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Kea's Flight
BUY:
Amazon - Lulu ebook - Lulu print - Smashwords - B&N
First book in the Kea series.
Kea's Flight - Kea's Landing - Kea's Migration
First published in March 2011.
A dystopia caused by breakdown of reproductive rights. A ship carrying unwanted embryos into space. A neurodivergent found-family, a secret language, an ace lesbian romance, and an autistic heroine who saves the day with the power of friendship and linguistics skill.
"What makes this book so fascinating is Kea, her fellow autistic children [...] and the society they've built in their ship. It's long been observed that many SF heroes and other characters display characteristics similar to folks with Aspergers--here's a book that makes the connection explicit. You'll see echoes of Heinlein's Peewee Reisfeld, Asimov's Arkady Darrell, and Panshin's Mia Havero."
--Don Sakers, Analog Magazine, October 2011
It's the 25th century, and humans have learned how to end unwanted pregnancies by removing and cryogenically freezing the embryos to save for later. But they never planned for how many there would be, or how much control people would want over their offspring's genetic makeup.
Kea was an exile before she was born. Grown from an embryo that was rejected for having autism-spectrum genes, she has been raised on a starship full of Earth's unwanted children. When a sudden discovery threatens their plan to find a home, Kea must join with other rejects to save the ship from its own corrupt government.
In March 2011 Kea's Flight was first published through the Lulu marketplace and Amazon's Kindle store. Now, in December 2021, it's republished in a shiny new edition.
Kea's Flight is a thought-provoking exploration of dystopian futures, theocratic authoritarian governments, pervasive surveillance, and the effect they might have on people with mental diagnoses. Artificial intelligence, space travel, and linguistics play major roles in this story, as well as controversial subjects such as gay rights and abortion.
The story is set in a future where embryos are rejected for all sorts of genetic reasons, and yet abortion is forbidden. When there are too many embryos to raise on Earth, the unwanted ones are sent into space, to be raised on starships and colonize other planets.
The protagonist is Kea, an outcast who was exiled to space as an embryo for having a genetic predisposition to Asperger's Syndrome. She invents secret codes using board games, lectures herself on linguistics to stave off panic, and named herself after a species of parrot. Throughout the story she struggles with her emotional challenges, builds a group of like-minded rebels, and finds love with a socially awkward computer hacker named Draz, all while evading the security robots and surveillance system of a totalitarian-ruled starship that considers her little more than a bothersome cargo.
The book was written with help from my partner. I did the writing, came up with the characters, and created the premise of the book. My partner laid a scientific and technological foundation that could support my ideas, while helping with character development and action scenes. Work on Kea's Flight started as a conversation between us around the year 2006, and blossomed into a 500+ page novel.
(Originally it was published as a co-authored work, but my partner has expressed a desire to back off from this project for now, due to her transition and potential name change, and the fact that she considers herself more of a proofreader and brainstorming partner than an author of this book.)
If books had movie-style ratings, I'm not sure what rating I would give it. It has swearing, violence and mild non-explicit sex scenes. It may not be suitable for all audiences. But then, I don't think any book is.
Further content warnings are linked below, in case you need them:
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