar backgrounds, including Draz, a computer savant, with whom she forms a romantic bond. This small cluster of passengers quickly discover that the ship is not very well constructed, and the planet they are being sent to is not capable of sustaining life. They hatch a plot to try to save themselves and the other passengers.
The plot of the book is fairly well constructed, though I found the motivation of the central villain in the novel to be a little inadequate. I was also a little disappointed in a computer character, whom I alternatively thought should have been given an either greater role or toned down. But these are minor criticisms of an otherwise well written novel. These cavils also miss the bigger point of the book, for the novel is really a vehicle for the author(s) to introduce readers to what people with Aspergers Syndrome feel and experience. Indeed, the central characters of the novel are clearly the authors themselves, and the social struggles they describe in the context of the novel are all too real experiences for many people with Aspergers. At times the novel almost became didactic, and difficult to follow. Still, the characters were all very realistic, precisely because they were so typical of what people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) regularly experience. I know a little about that, and am sad to say that I recognized a lot of myself in one of the less pleasant characters who surrounds Karen Anderson, the eternally pessimistic (and combative) Chris.
All too often fiction assumes characters who are "normal" but face the everyday challenges of life in unique ways; think "Are you there God, It's me, Margaret." The characters in science fiction are for the most part similar: very like us, but responding to challenging situations in a futuristic setting. Only rarely do we see people society would label as disabled playing a leading role in science fiction or fantasy. It may be that the reason the X-men, for example, are so popular is because they include a hero confined to a wheel chair (to say nothing of that rarest type of human being, a nationalistic Canadian, but I digress). It's refreshing to read a novel where characters with Aspergers are at the heart of the action. I hope I can see more fiction like this, with less of an emphasis on the didactic purpose for doing so.
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