This is a review of Testing Pandora (Xandri Corelel #0), Failure to Communicate (Xandri Corelel #1) and Tone of Voice (Xandri Corelel #2), but that would make the blog post title really long.
I am caffeinated, sorry. Been to Maccys for breakfast with my sister and we had two Millionaire’s Lattes each. Might make this review a bit bouncy.
Xandri Corelel is one of these Pandoras, a young autistic woman scorned by her family and fighting to eke out a living on the streets of Wraith. Then she meets Chui Shan Fung, captain of the first contact and refugee ship Carpathia. Captain Chui has been watching her, and knows about the talent for understanding alien species that Xandri has cultivated. She wants Xandri as part of her crew–but first, Xandri must pass a test to see if she’ll even fit in.
Wary but hopeful, Xandri joins the Carpathia at Psittaca, a newly-discovered planet peopled by parrot-like sapients. Learning to understand this new species is the easy part compared to trusting her new crew mates. As Xandri continues her diplomatic efforts with the Psittacans, it becomes apparent that the Carpathia’s crew aren’t the only ones to have discovered the planet, but these other visitors don’t have good intentions. In order to protect this beautiful new world, Xandri must find it in herself to overcome years of abuse and neglect, and trust in her new crew.
The Anmerilli, a notoriously reticent and xenophobic people, have invented a powerful weapon that will irrevocably change the face of space combat. Now the Starsystems Alliance has called in Xandri and the crew of the Carpathia to mediate. The Alliance won’t risk the weapon falling into enemy hands, and if Xandri can’t bring the Anmerilli into the fold, the consequences will be dire.
Amidst sabotage, assassination attempts, and rampant cronyism, Xandri struggles to convince the doubtful and ornery Anmerilli. Worse, she’s beginning to suspect that not everyone on her side is really working to make the alliance a success. As tensions rise and tempers threaten to boil over, Xandri must focus all her energy into understanding the one species that has always been beyond her: her own.
The Hands and Voices–squid- and whale-like symbiotic aliens–are masters of bio-engineering and grow a wide variety of species of coral. Now they are in the process of creating coral that can withstand vacuum, with a most stunning end goal: To grow entire spaceships out of living organisms. The Starsystems Alliance is desperate to lure the Hands and Voices into the Alliance and bring this new technology into the fold. And the Voices and Hands are willing, with one stipulation.
They will only negotiate with Xandri and the crew of the Carpathia.
Returned from exile, Xandri is given the lead on this new mission. She quickly discovers that willingness isn’t the problem; the Hands and Voices want to join, but they want full equality in their membership–including the ability to attend council meetings in person. Amid the sunshine and surf of the tropical, idyllic planet of Song, it seems the biggest hardship Xandri and her friends will face is the task of re-rigging a spaceship to carry creatures the size of killer whales.
I’ve got Testing Pandora and Tone of Voice as ebooks, and Failure to Communicate as a paperback, and I’ve just realised I can get Tone of Voice as a paperback too, so I’ve ordered it. As I write I’m still only 43% of the way through Tone of Voice, but I love these books so much I had to tell you all about them.
You’ve read the very comprehensive book descriptions, right? You don’t need me to re-cap, do you? Because I can. But there might be spoilers.
I won’t then.
Just talk about the writing, Rosie, and try to focus.
Kaia Sonderby is a very fluid writer and her characters spring to life. There are no stereotypes or caricatures. In Xandri we have a sympathetic, realistic depiction of an autistic woman. She is complex and traumatised from years of abuse, and the Carpathia is the first place she feels at home, but she struggles to trust her colleagues.
She battles the inner voice that tells her not to show too much emotion, or any, in case it’s the wrong one; it’s her mother’s voice. The same voice tells her she’s not good enough and nobody will like her, and why can’t she be ‘normal’? The voice of abuse, control and punishment. Her new crew, and friends, help to drown out that voice with acceptance and love. She’s confused by these feelings, too.
