Book Post Which Arrives From Nothingness!

Probably not what you're expecting, but surprise is the spice of life. Or is that variety? Well, something is a surprise in part because it's variation from the norm, so it all connects, in some fashion.

Chasing the Dragon, Domenic Stansberry - Despite the title, they aren't any references to chasing dragons, or confronting them, or anything like that. Dante Mancuso works for 'the company', and gets an assignment to return to his hometown of San Francisco, under the cover of returning for his father's funeral. He's to set up a drug deal between two men, so they can be bsuted by the DEA and whee, everybody wins. Naturally, things go awry, standard bolierplate about not knowing what the company is up to, and who is working at cross-purposes to you, and whether it's time to get out, and so on.

And things from his current assignment are highly connected to his previous life in San Fran, back when he was a cop and ruined his career trying to expose the truth about a big case, and he winds up working with a current cop, the standard honorable cop who loves his family, but sees the strain he puts on them with his work, to try and take care of things. I wouldn't say it's a complete success, maybe not even a success. Evil is sort of punished, but Dante until decides to let some of the people responsible skate because they're old, and what purpose would it serve to destroy them now? Well I don't know Dante, what purpose did it serve for them tod estroy the lives they did when they were younger? Why should they get a pass, just because they're geriatrics? That's ageism, implying old people can't stand up to their proper punishment. I say they can take it, but Dante's feeling nostaligc, fed up with his job, attracted to his old girlfriend, and so on.

I think I bought it because I was intrigued by the idea of Dante trying to play a role for these friends and family he hadn't seen in years, while he worked at his own things. THat didn't play as large a role as I would have liked, though, so bit of a disappointment.

Beggars In Spain, Nancy Kress - Apparently sleep is just a waste of time. The book revolves around the premise that people are getting their children genetically modified in vitro, adding desired traits, removing undesired, and one particularly rich, driven fellow wants his daughter given the recent modification that means she doesn't need sleep. Ever. And he gets it, but there's a surprise when his wife accidentally has two eggs fertilized (an extra one showed up abruptly during the rpocedure, or something) and that daughter doesn't have the genemods. From there the story follows Leisha, the Sleepless through the first 83 years of her life, and the varied prejudices encountered by the Sleepless. They're smarter (usually added on), they're more logical, less prone to flights of emotion, they have the added advantage that they can just keep working while coworkers or fellow students grab Zs, and not sleeping somehow keeps your immune system in better shape, so their bodies actually regenerate. They aren't immortal, but they're the closest thing their world has ever seen.

So naturally, people hate and fear them for their advantages. Many Sleepless advocate cosntructing their own Sanctuary, where they'll live and conduct business from, safe from hatred, while others, such as Leisha, try to continue operating out in the world. Which elads to friction, especially as the government ups the load the wealthy and prosperous Sleepless must carry (by the time Leisha hits her 60s, most people live fairly well on the Dole, and school and work are largely voluntary, and rarely taken advantage of). Eventually, the Sleepless isolate themselves from any of their own that won't show solidarity against the Sleepers, and move their Sanctuary to a refurbished satellite, where they begin making preparations for the day the U.S. pushes them too far. Lots of comparisons made by the characters to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War and the American Revoltuion.

As near I can tell, the gist of the story is that people can change. It may take time, but it can happen, and so the important thing is to never stop striving to help that process. Don't force them to change, but encourage it, certainly. It was an OK story, though it seemed like ana wful long way to go for that lesson. There's probably also something in there about how it's very easy to become the thing one proclaims to despise, in an attempt to feel secure.