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Sleepless #2
Beggars and Choosers
In a genetically altered future America that is overrun by beautiful and super-intelligent people, the entire planet faces destruction in the face of overpopulation and unemployment. Reprint.
377 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 1994
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1359 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Kress
452 books900 followersNancy Kress is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo and Nebula-winning 1991 novella
Beggars in Spain
which was later expanded into a novel with the same title. In addition to her novels, Kress has written numerous short stories and is a regular columnist for Writer's Digest. She is a regular at Clarion writing workshops and at The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland. During the Winter of 2008/09, Nancy Kress is the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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May 11, 2011
My golden standard when it comes to stories of genetic manipulation and its effects on society is Gattaca. I've only seen it twice, I think, yet its impact on my consciousness (and conscience) remains clear in my mind. Growing up concurrently with the Human Genome Project and watching the advancements in genetics that are happening in my lifetime, I am wary of what will happen if governments, corporations, and people do not reach a social contract on how we will treat this new capability. Corporations are patenting our genes; insurance companies jump at any chance to discriminate based on a "pre-existing condition;" and it is only a matter of time before athletic organizations must deal with "enhanced" participants. We're nearing that threshold; I can feel it, and I really don't want to see the world become something like that depicted in Gattaca.
Beggars and Choosers doesn't follow exactly the same route as the movie, but it does meet my Gattaca standard. The United States has not quite gone apocalyptic on us yet, but it's getting there. Society has fractured into a 20/80 split of "donkeys" and "Livers." The donkeys do the administrative work, governing, running businesses, building and inventing new technology, etc. The Livers engage in "aristo" activities (including often-deadly scooter races), trading their votes to those donkeys who promise them the best services. In a very Gattaca-esque way, donkey families purchase the best genemods they can for their children. Livers do not engage in genemodding. And in orbit above Earth, the Sleepless still live in Sanctuary, though it did not quite manage to secede. Their SuperSleepless children have returned to Earth but sequestered themselves on a newly-made island, Huevos Verdes. And the trouble has only begun.
This book departs notably from Beggars in Spain. Fortunately, I think most of the changes are for the better. Kress elects to tell the story from the first-person perspective of several narrators. Interestingly, Miranda Sharifi, the SuperSleepless protagonist from the first book, is not one of them—nor is the original protagonist, Leisha Camden, whose role is much reduced. Kress very visibly passes the reins on to the next generation, and we get to see inside the heads of Diana, a donkey; Drew Arlen, the Lucid Dreamer and Miranda's lover; and Billy Washington, an old Liver who vaguely remembers what life was like back before such distinctions became meaningful. I liked, though not equally, all of these characters and their perspectives. Each of them undergoes experiences that challenge his or her beliefs and leads to a distinctive arc of character development. So not only is Beggars and Choosers a deep science-fiction novel about the repercussions of genetic engineering, but it is also a very good story. This is something I couldn't say about Beggars in Spain, and I am pleased to return Nancy Kress to the pedestal she deserves in my personal Authors Hall of Fame.
The Supers, under Miranda's guidance, are "up to something." Billy Washington lives in East Oleanta, a small community in New York State. The technology on which his community relies is degrading, a result, we learn later, of a genetically-engineered organism that digests "duragem," a phlebtonium substance present in most advanced technology. With everything from kitchen bots to gravrail trains breaking down, the Livers are having a hard time, well, living. At first it seems like a plot by the Supers to force the Livers to take responsibility for their own wellbeing rather than relying only on the donkeys they vote into office. Drew Arlen's inspirational Lucid Dreaming performance, "The Warrior," which leaves Livers with a desire to take risks and help each other, seems to confirm this suspicion. Yet as the story progresses, Kress reveals that the truth is far more complex. Someone else is responsible for the duragem plague, and while the Supers are not happy about it, they aren't entirely unhappy with it either, for it does play into their plans.
This ambiguity is a welcome change from the stark and opposing ideologies from Beggars in Spain. Since we do not get exposed to any Super perspectives, we are left in the dark as to what they are actually planning—kept guessing, actually, which I enjoyed to no end. The closest we get are glimpses through Drew Arlen's eyes, which mostly serve only to confirm to him, and us, how much of an outsider he remains despite his relationship with Miranda. So unlike in the first book, where the Supers' decision to undermine Jennifer and her supporters is clearly a good thing, the morality of what the Supers are doing is not so obvious here. Indeed, watching Drew's faith in Miranda falter, dim, and eventually gutter out is poignant and moving. Toward the climax, when Drew has to choose whether to call on Miranda for help or betray her to the GSEA, I really felt like I was reading a tragedy about these two main characters. Kress hasn't just written a book about the effects of genetic engineering on the wider society. Beggars and Choosers is an intensely personal story.
That doesn't change with Billy Washington. He begins to wake up to the fact that not all is right with the donkey/Liver dynamic, especially when he encounters the enigmatic Miranda and her laboratory hideaway, stylized "Eden." Billy is driven almost wholly by concern for Angie and her daughter, Lizzie, who is quite intelligent for a Liver. As tensions in the community run high, Billy risks his life for them, finally breaking out of the traditional Liver mould to take up the mantle of, essentially, a hero:
That commentary comes from Drew after one of his performances of "The Warrior." I've always believed that the "greatest" people are those who inspire us to be better people ourselves (which is why I'm such a fan of the Doctor, from Doctor Who, but that's neither here nor there). Kress seizes on something true: beyond that basic need for survival, we yearn for connection, for community. We yearn to act, to accomplish, and yes, to be heroes, if not in the eyes of others than in our own personal tales. And Drew is resurrecting and reinforcing this aspect of human nature, releasing it from wherever society's emphasis on social and genetic engineering has banished it. That's what stories and storytellers do.
The third narrator, who is actually the first one in the book, is Diana Covington. She is an atypical agent of the Genetic Standards Enforcement Agency (guess what they do!) who gets involved with the situation in Billy's community. She befriends Billy and Lizzie, supporting the latter's drive to learn by exposing her to more opportunities for education, much to Angie's disapproval. Gradually, Diana herself shifts from a rather listless donkey who doesn't quite know what she wants in her life to a convicted person who has a much better appreciation of how Livers live and how fragile American society has become. While she begins the story as an opponent of the Supers and their plot, whatever that is, eventually she has no choice but to find succour in Miranda.
The climax of Beggars and Choosers is nothing short of a gamechanger. We eventually learn what the Supers have been planning, and it involves a transformation of the body that they consider beneficial and liberating. Central to the climax is the question of whether the Supers have the right to decide for all humanity whether such a dramatic change is "right." They do not force it upon humanity in the sense that they release a pathogen, but they distribute vials that cause the transformation—and, as far as Kress tells it, there are no side effects, no fatalities for the change. As much as the changes themselves might be a great boon, however, the deeper moral issue remains: what right do the Supers have to dictate such a change? Drew and Diana both struggle with this, and in a sense the question becomes largely academic once the deed is done. Nevertheless, it's both thought-provoking and dramatically effective, for this is the final wedge in the relationship between Miranda and Drew. Although already tragic, the coda to Beggars and Choosers provides a pithy, ringing note to end both their story and the novel as a whole:
What, exactly, does this mean? It seems like Drew eventually decides that the Supers are so different they cannot be considered human; their thought processes and ethics are just alien. I'm not sure if this is the case—and of course, the underlying theme here is that the difference is subjective rather than genetic. We cannot draw a line between "human" and "non-human," "posthuman," or "more than human" by dint of modified genes alone. But once a technology is developed and released, it cannot easily be retracted or redacted. In the book, one of the characters notes that nuclear weapons seem to be an exception, citing the two strikes to Japan as the only time they were used in war. Further consideration should belie this example: certain countries continue to use nuclear devices to this day, albeit not in open warfare; and the capability to construct those devices remains.
Really though, the comparison is rather inaccurate: a nuclear weapon is a weapon of mass destruction and inherently dangerous. The danger with genetic engineering is that it is all too easy to fail to perceive the danger. What's wrong with preventing terminal diseases and congenital defects? What's wrong with lengthening the life-span and banishing cancer? What's wrong with attempting to give one's children an advantage by tweaking intelligence, ambition, or compassion? Beggars in Spain develops that theme, showing how concern for one's children—for our future—can have unexpected consequences. Beggars and Choosers continues this, but its philosophy is now accompanied by a great story and believable characters. Instead of focusing on the question of children, Kress explores the dynamics between genetics and class and asks who should be in charge of regulating scientific advances and deciding, for humanity, what constitutes appropriate genetic manipulation.
I try not to define too rigidly what I consider "good SF," because sometimes "good" anything just defies rigid definitions! As far as such definitions go, however, Beggars and Choosers must meet them, for it depicts not necessarily what our society will be or even what it could be but some of the moral and social dilemmas we will face as we push science and technology faster and more furiously than ever before.
