Beggars In Spain

Nancy Kress
Beggars In Spain Cover

Beggars In Spain

Cscott
6/16/2014
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The novel explores an interesting idea, that by being able to do without sleep we would have 30% more time to learn and would all become highly intelligent. In an age in the not too distant future where designer babies are now affordable by the middle class, one company has found a way to mutate the gene for sleeping without any harm to the individual. These babies are also healthier and will live much longer. These children become known as the 'sleepless' and as they grow, accelerate through school and college at a rapid rate, becoming lawyers, doctors, businessmen, inventers and extremely technosavy. In an already crowded Earth, struggling for resources the sleepless become hated for their superior intelligence, success and good health to the point where they are gradually forced out of mainstream society and have to start their own community.
I enjoyed the themes explored by the book but found the characters a little flat and colourless but maybe this is something that will improve in the next book in the trilogy, now that the scene is set.