The Speed of Dark

Lou Arrendale is an autistic man living in a near-future where childhood intervention has erased most autism, leaving him part of one of the last generations to grow up neurodivergent. He works in a pattern-analysis unit staffed by autistic employees, drives, fences as a hobby, and quietly loves a woman from his fencing club. When a new executive pressures the unit to accept an experimental treatment that would rewire their brains toward normalcy, Lou must decide whether the self he has built is something to fix or something to keep. The book stays inside his measured, observant voice as he reasons his way toward a choice nobody should have to make.