My Reviews of the Sleepless trilogy:
← Beggars in Spain | Beggars Ride →
Beggars and Choosers doesn't follow exactly the same route as the movie, but it does meet my Gattaca standard. The United States has not quite gone apocalyptic on us yet, but it's getting there. Society has fractured into a 20/80 split of "donkeys" and "Livers." The donkeys do the administrative work, governing, running businesses, building and inventing new technology, etc. The Livers engage in "aristo" activities (including often-deadly scooter races), trading their votes to those donkeys who promise them the best services. In a very Gattaca-esque way, donkey families purchase the best genemods they can for their children. Livers do not engage in genemodding. And in orbit above Earth, the Sleepless still live in Sanctuary, though it did not quite manage to secede. Their SuperSleepless children have returned to Earth but sequestered themselves on a newly-made island, Huevos Verdes. And the trouble has only begun.
This book departs notably from Beggars in Spain. Fortunately, I think most of the changes are for the better. Kress elects to tell the story from the first-person perspective of several narrators. Interestingly, Miranda Sharifi, the SuperSleepless protagonist from the first book, is not one of them—nor is the original protagonist, Leisha Camden, whose role is much reduced. Kress very visibly passes the reins on to the next generation, and we get to see inside the heads of Diana, a donkey; Drew Arlen, the Lucid Dreamer and Miranda's lover; and Billy Washington, an old Liver who vaguely remembers what life was like back before such distinctions became meaningful. I liked, though not equally, all of these characters and their perspectives. Each of them undergoes experiences that challenge his or her beliefs and leads to a distinctive arc of character development. So not only is Beggars and Choosers a deep science-fiction novel about the repercussions of genetic engineering, but it is also a very good story. This is something I couldn't say about Beggars in Spain, and I am pleased to return Nancy Kress to the pedestal she deserves in my personal Authors Hall of Fame.
The Supers, under Miranda's guidance, are "up to something." Billy Washington lives in East Oleanta, a small community in New York State. The technology on which his community relies is degrading, a result, we learn later, of a genetically-engineered organism that digests "duragem," a phlebtonium substance present in most advanced technology. With everything from kitchen bots to gravrail trains breaking down, the Livers are having a hard time, well, living. At first it seems like a plot by the Supers to force the Livers to take responsibility for their own wellbeing rather than relying only on the donkeys they vote into office. Drew Arlen's inspirational Lucid Dreaming performance, "The Warrior," which leaves Livers with a desire to take risks and help each other, seems to confirm this suspicion. Yet as the story progresses, Kress reveals that the truth is far more complex. Someone else is responsible for the duragem plague, and while the Supers are not happy about it, they aren't entirely unhappy with it either, for it does play into their plans.
This ambiguity is a welcome change from the stark and opposing ideologies from Beggars in Spain. Since we do not get exposed to any Super perspectives, we are left in the dark as to what they are actually planning—kept guessing, actually, which I enjoyed to no end. The closest we get are glimpses through Drew Arlen's eyes, which mostly serve only to confirm to him, and us, how much of an outsider he remains despite his relationship with Miranda. So unlike in the first book, where the Supers' decision to undermine Jennifer and her supporters is clearly a good thing, the morality of what the Supers are doing is not so obvious here. Indeed, watching Drew's faith in Miranda falter, dim, and eventually gutter out is poignant and moving. Toward the climax, when Drew has to choose whether to call on Miranda for help or betray her to the GSEA, I really felt like I was reading a tragedy about these two main characters. Kress hasn't just written a book about the effects of genetic engineering on the wider society. Beggars and Choosers is an intensely personal story.
That doesn't change with Billy Washington. He begins to wake up to the fact that not all is right with the donkey/Liver dynamic, especially when he encounters the enigmatic Miranda and her laboratory hideaway, stylized "Eden." Billy is driven almost wholly by concern for Angie and her daughter, Lizzie, who is quite intelligent for a Liver. As tensions in the community run high, Billy risks his life for them, finally breaking out of the traditional Liver mould to take up the mantle of, essentially, a hero:
There was a confusion in the crowd. But a surprising number of Livers followed their new leader, burning to do something. To be heroes, which is the true hidden driver of the human mind.
That commentary comes from Drew after one of his performances of "The Warrior." I've always believed that the "greatest" people are those who inspire us to be better people ourselves (which is why I'm such a fan of the Doctor, from Doctor Who, but that's neither here nor there). Kress seizes on something true: beyond that basic need for survival, we yearn for connection, for community. We yearn to act, to accomplish, and yes, to be heroes, if not in the eyes of others than in our own personal tales. And Drew is resurrecting and reinforcing this aspect of human nature, releasing it from wherever society's emphasis on social and genetic engineering has banished it. That's what stories and storytellers do.
The third narrator, who is actually the first one in the book, is Diana Covington. She is an atypical agent of the Genetic Standards Enforcement Agency (guess what they do!) who gets involved with the situation in Billy's community. She befriends Billy and Lizzie, supporting the latter's drive to learn by exposing her to more opportunities for education, much to Angie's disapproval. Gradually, Diana herself shifts from a rather listless donkey who doesn't quite know what she wants in her life to a convicted person who has a much better appreciation of how Livers live and how fragile American society has become. While she begins the story as an opponent of the Supers and their plot, whatever that is, eventually she has no choice but to find succour in Miranda.
The climax of Beggars and Choosers is nothing short of a gamechanger. We eventually learn what the Supers have been planning, and it involves a transformation of the body that they consider beneficial and liberating. Central to the climax is the question of whether the Supers have the right to decide for all humanity whether such a dramatic change is "right." They do not force it upon humanity in the sense that they release a pathogen, but they distribute vials that cause the transformation—and, as far as Kress tells it, there are no side effects, no fatalities for the change. As much as the changes themselves might be a great boon, however, the deeper moral issue remains: what right do the Supers have to dictate such a change? Drew and Diana both struggle with this, and in a sense the question becomes largely academic once the deed is done. Nevertheless, it's both thought-provoking and dramatically effective, for this is the final wedge in the relationship between Miranda and Drew. Although already tragic, the coda to Beggars and Choosers provides a pithy, ringing note to end both their story and the novel as a whole:
Oh, Miranda … I'm sorry.
I never intended…
But I would try to stop you again. And I don't expect you to understand.
What, exactly, does this mean? It seems like Drew eventually decides that the Supers are so different they cannot be considered human; their thought processes and ethics are just alien. I'm not sure if this is the case—and of course, the underlying theme here is that the difference is subjective rather than genetic. We cannot draw a line between "human" and "non-human," "posthuman," or "more than human" by dint of modified genes alone. But once a technology is developed and released, it cannot easily be retracted or redacted. In the book, one of the characters notes that nuclear weapons seem to be an exception, citing the two strikes to Japan as the only time they were used in war. Further consideration should belie this example: certain countries continue to use nuclear devices to this day, albeit not in open warfare; and the capability to construct those devices remains.
Really though, the comparison is rather inaccurate: a nuclear weapon is a weapon of mass destruction and inherently dangerous. The danger with genetic engineering is that it is all too easy to fail to perceive the danger. What's wrong with preventing terminal diseases and congenital defects? What's wrong with lengthening the life-span and banishing cancer? What's wrong with attempting to give one's children an advantage by tweaking intelligence, ambition, or compassion? Beggars in Spain develops that theme, showing how concern for one's children—for our future—can have unexpected consequences. Beggars and Choosers continues this, but its philosophy is now accompanied by a great story and believable characters. Instead of focusing on the question of children, Kress explores the dynamics between genetics and class and asks who should be in charge of regulating scientific advances and deciding, for humanity, what constitutes appropriate genetic manipulation.
I try not to define too rigidly what I consider "good SF," because sometimes "good" anything just defies rigid definitions! As far as such definitions go, however, Beggars and Choosers must meet them, for it depicts not necessarily what our society will be or even what it could be but some of the moral and social dilemmas we will face as we push science and technology faster and more furiously than ever before.
My Reviews of the Sleepless trilogy:
← Beggars in Spain | Beggars Ride →
July 29, 2015
Kress does rich, white women really, really well, in almost a contemptible way. Some readers might mistake these protagonists for heroes, but the experiment is too complex for that. "Who should control technology?" is the question and, while the ridiculous social labels threaten to wreck the whole thing, the question is engaging and earnest, while the plot twists are genuinely surprising.
May 30, 2024
This is the second volume of Sleepless trilogy by Nancy Kress. It was nominated for Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards in 1995. The first book, Beggars in Spain, I’ve read a bit earlier (the review is here) and in this review, I’ll discuss some plot lines that spoil the first volume, so read on your own peril. I read it as a part of the buddy read of the trilogy in April-June 2024 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group.
