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andrejt's review
4.0
Discover a collection of award-winning sci-fi short stories, novelettes, and novellas from the 1990s - each with its own distinct flavor.
Among the stories, Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress is my personal favorite and itself deserves five stars. Its set in the near future, where genetic engineering has enabled a small group of people to live without the need for sleep. Although only a few thousand "sleepless" children are actually born, they outperform unmodified people by a large margin, which leads to increasing discrimination.
Through exploring the themes of bioethics, social justice, and political philosophy, the novella raises some intriguing questions. Most notably: what obligations a "superior" minority owes to the "inferior" majority, and what is the right social order for a society where people are born with vastly different abilities or inherit vastly different levels of wealth?
I like the answer gently offered by Kress: a resilient society requires indirect reciprocity and not only purely transactional relationships - you help me today, I help someone else tomorrow, they may help you in the future...
Although my review may sound dry and theoretical, the novella itself is character-driven, and the philosophical ideas are seamlessly woven into the narrative without detracting from the plot. Beggars in Spain is a thought-provoking and engaging read that is not to be missed.
Among the stories, Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress is my personal favorite and itself deserves five stars. Its set in the near future, where genetic engineering has enabled a small group of people to live without the need for sleep. Although only a few thousand "sleepless" children are actually born, they outperform unmodified people by a large margin, which leads to increasing discrimination.
Through exploring the themes of bioethics, social justice, and political philosophy, the novella raises some intriguing questions. Most notably: what obligations a "superior" minority owes to the "inferior" majority, and what is the right social order for a society where people are born with vastly different abilities or inherit vastly different levels of wealth?
I like the answer gently offered by Kress: a resilient society requires indirect reciprocity and not only purely transactional relationships - you help me today, I help someone else tomorrow, they may help you in the future...
Although my review may sound dry and theoretical, the novella itself is character-driven, and the philosophical ideas are seamlessly woven into the narrative without detracting from the plot. Beggars in Spain is a thought-provoking and engaging read that is not to be missed.
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