Steris and Renarin

I just finished Era 2 and truly enjoyed it. The only issue I have with it is one I have with TWOK. As a father of an autistic daughter, it feels like Sanderson tries too hard to write an autistic character. They become almost caricatures. Where so many of his characters are so well rounded, these feel two dimensional. I like Steris and Renarin, but their characters become distracting to the point of drawing me out of the story when he focuses on their autism. By contrast, I recall reading Madness in Solidar and Treachey’s Tools by Modesitt. They have a secondary character named Taurek who is autistic. I remember reading the story and fully understanding his struggle. I asked on a forum that Modesitt answers and he responded saying he wrote the character based on one of his kids. I think that’s the key. It feels like Sanderson just looks at a list of symptoms to build those two characters contrasted with Modesitt who has intimately been involved in the life of one.’