The book starts in the year 2106, fifteen years after the events of the previous volume. Initially, it reads as a political satire, for just in a generation, the population of the US has split into Livers (95%+ of the population), who are proud not to work, living on goods and services supplied by Donkies in return for the votes - “School says I’m lucky, me, to be a Liver. I get to live like an aristo while the donkeys got to do all the work, them. Donkeys serve Livers, Livers hold the power, us, by votes. But if we hold the power, us, how come we can’t get the cleaner ’bot and the peeler ’bot and the warden ’bot fixed?” A life without goals or duties means that quite a few risk their lives unnecessarily in new dangerous sports.
Donkies are management/state representatives (around 1%) – they have access to a much larger array of goods (the book starts with a scene of conspicuous consumption, where one of them shows another her illegal gene-modded dog, pink-furred, big-eyed toothless talking idiot of a creature) and technicians (another 3%). To get the votes to stay in office, Donkies provide names after their services, like
Mr. Keller told me the café kitchen was fixed. I walked Annie and Lizzie, sweet-clean as berries in the dew, to get our breakfast. But the café was full, it, not just with Livers eating but of donkeys making a holo of Congresswoman Janet Carol Land.
It was her, all right. No tape. She stood in front of the foodbelt, which offered the usual soysynth eggs, bacon, cereals, and breads, plus some fresh genemod strawberries. I don’t like genemod strawberries, me. They might keep for weeks, but they never taste like them little wild sweet berries that grow on the hillsides in June.
“…serving her people with the best she has, no matter the need, no matter the hour, no matter the emergency,” said a handsome donkey into a camera ’bot. “Janet Carol Land, on the spot to serve East Oleanta—on the spot to serve you. A politician who deserves those memorable words from the Bible: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’!”
Finally, there are Sleepless and SuperSleepless, the latter numbered less than thirty, true transhumans, that even invented their own language for ordinary communication is just too slow. They are able to annihilate mankind in a day, but they feel a moral duty to help the less fortunate instead, within the limits of their libertarian attitudes.
The story follows several characters, old and new. There is Drew Arlen, a powerchair-bound Liver known as the Lucid Dreamer for his performances that dig into the subconscious and which are the only way for Sleepless to experience something akin to dreaming. He accepted to the SuperSleepless inner circle and is adored by Livers as well, so now he produces spectacular shows that ought to urge Livers to be more active and self-sufficient, instead of waiting till Donkies feed and clothe them. There is Diana Covington, a Donkey and a secret agent, sent undercover to find access to Miranda Sharifi, the leader of SuperSleepless, who supposedly works on illegal gene-mods. There is an old (67 y.o.) Liver Billy Washington living in East Oleanta with Annie Francy (35 y.o.) and her smart daughter Lizzie (11 y.o.). He still recalls the way things were before, and doesn’t follow the trend of hating Donkies, which is widespread among Livers – ‘Donkies live better than we, Livers, despite it is us who vote and therefore rule’. He meets Diana and they together watch as the old order collapses, because robotized systems start to break up while people don’t know how to care for themselves, for it is for Donkies.
A great continuation of the first book.
The book starts in the year 2106, fifteen years after the events of the previous volume. Initially, it reads as a political satire, for just in a generation, the population of the US has split into Livers (95%+ of the population), who are proud not to work, living on goods and services supplied by Donkies in return for the votes - “School says I’m lucky, me, to be a Liver. I get to live like an aristo while the donkeys got to do all the work, them. Donkeys serve Livers, Livers hold the power, us, by votes. But if we hold the power, us, how come we can’t get the cleaner ’bot and the peeler ’bot and the warden ’bot fixed?” A life without goals or duties means that quite a few risk their lives unnecessarily in new dangerous sports.
Donkies are management/state representatives (around 1%) – they have access to a much larger array of goods (the book starts with a scene of conspicuous consumption, where one of them shows another her illegal gene-modded dog, pink-furred, big-eyed toothless talking idiot of a creature) and technicians (another 3%). To get the votes to stay in office, Donkies provide names after their services, like
Mr. Keller told me the café kitchen was fixed. I walked Annie and Lizzie, sweet-clean as berries in the dew, to get our breakfast. But the café was full, it, not just with Livers eating but of donkeys making a holo of Congresswoman Janet Carol Land.
It was her, all right. No tape. She stood in front of the foodbelt, which offered the usual soysynth eggs, bacon, cereals, and breads, plus some fresh genemod strawberries. I don’t like genemod strawberries, me. They might keep for weeks, but they never taste like them little wild sweet berries that grow on the hillsides in June.
“…serving her people with the best she has, no matter the need, no matter the hour, no matter the emergency,” said a handsome donkey into a camera ’bot. “Janet Carol Land, on the spot to serve East Oleanta—on the spot to serve you. A politician who deserves those memorable words from the Bible: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’!”
Finally, there are Sleepless and SuperSleepless, the latter numbered less than thirty, true transhumans, that even invented their own language for ordinary communication is just too slow. They are able to annihilate mankind in a day, but they feel a moral duty to help the less fortunate instead, within the limits of their libertarian attitudes.
The story follows several characters, old and new. There is Drew Arlen, a powerchair-bound Liver known as the Lucid Dreamer for his performances that dig into the subconscious and which are the only way for Sleepless to experience something akin to dreaming. He accepted to the SuperSleepless inner circle and is adored by Livers as well, so now he produces spectacular shows that ought to urge Livers to be more active and self-sufficient, instead of waiting till Donkies feed and clothe them. There is Diana Covington, a Donkey and a secret agent, sent undercover to find access to Miranda Sharifi, the leader of SuperSleepless, who supposedly works on illegal gene-mods. There is an old (67 y.o.) Liver Billy Washington living in East Oleanta with Annie Francy (35 y.o.) and her smart daughter Lizzie (11 y.o.). He still recalls the way things were before, and doesn’t follow the trend of hating Donkies, which is widespread among Livers – ‘Donkies live better than we, Livers, despite it is us who vote and therefore rule’. He meets Diana and they together watch as the old order collapses, because robotized systems start to break up while people don’t know how to care for themselves, for it is for Donkies.
A great continuation of the first book.
May 23, 2022
I really enjoyed Beggars and Choosers. For whatever reason, the story just grabbed me. I liked the alternating perspectives (conceptually) with the exception of Drew Arlen's. The whole Lucid Dreamer thing didn't make sense to me in the first book, and still doesn't make sense here either. Additionally, he's not a likeable character and his love story is highly unbelievable. But other than that, I really liked this.
Beggars in Spain perhaps takes a long time to set everything up and takes place over such a long period of time to feel almost analytical or academic. Whereas Beggars and Choosers I felt really hit the ground running, though it does introduce new aspects of the Sleepers world and new characters.
Honestly, Nancy Kress has taken me by surprise. I've read several short stories over the years and always felt her style to be overly 'telly' versus 'showy'. I guess with this series consider me converted. I loved many of the big ideas here, the politics feel real, and are eerily similar in some ways to the nonsense going on here in the U.S.
I recommend this series. Hitting up Beggar's Ride next.
Beggars in Spain perhaps takes a long time to set everything up and takes place over such a long period of time to feel almost analytical or academic. Whereas Beggars and Choosers I felt really hit the ground running, though it does introduce new aspects of the Sleepers world and new characters.
Honestly, Nancy Kress has taken me by surprise. I've read several short stories over the years and always felt her style to be overly 'telly' versus 'showy'. I guess with this series consider me converted. I loved many of the big ideas here, the politics feel real, and are eerily similar in some ways to the nonsense going on here in the U.S.
I recommend this series. Hitting up Beggar's Ride next.
July 5, 2015
The following review has spoilers for Beggars in Spain, the first book in the Sleepless Trilogy. There are no real spoilers for Beggars and Choosers.
Genetic modification has run amok in the 21st century, dividing America into two groups: genetically enhanced donkeys who rule the world, and livers who live work-free lives of supposed paradise. The tenuous balance between the two groups is about to topple over, but could the secret to survival be found with the ultra-intelligent SuperSleepers, who do not require sleep? Beggars and Choosers looks to three narrators: liver Billy Washington, who’s old enough to remember life before donkeys and livers; donkey Diana Covington, who is frustrated at her own inability to find a place in the world; and Drew Arlen, the liver who infiltrated the donkey world and became the influential Lucid Dreamer.
Beggars in Spain was one of my favorite readers of 2011. Although Beggars and Choosers falls short of the high standards set by Beggars in Spain (mostly due to the fact that ending felt a little sloppy), it is nevertheless a successful continuation of Kress’s intelligent and at times scary view of the future. It’s worth noting that Beggars and Choosers reads very differently than Beggars in Spain, the latter which took place over several decades and was written from a third person unlimited perspective. Beggars and Choosers instead takes place over a few months and alternates between three narrators, which give the story a more personal feel. Regardless of the smaller scope, the novel still tackles some weighty issues. One might assume a future where the genetically modified donkeys rule the world, while the livers do not have to work would be paradise for some, but the result is very different. Both sides struggle to fit into the roles that they have been given. This can be seen with Diana who jumps from job to job, and Lizzie, a highly intelligent liver adolescent who is told to feel shame for her inquisitive nature. There exists little besides resentment and scorn between both classes, and when things go wrong this relationship experiences significant strain.
