Debido a la disponibilidad de la omnipresente energía y a las modificaciones genéticas, la sociedad se ha escindido: a cambio de sus votos, los ociosos y pobre Vividores son atendidos por los ricos Auxiliares. Los Insomnes y sus superdotados descendientes, los Superinsomnes, han creado una nueva biotecnología muy tentadora, pero también socialmente peligrosa. Han ofrecido a toda la sociedad las Jeringas del Cambio, que confieren inmunidad contras las enfermedades. Ello no ha hecho más que aumentar las diferencias y, cuando se interrumpe el suministro de jeringas, los recién nacidos padecerán todo tipo de enfermedades. Una madre preocupada por el futuro de su bebé luchará entonces por llevar a los Vividores al poder y cambiar las cosas.

Let's see if we can see the whole picture with this book
So Miranda got rid of hunger so she could be rich without feeling guilty about causing poverty. Now, Livers are free to freeze to death instead of starving to death. Why not get rid of money? Debt? Equalize access to resources so the poor have a better shot at life. That, however, would take away Miranda's advantage. So instead the poor are free to walk around naked and live on grass or whatever. The rich will never vote away their advantage. Revolution will always be the only true form of change. Even then revolution is most likely to only change who is in charge versus arranging a fair and equal society.
The Donkeys deserve to have their possessions taken and even their lives. They've created, manipulated and oppressed an entire majority of humanity.
This is a mess.
I'm not sure what is being said in this long winded trilogy. Poor people are lazy and unintelligent. Rich people are evil and conniving? With exceptions to both situations leading the way?
Theresa leading the future with her weird brain pattern swap is I guess as logical as anything else that has happened in this uber messy trilogy. ( )

Let's get this out of the way. The first 2/3rds of this book was filled to the brim with rather boring Sleeper and Sleepless politics. It lacked all the charm of the first two novels because the first two had great characters.

They're missing from this novel.

The characters we do have didn't manage to pick up and become great until after the first nuclear explosion.

Beginning and Middle in this novel was... meh. Not horrible or anything and I really DO like heavy explorations of gene-mods, social repercussions, and (theoretically) how they lead to massive political upheaval. I just didn't think it worked particularly well here. Unlike the first two Sleepless novels. The end conclusion in this one was satisfying in its way, dealing with an engineered plague that causes people to be aversive, isolationist, (and oddly compassionate), building up to another plague that's half relying on imagination, putting oneself entirely in another's shoes, and half cognitive therapy. It doesn't ignore the underlying biological issue, but it does allow for transcendental biology. You know... mind over matter -- at least when it comes to happy placebo events. :)

We are not limited to our biological destiny, no matter what the naysayers say.

Let's back up here. The whole series as a whole is NOT about that. Indeed, it's a rather awesome series about super geniuses being created out of a genetic alteration that removed the need to sleep. The children are blameless, oddly awesome, but then all the normals fear their super brilliance and work-ethic and focus, they're hounded, forced to take control, and from there take over the world with varying levels of success.

This novel is the aftermath of all that. It's goodish but sometimes meandering and often rather boring until THINGS START HAPPENING. Sigh. Well, they do, and the end is quite fun, but the rest was something of a slog. Alas. I just didn't care for what was going on until after the nuke. :)

Is this enough to save the whole novel? No. But I'm glad I got to the good stuff, for all that. ( )

This is the conclusion to the Sleepless trilogy. It takes place some years after the events of Beggars and Choosers when the Sleepless launched a genetic mutation on the Sleepers of the world that made eating unnecessary. The idea was to make the Livers, the lowest caste of people, independent of the upper class but it didn't work out quite as expected as we find out in this book.

Lizzie Francy is now 18 years old and pregnant. She, her mother, her step-father Billy and Vicki Turner, the donkey who befriended them in the last book, live with a tribe of Livers in an abandoned factory. All of the Livers have been changed with the Sleepless vaccine so they absorb energy from the earth and the sun and do not need to mouth feed. The molecules that were injected with the vaccine also repair any cellular damage and repel any toxins from the body. Lizzie has become a genius at computer hacking (which is called data dipping). It is her abilities that got her and Vicki into a functioning factory belonging to Ten Tech corporation in order to get energy suppliers so the tribe can survive the winter. Lizzie got them in but she can't get them out. Meanwhile the owners, Dr. Jackson Aranow and his ex-wife Cazie Saunders, have been alerted to the break in and head to the factory to check it out. Jackson owns one-third of Ten Tech, his sister Theresa owns another third and Cazie owns the final third. Theresa is one of the few people on earth who has not been changed; she is debilitantingly afraid of everything and rarely ventures out of the massive apartment she and Jackson share in Manhattan. Jackson graduated from medical school just as the change was unleashed. He only uses his skill when a child is born after which he gives them the Change vaccine and they never get sick. At the Ten Tech factory Jackson meets Lizzie and Vicki which changes the trajectory of his life. Before the book ends life on earth has undergone another major shift. People like Jackson and Lizzie and Theresa and the others have a purpose in life again.

I didn't think this conclusion was a strong a book as the second book in the trilogy. Usually with trilogies, there is a reverse situation with the second being weak but the third wrapping things up with a bang. This was more of a whimper than a bang. Still an enjoyable listen even if the narrator's voice didn't seem right for some of the characters because in Beggars and Choosers the characters were voiced by different narrators. I think Blackstone made a mistake in getting rid of the extra narrators for this book. ( )

Towards the end of the series, most of the characters, and almost all of the likable characters have been killed off. Now we are following the life of a Liver (welfare state) named Lizzie, a "throwback" who is much smarter than her station. The thematic commentary seems to be that worthwhile people can be born to those who have become comfortable at the "bottom of the barrel". Another important character is that of a "Donkey" (the workers), Dr. Jackson Aranow, who has become comfortable with his lot in life and is unconcerned with the Livers and, indeed, anyone outside his small circle of family and friends. His world is widened by Lizzie's attempt to steal from one of his factory/warehouses. Finally, we have Jackson's sister, Tess, who is crippled by mental illness, agoraphobia it seems, but also widens her world. Meanwhile, the Sleepless are again under the leadership of Jennifer Sharifi, who still can't learn the lesson that she doesn't need to kill everyone in order to be safe, and that her attempts to do so are what is making her people unsafe.Shenanigans orchestrated by her are threatening to change the face of the world completely once again.
I had a hard time getting used to this new cast of characters, but by the end of the book I was wishing there were additional chapters of this trilogy. Big themes are personified well, and characters enjoy dynamic arcs. However, some characters seem to act in a way that is less in-character and more to serve the plot. Overall, an entertaining and thought-provoking read. ( )