BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS by Nancy Kress (Tor) is a competent successor to BEGGARS IN SPAIN. But it lacks something of the magic of Kress's first novel. The basic problem is that Kress painted herself into a corner; the SuperSleepless introduced in the first novel are such incomprehensible supergeniuses that they take away a lot of the action from the ordinary human beings in the second book.
This is the unusual case where I actually hope that an author comes down with Card-Brin Syndrome: the inability to finish a series without writing an intervening novel. I think Kress would be better off to turn to other subjects for a while before returning to the world of BEGGARS.
Editor's Recommendations, Summer 1996In this inaugural edition of IBIC's Featured Books, I'd like to draw your attention to several titles which have helped to shape my life and thinking.
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