This is the third book in the
Beggars series. It can be read by itself, but there will be a number of
elements which will be more easily / quickly understood if you have read the
previous books.
This is a future Earth (with
some references to some settlements elsewhere in the solar system). There are
two key underlying changes to life as we know it. First, nanotech and robotics
have eliminated the need for most labor. Although most people don't live in
affluence, most have become used to having the essentials without being
employed.
Second, humans are divided
into several categories based on medical or genetic changes. There are the
genetically altered "Sleepless" who were engineered so they don't
require sleep and other "necessities". The Sleepless have
experienced persecution by the rest of humanity. The Sleepless engineered the
"Super Sleepless", who are now at odds with the Sleepless. The Super
Sleepless created a "Change" substance that they had distributed to
the non-Sleepless ("Sleepers"). The Change protects Sleepers from
disease and harmful substances, and causes quick healing. They also become
able to absorb nutrition through their skin from soil or any organic material.
Most of the Sleepers are unemployed people ("Livers") who live in
"tribes". Livers are generally un-ambitious, live-for-the-moment
types. There are also enclaves of "Donkeys" - professionals living
in more-or-less affluence in the cities. The Donkeys have found it convenient
to maneuver the Livers into lives of dependence and under-education.
Now, both Livers and Donkeys
are used to having the Change to protect them from illness and aging. But the
Super Sleepless have stopped distributing it and supplies are getting low. The
benefits are not passed down to children, so people are faced with the prospect
of their children being subject to disease, injury and death.
The Sleepless feel that they
would be safest if Sleepers were too weak, fragmented or disorganized to pose a
threat. They are plotting to use specially designed biochemicals to achieve
this.
Someone has distributed what
is referred to as "Red 'Change'" drugs. Those who use it become a
part of a three-person group in which each person is afraid to be more than a
few feet away from the other two.
A tribe of Livers tries to
run one of their members in an election for a local office - something Livers
never tend to do. Somebody uses some kind of bio-weapon to make the Livers in
the area afraid of any kind of break from their usual routine or
anything/anyone unfamiliar.
The Donkeys and Sleepless
live with technology decades ahead of ours. The Livers exist in a more mixed
setting. They live in abandoned buildings and scavenge - reminding one of
post-apocalyptic stories. Yet there are also aspects of advanced tech.
Although the events take
place in a context of advanced computers, engineering and biotech, the story is
exploring issues of society and human behavior. The Livers and the Donkeys
show us different future social forms. There are issues of how technology
changes society - for instance, how reduced necessity of labor might impact
social norms and structures. It takes a look at how individuals and societies
can be locked into routine patterns of behavior. It raises questions about one
social group having a dependence relationship with another.
I found the subplots took
quite a while to start developing their interconnections and giving the book a
feeling of direction. Once it got out of the going-nowhere feeling, I found it
quite interesting.
.