Beggars and Choosers presents a future that is on the brink of collapse, which lends it to some dystopian elements. While reading the book, I couldn’t help but feel that big changes were on the way, and yet I was still caught off guard when they happened. Kress isn’t afraid to crush the readers' hearts a little bit, and she shows this quite successfully when she kills off a main character. I enjoyed all three protagonists. Billy proved to be probably the best person in the book, Diana’s struggles were easy to connect with, and it was nice to finally see what makes Drew tick, given he wasn’t the most likable person in Beggars in Spain.
I’m quite happy that I ended up picking up Beggars and Choosers, the sequel to Beggars in Spain, and plan on finishing off the trilogy by reading the final book, Beggars Ride.
Genetic modification has run amok in the 21st century, dividing America into two groups: genetically enhanced donkeys who rule the world, and livers who live work-free lives of supposed paradise. The tenuous balance between the two groups is about to topple over, but could the secret to survival be found with the ultra-intelligent SuperSleepers, who do not require sleep? Beggars and Choosers looks to three narrators: liver Billy Washington, who’s old enough to remember life before donkeys and livers; donkey Diana Covington, who is frustrated at her own inability to find a place in the world; and Drew Arlen, the liver who infiltrated the donkey world and became the influential Lucid Dreamer.
Beggars in Spain was one of my favorite readers of 2011. Although Beggars and Choosers falls short of the high standards set by Beggars in Spain (mostly due to the fact that ending felt a little sloppy), it is nevertheless a successful continuation of Kress’s intelligent and at times scary view of the future. It’s worth noting that Beggars and Choosers reads very differently than Beggars in Spain, the latter which took place over several decades and was written from a third person unlimited perspective. Beggars and Choosers instead takes place over a few months and alternates between three narrators, which give the story a more personal feel. Regardless of the smaller scope, the novel still tackles some weighty issues. One might assume a future where the genetically modified donkeys rule the world, while the livers do not have to work would be paradise for some, but the result is very different. Both sides struggle to fit into the roles that they have been given. This can be seen with Diana who jumps from job to job, and Lizzie, a highly intelligent liver adolescent who is told to feel shame for her inquisitive nature. There exists little besides resentment and scorn between both classes, and when things go wrong this relationship experiences significant strain.
Beggars and Choosers presents a future that is on the brink of collapse, which lends it to some dystopian elements. While reading the book, I couldn’t help but feel that big changes were on the way, and yet I was still caught off guard when they happened. Kress isn’t afraid to crush the readers' hearts a little bit, and she shows this quite successfully when she kills off a main character. I enjoyed all three protagonists. Billy proved to be probably the best person in the book, Diana’s struggles were easy to connect with, and it was nice to finally see what makes Drew tick, given he wasn’t the most likable person in Beggars in Spain.
I’m quite happy that I ended up picking up Beggars and Choosers, the sequel to Beggars in Spain, and plan on finishing off the trilogy by reading the final book, Beggars Ride.
July 11, 2010
Part of my "Finish the series already!" month.
_______________________
I really, really loved this book! I don't use love very often with books - partly because I can't choose a select few to elevate above the others. Mostly I don't say I love a book in a review because who am I to say that you will love it too? But this book? Loved it.
Like Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress focuses on societal development as seen through the eyes of different caste individuals in the United States. I don't want to give away any more details than that, except to say that the time period, time span, and layout of the story are quite different than Beggars in Spain. I half expected something quite different, mostly because Beggars in Spain started as a novella (first third of the book), then expanded to a novel, then expanded to a trilogy. What I didn't expect here is a totally different social commentary, and done so damn well. Right now in the hours after finishing it, I think I enjoyed this more than Beggars in Spain.
This is always the tricky thing with second-in-a-series: when the author chooses to do something so different than the beloved first book, she risks alienating folks that wanted more of the same. Despite the differences in Beggars and Choosers, the reader does get more Sleepless, more social commentary, more mind-blowing ideas of how small changes can effect the core structure and belief system of the country.
At any rate, if you've read and enjoyed Beggars in Spain, make the effort to find a copy of Beggars and Choosers. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
_______________________
I really, really loved this book! I don't use love very often with books - partly because I can't choose a select few to elevate above the others. Mostly I don't say I love a book in a review because who am I to say that you will love it too? But this book? Loved it.
Like Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress focuses on societal development as seen through the eyes of different caste individuals in the United States. I don't want to give away any more details than that, except to say that the time period, time span, and layout of the story are quite different than Beggars in Spain. I half expected something quite different, mostly because Beggars in Spain started as a novella (first third of the book), then expanded to a novel, then expanded to a trilogy. What I didn't expect here is a totally different social commentary, and done so damn well. Right now in the hours after finishing it, I think I enjoyed this more than Beggars in Spain.
This is always the tricky thing with second-in-a-series: when the author chooses to do something so different than the beloved first book, she risks alienating folks that wanted more of the same. Despite the differences in Beggars and Choosers, the reader does get more Sleepless, more social commentary, more mind-blowing ideas of how small changes can effect the core structure and belief system of the country.
At any rate, if you've read and enjoyed Beggars in Spain, make the effort to find a copy of Beggars and Choosers. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
October 5, 2022
An interesting continuation to the social experiment presented in the first book. I lost no sleep over following the main plot lines, but felt somewhat missing aspects and detachments with the some of the main characters being detached and aloof, even if that was intentional.
February 3, 2025
This was the 2nd book in the Beggars series by Nancy Kress. It had been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Published in 1994 so it's 31 years old; I am amazed at how prescient Kress was in this book. A synopsis would be too long and involved without going through the first book, Beggars of Spain. Beggars and Choosers had many of the characters from the first book, but the condition of the human race had evolved in divergent paths - the Livers, the donkeys, and the Super Sleepless. Like our world today, there's jealousy, there's prejudice, there's willful ignorance. But there are those who want to help; who want to push forward; who want things to be better.
Kress focuses the narrative on a few groups of people - there's Drew Arlen, the paraplegic who has the ability to mentally project to large groups of people; there's Billy, Lizzie, and Annie, a semi-family unit of Livers trying to survive on the dole the government has conditioned people to rely on; and there's Vickie, a donkey who is also a spy for the GEAS and whose connections to the Super Sleepless help save the people she's adopted.
I enjoyed this book, it was a page turner. I have since ordered the third book in the trilogy, Beggars Ride.
Kress focuses the narrative on a few groups of people - there's Drew Arlen, the paraplegic who has the ability to mentally project to large groups of people; there's Billy, Lizzie, and Annie, a semi-family unit of Livers trying to survive on the dole the government has conditioned people to rely on; and there's Vickie, a donkey who is also a spy for the GEAS and whose connections to the Super Sleepless help save the people she's adopted.
I enjoyed this book, it was a page turner. I have since ordered the third book in the trilogy, Beggars Ride.
October 9, 2024
Not quite as compelling as the first one, I guess I'm an elitist and just don't find the livers as interesting characters as sleepless! But still a good exploration around issues of class and elitism and the masses and genetic determinism etc etc.
December 5, 2025
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2.5 Stars
Feelings about the book:
- Be careful what you wish for. In the first book, Beggars In Spain, I said I wanted to slow down at times. We cover 80 odd years in that book. Well, we slowed down in this book, and it didn’t work. I was quite disappointed in this. Especially since I bought it and read it straight after reading the first book. I was really excited to see what Nancy Kress had in store.
- By the end of the story (despite the cons I mention below), I was content with what I read. I don’t know if that is due to the merits of the book or the fact that finding book 3 is going to be a challenge lol
- Additionally, Nancy Kress makes a LOT of changes compared to Beggars In Spain.
Premise/Plot:
- Genetic engineering is in fashion, everything living has been altered: humans, plants, animals. Everything. Yet, at the same time society has seriously regressed. Which continues from the first book. This regression is fastened by something akin to a technological virus that keep eroding equipment and things break a lot.
- We get a 13 year time jump from the end of the first book. There is all sorts happening, the Supersleepless are planning something big. The government is scrambling to try and maintain the current way of life. And there is a weird, underground rebellion brewing. Which stems out of the hate for all modified humans, not just the Sleepless.
- This book spans less than a year, and into 5 parts: Part 1 (July 2114), Part 2 (August 2114), Part 3 (October 2114), Part 4 (October-December 2114) & Part 5 (Summer 2115)
Themes:
- Next steps for human evolution, loss of faith, redemption, the obsolete factor of ‘lesser’ humans, weird but realistic politics and more
Characters:
- Dianne Covington is our ‘normal’ but not normal human replacement for Alice I think. Someone that is separate from the lineage of the Sleepless. Which makes her a bit more different than Alice. Also, she is in a position of authority as an intelligence agent.
