Melki's Reviews > Beggars in Spain

In Kress' imagined world, most of us are created equal; some of us are genetically modified to NOT NEED SLEEP.

Just imagine all the things you could do if you didn't have to spend one third of your life unconscious . . .

I'd probably spend the time reading MORE BOOKS, but the characters in this novel use their extra hours a bit more productively, studying science, and the law, and excelling beyond anyone's wildest dreams. When it's discovered that the gene alteration also serves to give the sleepless an anti-aging boost, resentment spills over among the "sleepers." The author was eerily prescient in her prediction of a divided country. Though it is for different reasons in her book, this line about the mistrust surrounding science, and the educated seems to sum up the current political situation:

. . . does it come from something more pernicious, rooted in our tradition of shoot-from-the-hip American action: hatred of the logical, the calm, the considered? Hatred in fact of the superior mind?

The book seemed overly long, though in truth, I can't name anything that should have been cut. I just sort of ran out of interest near the halfway point when all the other worthy titles in my massive stack started whispering my name. Even so, though my enjoyment of this book hovered around the three star level, I think I'll rate it four twinklies, due to the fascinating concept, and the tough questions it raised, questions that will linger in my head for a long time.