Name: Failure to Communicate
ISBN: 9789198529708

Kaia Sonderby

Xandri Corelel, autistic woman and leader of starship Carpathia's first contact team, must navigate diplomacy and sabotage to ensure the survival of a species who have developed a new, deadly weapon.

Failure to Communicate

Janice Hopper

I don't remember why I bought this book. Probably because something about the plot summary intrigued me, and it was on sale. 

The protagonist, Xandri, is a non-neurotypical person. She's autistic, because her parents opted not to use the gene-fixing protocols available. Instead, they decided to roll the genetic dice to see what they'd get. They got an autistic daughter. And since conditions like autism are vanishingly rare in this particular future society, they had absolutely no idea how to rear her properly. Xandri somehow made till she got a break from Captain Chiu, who saw potential in her.

Now Xandri is head of a xeno-liaison group on the ship Carpathia. She manages pretty well, but still has lots of personal doubt and angst. Even so, almost everyone on the ship really seems to love her. She is occasionally told to "still her hands"; she's aware that her enthusiasms seem a bit OVER-enthusiastic to neurotypical people. 

The Carpathia and Xandri are sent to try to mediate with the Anmerilli, aliens that the Alliance wants to join ... the Alliance. There's a small chance that the Anmerilli may choose to ally with another race, the brutal Zechak, aka "orcs." Xandri's job is to find a way to make an alliance.

Some of the other reviewers were reminded of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I agree. The range of races that get along happily on the Carpathia is similar. Most of the people (humans and aliens & sentient spaceship) are pretty understanding of Xandri and willing to make allowances for her. That makes for a pretty nice and safe place.

(I'll note here that my issue with stories like this is that everybody that's nice all seem the same. I like a diverse cast, but when the diversity = people in bird suits/people in bear suits/etc., is it REALLY diverse??? Why can't the aliens be, you know, ALIEN? I find this unsatisfying. But that's me. This isn't a book that really wants to explore alien/human differences. This is a book where a large furry alien and kick-ass spaceship pilot is comfortable letting a human run hands through her fur so the human can soothe herself in an anxious moment.)

Anyway...
I am not autistic, nor am I very familiar IRL with those who are. The way Xandri was depicted seemed good to me, though. My husband works with a woman who can be nearly shattered by loud, sudden noises (e.g., fire alarm), and who wears ear protection to work sometimes. Xandri wears clothes with hoods she can pull up, and the hoods have ear protection. Various other adaptations (clothes, etc.) that Xandri makes to cope with sensory issues seemed logical to me. 

In short (hah), this is story with what seems to be a loving depiction of a young woman with useful abilities still struggling to fit in with the "normal" people, and able to do her job even with the issues she has. And she does it with people who care about her and want her to succeed. It's a little facile plot-wise, but the prose is fine, and the story moves along well. 

I'll probably read the next one in the series, because this one DOES end with some things unresolved.

Failure to Communicate

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