What do you think?
Rate this book
Sleepless
From bestselling author Charlie Huston comes a novel about the fears that find us all during dark times and the courage and sacrifice that can save us in the face of unimaginable odds. Gripping, unnerving, exhilarating, and haunting, Sleepless is well worth staying up for.
What former philosophy student Parker Hass wanted was a better world. A world both just and safe for his wife and infant daughter. So he joined the LAPD and tried to make it that way. But the world changed. Struck by waves of chaos carried in on a tide of insomnia. A plague of sleeplessness.
Park can sleep, but he is wide awake. And as much as he wishes he was dreaming, his eyes are open. He has no choice but to see it all. That's his job. Working undercover as a drug dealer in a Los Angeles ruled in equal parts by martial law and insurgency, he's tasked with cutting off illegal trade in Dreamer, the only drug that can give the infected what they most sleep.
After a year of lost leads and false trails, Park stumbles into the perilous shadows cast by the pharmaceuticals giant behind Dreamer. Somewhere in those shadows, at the nexus of disease and drugs and money, a secret is hiding. Drawn into the inner circle of a tech guru with a warped agenda and a special use for the sleepless themselves, Park thinks he knows what that secret might be.
To know for certain, he will have to go deeper into the restless world. His wife has become sleepless, and their daughter may soon share the same fate. For them, he will risk what they need most from his belief that justice
must be served. Unknown to him, his choice ties all of their futures to the singularly deadly nature of an aging mercenary who stalks Park.
The deeper Park stumbles through the dark, the more he is convinced that it is obscuring the real world. Bring enough light and the shadows will retreat. Bring enough light and everyone will see themselves again. Bring enough light and he will find his way to the safe corner, the harbor he's promised his family. Whatever the cost to himself.
It is July 2010.
The future is coming.
Open your eyes.
What former philosophy student Parker Hass wanted was a better world. A world both just and safe for his wife and infant daughter. So he joined the LAPD and tried to make it that way. But the world changed. Struck by waves of chaos carried in on a tide of insomnia. A plague of sleeplessness.
Park can sleep, but he is wide awake. And as much as he wishes he was dreaming, his eyes are open. He has no choice but to see it all. That's his job. Working undercover as a drug dealer in a Los Angeles ruled in equal parts by martial law and insurgency, he's tasked with cutting off illegal trade in Dreamer, the only drug that can give the infected what they most sleep.
After a year of lost leads and false trails, Park stumbles into the perilous shadows cast by the pharmaceuticals giant behind Dreamer. Somewhere in those shadows, at the nexus of disease and drugs and money, a secret is hiding. Drawn into the inner circle of a tech guru with a warped agenda and a special use for the sleepless themselves, Park thinks he knows what that secret might be.
To know for certain, he will have to go deeper into the restless world. His wife has become sleepless, and their daughter may soon share the same fate. For them, he will risk what they need most from his belief that justice
must be served. Unknown to him, his choice ties all of their futures to the singularly deadly nature of an aging mercenary who stalks Park.
The deeper Park stumbles through the dark, the more he is convinced that it is obscuring the real world. Bring enough light and the shadows will retreat. Bring enough light and everyone will see themselves again. Bring enough light and he will find his way to the safe corner, the harbor he's promised his family. Whatever the cost to himself.
It is July 2010.
The future is coming.
Open your eyes.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Charlie Huston
102 books1,212 followersCharlie Huston is an American author of Noircrime fiction. However, according to a recent interview with Paradigm, he prefers to be classified as a writer of Pulp, due to how he writes.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 310 reviews
June 16, 2017
This is a fantastic book. Funny thing is, when I started this one last year after summer, I just could not get through the intro, this is a book which does not read easily (for me). It is also a book that needs your full attention, with all the happenings and details. Now, I had time and started again, knowing this had to be good. Well.. it is. Brilliant story, apocalyptic, but also, a story about love. It keeps you hanging on til the end and the story is so cleverly built, it is never boring and the ending very strong and for me surprising. It is also a story, which is pretty close to home I mean, a virus or plague like this, people becoming sleepless and dying of it, it could happen today, could it? When the story unfolds, first it reads like a crime story, gradually the dramatic tragedy of it hits you more and more. It hit me in the heart at the end. In short, it's about Parker, an undercover cop and dealer, who tries to unfold a network around the medicine Dreamer. In a time and a barracaded world breaking down, where one in ten people become hit by the virus and become sleepless, slowly disorientating and then dying. Lots of sleepless spend their time in a sort of virtual game which plays a big part in their lives. Parker's wife Rose is sleepless. Their baby, they don't know yet. Dreamer gives sleepless some temporary ease of sleep and dreaming. Second mysterious character is Jasper, a sophisticated killer, who is after Parker. Great, great read. And a strong recommendation.
March 3, 2018
This should have been right up my alley. I really enjoy Huston's writing and story approach, and I have a fondness for end-of-the-world stories, but this was a resounding 'meh.'
Usually, Huston is skilled at piquing my interest in characters lacking in likable traits or heroic qualities. I just could not develop any concern for the main character, Parker Hass (Parker. Totally generic name), who seems like a full-on Heroic-But-Loner-Boy-Scout, which you would think would be even more likable than a slacker (Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death) or a nihilistic vampire (the Joe Pitt series). But no. He was blander than white bread toast with margarine.
The narrative is three-fold, switching between the third-person view of our hero, the first-person view of our hero, and the view of a Antihero-Loner-Art-Appreciating-Assassin (a more common trope in movies). Somewhere in here, I might have cared, except I didn't. I was mostly bored.
And the plague? Again, I love me a good disease, and real diseases are totally scary, so it should be easy to tap into an imaginary one, right? I mean, c'mon, zombie fan here. But the 'disease' of sleeplessness was just... sleep-inducing. Maybe Huston is such a great writer that the power of suggestion worked on me. Could be. I do know from my own episodes of sleep-deprivation or poor sleep-quality (man, do I ever dislike night shifts), that sleep-deprivation is an insidious and terrible thing. Except the horror of it rarely develops, really. It relies on Parker's infant and his sleep-deprived wife to really get at the delusions. It should be worse, it really should; perhaps Parker is so guarded from his own emotions around it, his tightly contained fear, that it's hard to believe he is scared.
I'm afraid I'm kind of soured on this book for a while, and will throw it into the pile to one day re-read. Meanwhile, it has me thinking about re-reading Huston's other works to recapture that fond feeling.
Usually, Huston is skilled at piquing my interest in characters lacking in likable traits or heroic qualities. I just could not develop any concern for the main character, Parker Hass (Parker. Totally generic name), who seems like a full-on Heroic-But-Loner-Boy-Scout, which you would think would be even more likable than a slacker (Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death) or a nihilistic vampire (the Joe Pitt series). But no. He was blander than white bread toast with margarine.
The narrative is three-fold, switching between the third-person view of our hero, the first-person view of our hero, and the view of a Antihero-Loner-Art-Appreciating-Assassin (a more common trope in movies). Somewhere in here, I might have cared, except I didn't. I was mostly bored.
And the plague? Again, I love me a good disease, and real diseases are totally scary, so it should be easy to tap into an imaginary one, right? I mean, c'mon, zombie fan here. But the 'disease' of sleeplessness was just... sleep-inducing. Maybe Huston is such a great writer that the power of suggestion worked on me. Could be. I do know from my own episodes of sleep-deprivation or poor sleep-quality (man, do I ever dislike night shifts), that sleep-deprivation is an insidious and terrible thing. Except the horror of it rarely develops, really. It relies on Parker's infant and his sleep-deprived wife to really get at the delusions. It should be worse, it really should; perhaps Parker is so guarded from his own emotions around it, his tightly contained fear, that it's hard to believe he is scared.
I'm afraid I'm kind of soured on this book for a while, and will throw it into the pile to one day re-read. Meanwhile, it has me thinking about re-reading Huston's other works to recapture that fond feeling.
February 2, 2018
★★☆☆☆½
“A fringe illness known as fatal familial insomnia. The name tells you all you need to know about its quaint beginnings. Familial. For virtually all of the 245-odd years of its recorded history, FFI had restricted itself to less than a handful of genetic lines. How and why it widened its scope so terribly and suddenly was, you’ll understand, a subject greatly debated.”
The FFI prion eats holes through your brain like Swiss cheese. One of the major side effects of that process is that it destroys your ability to sleep. The breakdown of mind and body is so complete that traditional pain relief no longer has any affect resulting in a slow and painful death. What’s truly horrifying is that FFI is a real disease with no known cure.
I’ve read plenty of dystopians set in the future or some alternate version of Earth, but this one takes place in Los Angeles in 2010. And choosing a modern setting and a real disease as the catalyst to the story served to increase the plausibility of the events that unfold and elevate the level of horror.
It’s all rather confusing early on, as you’re simply thrown into this world with no explanation. I really enjoyed this, as I had to work to try and puzzle out what was happening. The narrative itself adds to the confusion as it alternates between a third and first person account, with the occasional journal entry sprinkled in. The reasoning behind all the switching becomes more apparent as the story unfolds.
The third person point of view follows Parker Haas a young idealistic police officer who’s working undercover to infiltrate the black market trade of Dr33m3r - the only known drug capable of providing relief to the growing number of Sleepless. Parker’s tale is broken up by the first person account of an old mercenary named Jasper, who’s been tasked, by a mysterious Chinese woman, to track down a thumb drive. Don’t let his age fool you though, Jasper is a bad mamajamma and a deadly assassin to boot. There’s also a rather extensive section of the book, which I didn’t particularly care for, devoted to a popular Sleepless MMORPG. This added to the early confusion, as it takes some time to realize that you’re reading about game play elements instead of actual real world events.
The concepts, descriptions, setting, and atmosphere were all masterfully drawn. I gained a great understanding of the Sleepless disease, and felt truly immersed in the madness, societal collapse, gang uprisings, and total chaos of L.A. I also liked how the story occurs during the collapse instead of in the aftermath.
