Of Free Will and Providence

Autistic-American author Chip Byers creates a story of Chris, a young self-hating, Autistic man who continually attempts to craft his own world within the world that exists. Through a series of events, Chris finds himself relocating to an orbital satellite, a post-industrial, borderline-colonial, tourist-driven society, where outside of the Earth, he attempts and ultimately fails to navigate the social complexities of neurodiversity, race, religion, ethics, and sexuality. The novel explores and contrasts his friendship with Chase, a gay and lower-functioning, Autistic man, which by chance or providence, came about organically with no conscious contributions on his part and his association with Samuel, an attractive, ideal, socially outgoing man, which was the result of free will, constant effort and deliberate planning.In addition to social issues, the novel also explores the sometimes dismal realities of life in a seemingly perfect, resort area and it also heavily reflects on Chris' impulsive need to be in control and to both interpret and preserve history, culminating in a desire to freeze time altogether. Vividly creating the extra-worldly setting of the Constitution and the Independence satellites, Chip Byers draws the reader in with strong imagery, descriptive of the environment, characters and protagonist's thought processes. Byers' premier work provides a key for the neurotypical world to unlock the prison that Autistics had been forced into by our society, previously unable to understand them.