Beggars Ride

By: Nancy Kress

Narrated by: Judy Young

Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

In this final installment of Nancy Kress's award-winning Beggars trilogy, it is now 200 years in the future. Regular human beings hate and fear the Sleepless and the SuperSleepless, genetically-modified humans who are immune to disease and hunger and who do not need to sleep. When the Sleepless plot to take over the world and leave regular humans powerless, civilization and the very meaning of the word "human" hang in the balance.

©1996 Nancy Kress (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Highly recommended for sf collections." (Library Journal)
"It should by now be clear to all that Nancy Kress is a dominant figure in modern science fiction." (Analog)
"Masterful....Kress continues in the same tradition of terrific storytelling." (School Library Journal)

interesting premise, but not very engaging

I really struggled to finish this one, and now that I have, I can't recommend it. The first two in the series were more engaging. so I thought it would get better as I kept reading, but it didn't. By the end, I sensed no connection to any of the main characters and no real excitement for the plot. Too bad, because there were some interesting moments.

First author in decades who reminds me of Isaac Asimov!

The scope of science and social engineering is profound, the characters are engaging and believable. The performance was meticulous and mispronunciations very few throughout jargon from multiple disciplines. I enjoyed all three volumes and will probably re-read in future.

Wheels come off the cart

I really wanted to like this book more than I did, because I admire and respect Kress's work tremendously. Unfortunately this is a very disappointing resolution of the Beggar's trilogy. The optimism tempered with realism that characterized the first book has completely dissipated by the time one reaches book three. Instead one is left with a view of humanity that is at best discouraging and at worst downright depressing. Perhaps this reflects the current cultural malaise, but I always liked science fiction best when it was aspirational and heroic rather than defeatist.

3rd book in series

I am really drawn to the writing of Nancy Kress. This last book of the sleepless series has a good story but the performance was just under par for me.

Putting this saga to bed

Beggars Ride is the finale of the Nancy Kress' Sleepless trilogy. The tale opens with Jennifer being released from prison after 27 years. She promptly evicts her granddaughter, Miranda from Sanctuary and begins a secret project. Meanwhile, Miranda has stopped supplying the change syringes and now babies are being born without that option. Ultimately, the master plan is revealed to be a nanomed that rewires the brain to resist (or be fearful) of anything new. Jennifer regards this option as the ultimate safety for the Sleepless. With the aid of the plucky liver data dipper, the feral donkey Vicky, a neuropharm deficient young woman, and a doctor who wants to do doctoring, all of this pieced together; although, it's the evil scientist who takes out Jennifer after Jennifer has taken out Miranda, putting the world back to the start of the first "genmod'd" Sleepless.

Kress starts a real slow plodding first half. There are the usual suspects, except the Supersleepless put in a cameo appearance to admit error with the change syringes. The world is largely clueless about what is going on except for the main characters. The real deficiency is the lack of adequate world building given the huge transitions and upheavals in the societal and economic structure of the world. In a post-scarcity world, it's hard to envision characters driven by greed and economic returns.

The narration is well done with decent character distinction. Pacing is slow and although aligned with the plot, the first half drags considerably.

Finally over.

If I start it’s hard to just walk away.

Book 1 was enjoyable. By the home I was half way through book 3 I wish I could have walked away and just accepted it as a sunk cost.

Enjoyable enough final installment

Wrapping up the Beggars series, Kress delivers a healthy serving of dramatic goodness. There are shocking moments that feel like top-notch cinema. And deep dives into spooky scenarios that leave readers stunned. But all that happens and is over and done with two hours prior to the epilogue. My advice to fans of the series: after the extra terrestrial outpost gets nuked, allow the beggars to ride on, without you. I say that out of love for the series, as I want your memories to be of three great books, not one lukewarm, wooden, inert conclusion.

Poorly ended

This series is a good one. The characters are likeable and real. Kress drops them off way too often in situations where it seems like she had problems continuing their stories. It makes me wonder if she would ever write a fourth book.

Reasonable closure for the series

I listened to all three of these books in a row, and this last one was my least favorite for a couple of reasons:

- There’s a bigger continuity break between the second and third book than I expected. The almost-complete absence of the characters from the first two books, and the hand-waved references to some of them having died left me feeling unsatisfied from a “village character” perspective, even though I found the end of this book to be a reasonably satisfying end to the larger fate-of-humanity storyline

- I didn’t like the way the narrator’s reading of Teresa’s parts made her sound like she was extremely low-IQ. She was paralyzed by debilitating anxiety and emotionally overwhelmed, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that her intelligence would be that underdeveloped, and to me, that made Teresa’s storyline and development arc harder to credit, even by sci-fi standards.

- There’s a love storyline that I found unnecessary, forced, and artificial. I just didn’t buy it, need it, or like it.

I did like the series overall, though I probably won’t re-read it. And I really would have preferred a broader shake-up of the molasses-thick class prejudices in which the whole series is soaked. This universe really demanded a global wake-up call that never came.

A bunch of unnecessary stuff before it got good

Too much pointless penis situation.
Took too too long to get to the good parts.