Sadly, all this clarity came at the expense of pacing and pushing the plot forward. It seemed as though every time the story built any kind of momentum, Huston pumped the brakes to throw in another description of the disease or to flesh out more backstory. He got caught up too much in all the background details and minutiae, for my taste. He also dropped in a ton of product placement and oddly a few lengthy list which added nothing whatsoever to the plot.
Bottom line: If you like your stories described and reasoned out to the nth degree, then you’re in luck! But for me, the udder lack of flow (pun intended), and glacial pacing were unforgivable, and prevent me from recommending this book. There’s little doubt that Huston’s a talented writer, but I felt he, much like Stephen King at times, lacked that guiding hand to rein in his some of his rambling.
Thanks again to Kemper, for recommending this one. I’m sorry I didn’t love it as much as you did, but what do I know? I hate everything right?
“A fringe illness known as fatal familial insomnia. The name tells you all you need to know about its quaint beginnings. Familial. For virtually all of the 245-odd years of its recorded history, FFI had restricted itself to less than a handful of genetic lines. How and why it widened its scope so terribly and suddenly was, you’ll understand, a subject greatly debated.”
The FFI prion eats holes through your brain like Swiss cheese. One of the major side effects of that process is that it destroys your ability to sleep. The breakdown of mind and body is so complete that traditional pain relief no longer has any affect resulting in a slow and painful death. What’s truly horrifying is that FFI is a real disease with no known cure.
I’ve read plenty of dystopians set in the future or some alternate version of Earth, but this one takes place in Los Angeles in 2010. And choosing a modern setting and a real disease as the catalyst to the story served to increase the plausibility of the events that unfold and elevate the level of horror.
It’s all rather confusing early on, as you’re simply thrown into this world with no explanation. I really enjoyed this, as I had to work to try and puzzle out what was happening. The narrative itself adds to the confusion as it alternates between a third and first person account, with the occasional journal entry sprinkled in. The reasoning behind all the switching becomes more apparent as the story unfolds.
The third person point of view follows Parker Haas a young idealistic police officer who’s working undercover to infiltrate the black market trade of Dr33m3r - the only known drug capable of providing relief to the growing number of Sleepless. Parker’s tale is broken up by the first person account of an old mercenary named Jasper, who’s been tasked, by a mysterious Chinese woman, to track down a thumb drive. Don’t let his age fool you though, Jasper is a bad mamajamma and a deadly assassin to boot. There’s also a rather extensive section of the book, which I didn’t particularly care for, devoted to a popular Sleepless MMORPG. This added to the early confusion, as it takes some time to realize that you’re reading about game play elements instead of actual real world events.
The concepts, descriptions, setting, and atmosphere were all masterfully drawn. I gained a great understanding of the Sleepless disease, and felt truly immersed in the madness, societal collapse, gang uprisings, and total chaos of L.A. I also liked how the story occurs during the collapse instead of in the aftermath.
Sadly, all this clarity came at the expense of pacing and pushing the plot forward. It seemed as though every time the story built any kind of momentum, Huston pumped the brakes to throw in another description of the disease or to flesh out more backstory. He got caught up too much in all the background details and minutiae, for my taste. He also dropped in a ton of product placement and oddly a few lengthy list which added nothing whatsoever to the plot.
Bottom line: If you like your stories described and reasoned out to the nth degree, then you’re in luck! But for me, the udder lack of flow (pun intended), and glacial pacing were unforgivable, and prevent me from recommending this book. There’s little doubt that Huston’s a talented writer, but I felt he, much like Stephen King at times, lacked that guiding hand to rein in his some of his rambling.
Thanks again to Kemper, for recommending this one. I’m sorry I didn’t love it as much as you did, but what do I know? I hate everything right?
February 13, 2010
I have good news, and I have better news.
The good news is that Charlie Huston has finally started using quotation marks instead of the annoying and confusing dashes before dialogue. Granted, he still isn’t using ‘he said’ or ‘she asked’, but progress is progress.
The better news is that Huston has written a masterpiece.
It’s been fascinating to read along as pure talent has evolved to extreme skill from the Hank Thompson and Joe Pitt stories to the point where Huston started delivering these stand-alone novels that have shown him growing as a writer with every book. What he started in The Shotgun Rule and followed up with in The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, he has perfected for Sleepless. Reading a Charlie Huston book used to be like a grenade going off in your face. Sleepless is like getting carved up by a scalpel.
Set in an alternate version of 2010, an epidemic of insomnia leads victims to prolonged and ugly deaths. The SLP disease has pushed an already unsteady world to the very brink of collapse. Governments and services are in the midst of a slow motion disintegration, and the only thing that still works reliably is the Internet as people still demand on-line gaming and other distractions. In Los Angeles, open gang warfare is common and religious cults are beginning to clash with what’s left of the military and the police in what is almost sure to be the opening rounds of a global meltdown.
An idealistic LAPD officer named Parker Haas naively thinks that the tide can be turned if people will just start doing the right thing. Unfortunately, his wife Rose is already suffering from the sleepless disease, and things aren’t looking good for his infant daughter either. Park hides from his personal issues by dedicating all his time to his undercover assignment, tracking down any black market dealing of a drug called DR33M3R which is the only thing that offers some relief against the insomnia. But Park crosses paths with a deadly mercenary hired to recover a stolen object, and things get ugly in a hurry.
This book reminded me of the better cyber-punk books like Snow Crash, but Huston has built something unique here. The version of a world collapsing was brutally cynical but filled with moments of grace from desperate people. Huston flips from a third person narrative covering Park’s story to Park’s heartbreaking first person journal entries to another first person narrative from the mercenary’s point of view. This creates an eerie disconcerting vibe that makes you feel like it’s all a confusing dream for the first few chapters, but it’s a nightmare that feels all too possible.
The good news is that Charlie Huston has finally started using quotation marks instead of the annoying and confusing dashes before dialogue. Granted, he still isn’t using ‘he said’ or ‘she asked’, but progress is progress.
The better news is that Huston has written a masterpiece.
It’s been fascinating to read along as pure talent has evolved to extreme skill from the Hank Thompson and Joe Pitt stories to the point where Huston started delivering these stand-alone novels that have shown him growing as a writer with every book. What he started in The Shotgun Rule and followed up with in The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, he has perfected for Sleepless. Reading a Charlie Huston book used to be like a grenade going off in your face. Sleepless is like getting carved up by a scalpel.
Set in an alternate version of 2010, an epidemic of insomnia leads victims to prolonged and ugly deaths. The SLP disease has pushed an already unsteady world to the very brink of collapse. Governments and services are in the midst of a slow motion disintegration, and the only thing that still works reliably is the Internet as people still demand on-line gaming and other distractions. In Los Angeles, open gang warfare is common and religious cults are beginning to clash with what’s left of the military and the police in what is almost sure to be the opening rounds of a global meltdown.
An idealistic LAPD officer named Parker Haas naively thinks that the tide can be turned if people will just start doing the right thing. Unfortunately, his wife Rose is already suffering from the sleepless disease, and things aren’t looking good for his infant daughter either. Park hides from his personal issues by dedicating all his time to his undercover assignment, tracking down any black market dealing of a drug called DR33M3R which is the only thing that offers some relief against the insomnia. But Park crosses paths with a deadly mercenary hired to recover a stolen object, and things get ugly in a hurry.
This book reminded me of the better cyber-punk books like Snow Crash, but Huston has built something unique here. The version of a world collapsing was brutally cynical but filled with moments of grace from desperate people. Huston flips from a third person narrative covering Park’s story to Park’s heartbreaking first person journal entries to another first person narrative from the mercenary’s point of view. This creates an eerie disconcerting vibe that makes you feel like it’s all a confusing dream for the first few chapters, but it’s a nightmare that feels all too possible.
December 26, 2010
Charlie Huston, Sleepless (Ballantine, 2010)
I started three books on the same day, two Vine books and a third I'd bought with birthday money. I figured Sleepless would probably be the one that would get relegated to the back of the line, as I knew nothing about Charlie Huston save that The Mystical Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death has gotten a lot of good press this year and that it had an interesting-sounding premise. But Friday night I had a large block of reading time available, so I ended up alternating chapters in the three (after finishing two books I was almost done with). By the time I was finished with that, Sleepless had won out over an Elder Scrolls novel and the first book Robin Hobb has set in the Liveship Traders world in six years. That takes some doing, on both counts; this Huston guy has definitely got something going for him.
Sleepless is an alternate-universe noir in which the (absolutely real) disease Fatal Familial Insomnia has somehow mutated into a new disease: sleepless, commonly abbreviated SLP. While FFI is genetic (and limited to fifty families, as far as anyone knows), SLP is horrendously communicable; one in ten people worldwide, in Huston's world, have been diagnosed with the disease. There is only one medication that is capable of helping, Dreamer (or Dr33m3r if you're into that sort of thing). With 10% of the world's population entirely unable to sleep, the rule of law has almost vanished, and worldwide distractions have taken hold (including Chasm Tide, an MMORPG that bears some resemblance to World of Warcraft). We see this world from two different perspectives. One is Park, a small-time drug dealer who's suddenly gotten big-time and may have an in to the black market in Dreamer that everyone is sure exists, but no one has actually been able to gain any evidence of. The other is Jasper, an obsessive-compulsive hit man. Their paths cross when the owners of a Chasm Tide gold farm are murdered. Jasper is hired by Lady Chizu, the head of the Thousand Storks mercenary company, to retrieve a travel drive located in the gold farm; Park was the dealer for a number of members of the gold farm. When Park discovers the massacre while making a delivery, he pockets the travel drive to see if it contains any evidence that may lead him to the killer. This, of course, puts Jasper on his tail.
The travel drive, however, is a secondary player in this novel, as is the main plot; Sleepless is all about worldbuilding a society that's close to our own, with a single quirk that doesn't exist in reality. What happens to the world if you flip one switch? Huston has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this question, and because of that, the alternate Los Angeles he builds here is almost as real as our own (the only literary analogue I can think of recently that impressed me as much was the London depicted in China Mieville's King Rat). From there, Huston seems to have adopted the storytelling mode Faulkner used when writing As I Lay Dying: take a bunch of normal people and heap as much misery on them as possible, and then see what they do. And he does it very, very well.