She’s not supposed to be able to feel them or empathy. Not according to her parents. Or the ‘experts’ they took her to as a child. Yet, she is an expert at identifying the mannerisms of other species, at reading their body language and negotiating with them. She’s learnt to be, in order to survive. She’s fascinated by the universe, by all the wondrous beauty around her. The descriptions of synesthesia make me slightly jealous, to hear colours and taste sounds must add so much depth to perception of the world. I love the descriptions of Xandri’s experiences as she navigates life. I recognise those experiences as something we have in common. The feeling of utter joy in beauty and beauty in everything, the wonder at the universe, confusion in personal relationships, the feeling of the physical power of a crowded place forcing air out of the lungs, something you can touch. Shutting down. The need for quiet. Forgetting to eat. Being absorbed in an interest to the exclusion of all else.
Kaia writes from personal experience of being autistic and assigned female at birth. Her characters range across species, gender and sexuality, relationship arrangements, as well as neurological designations. They are sympathetic, even when totally alien and/or the bad guys.
I adore the Psittacans, introduced in Testing Pandora. They are parrot-like and very playful, and their relationship with Xandri is a lovely continuing storyline. The Hands, in Tone of Voice, cephalopod-like symbiotes of the whale-equivalent Voices, are also creeping into my ‘aww they’re so cute, I want one!’ book. I hope they make appearances in future novels.
The developing friendship/romantic relationship between Kiri, Diver and Xandri is by turns sweet and frustrating as they all try to work out where they stand with each other. The alternating perspectives of Xandri and Diver inTone of Voice really illustrate this well as they reflect on events as they happen and the reader sees things from different angles. They love and support Xndri for who she is, not who they think she should be.
The planets the Carpathia crew visit are interesting and different. They make reference back to Ancient Earth when they want to explain something, like the gravity or the air. Song is mostly an ocean planet with heavier than standard gravity, Psittacca is a jungle, with a thick atmosphere and lighter than standard gravity, Stillness has invisible predators, Wraith is dark and heavy, highly populated and urban.
The tech seems reasonable. An advanced sentient species from another solar system that develops FTL travel (slingspace), arrives on Earth and saves humanity from ourselves by sharing tech and finally inviting the Earth sentients to join the Alliance is a different take; normally humans centre themselves in that bit of the back story or plot. As the humans are the ones who are a bit behind, it’s perfectly reasonable for the tech to be a bit different. The AI is particularly advanced, Carpathia is a character in her own right.
I found the idea that people would use gene editing and screening to remove disability from the different species in the universe quite disturbing. Not unexpected, given that in Iceland people selectively abort foetuses with Down’s Syndrome and genetic screening of embryos can be used to prevent Tay Sachs during IVF treatment even now. While germ-line genetic manipulation is illegal, gene therapy for single-gene mutation disabilities and diseases can be treated – although it is extraordinarily expensive. Autism, and neurodivergencies in general, are much more complex, very few autistic people have the same genes that are related to the differences in brain wiring, so deleting us is not happening soon, but frighteningly, it’s something some researchers are working towards in the name of ‘curing’ us.
The only way to cure us is to kill us off and screen all embryos for any of the 1000+ genes involved.
Sonderby touches on this in her novels as the ‘Pandora Question’ is brought up in Tone of Voice. After the fad for children au naturale shows that disabilities continue to exist in germ lines, it’s banned and all people are given free embryo screening if they want children. Later, after the Anmerill muck-up, the questions return. It’s debated in the Starsystems Alliance council meetings and on the news casts. Even Carpathia crew are scared of Xandri. Whether people like Xandri should be allowed to exist, whether they’re dangerous, or even real people, are normal topics of conversation.
Sounds familiar if you have any understanding of the history of autism and the way autistic people are treat still.
I love that the author touches on these subjects, as well as the abusive ‘treatments’ Xandri was subjected to, while other characters try to find out more information from Ancient Earth to change the narrative about the Pandoras, just as Neurodiversity activists work to change the narrative about us now. They may be set 4000 years in the future but they reflect our current situation. Children are subjected to abusive ABA, autistic adults are discriminated against, people debate whether we have the right to exist or should be ‘cured’ as though it were a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
These strands to the narrative aren’t heavy handed, they’re background and if you aren’t involved in the online autistic community you might not pick up on them. I like that, these novels are good stories, not polemic. It’s good autistic representation within a complex universe and with a strong plot.
Highly recommended.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 