Beggars in Spain

By: Nancy Kress

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Nebula Award Winner, Novella, 1991

In a world where the slightest edge can mean the difference between success and failure, Leisha Camden is beautiful, extraordinarily intelligent, and one of a growing number of human beings who have been genetically modified to never require sleep.

Once considered interesting anomalies, now Leisha and the other "Sleepless" are outcasts, victims of blind hatred, political repression, and shocking mob violence meant to drive them from human society and, ultimately, from Earth itself.

But Leisha Camden has chosen to remain behind in a world that envies and fears her "gift," a world marked for destruction by a deadly conspiracy of freedom and revenge.

©1993 Nancy Kress (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Superb....An exquisite saga of biological advantages." ( Denver Post)
"A depth of imagination unusual even among science fiction writers." ( Analog)
"[T]hrilling drama, compelling dialectic." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Interesting concept and a well-written story.

This is a very good book that considers some interesting questions about biological advancement and distinction in society.

More relevant today than ever

I only recently discovered Nancy Kress. I listened to the Yesterdays Kin series before this and loved it so I thought I would try this series. I wasn't disappointed. This book explores themes of class warfare, economic inequality, physical and mental inequality. It explores how a society might cope with huge differences brought about by genetic manipulation. The characters are well written and complex. They are written in a way that lets you see things from their perspective and really care about them. I think there is a lot in the book that gives some perspective to the current political climate. The narration is also very good and really brings the characters to life. In our world many of us fear being left behind by technology and this story does a good job exploring what might be possible without being completely utopian or dystopian.

Interesting Topic

Would you listen to Beggars in Spain again? Why?

Interesting story. Liked the character and plot development for both characters and changes in the behavior of the United States population.The sleepless do seem to have all of the advantages until later in the book, when you realize they have needs and limitations, same as all human beings. I hated the leader of the sleepless Sanctuary, a testament to Ms. Kress' writing because I usually don't care enough about the characters to actively hate them after I put the book down.

What did you like best about this story?

The fact that the main sleepless character softened into a member of the human race.

What about Cassandra Campbell’s performance did you like?

Ms. Campbell has a gift for voice inflection. She does not rely on over-dramatization or drastic changes in pitch or tone (men v. women for instance); minor changes to inflection set mood, character and frame of mind.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I found myself hating Jennifer Sharifi, the champion for the Sanctuary more than usual for any good book I read.

Any additional comments?

I liked the

This was difficult to stay with.

To summarize, the privileged are privileged because they are better humans. The beggars are reduced to begging because they are inferior humans. This is the righteous order of society.

A Goldilocks Tale

Sometimes underwritten, sometimes overwritten, and sometimes just right.

Cassandra Campbell’s performance was excellent, which made up for a lot.

Entertaining but occasionally hard to follow

Others have commented on the Ayn Rand similarities - that didn't bother me, though. I found it to be entertaining science fiction.

The one irritation for me is that the narrator had a similar voice change when switching characters as she did when switching emotions. Some characters had voices very similar to one another's (and I guess the author under-did it on the "he said / she said"), so that sometimes it was hard to follow who was speaking when. The narrator had a wonderful odd breathy "Yes", but too many different characters used it. This is a minor quibble, though. I'm glad I bought it.

Sleeplessing your life away

Nancy Kress' Beggars in Spain is a tale of perturbing social balance by introducing gene modification to obviate the need for sleep. This future portends genetic modifications by prospective parents that start with obvious traits like good looks and intelligence, but adds the elimination of a requirement for sleep. This allows for well above average intelligent children (gene mod'd at the same time) to outpace their peers. Gradually, society cleaves into sleepers and sleepless with extreme prejudice on both sides. In addition, the sleepless are also found to age slower which further reinforces the division. One of the early sleepless attempts to reconcile the two groups. Eventually, the sleepless relocate to a space station and plot the destruction of the sleepers, while developing even greater post-sleeper genetic modifications.

The central sci-fi element is the relative ease and introduction of gene modification which by today's technology seems eminently reasonable. The introduction of cheap energy is also quite insightful as a method for driving economic growth that results in a society where 80% of the population doesn't need to work which creates interesting scenarios with evolving social mores. The legal scenes are also well crafted and quite believable. While then sci-fi is compelling the real impact of the tale is societal inertia to change. One can't avoid the comparisons to the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X or the X-Men with Professor Charles and Magneto.

The narration is well done with an excellent range of character distinction. Pacing is well aligned with the plot.

Smart look into the possible/probable future.

If you can recall what your world looked like in 1993, and then listened to this book, I would say the author did her homework, or was channelling a slanted futuristic version of 1984. Well worth the listen.

Atlas Shrugged for the modern era.

This book could easily be the sequel to Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". The successful are successful because they embrace and utilize their individual exceptionalism. The unsuccessful try instead to rely upon collectivism and become beggars. But in the fight against the beggars the exceptional turn to collectivism as well and find their own ruin.

Great story, very well read

This is the first Nancy Kress book I've encountered, and its brilliant. She asks the question "What would the world be like if some people did not need sleep, were much smarter than everyone else, and did not grow old?" The characters are multi-dimensional and compelling, and the plot engaging. Cassandra Campbell does an amazing job of telling the story, with excellent voices and a great understanding of the book. I highly recommend it.