I've already dropped some very big names here in comparison, and I'm going to do it one more time: this novel somehow put me in mind both of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash in the way he actually integrates the sci-fi elements into things without them seeming like he's just showing off some new toys (think about, say, the very cool but useless map scene in Babylon A. D. as a good example of “showing off toys”) and of Cormac McCarthy's The Road (to which this could very well be a prequel; McCarthy never does tell us what killed the world) in the rhythm and flow of Huston's language, though Huston is far more accessible than McCarthy could ever be. All the comparisons, from the standpoint of the quality of Huston's writing, are eminently justified. This guy is very good at what he does.
If the book has problems, they are all in the area of pacing, as Huston slows things down on a fairly regular basis (this usually happens when Jasper is describing how he sees the world, in his obsessively detail-oriented way). The reason for this becomes clear at the end of the book, and it's a pleasant surprise, but that doesn't entirely erase the feeling of having to slog through a passage here and there. Still, as far as crime fiction goes, Charlie Huston has given the world a good piece of it. Sleepless earned itself a place on my 25 Best Reads of the Year list without any trouble at all. ****
I started three books on the same day, two Vine books and a third I'd bought with birthday money. I figured Sleepless would probably be the one that would get relegated to the back of the line, as I knew nothing about Charlie Huston save that The Mystical Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death has gotten a lot of good press this year and that it had an interesting-sounding premise. But Friday night I had a large block of reading time available, so I ended up alternating chapters in the three (after finishing two books I was almost done with). By the time I was finished with that, Sleepless had won out over an Elder Scrolls novel and the first book Robin Hobb has set in the Liveship Traders world in six years. That takes some doing, on both counts; this Huston guy has definitely got something going for him.
Sleepless is an alternate-universe noir in which the (absolutely real) disease Fatal Familial Insomnia has somehow mutated into a new disease: sleepless, commonly abbreviated SLP. While FFI is genetic (and limited to fifty families, as far as anyone knows), SLP is horrendously communicable; one in ten people worldwide, in Huston's world, have been diagnosed with the disease. There is only one medication that is capable of helping, Dreamer (or Dr33m3r if you're into that sort of thing). With 10% of the world's population entirely unable to sleep, the rule of law has almost vanished, and worldwide distractions have taken hold (including Chasm Tide, an MMORPG that bears some resemblance to World of Warcraft). We see this world from two different perspectives. One is Park, a small-time drug dealer who's suddenly gotten big-time and may have an in to the black market in Dreamer that everyone is sure exists, but no one has actually been able to gain any evidence of. The other is Jasper, an obsessive-compulsive hit man. Their paths cross when the owners of a Chasm Tide gold farm are murdered. Jasper is hired by Lady Chizu, the head of the Thousand Storks mercenary company, to retrieve a travel drive located in the gold farm; Park was the dealer for a number of members of the gold farm. When Park discovers the massacre while making a delivery, he pockets the travel drive to see if it contains any evidence that may lead him to the killer. This, of course, puts Jasper on his tail.
The travel drive, however, is a secondary player in this novel, as is the main plot; Sleepless is all about worldbuilding a society that's close to our own, with a single quirk that doesn't exist in reality. What happens to the world if you flip one switch? Huston has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this question, and because of that, the alternate Los Angeles he builds here is almost as real as our own (the only literary analogue I can think of recently that impressed me as much was the London depicted in China Mieville's King Rat). From there, Huston seems to have adopted the storytelling mode Faulkner used when writing As I Lay Dying: take a bunch of normal people and heap as much misery on them as possible, and then see what they do. And he does it very, very well.
I've already dropped some very big names here in comparison, and I'm going to do it one more time: this novel somehow put me in mind both of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash in the way he actually integrates the sci-fi elements into things without them seeming like he's just showing off some new toys (think about, say, the very cool but useless map scene in Babylon A. D. as a good example of “showing off toys”) and of Cormac McCarthy's The Road (to which this could very well be a prequel; McCarthy never does tell us what killed the world) in the rhythm and flow of Huston's language, though Huston is far more accessible than McCarthy could ever be. All the comparisons, from the standpoint of the quality of Huston's writing, are eminently justified. This guy is very good at what he does.
If the book has problems, they are all in the area of pacing, as Huston slows things down on a fairly regular basis (this usually happens when Jasper is describing how he sees the world, in his obsessively detail-oriented way). The reason for this becomes clear at the end of the book, and it's a pleasant surprise, but that doesn't entirely erase the feeling of having to slog through a passage here and there. Still, as far as crime fiction goes, Charlie Huston has given the world a good piece of it. Sleepless earned itself a place on my 25 Best Reads of the Year list without any trouble at all. ****
November 26, 2012
Disclosure: This was a book I received through the Amazon Vine program which I read in 2009. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: What former philosophy student Parker Hass wanted was a better world. A world both just and safe for his wife and infant daughter. So he joined the LAPD and tried to make it that way. But the world changed. Struck by waves of chaos carried in on a tide of insomnia. A plague of sleeplessness.
Park can sleep, but he is wide awake. And as much as he wishes he was dreaming, his eyes are open. He has no choice but to see it all. That's his job. Working undercover as a drug dealer in a Los Angeles ruled in equal parts by martial law and insurgency, he's tasked with cutting off illegal trade in Dreamer, the only drug that can give the infected what they most crave: sleep.
After a year of lost leads and false trails, Park stumbles into the perilous shadows cast by the pharmaceuticals giant behind Dreamer. Somewhere in those shadows, at the nexus of disease and drugs and money, a secret is hiding. Drawn into the inner circle of a tech guru with a warped agenda and a special use for the sleepless themselves, Park thinks he knows what that secret might be.
To know for certain, he will have to go deeper into the restless world. His wife has become sleepless, and their daughter may soon share the same fate. For them, he will risk what they need most from him: his belief that justice must be served. Unknown to him, his choice ties all of their futures to the singularly deadly nature of an aging mercenary who stalks Park.
The deeper Park stumbles through the dark, the more he is convinced that it is obscuring the real world. Bring enough light and the shadows will retreat. Bring enough light and everyone will see themselves again. Bring enough light and he will find his way to the safe corner, the harbor he's promised his family. Whatever the cost to himself.
My Thoughts: I enjoy Charlie Huston - his books are quirky, strange and unusual. This one is no exception. The insomnia disease that is rampaging through the world is insidious and spooky - the actions taken by Park are completely understandable, even while you're cringing and wondering why he is doing this. A fascinating book, a terrific idea. If you're a Huston fan, don't miss this one.
Synopsis: What former philosophy student Parker Hass wanted was a better world. A world both just and safe for his wife and infant daughter. So he joined the LAPD and tried to make it that way. But the world changed. Struck by waves of chaos carried in on a tide of insomnia. A plague of sleeplessness.
Park can sleep, but he is wide awake. And as much as he wishes he was dreaming, his eyes are open. He has no choice but to see it all. That's his job. Working undercover as a drug dealer in a Los Angeles ruled in equal parts by martial law and insurgency, he's tasked with cutting off illegal trade in Dreamer, the only drug that can give the infected what they most crave: sleep.
After a year of lost leads and false trails, Park stumbles into the perilous shadows cast by the pharmaceuticals giant behind Dreamer. Somewhere in those shadows, at the nexus of disease and drugs and money, a secret is hiding. Drawn into the inner circle of a tech guru with a warped agenda and a special use for the sleepless themselves, Park thinks he knows what that secret might be.
To know for certain, he will have to go deeper into the restless world. His wife has become sleepless, and their daughter may soon share the same fate. For them, he will risk what they need most from him: his belief that justice must be served. Unknown to him, his choice ties all of their futures to the singularly deadly nature of an aging mercenary who stalks Park.
The deeper Park stumbles through the dark, the more he is convinced that it is obscuring the real world. Bring enough light and the shadows will retreat. Bring enough light and everyone will see themselves again. Bring enough light and he will find his way to the safe corner, the harbor he's promised his family. Whatever the cost to himself.
My Thoughts: I enjoy Charlie Huston - his books are quirky, strange and unusual. This one is no exception. The insomnia disease that is rampaging through the world is insidious and spooky - the actions taken by Park are completely understandable, even while you're cringing and wondering why he is doing this. A fascinating book, a terrific idea. If you're a Huston fan, don't miss this one.
July 11, 2013
This is a futuristic crime thriller depicting an America that is under martial law and in the midst of a pandemic: an incurable form of insomnia is afflicting -at the very least- ten percent of the world's population.
"Sleeplessness" as it is called leads to an inevitable and- after months of suffering- painful death.
This novel is set in Los Angeles and alternates between third and first person narratives.
The third person narrative details the personal and professional life of Parker Haas -an idealistic young LAPD cop who has gone deep-cover in a drug sting operation and whose wife is nearing the final stages "sleeplessness".
The first person narrative is told from the point of a view of a mysterious, aging mercenary eventually referred to simply as "Jasper".
The description of life as it is in this near-future America and Huston's in-depth exposition on the origins of the sleeplessness plague and his descriptions of the symptoms and physical and mental devastation that the disease wreaks on its victims are riveting.
The world of on-line gaming figures into the plot prominently but as a non-gamer the less I comment on this aspect of the novel the better for all of us -gamer and non-gamer alike. What I will comment on is Huston's masterful way of describing gaming without embarrassing the total hell out of a non-gamer like me with over-the-top geekishness.
This is a fascinating and exciting thriller and unlike anything else I've read by Charlie Huston.
It is -like every other Huston crime thriller that I've read- excellent.
"Sleeplessness" as it is called leads to an inevitable and- after months of suffering- painful death.
This novel is set in Los Angeles and alternates between third and first person narratives.
The third person narrative details the personal and professional life of Parker Haas -an idealistic young LAPD cop who has gone deep-cover in a drug sting operation and whose wife is nearing the final stages "sleeplessness".
The first person narrative is told from the point of a view of a mysterious, aging mercenary eventually referred to simply as "Jasper".
