Beggars and Choosers (Beggars Trilogy (also known as Sleepless Trilogy))

Rating:
Summary: First-rate hard science fiction
Review: Beggars and Choosers is the second book in Nancy Kress's "Beggars" trilogy. Although it is intended to be able to stand alone, many readers will find it much more intelligible and enjoyable if it is read after Beggars in Spain, which is a fine story in its own right.

Beggars and Choosers is set in a twenty-second century in which genetically engineered humans ("genemods") have taken over the reins of society, with the predicable consequence of conflict with the unmodified "livers." This is not a new theme, but Kress handles it with imagination, intelligence, a wonderful understanding of the conventions of hard science fiction, and a truly admirable literary style. This, and Beggars in Spain,contains some of the best written science fiction that I have encountered in my forty or more years of reading in the genre. It is intellectually demanding, as is most good science fiction, but very rewarding.

My one quibble with the book is comparatively minor, but annoying enough to be stated: I found the distinctions between the various groups of modified humans (donkeys,sleepers, super sleepers), and their origins, to be less than clear. I suspect that readers who approach Beggars and Choosers without having read Beggars in Spain are likely to have even more trouble with these distinctions than I did, but the differences are of critical importance to the understanding of the story.

I am looking forward to reading Beggars Ride, the third volume in the trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful look at issues raised by nanotechnology.
Review: I join others in recommending that "Beggars in Spain" by Kress be read first in order to fully appreciate this book. It's the best look I have seen so far in fictional form of the issues raised by nanotechnology. For a thorough nonfiction overview of these questions, see "Unbounding the Future" by Eric Drexler et al. (and Drexler's Foresight Institute, which is on the Web). Nanotech offers unparalleled wealth, an end to most environmental problems, cheap space travel--but it won't make Serbs and Albanians friends or solve the population explosion, and it can be abused in horrible ways. Similar issues are explored in James Hogan's SF "Voyage from Yesteryear," also highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Super! ....sleepless nights after reading this book
Review: The saga continues. The people who do not need to sleep have wrought a profound change on the world in the first book (Beggars in Spain). Now, like the numerical solution of a differential equation spinning away as the computer chugs on further iterations, the story spinds out in myriad directions and ends up creating a society that looks very much like society today or for that matter a thousand years ago. Stratified and seggregated - of course the rules of seggregation are different. Do all stable societal configurations stratify the society? Or does the author's experince with her society guides the book to this conclusion? Thought provoking.

Rating:
Summary: Great Sequel-Also Great Stand Alone Novel
Review: This book picks up about a decade after the end of BEGGARS IN SPAIN and mainly follows the path of the Super Sleepless on Earth, specifically Miranda Sharifi, the brilliant granddaughter of Leisha's nemesis from the first novel. American society has become more stratified than before, where the wealthy working class called "Donkeys" literally buy votes by providing bread and circuses for a large uneducated welfare population called "Livers". Of particular interest is the character of Drew Arlen, a young Liver who wants to raise himself above his birth and be on par with the Super Sleepless. Drew becomes involved with Miranda's plots within plots to remake society as she sees fit.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best SF novels I have read in years.
Review: This book picks up where Beggars in Spain left off, but unlike many sequels which require re-reading the first again, this is very much a stand alone book. While the issue of gene manipulation and modification is central to the story line, Beggars and Choosers is not so much a ripping yarn as it is a moving and powerful commentary on contemporary society.

Kress again excels in the area of character development, with the story told through the eyes of Diana Covington (genemod / "donkey" and undercover agent for the Genetics Standards Enforcement Agency), Billy Washington ("liver"), and Drew Arlen (central character from B in S). I particularly enjoyed the narrative when Diana and Billy were telling the story.

While the plot is not perhaps as fast moving as its predecessors, there are still plenty of twists and turn to keep you guessing. Overall, I had no hesitation giving this novel 5-stars, putting it up there with the best in the genre.

Rating:
Summary: Mmmm...great sci fi...
Review: This was actually the first Kress book I read (I went out and grabbed 4 more almost immediately afterward, including Beggars in Spain)...so, the book definately stands on its own two feet and I still enjoyed the series tremendously despite not reading them in their intended order. Maybe it's because I read this one first, but it stands out as my favorite - a well-crafted future (usually missing from a lot of sci fi), a compelling plot (again, often absent from a lot of sci fi...no alien invasion/war/global cataclysm/blah/blah here, just a very interesting look at what the advances in our own existing technology may one day bring us), really great lead characters, particularly Diana Covington who I felt I sort of followed through this story in progress, and hey, some actual science! I'm no genetic engineer, but it seems that the material has been very well thought out and is a running theme in the Kress books I've read so far - being central to this book and the others in the series, I like the fact that the concept is used so thoughtfully...genetic engineering didn't destroy the world, but it certainly did change it. I suppose it would...perhaps it will, depending on how far we take it. This book has a ring of realism and science fact mixed in with fiction, as well as the central question 'what will the technological and social advances of the future really mean to us and how will they affect us?' - I just don't seem to find much science fiction like that these days. I was looking for some new material to read, and after picking up four or five complete duds by other authors, I picked this one up initially because the cover intregued me...boy am I glad I did. I have a feeling Kress will keep me in good sci fi for a while.