- It took me a while to warm to the new characters in this. Not until the last quarter of the book did I come to appreciate them even a little.
Sci-Fi elements:
- Bioengineering, dystopian, advanced and futuristic technology
Pros:
- I liked that we started this book with societal ground rules for genetic modification and engineering. From humans, to animals, to plants. It was very cool to read about.
- We get a lot more worldbuilding that we did in the first book which I liked.
- Kress did well to show the realities of extreme, black-market and even mainstream bioengineering.
- I appreciate that Kress' narrative structure is that so we're seeing things from a normal person’s perspective in this world. However, it should have been a supplement to how the first book was like, not a replacement.
Cons:
- Lord knows if this is a con – but Kress has lost her ‘innocence’ and 'spark' for this world. It is a lot more serious book. Or maybe its because we have a lot less of Leisha.
- We have a lot less of Leisha. Lol. I really didn’t like that. She is the readers moral base in this world and will forever be the main protagonist.
- The characters overall were significantly weaker and so were the POV chapters. For the first time in this series, I was actually bored and didn’t want to read certain POV chapters. This is apparent in the middle sections of the book.
- I also didn't like that a LOT of characters from the first book are not in this book.
- Only 10% (the first 30 odd pages) of this book is 'Beggars of Spain level' good. It goes downhill from there
- In the end, the plot wasn’t that good. Tension and clarity were both missing. Mainly because we had strong, significant characters in the first book that helped with this. Their problems, temperaments, and ideologies suited the story better.
- There is massive social breakdown in this book that isn’t properly felt because it didn’t feel like a social breakdown.
- This generation of Sleepless are strange, I thought it was weird that there was nothing philosophically following the first generation of Sleepless. Especially in regards to procreation. The Supersleepless' reasoning for what they do is missing unlike the Sleepless, which detracts from the story.
Quotes:
‘Drew turned his powerchair to face Leisha’s golden hair, green eyes, genemod perfect skin. She looked thirty-five. She was ninety-eight years old.’
‘He listened to the complex undertones in her voice. Leisha’s generation of Sleepless, the first generation, could never hide their feelings. Unlike Miranda’s generation, who could hide anything.’
‘She had been the most important person in his world, and in the larger public world. And now, although she didn’t know it yet, she was obsolete.’
‘And never, never, never any genemod that is inheritable. Nobody wants another fiasco like the Sleepless.’
‘Slowly I lowered my glass from my mouth. Dogs couldn’t talk. The vocal equipment didn’t allow it, the law didn’t allow it, the canine IQ didn’t allow it. Yet Katous’s growled “hello” was perfectly clear. Katous could talk.’
‘I needle, pry, argue, search compulsively for weaknesses to match my own. Worse, I only admit this well after the fact.’
‘Humanity didn’t strike me as so wonderful that it should be forever beyond change. However, I had no faith in the kinds of alterations that would be picked. I doubted the choosers, not the fact of choice.’
‘He just wanted to watch the huge, angry sky, and feel rain lash on him. He, a Sleepless, just wanted to feel vulnerable.’
‘But, then, for the last hundred years, what haven’t we blamed on the Sleepless?’
‘The government is what kept all of you alive after you became utterly unnecessary to the economy. Rather than just eliminate seventy percent of the population the way they did in Kenya and Chile.’
‘For the first time in over a hundred years, since Kenzo Yagai invented cheap energy and remade the world, there really was not enough to go around.’
‘Billy had glimpsed Eden, and he thought the gods there were not only omnipotent but benevolent. Capable of antidotes to the evil they themselves had caused.’
‘But he wasn’t a donkey. He was a tech, those offspring of borderline families who can’t afford full genetic modification, including the expensive IQ boosters, but who aspire to be more than Livers.’
‘This here man is a captured enemy, a worker in a genemod clinic. Parents take their innocent unborn babies to this place and turn them into something that ain’t human. Their own children. To some of us this is damn near inconceivable.
‘They should never have left Sanctuary. Whatever they wanted to do for us, down here, for whatever reasons, they could probably do just as well from Sanctuary. Where they would be safe. Where they belonged. Not on Earth.’
‘Even when the technology couldn’t be controlled, or even understood by most of us. The effort to include all of us humans in the law was what counted. The effort to understand the law, not just follow it. That might save us. Maybe.’
2.5 Stars
Feelings about the book:
- Be careful what you wish for. In the first book, Beggars In Spain, I said I wanted to slow down at times. We cover 80 odd years in that book. Well, we slowed down in this book, and it didn’t work. I was quite disappointed in this. Especially since I bought it and read it straight after reading the first book. I was really excited to see what Nancy Kress had in store.
- By the end of the story (despite the cons I mention below), I was content with what I read. I don’t know if that is due to the merits of the book or the fact that finding book 3 is going to be a challenge lol
- Additionally, Nancy Kress makes a LOT of changes compared to Beggars In Spain.
Premise/Plot:
- Genetic engineering is in fashion, everything living has been altered: humans, plants, animals. Everything. Yet, at the same time society has seriously regressed. Which continues from the first book. This regression is fastened by something akin to a technological virus that keep eroding equipment and things break a lot.
- We get a 13 year time jump from the end of the first book. There is all sorts happening, the Supersleepless are planning something big. The government is scrambling to try and maintain the current way of life. And there is a weird, underground rebellion brewing. Which stems out of the hate for all modified humans, not just the Sleepless.
- This book spans less than a year, and into 5 parts: Part 1 (July 2114), Part 2 (August 2114), Part 3 (October 2114), Part 4 (October-December 2114) & Part 5 (Summer 2115)
Themes:
- Next steps for human evolution, loss of faith, redemption, the obsolete factor of ‘lesser’ humans, weird but realistic politics and more
Characters:
- Dianne Covington is our ‘normal’ but not normal human replacement for Alice I think. Someone that is separate from the lineage of the Sleepless. Which makes her a bit more different than Alice. Also, she is in a position of authority as an intelligence agent.
- It took me a while to warm to the new characters in this. Not until the last quarter of the book did I come to appreciate them even a little.
Sci-Fi elements:
- Bioengineering, dystopian, advanced and futuristic technology
Pros:
- I liked that we started this book with societal ground rules for genetic modification and engineering. From humans, to animals, to plants. It was very cool to read about.
- We get a lot more worldbuilding that we did in the first book which I liked.
- Kress did well to show the realities of extreme, black-market and even mainstream bioengineering.
- I appreciate that Kress' narrative structure is that so we're seeing things from a normal person’s perspective in this world. However, it should have been a supplement to how the first book was like, not a replacement.
Cons:
- Lord knows if this is a con – but Kress has lost her ‘innocence’ and 'spark' for this world. It is a lot more serious book. Or maybe its because we have a lot less of Leisha.
- We have a lot less of Leisha. Lol. I really didn’t like that. She is the readers moral base in this world and will forever be the main protagonist.
- The characters overall were significantly weaker and so were the POV chapters. For the first time in this series, I was actually bored and didn’t want to read certain POV chapters. This is apparent in the middle sections of the book.
- I also didn't like that a LOT of characters from the first book are not in this book.
- Only 10% (the first 30 odd pages) of this book is 'Beggars of Spain level' good. It goes downhill from there
- In the end, the plot wasn’t that good. Tension and clarity were both missing. Mainly because we had strong, significant characters in the first book that helped with this. Their problems, temperaments, and ideologies suited the story better.
- There is massive social breakdown in this book that isn’t properly felt because it didn’t feel like a social breakdown.
- This generation of Sleepless are strange, I thought it was weird that there was nothing philosophically following the first generation of Sleepless. Especially in regards to procreation. The Supersleepless' reasoning for what they do is missing unlike the Sleepless, which detracts from the story.
Quotes:
‘Drew turned his powerchair to face Leisha’s golden hair, green eyes, genemod perfect skin. She looked thirty-five. She was ninety-eight years old.’
‘He listened to the complex undertones in her voice. Leisha’s generation of Sleepless, the first generation, could never hide their feelings. Unlike Miranda’s generation, who could hide anything.’
‘She had been the most important person in his world, and in the larger public world. And now, although she didn’t know it yet, she was obsolete.’
‘And never, never, never any genemod that is inheritable. Nobody wants another fiasco like the Sleepless.’
‘Slowly I lowered my glass from my mouth. Dogs couldn’t talk. The vocal equipment didn’t allow it, the law didn’t allow it, the canine IQ didn’t allow it. Yet Katous’s growled “hello” was perfectly clear. Katous could talk.’
‘I needle, pry, argue, search compulsively for weaknesses to match my own. Worse, I only admit this well after the fact.’