The description of life as it is in this near-future America and Huston's in-depth exposition on the origins of the sleeplessness plague and his descriptions of the symptoms and physical and mental devastation that the disease wreaks on its victims are riveting.
The world of on-line gaming figures into the plot prominently but as a non-gamer the less I comment on this aspect of the novel the better for all of us -gamer and non-gamer alike. What I will comment on is Huston's masterful way of describing gaming without embarrassing the total hell out of a non-gamer like me with over-the-top geekishness.
This is a fascinating and exciting thriller and unlike anything else I've read by Charlie Huston.
It is -like every other Huston crime thriller that I've read- excellent.
May 20, 2012
I didn't finish.
One of my favorite contemporary authors, and I didn't finish.
I was almost 100 pages in when I realized I was tracking two characters. Or at least I thought I was. I still don't quite know what was what in this confusing narrative. I admire Huston's attempt at trying something different and new, but I felt like this book was so far removed from his normally rock-solid style that it lost it's way.
It's set in the future, not too far, but far enough to necessitate lots of new jargon and behavior for the human race as we know them. And I hate that - I have always hated that in sci-fi books, in fact that's why I don't like sci-fi in general. It may be my hangup alone, but even still I can't ever get behind silly names or hobbies or professions or people in a future that feels nothing like my own, and in a future that a narrator feels the need to mention these silly new things ALL THE TIME. Who tells a story that way? Just talk. Tell it like it is, don't tell me what everything is around you. Go - move - story.
It sounded like a hell of a setup too, what with undercover cop Parker Haass's wife and child being inflicted with the sleepless disease and his quest to cut off the illegal drug trade of Dreamer, the only drug that can grant the infected sleep. It sounded like a hell of a set up, but 100 pages in, I just didn't care enough to find out.
Sorry, Charlie. Love you, love your style, love your willingness to try something new - but I hated this book.
One of my favorite contemporary authors, and I didn't finish.
I was almost 100 pages in when I realized I was tracking two characters. Or at least I thought I was. I still don't quite know what was what in this confusing narrative. I admire Huston's attempt at trying something different and new, but I felt like this book was so far removed from his normally rock-solid style that it lost it's way.
It's set in the future, not too far, but far enough to necessitate lots of new jargon and behavior for the human race as we know them. And I hate that - I have always hated that in sci-fi books, in fact that's why I don't like sci-fi in general. It may be my hangup alone, but even still I can't ever get behind silly names or hobbies or professions or people in a future that feels nothing like my own, and in a future that a narrator feels the need to mention these silly new things ALL THE TIME. Who tells a story that way? Just talk. Tell it like it is, don't tell me what everything is around you. Go - move - story.
It sounded like a hell of a setup too, what with undercover cop Parker Haass's wife and child being inflicted with the sleepless disease and his quest to cut off the illegal drug trade of Dreamer, the only drug that can grant the infected sleep. It sounded like a hell of a set up, but 100 pages in, I just didn't care enough to find out.
Sorry, Charlie. Love you, love your style, love your willingness to try something new - but I hated this book.
February 16, 2011
Dystopian LA, where 10% of the world's population has caught a virus rendering them sleepless. Once you're infected it takes a miserable year to die, and the drugs that treat the symptoms are hard to get. Two main characters alternate chapters (although there isn't a clear indication that the narrative is switching, which was really confusing at the beginning) - one is a cop whose wife is infected, and whose baby might be; one is an assassin with no humanity, and both are involved in going after the people responsible for the disease in different ways.
This novel suffered from overdescription of weaponry at times, but it kept me interested. I'm still trying to figure out what happened at the end since it is hard to separate "reality" from the stories the reader is told.
I felt some similarities with other dystopian virus-ridden novels I've read recently, most notably Feed by Mira Grant and The Stand by Stephen King, but the way he set the story inside a destroyed southern California really added a more heightened sense of reality than I remember feeling with the other two.
This novel suffered from overdescription of weaponry at times, but it kept me interested. I'm still trying to figure out what happened at the end since it is hard to separate "reality" from the stories the reader is told.
I felt some similarities with other dystopian virus-ridden novels I've read recently, most notably Feed by Mira Grant and The Stand by Stephen King, but the way he set the story inside a destroyed southern California really added a more heightened sense of reality than I remember feeling with the other two.
May 27, 2013
Charlie Huston has flexed his Crime Noir muscles and punches them into this gritty dystopic tale of a world with an epidemic of sleeplessness. Before you assume that sounds a bit lame, be aware that there is a real disease called Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) that is always fatal and very painful. Fortunately it is also very rare affecting about 100 individuals world-wide coming from a genetic pool of 40 families, most in Italy. However. Huston invents a fictional version of this disease that is infectious and affects 10 percent of the world population. The author designs his dystopia nicely, giving us a good idea of the horror this would create. Yet Huston remains primarily a crime noir writer focusing on his intrepid, justice obsessed detective protagonist as he goes undercover to unearth a black market ring dealing in 'Dreamer", the only drug that brings temporary relief to the ill. It is not a spoiler to say he uncovers much more. I really like the way Huston sets up his narration in alternating chapters of third person narrative for the detective and first person narrative for a hitman who stumbles into the same mystery. This is a taut science fiction suspense thriller. It is not my favorite Huston novel but it is still head over heels better than anything else like it out there.
December 30, 2010
Sleepless is a mix of zombie movie,a future is now(actually an alternate present), a hard boiled thriller, and strangely a meditation on a family. This is written in a more convoluted style than Mr. Huston usually stripped down style for a couple reasons I suspect, mainly his use of invented author as the teller of this story and I suspect a mild overload on research. He is using punctuation marks on his dialogue so any of those lunatics who find this stylistic trait so annoying as to write off author’s entire oeuvres can rest assured that their delicate sensibilities will be left unruffled. There is some intriguing stuff in this book and it will be seen whether this will be the first step in an evolution of an author or a one off, but if it is the former it needs some tweaking as this was an interesting but a little cold as a book. Some of the fight scenes made think I was trapped in the video games that everyone in the book are playing. The central disease is beautiful and terrifying and the world is an unsettling portrait of our own, a brilliant slice of the future is now in the style of Gibson, Brunner, and Warren Ellis.
November 4, 2010
PROTAGONIST: Parker Hass, LAPD
SETTING: Post-apocolyptic LA, 2010
RATING: 3.0
Charlie Huston has done it again. With the release of his latest book, he shows once again that there is no formula that he is going to follow. SLEEPLESS is a work of speculative fiction set in post-apocalyptic Los Angles. It’s like nothing I’ve ever read before.
It’s mid-2010, and the world is in a chaotic state. Los Angeles is living under martial law, and violence rules. Societal mores have broken down, and the citizenry exist in a world where all of the boundaries have fallen. Traffic jams are so bad that they can take hours to resolve; people abandon their cars rather than dealing with the mess. But worst of all is a curse that has been visited upon them—a plague of sleeplessness has taken hold. Although that may sound benign, it is anything but. Months of sleeplessness can lead to insanity and ultimately death. The only possible cure is a hard-to-find drug called Dreamer, which is supposed to be dispensed fairly and not merely to those who can afford to pay its steep price.
Although policeman Parker Hass does not suffer from sleeplessness, his beloved wife Rose does. There is nothing that he can do for her; he can only watch helplessly from the sidelines and be there when she is lucid. He is worried because their infant daughter is exhibiting signs of becoming sleepless as well. But then Hass becomes involved in a big way with dealing with the plague. Working undercover as a drug dealer, he is assigned to track down the illegal trading of Dreamer. The drug has the highest profit margin in history, and warfare could ensue if its distribution is not tightly controlled. The truth behind the black market appearance of the drug is beyond anything that he could have imagined; he finds himself dealing with a warped genius who runs the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the drug.
The main problem that I had with SLEEPLESS is that Hass dedicates himself almost entirely to the effort to thwart the illegal distribution of Dreamer. Certainly, that is an important and noble goal; but he does so while neglecting his own wife and child. It is dangerous for his daughter to be cared for by his wife, who tends to focus manically on things like video games and be completely unaware that her child needs attention. Although they have a caretaker to help, she isn’t always there; several times, Parker has come home and found his child in real danger. He’s like the white knight who rides off on to the crusade while forgetting to leave behind any means of support for his family.
Although the plot was cleverly conceived, I found myself struggling to read the book. It moved very slowly for me. Part of that was due to some very long pieces of dialogue as the resolution played out, and the book was quite slow to get started. And part of the problem was my own inability to figure out exactly what was happening; I didn’t even realize it was being narrated from two points of view for quite some time.
Charlie Huston is one of the most innovative authors writing today. Although he’s only been published since 2004, his output is nothing short of amazing. He’s responsible for the acclaimed noir trilogy featuring Hank Thompson, 5 books in the Joe Pitt vampire PI series, 2 standalones and SLEEPLESS. Even though I haven’t loved every single one of these books, I always find Huston taking chances and I enjoy the reading journey. And despite the fact that SLEEPLESS wasn’t a great read for me, I will still happily read anything that he writes in the future. Huston is a talent that one cannot afford to miss.
SETTING: Post-apocolyptic LA, 2010
RATING: 3.0
Charlie Huston has done it again. With the release of his latest book, he shows once again that there is no formula that he is going to follow. SLEEPLESS is a work of speculative fiction set in post-apocalyptic Los Angles. It’s like nothing I’ve ever read before.
It’s mid-2010, and the world is in a chaotic state. Los Angeles is living under martial law, and violence rules. Societal mores have broken down, and the citizenry exist in a world where all of the boundaries have fallen. Traffic jams are so bad that they can take hours to resolve; people abandon their cars rather than dealing with the mess. But worst of all is a curse that has been visited upon them—a plague of sleeplessness has taken hold. Although that may sound benign, it is anything but. Months of sleeplessness can lead to insanity and ultimately death. The only possible cure is a hard-to-find drug called Dreamer, which is supposed to be dispensed fairly and not merely to those who can afford to pay its steep price.
