Picture of author.

Kaia Sønderby

Autor(a) de Failure to Communicate (Xandri Corelel)

5 Works 81 Membros 5 Reviews

About the Author

Includes the name: Kaia Sønderby

Séries

Obras de Kaia Sønderby

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nacionalidade
USA

Membros

Resenhas

Five words or fewer: Found family. Autistic acceptance. Diversity.

Xandri is a first-contact specialist on Alliance ship, Carpathia. She’s also one of the last known autistic people in the universe.

The Carpathia is called to an advanced society that’s being courted by both the Alliance and its deadly, vicious enemy. Xandri is called upon to take a leading role in the negotiations.

Make no mistake, this is not fiction — this is allegory. It’s an indictment of American gun culture and the glorification of violence. It’s a brutal takedown of autistic genocide, ableism, and ABA.

The only thing I found really odd was the fact that all the characters, including Xandri, were very big on their own personal guns. While fighting for gun control. That’s weird.

But still… Read this book.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
clacksee | outras 2 resenhas | Dec 12, 2022 |
Positive:
- I loved the girls eventually working together, and how their powers all fit - and all the creative solutions they had to combine/use their powers
- I loved the complete subverting of male heroes rescuing princesses
- I loved the characters

Negative:
- I was really ehhhh about the main romance, and Terri's male sidekick having a POV. Maybe because nothing in the blurb suggested it, so I wasn't prepared for it? But I really would have preferred this book without a romance
- Also, it kinda ended it with most of the cast (except for one girl, because there were 4 girls and only 3 boys) pairing up in m/f pairings which is also ehhh

I might write a longer review later. Overall, I loved the story, but the romance part dragged it down to 4 stars for me.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
runtimeregan | Jun 12, 2019 |
Read on my blog.

LGBTQAI : Xandri, the protagonist is bisexual and polyamorous, and there is also at least one sapphic side character/potential LI.
Sex on page: No

I have seen several people recommend this book on Twitter as an amazing indie book with an #ownvoices autistic protagonist, and I was not disappointed. Failure to Communicate was absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to read the sequel (not to mention the beautiful covers for both books).

Xandri was a detailed, three-dimensional protagonist who was easy to get attached to. I loved reading about the way she perceived patterns, people and the world, and I also loved the ways in which she was unique – for example, that nobody else thought to make friends with the ship’s AI. I also loved the many, many different alien species that were hard to keep track of at first, but once I got used to it I appreciated the thought and worldbuilding that went into making many unique species.

One of my favourite tropes in sci-fi on spaceships is the crew as family, and that really shone through here. While they had their disagreements and tension, Xandri’s crew held together, and they were especially ride-or-die for her. I loved the way most of them kept her needs in mind and helped her cope without making her feel like a burden, and how they (especially Diver) went out of their way to defend her.

This book also had mention of polyamorous communities, as well as a budding polyamorous relationship between central characters, although it didn’t become official in this book. Still, I absolutely loved the dynamic between the three of them and I’m eager to see more.

Failure to Communicate also had themes that went much deeper than fluff between crew members. The blurb starts with naming Xandri as one of the only remaining autistics in the universe, and pretty early on the book explains the way people now engineer their children before birth to get rid of any irregularities or neurodivergency. In a way, autistic and mentally ill people were wiped out – not by killing them outright, but by not letting them be born at all. While the crew knows Xandri and supports her, there is much ableism from strangers and the society in general – some of it unintended. Since there are only a few autistic people are left, all most people have to go on are inaccurate, generalised texts that show them as cold and without emotions. The level of ableism in this society was often sickening, especially towards the end (and yes, I was disappointed by Christa reverting to ableist comments even at 96% in the ebook).

The book also addresses gun violence and gun control, not only through the Anmerilli but also by directly referencing 21st century “Ancient Earth”, which was surprising but not unwelcome to see.

While these parts may have been difficult to read, I loved the way the book handled and addressed the deeper issues while also keeping them balanced with funny or heartwarming scenes.

Note: I do want to explain why I didn’t rate this book 5 stars, so I’d like to talk a little about my conflicted feelings towards the ending. Since this part is full of spoilers, I left it to the end.

First of all, I kind of felt Marco would end up betraying them pretty early on, and I also started suspecting that he was neurodivergent before it was revealed. I have to admit that when it was revealed, I felt really conflicted about making the traitor/villain be the only other neurodivergent person in the universe. I understood that the book was trying to subvert the trope of the mentally ill villain, but (at least originally) I didn’t feel like it did a convincing job. Still, later Xandri outright says that it wasn’t really his mental illness, but the torture he suffered because of it that lead him to be exploited. I still have some conflicting feelings about this, but I ended up accepting it.

I also understand that Xandri getting fired was necessary both to set up the sequel and to show the horrible ableism of this world, but – I still didn’t like it. The ableism was already clear, and more importantly, why the hell is mar’Odera still on the Council? He was nearly exposed as a saboteur, the other Council members grew distrustful of him, and then– the next time we see the Council, he’s still there, and a deciding person in the vote? It honestly just felt strange.


My rating: 🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿/5.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
runtimeregan | outras 2 resenhas | Jun 12, 2019 |
I loved Failure to Communicate so much that I rushed to pick up the prequel and read it in one sitting.

I couldn't have enough of the crew in FTC, especially Xandri, Diver and Chui, so this was great. Testing Pandora describes Xandri's joining of the crew, and the it has the exact same characters. It was nice to notice things that were similar in the two books, like Aki and the Captain being protective of Xandri and nudging her to eat.

On the other hand, in some ways this novella felt /too/ similar. After all, four years passed between Testing Pandora and Failure to Communicate - and yet, to me it felt like many of these relationships barely changed in those for years. For example, Christa and Xandri have the exact same rivalry they do four years later. This was a little strange, and I would have love to see more progression/change.

Also - tests or not, but I was surprised that Xandri was immediately offered to be the leader of the team instead of working her way up during those four years. In this situation, I understood Christa's anger better - I'd be pissed too if I had been doing my job well for years and the Captain brought in someone without any experience or formal education to be my boss, no matter how good Xandri did on that one test mission.

Another thing that was strange to me in both books is that literally everyone somehow seems to know Xandri is autistic, even without her telling them? Like, she worries about Diver finding out for example, but then we see in the interlude that Diver already knows. I wasn't sure what to do with that, or how he found out. This is especially strange given that autistics are even rarer here than in the "real" world.

There were several hints and references to the things Xandri had to do or survive, and the abuse she suffered - and while I don't wish to read about these in great detail, I still feel like it would have been interesting if there was a pre-prequel set even further back.

tldr; I loved this story and I loved getting more time with the crew, but it felt less like a prequel, and more like... the beginning of Failure to Communicate. I didn't really feel that there were supposed to be four years between the two books. (As far as I know, this was actually written before FTC, which would explain some of these things... but still, in that case I'm not sure why the author set the book four years later instead of just continuing this one.)

(By the way: two books, and I'm ashamed to confess at this point, but I still don't understand how slingspace works.)
… (mais)
 
Marcado
runtimeregan | Jun 12, 2019 |

Prêmios

Estatísticas

Obras
5
Membros
81
Popularidade
#222,754
Avaliação
3.8
Resenhas
5
ISBNs
7
Idiomas
1

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