‘Humanity didn’t strike me as so wonderful that it should be forever beyond change. However, I had no faith in the kinds of alterations that would be picked. I doubted the choosers, not the fact of choice.’
‘He just wanted to watch the huge, angry sky, and feel rain lash on him. He, a Sleepless, just wanted to feel vulnerable.’
‘But, then, for the last hundred years, what haven’t we blamed on the Sleepless?’
‘The government is what kept all of you alive after you became utterly unnecessary to the economy. Rather than just eliminate seventy percent of the population the way they did in Kenya and Chile.’
‘For the first time in over a hundred years, since Kenzo Yagai invented cheap energy and remade the world, there really was not enough to go around.’
‘Billy had glimpsed Eden, and he thought the gods there were not only omnipotent but benevolent. Capable of antidotes to the evil they themselves had caused.’
‘But he wasn’t a donkey. He was a tech, those offspring of borderline families who can’t afford full genetic modification, including the expensive IQ boosters, but who aspire to be more than Livers.’
‘This here man is a captured enemy, a worker in a genemod clinic. Parents take their innocent unborn babies to this place and turn them into something that ain’t human. Their own children. To some of us this is damn near inconceivable.
‘They should never have left Sanctuary. Whatever they wanted to do for us, down here, for whatever reasons, they could probably do just as well from Sanctuary. Where they would be safe. Where they belonged. Not on Earth.’
‘Even when the technology couldn’t be controlled, or even understood by most of us. The effort to include all of us humans in the law was what counted. The effort to understand the law, not just follow it. That might save us. Maybe.’
July 19, 2011
This is the second excellent sci-fi novel in the "Beggars Trilogy" by Nancy Kress. The theme of discrimination against minorities continues in this book, but the issue of who should control technology is emphasized. Each character in the book has a different attitude toward the moral dilemmas surrounding genetic engineering. This novel is highly entertaining, fast-moving, with a plot that is difficult to anticipate. What more can you ask for?
July 19, 2011
Another reviewer described this book as 'aimless', and I think they were spot on. Of the new characters presented, only Billy Washington stuck with me, and the whole storyline with that guy in the wheelchair (forgot his name already...heh...) was tiresome. I can't get into the other thing I didn't like due to spoilers, but if you read the book than you can probably guess. I'll just say that a events were very abrupt. Very disappointing sequel.
November 24, 2019
Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 4/5
World: 2/5
This is everything the first, Beggars in Spain was, only less. A little bit shorter. Covering a narrower time span. Mostly concerned with technological changes of a lesser significance. A more indirect look at political questions. Fewer confrontations and on a smaller scale. It is hard not to be disappointed that this volume chose this direction rather than bigger, broader, greater.
There are a few areas in which this one is more enjoyable. There are more quoteworthy phrases and insightful observations. There is also a good use narrative style within different perspectives. Kress was particularly successful with developing an argot for her future citizens to use. Usually these imagined patterns of speech are a nuisance to read, but one might just find themselves wanting to adopt the new lingo developed here.
While only about 30 pages shorter, the “less” in other areas was much more significant. It was the early on, radical change that made book one so provocative. It was the delineation of opposing arguments and the maneuvering of circumstances to create conflicts that pushed the last one forward. It was the incessant harping on a not quite comprehensible political ideology that maintained the intrigue. Beggars and Choosers just does not rise to the same level. It is all there again, but none of it done as convincingly or impressively. This was especially true with the interpersonal conflicts and the political ideology. Where the first excelled in showing how two different sides thought and why they could not compromise, this one never clearly lays out the sides of the debate or why people are on them. The political ideology was less incessant this time, but even less well explained. There’s a definite American political culture focus to this that the author (again) belatedly and weakly justifies. But it not going to be evident to most Americans why these political questions arise from the circumstances, why they are the right questions to discuss or divide on, or even that they actually need answering. Kress had good aims with the book, but this one was even less successful than the last in realizing them.
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 4/5
World: 2/5
This is everything the first, Beggars in Spain was, only less. A little bit shorter. Covering a narrower time span. Mostly concerned with technological changes of a lesser significance. A more indirect look at political questions. Fewer confrontations and on a smaller scale. It is hard not to be disappointed that this volume chose this direction rather than bigger, broader, greater.
There are a few areas in which this one is more enjoyable. There are more quoteworthy phrases and insightful observations. There is also a good use narrative style within different perspectives. Kress was particularly successful with developing an argot for her future citizens to use. Usually these imagined patterns of speech are a nuisance to read, but one might just find themselves wanting to adopt the new lingo developed here.
While only about 30 pages shorter, the “less” in other areas was much more significant. It was the early on, radical change that made book one so provocative. It was the delineation of opposing arguments and the maneuvering of circumstances to create conflicts that pushed the last one forward. It was the incessant harping on a not quite comprehensible political ideology that maintained the intrigue. Beggars and Choosers just does not rise to the same level. It is all there again, but none of it done as convincingly or impressively. This was especially true with the interpersonal conflicts and the political ideology. Where the first excelled in showing how two different sides thought and why they could not compromise, this one never clearly lays out the sides of the debate or why people are on them. The political ideology was less incessant this time, but even less well explained. There’s a definite American political culture focus to this that the author (again) belatedly and weakly justifies. But it not going to be evident to most Americans why these political questions arise from the circumstances, why they are the right questions to discuss or divide on, or even that they actually need answering. Kress had good aims with the book, but this one was even less successful than the last in realizing them.
February 12, 2018
It is an awful tragedy that this book (and its sequel, Beggar's Ride) have been allowed to drop out of print, despite being the sequels to the award-winning Beggars in Spain, and good books on their own. But so it goes.
Much like Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers continues to reveal the science-fiction changes of a potential future history, where a genetically-created group of humans have appeared who are definitely superior to the baseline. Though these Sleepless (or at least their descendants, the Supers) are still critically important to this new book, their story takes a bit of a back seat to another plot thread from the original book: the division of baseline humanity into workers and freeloading "livers".
This is if anything an even more believable future than the genemod/bigotry of the original. Today, our world is on the verge of a post-scarcity economy, where human labor is neither valued nor needed. If we're a just society we'll begin offering Basic assistance, so that people who don't want to work don't need to. However, it's just as likely (perhaps more likely) that the Beggars world could evolve, where our Livers are entirely beholden to the workers, and where everything seems OK ... until it isn't. Kress does a great job of exploring the complexities of this situation.
In many ways, Beggars and Choosers feels like a better polished book than its predecessor, in large part because it was actually conceived of as a novel. With that said, it has its flaws. There are murky points of motive that lead to murky events. And the plot heel turn that comes three-quarters of the way through the book is unexpected enough to knock you out of the narrative, even if it's likely to create a great story going forward. So, if Beggars and Choosers is better polished, it's more flawed too.
Still, this is an intriguing and thoughtful book, a worthy second book in this noteworthy series, and definitely one of that should be in print.
Much like Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers continues to reveal the science-fiction changes of a potential future history, where a genetically-created group of humans have appeared who are definitely superior to the baseline. Though these Sleepless (or at least their descendants, the Supers) are still critically important to this new book, their story takes a bit of a back seat to another plot thread from the original book: the division of baseline humanity into workers and freeloading "livers".
This is if anything an even more believable future than the genemod/bigotry of the original. Today, our world is on the verge of a post-scarcity economy, where human labor is neither valued nor needed. If we're a just society we'll begin offering Basic assistance, so that people who don't want to work don't need to. However, it's just as likely (perhaps more likely) that the Beggars world could evolve, where our Livers are entirely beholden to the workers, and where everything seems OK ... until it isn't. Kress does a great job of exploring the complexities of this situation.
In many ways, Beggars and Choosers feels like a better polished book than its predecessor, in large part because it was actually conceived of as a novel. With that said, it has its flaws. There are murky points of motive that lead to murky events. And the plot heel turn that comes three-quarters of the way through the book is unexpected enough to knock you out of the narrative, even if it's likely to create a great story going forward. So, if Beggars and Choosers is better polished, it's more flawed too.
Still, this is an intriguing and thoughtful book, a worthy second book in this noteworthy series, and definitely one of that should be in print.
June 22, 2024
Although, I didn't like this second book in the series quite as much as the first book: Beggars in Spain, I continue to like the premise and consequence of genetically modified humans (donkeys), particularly when 95% of the population (livers) are not. The author gives us a few different factions within primarily an apocalyptic US society, where the question of who controls the technology that runs the country.
September 9, 2023
Sci-fi is not my usual genre, but a friend recommended this series of three and I'm enjoying it immensely. This second book is so compelling and timely for our current political and environmental climate. The hopefulness for the human condition and our ability to rise above difficulty is the theme. Thank you, Elizabeth!
April 25, 2018
I think I liked this one better than the first - mostly I enjoyed the narrative voices a bit more. Wasn’t too fond of Drew, but I loved the other two. Plus, society fully falling apart was a fascinating trip. I can’t wait to listen to the last one.