Although policeman Parker Hass does not suffer from sleeplessness, his beloved wife Rose does. There is nothing that he can do for her; he can only watch helplessly from the sidelines and be there when she is lucid. He is worried because their infant daughter is exhibiting signs of becoming sleepless as well. But then Hass becomes involved in a big way with dealing with the plague. Working undercover as a drug dealer, he is assigned to track down the illegal trading of Dreamer. The drug has the highest profit margin in history, and warfare could ensue if its distribution is not tightly controlled. The truth behind the black market appearance of the drug is beyond anything that he could have imagined; he finds himself dealing with a warped genius who runs the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the drug.
The main problem that I had with SLEEPLESS is that Hass dedicates himself almost entirely to the effort to thwart the illegal distribution of Dreamer. Certainly, that is an important and noble goal; but he does so while neglecting his own wife and child. It is dangerous for his daughter to be cared for by his wife, who tends to focus manically on things like video games and be completely unaware that her child needs attention. Although they have a caretaker to help, she isn’t always there; several times, Parker has come home and found his child in real danger. He’s like the white knight who rides off on to the crusade while forgetting to leave behind any means of support for his family.
Although the plot was cleverly conceived, I found myself struggling to read the book. It moved very slowly for me. Part of that was due to some very long pieces of dialogue as the resolution played out, and the book was quite slow to get started. And part of the problem was my own inability to figure out exactly what was happening; I didn’t even realize it was being narrated from two points of view for quite some time.
Charlie Huston is one of the most innovative authors writing today. Although he’s only been published since 2004, his output is nothing short of amazing. He’s responsible for the acclaimed noir trilogy featuring Hank Thompson, 5 books in the Joe Pitt vampire PI series, 2 standalones and SLEEPLESS. Even though I haven’t loved every single one of these books, I always find Huston taking chances and I enjoy the reading journey. And despite the fact that SLEEPLESS wasn’t a great read for me, I will still happily read anything that he writes in the future. Huston is a talent that one cannot afford to miss.
October 3, 2010
A book that takes a different look at the zombie archetype and instead looks at it through a disease that causes sleeplessness. I found the premise to be too intriguing to pass up, even though I feel Huston is not a good writer, save for The Shotgun Rule. However, what came to pass was a book that bored me to tears by the last 100 pages and I wished death on myself a few times while trying to finish it. It was a long journey through the desert, the reading of this, only at the end there is no oasis to pay off but instead you di out there from the exhaustion of the journey.
There are some redeeming qualities within the book, certain passages are aggressively emotional and the characterization of Park's wife, who is affected by the disease, is brilliant. The idea behind the book, the many different pathways of illicit drug use, manufacturing a drug to treat the disease, the blackmarket activities, the philosophical conundrum's that arise, the human bombs... all worth reading about. However, the bulk of it is written in such a flat tone that it is hard to care about anything that is going on page to page. The insertion of a first-person account of a mercenary was completely overdone, leaving us no mystery in their character as should be with such "bad-ass" characters, but instead comes of as bragging and grandiose.
It is also disconcerting to come across a book that switches points of view so often, from third person to first, then wikipedia references and the like cluttering the narrative so that it looks like an episode of hoarders, so cluttered that clarity was beyond it's grasp.
There are some redeeming qualities within the book, certain passages are aggressively emotional and the characterization of Park's wife, who is affected by the disease, is brilliant. The idea behind the book, the many different pathways of illicit drug use, manufacturing a drug to treat the disease, the blackmarket activities, the philosophical conundrum's that arise, the human bombs... all worth reading about. However, the bulk of it is written in such a flat tone that it is hard to care about anything that is going on page to page. The insertion of a first-person account of a mercenary was completely overdone, leaving us no mystery in their character as should be with such "bad-ass" characters, but instead comes of as bragging and grandiose.
It is also disconcerting to come across a book that switches points of view so often, from third person to first, then wikipedia references and the like cluttering the narrative so that it looks like an episode of hoarders, so cluttered that clarity was beyond it's grasp.
May 30, 2011
I started reading this the day before my son was born, so I pretty much experienced the story the same way as most of the characters: tired as hell and not really comprehending what was going on. Seriously, there were nights I forced myself to stay up and read, and I was so exhausted that my right eye wasn't even really focusing. Which is a kinda-perfect metaphor for the half-focused story.
Initially, Huston seems to have written Sleepless only to comment on how the prevalence of online gaming and social media have turned us into a bunch of socially-stunted zombies. Being close friends with a shitload of annoying retard War of Warcraft players, I can totally get behind this metaphor. If only he would have followed through!
Unfortunately, the WOW-is-ruining-the-world idea is dropped abruptly when Huston decides to start tying up his 'plot' and 'character arcs'. BAH. I just want more passive-aggressive bitching about pasty nerds playing video games while wearing headsets. Especially because once the Big Reveal happens, it isn't exactly the surprise it was probably supposed to be. CORPORATIONS ARE EVIL, Y'ALL! HERE THERE BE COVER-UPS AND SHIT!
I liked Sleepless, but I was pretty unaffected by it, especially compared to Huston's other stuff. This time out, he leads with the MESSAGE and loses all the fun. His other stuff is weightless entertainment, but it's still entertainment. This one just felt like work.
.
Initially, Huston seems to have written Sleepless only to comment on how the prevalence of online gaming and social media have turned us into a bunch of socially-stunted zombies. Being close friends with a shitload of annoying retard War of Warcraft players, I can totally get behind this metaphor. If only he would have followed through!
Unfortunately, the WOW-is-ruining-the-world idea is dropped abruptly when Huston decides to start tying up his 'plot' and 'character arcs'. BAH. I just want more passive-aggressive bitching about pasty nerds playing video games while wearing headsets. Especially because once the Big Reveal happens, it isn't exactly the surprise it was probably supposed to be. CORPORATIONS ARE EVIL, Y'ALL! HERE THERE BE COVER-UPS AND SHIT!
I liked Sleepless, but I was pretty unaffected by it, especially compared to Huston's other stuff. This time out, he leads with the MESSAGE and loses all the fun. His other stuff is weightless entertainment, but it's still entertainment. This one just felt like work.
.
January 4, 2010
Society is crumbling before everyone's eyes and even the government is losing its grip. It's July 2010 and the world is dying from a plague of sleeplessness.
Huston creates an intricate vision of a not-so-impossible future with characters, as real as you or I, attempting to preserve the world they once knew. But if it weren't for sheer determination I would have put the book down before I discovered this fact. The story, which is a combination of journal entries by L.A. Detective Parker Haus and the account of Jasper, an aging assassin, has a unique rhythm. I found it difficult to follow for about the first hundred pages and then, thankfully, it seemed to even out.
Sleepless is a dark story with a bit of the same gritty atmosphere of the Joe Pitt novels, but this story also has a heaviness to every word. I found as I read further and further that I could feel the sleeplessness of the characters even in the structure of Huston's sentences. Their struggles weighed heavily upon me and I found myself inevitably drawn into their world.
Any book capable of this deserves 5 stars! Sleepless is a perfect blend of science fiction, suspense and crime that will have you reeling in the final pages.
My thanks and gratitude go out to Goodreads, from whom I won this book.
Huston creates an intricate vision of a not-so-impossible future with characters, as real as you or I, attempting to preserve the world they once knew. But if it weren't for sheer determination I would have put the book down before I discovered this fact. The story, which is a combination of journal entries by L.A. Detective Parker Haus and the account of Jasper, an aging assassin, has a unique rhythm. I found it difficult to follow for about the first hundred pages and then, thankfully, it seemed to even out.
Sleepless is a dark story with a bit of the same gritty atmosphere of the Joe Pitt novels, but this story also has a heaviness to every word. I found as I read further and further that I could feel the sleeplessness of the characters even in the structure of Huston's sentences. Their struggles weighed heavily upon me and I found myself inevitably drawn into their world.
Any book capable of this deserves 5 stars! Sleepless is a perfect blend of science fiction, suspense and crime that will have you reeling in the final pages.
My thanks and gratitude go out to Goodreads, from whom I won this book.
September 21, 2010
The addiction to Chasm Tide, the World of Warcraft-style game that flows through “Sleepless,” the arresting novel by Charlie Huston, scared me silly. Lately, I’ve been more amenable to genre fiction, due in part to my habit of listening to books while a run (exciting is good, lead to new levels in Nike+), due in part to reviews from sources I trust.
My rewards have been rich and creepy. First Paolo Bacigalupi’s steampunk epic “The Windup Girl” and now “Sleepless.”
The value of virtual goods and characters in the game of Chasm Tide are the main plot driver in Huston’s post apocalyptic world of three weeks ago (the story is set in July of 2010). The world is beset by a deadly plague of sleeplessness, and as it comes unhinged, the last good cop tries to unearth the truth about the only available drug to treat the disease.
The book has its superhuman antagonist, able to kill with a paperclip, but it’s summer after all, and the evocation of a collapsing Los Angeles is chilling while still managing to be witty. A fantastic read, in every sense (and I did read it, virtually anyway, on my Kindle).
Which all left me wondering, how will virtual and real merchandise balance in our kids world? Will the things most valuable to them be impalpable? And isn’t that what we’ve been saying all along?
My rewards have been rich and creepy. First Paolo Bacigalupi’s steampunk epic “The Windup Girl” and now “Sleepless.”
The value of virtual goods and characters in the game of Chasm Tide are the main plot driver in Huston’s post apocalyptic world of three weeks ago (the story is set in July of 2010). The world is beset by a deadly plague of sleeplessness, and as it comes unhinged, the last good cop tries to unearth the truth about the only available drug to treat the disease.
The book has its superhuman antagonist, able to kill with a paperclip, but it’s summer after all, and the evocation of a collapsing Los Angeles is chilling while still managing to be witty. A fantastic read, in every sense (and I did read it, virtually anyway, on my Kindle).
Which all left me wondering, how will virtual and real merchandise balance in our kids world? Will the things most valuable to them be impalpable? And isn’t that what we’ve been saying all along?
