Beggars and Choosers (novel) - Background

Background

The Beggars trilogy is set in a near future in which genetic engineering has become commonplace. "Genemods" were developed for intelligence, physical features, personality, enhanced sensory perception, and so on, but when Dr. Susan Melling discovered a genemod to alleviate the need for sleep, she changed the face of the world. These so-called "Sleepless" were not only more productive, due to 33% more hours in the day, but less prone to the vagaries of the unconscious mind due to their inability to sleep; they were well-adjusted, cheerful, intelligent, driven, and quickly came to dominate the scientific, economic, intellectual, medical, legal and technological arenas of the world, often at unprecedentedly young ages. As with many successful minorities, they were the target of prejudice, racism and general intolerance, but the final blow came when Melling discovered an unexpected side effect. The sleeplessness genemod had unlocked an unprecedented cellular-regeneration mechanism, and Sleepless do not age. At the start of the novel, their oldest specimen, computer magnate Kevin Baker, looks 35 years old but actually is 110.

Beggars and Choosers begins in July 2114, in a United States of America that has evolved into a bizarre three-tiered social system. 80% of the population are "Livers," fat, contented and unemployed, who enjoy a life of "aristo leisure." However, they hold power through votes, and elect politicians into power based on those candidates' promises for future prosperity. These politicians inevitably come from the "donkeys," the genemod white-collar class who, depending on who you ask, are either above or below the Livers: true, they hold political office, but they must provide a constant flow of bread and circuses to stay there. (The entertainments are often named after the official who provides them, a form of product placement run amok.) Finally, the Sleepless have banded together as the economic elite, withdrawn (voluntarily) from the American political process and live on an orbital called Sanctuary, but the source of every innovation, whether technological, scientific or genetic, that the donkeys need to stay in power. In 2092 Sanctuary attempted to secede from the United States, but were prevented by the intervention of Miranda Sharifi, leader of the "Superbright" contingent—a generation of 27 Sleepless with such advanced genemods that they no longer think the way other humans do. The Supers, exiled by Sanctuary leader (and Miri's grandmother) Jennifer Sharifi as her last act before her trial, came to Earth under the wing of ex-lawyer and philanthropist Leisha Camden, the only remaining Sleepless without ties to Sanctuary, and have since built themselves an island, "La Isla," off the coast of Mexico, using nanotechnology that is years more advanced than anything either donkey or Sleepless can boast.

Despite this infusion of foreign brainpower, America has undergone stressful times in recent years; in 2080 (several decades after this political system evolved) the exclusive patents for Kenzo Yagai's cold fusion technology, "Y-energy," ran out, and the United States entered a profound economic slump from which it has not quite recovered. Even worse, the machinery that allows the Liver lifestyle—gravrails, medunits, robots, and even the soysynth cafeterias—have begun suffering frequent breakdowns for unknown reasons.