June 21, 2019
This is an interesting follow-up to Kress' Beggars in Spain. I like how Kress has builds technological development on technological development in a cause/effect pattern. She doesn't just look at the effects of a new development, but technological reactions to that development, and then the reactions to that development.
I recommend.
I recommend.
November 14, 2020
No és tan bona com la primera part, tot i que cap al final planteja unes idees interessantíssimes.
June 25, 2019
Non è male, ma non all'altezza del primo volume della serie. I temi trattati sono vari, ma è la trama che non è eccezionale.
January 2, 2014
Beggars and Choosers by Nancy Kress is a stand along sequel to Beggars in Spain; the books have a classic sci-fi feel with multiple view points and heavy amounts of scientifically inspired plot developments in a futuristic world
After reading Beggars in Spain I had to get my hands on the second book because the first was so awesome. It took me a little bit longer to get to it than I’d hoped since I was trying to finish other books, and it took a bit longer to get through than Beggars in Spain, but over all I’m very glad I continued with Beggars and Choosers and will likely pick up the last in the trilogy soon!
Goodreads
Title: Beggars and Choosers
Author: Nancy Kress
Pages: 316 (hardcover)
Genre-ish: Classic Sci-fi, apocalyptic
Rating: ★★★★☆ - Compelling plot, just not quite as awesome as the first book
Setting: Beggars and Choosers is set in the 2100′s after the first book. Gene modification of everything from appearance to intelligence to unnatural limbs etc has created multiple classes of people, including Livers (the majority who live on very generous welfare and have no gene modifications), donkeys (the gene modified higher class who run everything) and Sleepless and SuperSleepless.
Premise: America has been relying on cheap energy patents to dominate the foreign energy market for decades, but as those patents run out, so does the money to support over half the population. At the same time a rebellion is stirring with violent tendency that is causing a break down of all American society. The only people smart enough (and caring enough) to save America from itself are the 27 SuperSleepless, who have had their intelligence so modified that most don’t consider them even close to human anymore.
Strengths:
Beggars and Choosers has a very interesting premise, especially in this time of economic uncertainty in the modern day. Thankfully we don’t have quite the problems they do ;-)
Kress has a very compelling writing style. In Beggars and Choosers there are several main characters who’s perspective the story is written from, and Kress conveys their dialects very well.
Wonderful character development along with the plot.
Weaknesses:
The story is just not quite as driving as it was in Beggars in Spain, even though the premise seems much more pressing when I think about it. For some reason I just didn’t feel quite as compelled to keep reading this time.
I didn’t connect very well with any of the characters :(. This might be a partial explanation for the previous point: if I don’t care about the characters, I care less about what happens to them.
I just really wish the plot had focused more on different characters, but maybe those characters (Miranda :D) will come back into the focus in the third book!
Summary:
Beggars and Choosers is an interesting and entertaining continuation of the Sleepless books, but it falls into the problem many sequels do: it just couldn’t rock out as much as the first ;-). If you loved Beggars in Spain as much as I did, you should definitely continue with Beggars and Choosers, just understand it struggles a little bit. Here’s hoping the third book (Beggars Ride) rocks out to a five star level again!
After reading Beggars in Spain I had to get my hands on the second book because the first was so awesome. It took me a little bit longer to get to it than I’d hoped since I was trying to finish other books, and it took a bit longer to get through than Beggars in Spain, but over all I’m very glad I continued with Beggars and Choosers and will likely pick up the last in the trilogy soon!
Goodreads
Title: Beggars and Choosers
Author: Nancy Kress
Pages: 316 (hardcover)
Genre-ish: Classic Sci-fi, apocalyptic
Rating: ★★★★☆ - Compelling plot, just not quite as awesome as the first book
Setting: Beggars and Choosers is set in the 2100′s after the first book. Gene modification of everything from appearance to intelligence to unnatural limbs etc has created multiple classes of people, including Livers (the majority who live on very generous welfare and have no gene modifications), donkeys (the gene modified higher class who run everything) and Sleepless and SuperSleepless.
Premise: America has been relying on cheap energy patents to dominate the foreign energy market for decades, but as those patents run out, so does the money to support over half the population. At the same time a rebellion is stirring with violent tendency that is causing a break down of all American society. The only people smart enough (and caring enough) to save America from itself are the 27 SuperSleepless, who have had their intelligence so modified that most don’t consider them even close to human anymore.
Strengths:
Beggars and Choosers has a very interesting premise, especially in this time of economic uncertainty in the modern day. Thankfully we don’t have quite the problems they do ;-)
Kress has a very compelling writing style. In Beggars and Choosers there are several main characters who’s perspective the story is written from, and Kress conveys their dialects very well.
Wonderful character development along with the plot.
Weaknesses:
The story is just not quite as driving as it was in Beggars in Spain, even though the premise seems much more pressing when I think about it. For some reason I just didn’t feel quite as compelled to keep reading this time.
I didn’t connect very well with any of the characters :(. This might be a partial explanation for the previous point: if I don’t care about the characters, I care less about what happens to them.
I just really wish the plot had focused more on different characters, but maybe those characters (Miranda :D) will come back into the focus in the third book!
Summary:
Beggars and Choosers is an interesting and entertaining continuation of the Sleepless books, but it falls into the problem many sequels do: it just couldn’t rock out as much as the first ;-). If you loved Beggars in Spain as much as I did, you should definitely continue with Beggars and Choosers, just understand it struggles a little bit. Here’s hoping the third book (Beggars Ride) rocks out to a five star level again!
February 25, 2015
so I read Beggars in Spain a few weeks ago. it is the short and rather soft sci fi story that precedes Beggars and Choosers, which is a full-length novel and definitely leans more to the hard sci fi end of the spectrum that does Beggars in Spain.
as is often the case with science fiction, it took a while for me to really get into the story. after all, in sci fi, we are reading of different times and space and worlds and beings. we are exploring new ideas. there is one whole chapter in this book devoted to a session of science court which lays out the issues regarding gene modificaiton that is currently up for debate. it's a slog. and to be blunt, i don't even think it was necessary to the story. but...... when Kress leaves that kind of rhetoric-based structure behind and settles into telling the parallel stories of Drew and Dianas' experiences with two very different groups of Livers .... Beggars and Choosers becomes far more interesting! and then there is Billy - a Liver- who also gets a first person singular voice and he is simply a wonderful wonderful character. these three narrate, but there are also some other wonderful characters. i think her ability to create great characters is part of what makes Kress such a great sci fi writer. let's face it, sci fi writers are not usually known for writing great characters.
ideas! now that is what sci fi authors are known for, and it is definitely a draw for me. it -more than any other genre- asks the 'what if' questions that challenges our morality. Beggars and Choosers asks, "Who should control technology? And -make no mistake- technology is Darwinian. It spreads. It evolves. It adapts. The most dangerous wipes out the less fit. ...... somebody, somewhere, sometime, had to judge, or we'd end up with pure Darwinian jungle, red in byte and assembler."
this novel has a governmental department called Genetic Standards Enforcement Agency that tries to uphold the laws around genetic modification. but the real question is ... who decides what is lawful? that is always the question right? who gets to decide what is right? what is acceptable. the answer -straight from Darwin's play book is- who ever welds the most power.
if you read this book and don't think that it describes a very real future possibility for us .... i'd say you haven't been paying attention to current events.
now if you will excuse me, i have 3 or 4 chapters to go and i am completely hooked on this story.
as is often the case with science fiction, it took a while for me to really get into the story. after all, in sci fi, we are reading of different times and space and worlds and beings. we are exploring new ideas. there is one whole chapter in this book devoted to a session of science court which lays out the issues regarding gene modificaiton that is currently up for debate. it's a slog. and to be blunt, i don't even think it was necessary to the story. but...... when Kress leaves that kind of rhetoric-based structure behind and settles into telling the parallel stories of Drew and Dianas' experiences with two very different groups of Livers .... Beggars and Choosers becomes far more interesting! and then there is Billy - a Liver- who also gets a first person singular voice and he is simply a wonderful wonderful character. these three narrate, but there are also some other wonderful characters. i think her ability to create great characters is part of what makes Kress such a great sci fi writer. let's face it, sci fi writers are not usually known for writing great characters.
ideas! now that is what sci fi authors are known for, and it is definitely a draw for me. it -more than any other genre- asks the 'what if' questions that challenges our morality. Beggars and Choosers asks, "Who should control technology? And -make no mistake- technology is Darwinian. It spreads. It evolves. It adapts. The most dangerous wipes out the less fit. ...... somebody, somewhere, sometime, had to judge, or we'd end up with pure Darwinian jungle, red in byte and assembler."
this novel has a governmental department called Genetic Standards Enforcement Agency that tries to uphold the laws around genetic modification. but the real question is ... who decides what is lawful? that is always the question right? who gets to decide what is right? what is acceptable. the answer -straight from Darwin's play book is- who ever welds the most power.
if you read this book and don't think that it describes a very real future possibility for us .... i'd say you haven't been paying attention to current events.
now if you will excuse me, i have 3 or 4 chapters to go and i am completely hooked on this story.