December 13, 2022
The premise of this confusingly narrated novel is revealed on page 36:
about a year ago, 10% of the population began experiencing a weird
disease that prevents them from sleeping, and within a year, leads to
death. It's now a widespread epidemic. Narcotics cop Park is part of
an undercover investigation to find a black market drug called Dr33m3r
that is a cure for the disease; heightening the stakes his wife and
newborn daughter both have the disease. The story is told from an
omniscient POV, Park's first person diary entries (unlabelled) and an
unknown third character.
It's so hard to get a grip on this story, because the reader is
immediately catapulted into gritty gripping action scenes, but they
don't appear to be connected right away, and it's unclear who is
speaking, with poor transitions and little characterization. I set this aside after 4 chapters.
about a year ago, 10% of the population began experiencing a weird
disease that prevents them from sleeping, and within a year, leads to
death. It's now a widespread epidemic. Narcotics cop Park is part of
an undercover investigation to find a black market drug called Dr33m3r
that is a cure for the disease; heightening the stakes his wife and
newborn daughter both have the disease. The story is told from an
omniscient POV, Park's first person diary entries (unlabelled) and an
unknown third character.
It's so hard to get a grip on this story, because the reader is
immediately catapulted into gritty gripping action scenes, but they
don't appear to be connected right away, and it's unclear who is
speaking, with poor transitions and little characterization. I set this aside after 4 chapters.
August 7, 2011
3.5 stars. This is a bleak dystopian novel, an alternate history set in Los Angeles in the year 2010 when society is beginning to collapse due to a variety of factors, not the least of which is the spread of an illness that causes people to be unable to sleep. It's similar to the condition Fatal Familial Insomnia.
I like Huston's writing very much. The prose style in this book is a slight departure for him, since he opted to use quotation marks around dialogue (but still no modifiers). The dialogue itself also takes less of a starring role than usual. I found the changing POV confusing for the first few chapters, but I eventually caught on.
I liked the story of Parker, the cop who is driven to do his job correctly while his world falls apart, but I was less convinced by the compulsive aging hatchet man. The gamer elements left me cold, but might very well fascinate other readers.
I like Huston's writing very much. The prose style in this book is a slight departure for him, since he opted to use quotation marks around dialogue (but still no modifiers). The dialogue itself also takes less of a starring role than usual. I found the changing POV confusing for the first few chapters, but I eventually caught on.
I liked the story of Parker, the cop who is driven to do his job correctly while his world falls apart, but I was less convinced by the compulsive aging hatchet man. The gamer elements left me cold, but might very well fascinate other readers.
August 22, 2012
I don’t even know how to explain how I feel about this book. It is absolutely the worst book I’ve read in 2012.
After reading the first chapter I was hooked but then it got so confusing that I had no idea what was happening. First of all it’s confusing if you change a first person narration to a third-person narration but I can deal with that. It gets more confusing if you find out that the first person narration does not fit together (meaning that all of a sudden the character is somewhere else, acts differently and is all of a sudden much older). After reading 130 pages we finally have a little “aha-moment” when it gets explained that we not only read the POV of Parker but also the story of another man named Jasper.
I’m so disappointed with this story. I initially wanted to read Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt Series but now I’m not so sure anymore.
After reading the first chapter I was hooked but then it got so confusing that I had no idea what was happening. First of all it’s confusing if you change a first person narration to a third-person narration but I can deal with that. It gets more confusing if you find out that the first person narration does not fit together (meaning that all of a sudden the character is somewhere else, acts differently and is all of a sudden much older). After reading 130 pages we finally have a little “aha-moment” when it gets explained that we not only read the POV of Parker but also the story of another man named Jasper.
I’m so disappointed with this story. I initially wanted to read Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt Series but now I’m not so sure anymore.
November 25, 2021
Charlie Huston is one of our best noir stylists as shown across his two series in the early-aughts. This one was released in 2010 and is a Dickian sci-fi noir in a L.A. that is burning literally and figuratively as martial law has taken over in the wake of the SLP pandemic, which results in the infected becoming sleepless and eventually becoming undone by their lack of sleep.
It's a book that has interesting ideas at it's heart, but suffers from a further decade of technological advancement making it seem aged. The writing isn't quite as sharp and pared back as other books by Huston and the plot seems to need a bit of tightening.
This one goes to show that sometimes sci-fi can be greatly prescient and in a way this is, but the way it gets there seems old hat.
It's a book that has interesting ideas at it's heart, but suffers from a further decade of technological advancement making it seem aged. The writing isn't quite as sharp and pared back as other books by Huston and the plot seems to need a bit of tightening.
This one goes to show that sometimes sci-fi can be greatly prescient and in a way this is, but the way it gets there seems old hat.
May 27, 2011
Since having discovered Charlie Huston some time ago he has quickly rocketed up into my circle of favorite authors. Blackstone Audio’s production of Huston’s Joe Pitt series read with style and panache by Scott Brick are some of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to and The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death was a unique, gritty, sometimes hilarious, and constantly entertaining crime novel. While I certainly did not have as much fun with Sleepless as I did with Huston’s other work it is definitely his most thought provoking work.
An insomnia inducing disease is sweeping across the nation; SLP a disease that erodes the mind driving victims insane and eventually to death. Society has not coped well with the disease and the Los Angeles that is the main setting for the novel is one quickly crumbling into chaos and disarray. Officer Parker Haas is working undercover in the drug trade, rampant now that the titular sleepless seek an escape from their suffering, trying to track down illegal trafficking of the consumer drug DR33M3R; the only known effect method for sleepless to actually sleep. Thrown into the mix is the aging mercenary/assassin Jasper who is hired to retrieve an item in Haas’ possession by any means necessary.
Haas is an interesting character. He is a paladin, but a paladin in a society that sees his ideals of justice and law as increasingly laughable verging on outright impossible. Indeed there are multiple times where Jasper, when first running across Haas’ path, automatically assumes that even if Haas is a cop he is a cop on the take. As society crumbles around him Haas holds onto the notion that there is a solid future out there for his daughter his idealized vision of society both armoring his mind and dulling his senses to what is really going on. Haas’ ideals and belief in law and society is contrasted by the civilized, if somewhat cold and violent, Jasper. It is fairly clear through Haas’ internal monologue that his strongly established moral compass serves as counterpoint to a potentially violent nature. Jasper’s amoral view of the world and complete acceptance of his violent nature mask a growing desire for something more. Both characters are well-developed and while the lion’s share of the narrative falls on Haas’ shoulders both Haas and Jasper frequently play foil for one another.
Sleepless bears a lot of resemblance to zombie novels it would be far too easy to write the novel off at first glance on that basis alone. The more one reads Sleepless the more that early impression fades. In truth the sleepless play less of role in the story then you might think. The sleepless are in many ways like a rather large rocked dropped in a rather small pond; they don’t serve any direct threat but the ripples they have on the social landscape of the world and the emotional landscape of the characters are impossible to ignore. In fact it is this trans-formative element of SLP that drives the conflicts of the novel.
It should be noted that in audio form Sleepless is a bit difficult to grasp at first. The novel employs diary entries to start many chapters and the narrative is split between both Haas and Jasper. As a result it took me a solid couple of hours to realize what has going on. The audio version is aptly handled by Ray Porter and Mark Bramhall though I think the complexity of the narrative is likely better served in print. Regardless, the audio production is top notch and if you’re willing to sit down and really pay attention to what is going then it is certainly worth a shot.
While Sleepless is a meaty novel the black humor that marked much of Huston’s earlier work did not feel as prevalent here. There are certainly some flashes of humor, particularly through Jasper, the does not often crack a smile and when it does it is often a very sad smile. This certainly adds to the emotional impact of the novel and the oppressive atmosphere of both the world and the mental concerns of our protagonist lends an element of tension to the narrative. However, that same oppressive quality occasionally grows cumbersome, not overbearing, but enough to cause a distinct and palpable wish for relief. As a result, Sleepless is not quite a casual read. It’s prose is as approachable and clever as any of Huston’s earlier work but Huston’s precise control of tone here works against ever letting the reader feel comfortable. This isn’t a bad thing, and Huston’s ability to maintain a taught emotional state over Sleepless’ 360 plus pages is something I think readers ought to be aware of before going in. I honestly can’t wait to see what else Huston has in store for readers. His body of work shows an impressive breadth of ability that will keep readers guessing and I for one can’t wait to see what avenue Huston chooses to explore next.
An insomnia inducing disease is sweeping across the nation; SLP a disease that erodes the mind driving victims insane and eventually to death. Society has not coped well with the disease and the Los Angeles that is the main setting for the novel is one quickly crumbling into chaos and disarray. Officer Parker Haas is working undercover in the drug trade, rampant now that the titular sleepless seek an escape from their suffering, trying to track down illegal trafficking of the consumer drug DR33M3R; the only known effect method for sleepless to actually sleep. Thrown into the mix is the aging mercenary/assassin Jasper who is hired to retrieve an item in Haas’ possession by any means necessary.
Haas is an interesting character. He is a paladin, but a paladin in a society that sees his ideals of justice and law as increasingly laughable verging on outright impossible. Indeed there are multiple times where Jasper, when first running across Haas’ path, automatically assumes that even if Haas is a cop he is a cop on the take. As society crumbles around him Haas holds onto the notion that there is a solid future out there for his daughter his idealized vision of society both armoring his mind and dulling his senses to what is really going on. Haas’ ideals and belief in law and society is contrasted by the civilized, if somewhat cold and violent, Jasper. It is fairly clear through Haas’ internal monologue that his strongly established moral compass serves as counterpoint to a potentially violent nature. Jasper’s amoral view of the world and complete acceptance of his violent nature mask a growing desire for something more. Both characters are well-developed and while the lion’s share of the narrative falls on Haas’ shoulders both Haas and Jasper frequently play foil for one another.
Sleepless bears a lot of resemblance to zombie novels it would be far too easy to write the novel off at first glance on that basis alone. The more one reads Sleepless the more that early impression fades. In truth the sleepless play less of role in the story then you might think. The sleepless are in many ways like a rather large rocked dropped in a rather small pond; they don’t serve any direct threat but the ripples they have on the social landscape of the world and the emotional landscape of the characters are impossible to ignore. In fact it is this trans-formative element of SLP that drives the conflicts of the novel.
