Book Cover

The sequel to the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Beggars in Spain (1993) stands independently of it, despite taking Kress' story of both human and societal evolution several steps farther. The world is now divided into the nearly superhuman Sleepless, the genuine homo superior (the genetically engineered elites who do much of the work), and the virtually unemployable masses. Apart from the struggle for power and survival among the three groups, the novel's future U.S.A. faces the threat of uncontrolled nanotechnology. Kress's work remains strongly character driven, an approach that in her hands raises social-speculation sf to about as high a level as one can reasonably expect.

Copyright ©1999 Nancy Kress