History Literature / BeggarsInSpain

* FantasticRacism: ''Everywhere'', best organized through the "We-Sleep" movement started by Calvin Hawke. One of the interesting bits of its presentation, though (and the reason for the "Franchise/XMen" analogy), is that, unusually, the hated minority is also the power class.

** At one point, while introducing the dangers of genetic engineering, we see genetically engineered grass kept in a glass prison. We're told that it's so super-capable that if released, it would outcompete every other plant on the planet and within a few years nothing would live on earth except this grass and a few large trees, which would be dying. A bit of FridgeLogic ensued when you consider that this means it's better at living in the deserts than a cactus, better than living in brackish swamps than a mangrove, and somehow better at living in the ocean than kelp and algae, all in one plant... except '''''[[FreakierThanFiction it almost happened for real]].''''' Though instead of "everything except this grass" it would have been [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18503_how-biotech-company-almost-killed-world-with-booze.html "everything except this alcohol-producing slime"]].

** Science currently believes that long-term sleeplessness is impossible, as sleep serves as a necessary pressure valve for a number of mental, emotional and physiological processes; for instance, mood imbalance is associated with sleep deprivation. Kress {{handwave}}s this via InsaneTrollLogic ("Exactly -- remove sleep entirely and the mood disorders will disappear with it!"), but since sleeplessness is one of the story's NecessaryWeasels we put up with it.

** Science currently believes that long-term sleeplessness is impossible, as sleep serves as a necessary pressure valve for a number of mental, emotional and physiological processes; for instance, mood imbalance is associated with sleep deprivation. Kress {{handwave}}s this via InsaneTrollLogic ("Exactly -- remove sleep entirely and the mood disorders will disappear with it!"), but since sleeplessness is one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality we put up with it.

It's 2008, TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. Leisha Camden is a BornWinner: her daddy's rich, her mama's good-looking, she's got blonde hair, blue eyes... and the latest genemods, the one that make you [[TheSleepless not need to sleep]]. This particular genemod is a very new technology, and Leisha is only the 21st human being ever born with it. The other 19 are healthy, sane, cheerful and incredibly smart; all of them go on to become luminaries in their fields. The 20th was shaken to death by parents who hadn't reckoned on a baby that cried 24/7.

* TheVirus: Two kinds. One is for KillEmAll purposes, which Sanctuary uses in a ''Series/TwentyFour''-terrorist-style plot; the other is to make everyone into a {{Hikikomori}} by inducing a strong aversion to novelty (worse than it sounds, especially in times of democratic election) and is ''much'' more successful.

** Science currently believes that long-term sleeplessness is impossible, as sleep serves as a necessary pressure valve for a number of mental, emotional and physiological processes; for instance, mood imbalance is associated with sleep deprivation. Kress {{handwave}}s this via InsaneTrollLogic ("Exactly -- remove sleep entirely and the mood disorders will disappear with it!"), but since sleeplessness is a NecessaryWeasel we put up with it.

%%* IllGirl: Theresa Aranow

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: the first novel alone is 88 years long; ''Beggars Ride'' ends in 2121. This is inevitable.

%%* AbusiveParents: There have been cases for parents of Sleepless children.

%%* BecomingTheCostume: The whole point of Theresa Aranow's biofeedback techniques.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Despite being [[AsimovsThreeKindsOfScienceFiction social sci-fi]], the first book of the series falls pretty squarely into Type 4: the feasibility of sleeplessness is the only departure from reality, though that does branch off into the functional-immortality stuff. Later books contain a soft singularity later, but it too is brought on by a spiraling cascade of consequences stemming from the sleeplessness genemod.

* DeweyDefeatsTruman: The first novel was released in 1994. Just about the only bet it missed was the rise of Microsoft, but seeing as how Kevin Baker, the first Sleepless, is a software genius and would have been (out)competing Bill Gates' empire at some point, that miss becomes glaring.