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Lou Arrendale thrives on routine. His adherence to very strict formulas of operation enable him to learn copious amounts of scientific material in a fraction of the time it would normally take. This talent, along with his ability to recognize complicated protein patterns invisible to almost everyone else, proves valuable in his job as a bio-information specialist in a pharmaceutical company. But if his carefully planned regimens are altered by normal workplace banter or horseplay, he becomes completely frazzled. Arrendale happens to be autistic, and his unique talents have made him, and those like him, prized commodities to a large corporation using teams of autistic people for research.

Change is coming into Arrendale's closely circumscribed world. His company is involved in a plan to reverse adult autism, and one of the executives has long held misgivings about the credit gleaned by the autistic team, not to mention the expense of indulging their particular whims. This boss devises a plan to use the team in an experiment to reverse adult autism; it serves the dual purpose of furthering his career and eliminating this unwanted group of employees. Arrendale is thrust into a position in which he must speak out.

Moon, the mother of autistic child, has marvelously conveyed the hidden world of autism, while creating a fully developed character who is perhaps as much of an outsider in our world as any alien or time traveler. Arrendale's innate goodness make it impossible not to root for him in his quest to understand the ultimate meaning of self. The book's memorable main character, the author's knowledge of her subject, and a fine story strongly told will ensure that "The Speed of Dark" will take its place with the best novels of self-discovery in any genre.

"A Shortcut in Time" by Charles Dickinson, Forge, $24.95.

On the surface, it didn't seem like time should be that important to Josh Winkler. As an artist, a househusband, and a devoted father to his daughter, Penny, he made his own hours and was free to indulge his artistic bent supported by the proceeds of his physician wife Flo's practice. But a shattering incident from his childhood reveals just how import even a few minutes can be. It not only has profound ramifications for his family, but it also makes him the perfect candidate to learn the importance of time in the present.

When Josh Winker was a child, his family led a Norman Rockwell existence in the tiny town of Euclid, Ill. One of the town's picturesque features was the series of paths that provided shortcuts from one side of town to the other. Josh Winkler was returning on his bike from an errand on one of these paths when he was set upon by a strange dog. In the midst of his frantic attempt to lose his canine pursuer, he was overcome by a pleasant, liquid-type feeling and realized the dog was gone. Later events cause him to believe that he had gone back in time, not much, 15 minutes or so, but enough to avoid the dog and to cause him to re-evaluate the world around him.

Flo Winkler, being the scientific member of the family, insists that her husband undergo an MRI, but the results are negative. The incident is about to be relegated as a quirk of artistic temperament, when a young woman arrives in town, seemingly out of nowhere, claiming to be from 1918. Most people, including Flo Winkler, regard this as some kind of scam, but Josh Winkler believes her. As he tries to research her story through old newspaper articles, the townsfolk become divided. Some beg Josh Winkler to show them how to time travel, while others become hesitant of taking their medical problems to a doctor with such a wacko for a spouse. Things get even more serious when Penny disappears - and Josh Winkler is convinced she has gone back to 1918, a time when the great influenza epidemic was claiming many lives.

Charles Dickinson has created a subtle and engaging world where the event of time travel takes second billing to a tale of familial relationships and the consequences of suppressing or sharing feelings. It is only in time that the truth can be fully revealed.

"Worlds Enough & Time" by Dan Simmons, EOS, $14.95.

Dan Simmons is known as a genre-bending writer whose work fits comfortably in fantasy, horror, suspense, crime fiction and literary fiction along with science fiction. These five pieces, dubbed "long stories" by Simmons in his introduction, reflect some of the author's diversity of style. The first story, "Looking for Kelly Dahl," is a hard-bitten tale of a bitter, alcoholic ex-teacher just this side of suicide who instead is thrust into a game of survival, and possibly a last shot at redemption by a former student. "Orphans of the Helix," a flat-out science-fiction story, takes place in the Hyperion universe, the setting of Simmons's popular Hyperion Cantos series. "On K2 with Kanakaredes" has an unusual story line: A team of mountain climbers ascending a dangerous peak is forced to take a big-shot insectoid alien on the journey.

The most disturbing story, "The Ninth of Av," was written for an anthology titled Destination 3001, a collection of works by contemporary writers reflecting on the dawn on the next millennium. Simmons darkly envisions a world in which a virus wiped out most of humanity long ago; the few survivors exist through a genetic quirk found in Jewish blood. The posthumans now in charge have retained one disturbing characteristic from the previous millennium: anti-Semitism.

These stories, and the fifth piece, a film treatment called "the End of Gravity," will be mainly of interest to fans of Simmons and his eclectic body of work. They will find an additional treat in the introductions that offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the writing process, as well as a rare look at the personality of a talented writer.

Dan Bogey is a Mahaffey, Clearfield County freelance writer for the Tribune-Review.

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