It should be noted that in audio form Sleepless is a bit difficult to grasp at first. The novel employs diary entries to start many chapters and the narrative is split between both Haas and Jasper. As a result it took me a solid couple of hours to realize what has going on. The audio version is aptly handled by Ray Porter and Mark Bramhall though I think the complexity of the narrative is likely better served in print. Regardless, the audio production is top notch and if you’re willing to sit down and really pay attention to what is going then it is certainly worth a shot.
While Sleepless is a meaty novel the black humor that marked much of Huston’s earlier work did not feel as prevalent here. There are certainly some flashes of humor, particularly through Jasper, the does not often crack a smile and when it does it is often a very sad smile. This certainly adds to the emotional impact of the novel and the oppressive atmosphere of both the world and the mental concerns of our protagonist lends an element of tension to the narrative. However, that same oppressive quality occasionally grows cumbersome, not overbearing, but enough to cause a distinct and palpable wish for relief. As a result, Sleepless is not quite a casual read. It’s prose is as approachable and clever as any of Huston’s earlier work but Huston’s precise control of tone here works against ever letting the reader feel comfortable. This isn’t a bad thing, and Huston’s ability to maintain a taught emotional state over Sleepless’ 360 plus pages is something I think readers ought to be aware of before going in. I honestly can’t wait to see what else Huston has in store for readers. His body of work shows an impressive breadth of ability that will keep readers guessing and I for one can’t wait to see what avenue Huston chooses to explore next.
May 5, 2010
Won this from Goodreads First Reads. I've been wanting to get into some detective/noir books for awhile. After some research I narrowed my choices down to Jim Thompson, Dashiell Hammett, and Charlie Huston. I was pleasantly surprised to win this as it comes at a perfect time. This will be my first foray into the genre and I've heard great things about Huston's skill as a novelist. Full review forthcoming.
Edit 11/25: I was notified on Oct 30 that I had won this from Goodreads, however it still hasn't arrived yet, Im beginning to wonder if it ever will.
Second Edit 11/30: Got it in the mail today. As soon as I finish Hopscotch I will dig in to Sleepless and see what it has to offer. Encouragingly, Ive heard that this book shows a lot of growth in Hustons skill. Full review coming.
Final Edit 05/04: Finally finished Sleepless. Thanks again to Goodreads for selecting me as a Firstreads winner. This was the first book by Huston Ive read, and I came away impressed. It wasnt quite what I had expected. I suppose Huston's reputation led me to believe it would be a pretty straightforward detective story, albeit a little darker than your typical noir fare. It turned out to be a fairly complex pre-apocalyptic tale, a sort of alternate history of what 2010 would be if the fictional disorder SLP were real. The main theme of Sleepless dealt with a disease that caused those who contracted it to lose the ability to sleep. I wont go into the details because I hate reviews that give away too much plot of a book, but needless to say it caused the social fabric to quickly dissolve. The story revolved around two main characters. Park, an LAPD officer who was an undercover agent, trying to uncover the illegal distribution of the only drug that could give the sleepless sleep, which was called DR33M3R, and a very efficient and ruthless mercenary of sorts named Jasper. The story was told with alternating takes from both their viewpoints which advanced the storyline from two interesting and opposite perspectives. A prominent thread of the story dealt with an online RPG called Chasm Tyde, which at first made me cringe, as Im not a gamer and really had no interest in that subject, but Huston clearly had his reasons for using a huge online RPG as one of the main lynchpins of the story. Again, Im reluctant to get into too much detail because most of the Goodreads reviews I read are for books that I havent read yet, and it pisses me off when people reveal too much of the plot in their review. You can imagine how much money a drug would command that was the only cure for a population of sleepless zombies, not to mention power for the pharmaceutical company that produced it. They sat in line with the BIG money guys from oil, tech, finance, and politics. With that type of money and power, along with "loose" morals, you can imagine the difficulties that Detective Park comes into contact with while trying to find out who is illegally distributing DR33M3R. Huston paints a horribly vivid picture of a future world that has collapsed because of lack of food, crumbling financial markets, unchecked violence, corrupt policemen, and private security companies (a la blackwater) who have free reign to execute their objectives, all underscored with a huge percent of the population that cant sleep at all. In one sense the story is a straight detective parable, but Huston is at the top of his game as he elevates the story into something more, with interspersed philosophical musings on our current society and way of life, and the horrible danger we are facing if things continue to travel on the track they are currently following. I would recommend this book for people who enjoy: Noir, detective novels, post-apocolyptic themes (Think McCarthy or Atwood) and well written but not too difficult fiction.
Edit 11/25: I was notified on Oct 30 that I had won this from Goodreads, however it still hasn't arrived yet, Im beginning to wonder if it ever will.
Second Edit 11/30: Got it in the mail today. As soon as I finish Hopscotch I will dig in to Sleepless and see what it has to offer. Encouragingly, Ive heard that this book shows a lot of growth in Hustons skill. Full review coming.
Final Edit 05/04: Finally finished Sleepless. Thanks again to Goodreads for selecting me as a Firstreads winner. This was the first book by Huston Ive read, and I came away impressed. It wasnt quite what I had expected. I suppose Huston's reputation led me to believe it would be a pretty straightforward detective story, albeit a little darker than your typical noir fare. It turned out to be a fairly complex pre-apocalyptic tale, a sort of alternate history of what 2010 would be if the fictional disorder SLP were real. The main theme of Sleepless dealt with a disease that caused those who contracted it to lose the ability to sleep. I wont go into the details because I hate reviews that give away too much plot of a book, but needless to say it caused the social fabric to quickly dissolve. The story revolved around two main characters. Park, an LAPD officer who was an undercover agent, trying to uncover the illegal distribution of the only drug that could give the sleepless sleep, which was called DR33M3R, and a very efficient and ruthless mercenary of sorts named Jasper. The story was told with alternating takes from both their viewpoints which advanced the storyline from two interesting and opposite perspectives. A prominent thread of the story dealt with an online RPG called Chasm Tyde, which at first made me cringe, as Im not a gamer and really had no interest in that subject, but Huston clearly had his reasons for using a huge online RPG as one of the main lynchpins of the story. Again, Im reluctant to get into too much detail because most of the Goodreads reviews I read are for books that I havent read yet, and it pisses me off when people reveal too much of the plot in their review. You can imagine how much money a drug would command that was the only cure for a population of sleepless zombies, not to mention power for the pharmaceutical company that produced it. They sat in line with the BIG money guys from oil, tech, finance, and politics. With that type of money and power, along with "loose" morals, you can imagine the difficulties that Detective Park comes into contact with while trying to find out who is illegally distributing DR33M3R. Huston paints a horribly vivid picture of a future world that has collapsed because of lack of food, crumbling financial markets, unchecked violence, corrupt policemen, and private security companies (a la blackwater) who have free reign to execute their objectives, all underscored with a huge percent of the population that cant sleep at all. In one sense the story is a straight detective parable, but Huston is at the top of his game as he elevates the story into something more, with interspersed philosophical musings on our current society and way of life, and the horrible danger we are facing if things continue to travel on the track they are currently following. I would recommend this book for people who enjoy: Noir, detective novels, post-apocolyptic themes (Think McCarthy or Atwood) and well written but not too difficult fiction.
December 29, 2009
I would give this book 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed it but I believe that the subject matter will have a limited audience for two reasons. First, some readers may not be interested in the end of days theme. Second, and more importantly, there is an sub-theme that includes the MMO gaming world that I'm not sure to which many readers would relate. I used to play WOW for about 2 1/2 years, before I had the baby, and I really appreciated how Huston connected the virtual with the non-virtual world in this book. However, if the reader has no knowledge of these types of games, then I'm not sure that she would appreciate the nuances of what that world really means to gamers and how they tie into to the plot of the book.
What I liked most about this book was how thoughful Huston was in regard his understanding of people and what motivates them. I thought that Huston's observations about the human psyche really separated him from other author's in this space. I found that his use of this approach throughout the book really took it up a notch in regard to adding credibility to the overall story. It helped me as a reader to really identify with different aspects of each of the characters.
The story itself is very depressing, but again, well thought out on the part of Huston. He creates a complicated maze of events based upon current circumstances that could actually play out in the world. Again, Huston gives the story much credibility by taking current world happenings and taking them in directions that the reader can buy into as ways in which the world could come to an end based upon certain economic, enviromental and medical factors. Although the title of the book indicates a society where a certain segment of the populace are unable to sleep, the real story is why and how they ended up in that state in the first place. I really appreciated Huston's coming up with the context of how the issue developed, unlike Blindness, where Jose Saragamo fails to ever explain to the reader why 99% of the world went blind at a given moment. This approach forces the reader to suspend disbelief while reading the story, whereas Huston provides the reasons for how the world got to be in the shape that it's in in the story, which took the story to another level. Readers are also able to compare the ending of Sleepless to The Road to see where Huston ends up on his view as to what might happen next, which I found to be very interesting.
Huston's writing is sound and captures the tone of what the sleepless world would be like. Moreover, his ability to play out an action sequence is very good. Every move is played out as it should be and I could vividly see these scenes unfold in my mind as I read them. I also appreciated that the violence wasn't obscene or over the top as in similarly-themed novels. I don't think that authors need to shock the reader to give the impression that times are tough in the world where the story takes place.
I've never read Huston before, but I'm glad that I was given this book as a first read so that I could give him a try. I will definitely try some of Huston's other books, especially those from his earlier series to see how far he has come as an author.
What I liked most about this book was how thoughful Huston was in regard his understanding of people and what motivates them. I thought that Huston's observations about the human psyche really separated him from other author's in this space. I found that his use of this approach throughout the book really took it up a notch in regard to adding credibility to the overall story. It helped me as a reader to really identify with different aspects of each of the characters.
