WAKING "Spanish Beggars" (1993) "Beggars and Powerful" (1994) "Beggars' Walks" (1996) At the beginning of the 21st century, genetic engineering has already made significant progress in such issues as appearance, intelligence and health. At the same time, a Chicago biotech company managed to create a new genome model for raising the Awake or those who do not know sleep. Nineteen experimental beta babies of this model did not need sleep at all, never slept, thus adding eight hours a day to their “working” time. In addition, the destruction of sleep was accompanied by the disappearance of dreams, which made children calmer and more easily adaptable to changes in environment than ordinary “normal” children. In the novel “The Spanish Beggars,” billionaire Roger Camden exposes his daughter Leisha to treatment in order to induce a wakeful effect in her. But when the processed egg is implanted into Camden's wife, another naturally fertilized egg also appears in the uterus. Leisha is born with a twin sister who is completely devoid of the characteristics inherent in Leisha. As the girls grow up, something is discovered that completely changes Leisha's world and the attitude of normal people towards the Awakened. It turns out that the tissues of the Awakened regenerate naturally. Leisha and other similar children, whose number has reached many thousands, can live indefinitely. This circumstance causes a sharp reaction from society. Many “normal” people have feelings of envy, fear, anger, disgust, because they are afraid that the new race will supplant them and their descendants in the course of evolution. As the Awakens grow, become rich, become successful, and increase their influence, a polarization of society arises, which is exacerbated by the establishment of the "Wakeful Sanctuary" - a well-protected enclave in New York State where they can feel safe. The novel examines the consequences of the schism. society into haves and have-nots. Led by widow Jennifer Sharifi, the survivors take increasingly sophisticated security measures to ensure they remain in near-total isolation. At the same time, they use genetic engineering to strengthen the position of their descendants. Sanctuary, now in low-Earth orbit, decides to secede from the United States. Only Leisha and a few other compromisers, including her sister Alice, try to convince the world that there are no two races, but only one - universal. In "The Poor and the Powerful" the action takes place a few years later. In the novel, three main characters try to determine their place in the “three-layered” world that the United States has become. Billy Washington - poor and illiterate, already approaching the end of his hard life - still finds family and love. Diana Covington is one of the “haves,” whom genetic engineering has endowed with all the virtues and talents, with the exception of eternal wakefulness, and is completely devoid of illusions and purpose in life. Drew Arlen is an artist of enormous talent, the lover of Miranda Sharifi, the granddaughter of Jennifer Sharifi. Miranda dreams of giving the poor of her country freedom and independence through violent intervention in human physiology. She achieves her goal, although Diana and other members of the Genetic Standards Maintenance Agency try to stop her. The results are completely unexpected even for Miranda. Only Billy alone finds the answer to the central question of the novel: who should control new radical technologies - scientists, the government, or the people who are the objects of implementation of these technologies. Beggars' Walks, the novel that completes the trilogy, takes place a generation later. The United States has become an even more “Balkanized” country. Most of the population, united in a kind of tribal groups, leads a nomadic lifestyle. The tribes are self-sufficient and do not even need to purchase food. All this is the result of biological changes carried out by the Awakening Ones, who to this have already left the Earth. The genetically enhanced "haves" live in protected enclaves, but their very lives are increasingly devoid of meaning and purpose. The country is on the verge of complete collapse and loss of cultural, political and economic unity. Jackson Aranow is a doctor who is not needed by patients, and his weak-minded sister Teresa lives exclusively by personal interests and experiences. However, unexpectedly they find themselves involved in a struggle between Jennifer Sharifi, just released from prison, where she served twenty-seven years for treason, and her granddaughter Miranda. The war is waged with the use of artificially bred viruses that infect not so much the body as the mind. In fact, it is a struggle between two concepts. Jennifer is obsessed with ensuring the safety of people like her, the "haves", then how Miranda strives to ensure the “progress” of humanity. Neither Jackson nor Teresa have the ruthless determination of both Sharifi, but nevertheless it is the brother and sister who become the ones who find a way out for a country that has changed so much that even its basic principles are no longer suitable for everyday life and need to be re-bred from the new reality.