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)

Worth a listen, very long and entertaining

For some reason I thought this book had something to do with science fiction in Spain and took a chance on the title alone.
That was a mistake, but not a terrible mistake. Turns out the story was very interesting.
Again, this book is very long and full of wonderful scenarios of genetic engineering on humans. I believe this book was written before jurassic park and way before real science made any real progress in genetic engineering. The story has a solid footing and still reads as not preposterous 25 years later.
On the other hand, its not until Book 3 that you start to see some interesting characters. Book 4 had me hooked. But it was all thanks to the world the writer built in Book 1 and 2. If you are a hard core science fiction fan and love drama, you should not miss this book. I enjoyed it very much and would love to know more what happened after the ending.

Fun, engaging and well narrated too.

Interesting deep and still fun look at taking genetic modification and how the world might look.

Enlightening and thought provoking

The story delved into the differences we all present to the world. No single group of disabused individuals can join and blame another group for their distress, everyone must take on that responsibility upon themselves.

Fantastic story

I'd been hearing about this book for so long. I finally gave in, and gorged myself on it. It was fantastic. I'll say that you can tell that first "book" was the original novella (it was amazing), but it did have growing pains when the author introduced the other viewpoints. Overall it was still great. 5 Stars.

Bioengineering historical philosophical legal hard scifi

The best bioengineering hard sci-fi that I read. Immensely enjoyed this book. Part historical part human philosophy

Great Narrator

I read the first half of this book and finished it on Audible.
it did not go how I expected at all.
I look forward to listening to the sequel!

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.

Interesting

The style that this book was written lets you see what life could be like from a completely different perspective. It does bog down at parts but for the most part this is a well written and character driven book. The audio performance is quite solid but could have been better.

Incredible!

Bar none, this was the best credit I've spent with Audible so far. Excellent writing, impressive narration, and a fantastic story; I haven't been able to put it down.

I think the "The Passage" was based on this book..

This was a surprisingly good book. Actually very good. The author definitely did her research. If you like the book "The Passage", I think you will like this book as well. I am thinking seriously about buying the second book, after I listen to "The Circle".....