November 4, 2014
Buena continuación de la saga pero muy ensombrecida por la primera parte que me parece de diez. En esta segunda parte tenemos nuevamente la parte más reflexiva y que te hace pensar sobre la estructura social o la manipulación de la tecnología. Aporta ideas geniales y te hace participe de los dilemas sociales que se crean posicionándote con unos u otros personajes.
El problema de este libro es que por partes se hace aburrido y en cambio en otras partes se acelera tanto que no terminas de hilar bien lo que pasa y a mi me ha resultado, sobre todo la parte final, algo confusa. Me ha obligado a releer algunas partes para poder contextualizar todo bien.
Gasta mucho tiempo al principio en la temática social Vividores/ Auxiliares y la parte, para mi gusto, más atractiva de las innovaciones tecnológicas ocurren muy aceleradas. En este libro los superinsomnes y los insomnes pasan a un segundo plano. Si en el primer libro nos relataban su lado más personal en este son una figura casi mística de la que no se conoce nada. Supongo que en parte, al narrar la historia desde el punto de vista de los vividores y auxiliares, este oscurantismo es necesario para ser mas fiel a la experiencia de estos.
Como en el primer libro, te hacen desear vivir en la época relatada y por eso ya merece la pena.
El problema de este libro es que por partes se hace aburrido y en cambio en otras partes se acelera tanto que no terminas de hilar bien lo que pasa y a mi me ha resultado, sobre todo la parte final, algo confusa. Me ha obligado a releer algunas partes para poder contextualizar todo bien.
Gasta mucho tiempo al principio en la temática social Vividores/ Auxiliares y la parte, para mi gusto, más atractiva de las innovaciones tecnológicas ocurren muy aceleradas. En este libro los superinsomnes y los insomnes pasan a un segundo plano. Si en el primer libro nos relataban su lado más personal en este son una figura casi mística de la que no se conoce nada. Supongo que en parte, al narrar la historia desde el punto de vista de los vividores y auxiliares, este oscurantismo es necesario para ser mas fiel a la experiencia de estos.
Como en el primer libro, te hacen desear vivir en la época relatada y por eso ya merece la pena.
April 8, 2015
I really wanted to like this book more. But I have major problems with the premise, and in this way, much of the book's ideology that follows from it. The basic premise is that the sleepless (those who live without sleep and remain in the vigor of youth past 75 years old - but without other enhancements) is some superior race. This clashes with reality where there are people who, if they stopped needing sleep, will just be as unintelligent or unambitious or unremarkable. Or somehow, being sleepless will yield the major insights of genius such as Newton or Reimann or Feynman. But the sleepless come to dominate the world with their technology, science and finance. Sorry, that is just not believable.
And yet, in the novel, the sleepless are quite stupid in many ways - e.g. failure to understand basic economics. For instance, the dictator/leader of the sleepless (sorry but they can't even seem to govern themselves properly) argues for the killing of sleepers born amongst their own - because they will eventually be a drain on the community as they grow old and grow unproductive and feeble. Sorry why don't they understand basic economics such as savings for one's retirement by consuming less while productive.
Some of it is good, some parts are very good. But these are such major glaring flaw in the whole premise.
And yet, in the novel, the sleepless are quite stupid in many ways - e.g. failure to understand basic economics. For instance, the dictator/leader of the sleepless (sorry but they can't even seem to govern themselves properly) argues for the killing of sleepers born amongst their own - because they will eventually be a drain on the community as they grow old and grow unproductive and feeble. Sorry why don't they understand basic economics such as savings for one's retirement by consuming less while productive.
Some of it is good, some parts are very good. But these are such major glaring flaw in the whole premise.
November 10, 2014
Beggars And Choosers is a dystopian cautionary tale. It depicts what could result if science and technology’s leading edges become controlled by a self-chosen elite who don’t play well with others.
Nancy Kress paints a dark future world where today’s upper, middle, and lower classes have become the Sleepless, Donkeys, and Livers. People are largely classified by whether they’re genetically enhanced, and the highest caste belongs to a few who’ve been modified to do without sleep. The Sleepless use their freed up time to amass vast wealth and harness the power of nanotechnology.
Upper class infighting—e.g., the merely rich versus the 1%,--erupts after the Sleepless decide that basic humanity and its elected government is literally beneath them. However, the anarchists’ children--the SuperSleepless—regard their genetic and technological inferiors more charitably and subsequently react with surprising defiance.
There’s an old saying that when elephants fight it’s the grass that suffers. Beggars And Choosers, the second of the Beggars Trilogy, gives us an Ayn Randian false utopia where the elephants become powerful enough to trample the entire Earth.
Nancy Kress paints a dark future world where today’s upper, middle, and lower classes have become the Sleepless, Donkeys, and Livers. People are largely classified by whether they’re genetically enhanced, and the highest caste belongs to a few who’ve been modified to do without sleep. The Sleepless use their freed up time to amass vast wealth and harness the power of nanotechnology.
Upper class infighting—e.g., the merely rich versus the 1%,--erupts after the Sleepless decide that basic humanity and its elected government is literally beneath them. However, the anarchists’ children--the SuperSleepless—regard their genetic and technological inferiors more charitably and subsequently react with surprising defiance.
There’s an old saying that when elephants fight it’s the grass that suffers. Beggars And Choosers, the second of the Beggars Trilogy, gives us an Ayn Randian false utopia where the elephants become powerful enough to trample the entire Earth.
June 1, 2011
This sequel to Beggars in Spain explores the personal and political intersections of Liver (unaltered citizens), Donkey (the genemod elite), and (Super)Sleepless (super-intelligent, uber-elite operating behind the scenes) lives. The tenor and focus of the second of the "Sleepless" series is quite different from the first, as we witness most of the events of the book from the perspectives of those outside of power and ignorant of the (Super)Sleepless's true involvement and intentions. The Sleepless, far from being the sympathetic focus of this sequel, are now a more remote group, driven by ambiguous motivations--an appropriate approach, given that they are supposed to be inscrutable and impossibly intelligent to ordinary humans. I do wish I had read Beggars in Spain more recently for continuity's sake, but I will definitely go on to the third novel, which will hopefully resolve some of the questions unanswered by the second.
November 13, 2010
This book doesn't really stand completely alone; if I hadn't read "Beggars In Spain" I would have found it fairly confusing. But even as a sequel, it is somewhat aimless. There is no real antagonist, and the protagonists spend much of the story wandering around waiting for the next thing to happen to them. There are a few interesting ideas here (such as the relationship between the Livers and the donkeys, which flips the traditional notion of the working and leisure classes on its head) but they are presented in such stark black-and-white terms that it requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief to buy into the social aspects of the setting. There is enough meat here for this to rate as a mediocre science fiction novel, but it's not an excellent one.
September 1, 2010
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.
April 16, 2013
Wieder wirft Nancy Kress spannende Fragen auf:
Was geschieht mit Menschen, die völlig in komfortabler Abhängigkeit von anderen gehalten werden? In diesem 2. Band des Bettler-Zyklus werden die sog. "Nutzer" von den "Machern" mit allem versorgt. Das klappt aber nur, solange genug Geld dafür vorhanden ist - und das geht gerade aus!
Und eine weitere Frage wird gestellt: Wer darf darüber entscheiden, was gut ist für die Menschheit? Die genetisch veränderten "SuperS" tun es einfach - und das wirft zusätzlich die eingespielten gesellschaftlichen Strukturen durcheinander.
So muss Science Fiction sein: Nachdenklich und dabei sehr spannend und voller interessanter Figuren.
Was geschieht mit Menschen, die völlig in komfortabler Abhängigkeit von anderen gehalten werden? In diesem 2. Band des Bettler-Zyklus werden die sog. "Nutzer" von den "Machern" mit allem versorgt. Das klappt aber nur, solange genug Geld dafür vorhanden ist - und das geht gerade aus!
Und eine weitere Frage wird gestellt: Wer darf darüber entscheiden, was gut ist für die Menschheit? Die genetisch veränderten "SuperS" tun es einfach - und das wirft zusätzlich die eingespielten gesellschaftlichen Strukturen durcheinander.
So muss Science Fiction sein: Nachdenklich und dabei sehr spannend und voller interessanter Figuren.
May 23, 2011
4.5 stars.
I am so happy Cindy recommended this series to me. It is awesome! I cannot wait to get my hands on the third book.
I am so happy Cindy recommended this series to me. It is awesome! I cannot wait to get my hands on the third book.
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