The story itself is very depressing, but again, well thought out on the part of Huston. He creates a complicated maze of events based upon current circumstances that could actually play out in the world. Again, Huston gives the story much credibility by taking current world happenings and taking them in directions that the reader can buy into as ways in which the world could come to an end based upon certain economic, enviromental and medical factors. Although the title of the book indicates a society where a certain segment of the populace are unable to sleep, the real story is why and how they ended up in that state in the first place. I really appreciated Huston's coming up with the context of how the issue developed, unlike Blindness, where Jose Saragamo fails to ever explain to the reader why 99% of the world went blind at a given moment. This approach forces the reader to suspend disbelief while reading the story, whereas Huston provides the reasons for how the world got to be in the shape that it's in in the story, which took the story to another level. Readers are also able to compare the ending of Sleepless to The Road to see where Huston ends up on his view as to what might happen next, which I found to be very interesting.
Huston's writing is sound and captures the tone of what the sleepless world would be like. Moreover, his ability to play out an action sequence is very good. Every move is played out as it should be and I could vividly see these scenes unfold in my mind as I read them. I also appreciated that the violence wasn't obscene or over the top as in similarly-themed novels. I don't think that authors need to shock the reader to give the impression that times are tough in the world where the story takes place.
I've never read Huston before, but I'm glad that I was given this book as a first read so that I could give him a try. I will definitely try some of Huston's other books, especially those from his earlier series to see how far he has come as an author.
April 8, 2010
I think there's every possibility that I've been spoiled by my previous experience with Charlie Huston's books. Prior to picking up Sleepless I'd read all the Joe Pitt Casebooks, the absolutely excellent The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death and the first Hank Thompson book, Caught Stealing. Actually, to be absolutely clear I should say that with the exception of two of the Joe Pitt books, I listened to all of them as audio books because Charlie Huston is a master of dialogue and that talent really shines when his work is read by a good narrator. However, in any format Huston demonstrates a remarkable ability to create original, consistent characters that exist in original, consistent worlds that draw the reader in as only a very talented writer can - at the instance of lifting your head from a Huston novel, the reality you've been reading about and the reality surrounding you blur together slightly.
In Sleepless Huston has created a world just a half step away from our own. The action takes place in July 2010 (3 months from the time I'm writing this review), but the world has already spent the last two years in the grip of a pandemic. SLP is a prion - an infectious agent that is composed primarily of misfolded protein. In the case of SLP, the misfolded protein enters the human brain where it convinces other proteins to malform in a similar manner, thereby rendering the person incapable of sleeping. Based loosely on the real-life fatal familial insomnia, in addition to insomnia SLP causes the victim to suffer hallucinations or "waking dreams", memory lapses, and eventually death. The widespread nature of SLP has reduced the United States to a series of small armed camps jostling for position under nationally declared martial law. The post-pandemic world Huston has created is almost scarily realistic and the fact that some aspects of so-called "normal" life continue in the midst of chaos only makes it more so.
I have never known Huston to create a less-than-original character, and he doesn't do so here, however the main characters in Sleepless simply didn't have the resonance for me that most of his other characters have had. I think it is a matter of personal taste and it was not a big enough quibble to stop me from rating the book an overall four stars.
In Sleepless Huston has created a world just a half step away from our own. The action takes place in July 2010 (3 months from the time I'm writing this review), but the world has already spent the last two years in the grip of a pandemic. SLP is a prion - an infectious agent that is composed primarily of misfolded protein. In the case of SLP, the misfolded protein enters the human brain where it convinces other proteins to malform in a similar manner, thereby rendering the person incapable of sleeping. Based loosely on the real-life fatal familial insomnia, in addition to insomnia SLP causes the victim to suffer hallucinations or "waking dreams", memory lapses, and eventually death. The widespread nature of SLP has reduced the United States to a series of small armed camps jostling for position under nationally declared martial law. The post-pandemic world Huston has created is almost scarily realistic and the fact that some aspects of so-called "normal" life continue in the midst of chaos only makes it more so.
I have never known Huston to create a less-than-original character, and he doesn't do so here, however the main characters in Sleepless simply didn't have the resonance for me that most of his other characters have had. I think it is a matter of personal taste and it was not a big enough quibble to stop me from rating the book an overall four stars.
December 15, 2014
Imagine if the recent Great Panic financial crisis of 2008 was accompanied by a realization that an illness had spread across the population. On top of the subprime meltdown, a devastating illness has left a huge portion of the population unable to sleep. It takes about a year of zombie-like existence for the sleepless to die. The world has fallen into chaos, isolation and martial law.
Sleepless
is set in this post-apocalyptic Los Angeles.
The two protagonists in Sleepless are Park, an undercover cop, and Japser, a "fixer." Park is trying to uncover an illegal trade in DR33M3R, a drug that eases the suffering of those with the sleepless disorder. Park's wife has contracted the disease and the health of their infant daughter is unknown.
Jasper is cold-blooded, methodical killer. His life is strictly ordered. The opposite of chaos. He moves tangentially in the book to Park, but you know they will somehow meet. And that the meeting will not be over milk and cookies.
I'm not a big fan of using multiple protagonists to tell a story. It's hard for the author to portray the different viewpoints and even harder for the reader to figure out whose eye they are looking through. Sleepless suffers from a little of that at the beginning, but the differences between the protagonists become greater and more apparent as the book progresses.
The book is not light and fluffy. It's dark. Not as spine-tingling dark as The Road . (That book gave me a physical reaction of dread when I read it.)
Huston tells a compelling, scary, intriguing and gut-wrenching story that will keep you up late into the night reading it.
is set in this post-apocalyptic Los Angeles.The two protagonists in Sleepless are Park, an undercover cop, and Japser, a "fixer." Park is trying to uncover an illegal trade in DR33M3R, a drug that eases the suffering of those with the sleepless disorder. Park's wife has contracted the disease and the health of their infant daughter is unknown.
Jasper is cold-blooded, methodical killer. His life is strictly ordered. The opposite of chaos. He moves tangentially in the book to Park, but you know they will somehow meet. And that the meeting will not be over milk and cookies.
I'm not a big fan of using multiple protagonists to tell a story. It's hard for the author to portray the different viewpoints and even harder for the reader to figure out whose eye they are looking through. Sleepless suffers from a little of that at the beginning, but the differences between the protagonists become greater and more apparent as the book progresses.
The book is not light and fluffy. It's dark. Not as spine-tingling dark as The Road . (That book gave me a physical reaction of dread when I read it.)
Huston tells a compelling, scary, intriguing and gut-wrenching story that will keep you up late into the night reading it.
April 21, 2013
M-am surprins din nou singură pentru că nu mă așteptam să-mi placă neapărat cartea asta, dar m-am apucat de ea pentru că eram disperată, nu mai citisem de prea multă vreme, eram de-a dreptul în sevraj, iar ea era cel mai la îndemână, cu un titlu care m-a atras întotdeauna - Insomnia. E ciudat cât de mult mă atrage subiectul ăsta ținând cont cât de mult îmi place să dorm.
Am răsfoit-o, am văzut cam despre ce e vorba, m-am gândit că poate o să găsesc vreo viziune nouă asupra somnului/insomniei (după cum spuneam, mă pasionează subiectul și cărțile care-l tratează), așa că m-am apucat s-o citesc fără vreun alt background check despre autor sau alte detalii.
M-a prins din primul capitol. Fără cine știe ce introducere sau set-up, a intrat direct în acțiune, ceea ce mi-a plăcut, iar contextul și personajele au fost dezvăluite pe parcurs. Nici nu afli cum arată exact personajul principal până pe la jumătate sau chiar aproape de final, dar pe mine nu m-a deranjat deloc.
Povestea are trei voci narative, care alternează - două sunt ale personajelor ale căror destine se vor întrepătrunde (nu e spoiler - era de așteptat), iar al treilea e naratorul omniscient, care mai face câte-o paranteză. Problema e că nu prea sunt diferențiate aceste voci, iar asta devine confuzant la început. Mi s-a întâmplat de mai multe ori să citesc un capitol întreg fără să-mi dau seama că era narat de altcineva decât cine credeam eu.
Finalul mi s-a părut un pic ilogic, parcă a căutat anume să provoace dramă. Explicația întregului mister în jurul căruia se învârte acțiunea mi s-a părut ușor nesatisfăcătoare, cam prea previzibilă, dar altfel destul de realistă, ceea ce mi-a mai atenuat din nemulțumire.
Nu pot să spun că e o carte extraordinară, dacă ar fi ecranizată probabil ar ieși un film de categoria B, dar mie mi-a plăcut pentru că mi-a oferit exact ce aveam nevoie în momentul în care am citit-o. O recomand cui are chef de o lectură ușoară, în pas alert. Mi se pare foarte bună pentru citit în tren, avion, aeroport sau alte situații similare cu ceva mai mult timp la dispoziție.
Am răsfoit-o, am văzut cam despre ce e vorba, m-am gândit că poate o să găsesc vreo viziune nouă asupra somnului/insomniei (după cum spuneam, mă pasionează subiectul și cărțile care-l tratează), așa că m-am apucat s-o citesc fără vreun alt background check despre autor sau alte detalii.
M-a prins din primul capitol. Fără cine știe ce introducere sau set-up, a intrat direct în acțiune, ceea ce mi-a plăcut, iar contextul și personajele au fost dezvăluite pe parcurs. Nici nu afli cum arată exact personajul principal până pe la jumătate sau chiar aproape de final, dar pe mine nu m-a deranjat deloc.
Povestea are trei voci narative, care alternează - două sunt ale personajelor ale căror destine se vor întrepătrunde (nu e spoiler - era de așteptat), iar al treilea e naratorul omniscient, care mai face câte-o paranteză. Problema e că nu prea sunt diferențiate aceste voci, iar asta devine confuzant la început. Mi s-a întâmplat de mai multe ori să citesc un capitol întreg fără să-mi dau seama că era narat de altcineva decât cine credeam eu.
Finalul mi s-a părut un pic ilogic, parcă a căutat anume să provoace dramă. Explicația întregului mister în jurul căruia se învârte acțiunea mi s-a părut ușor nesatisfăcătoare, cam prea previzibilă, dar altfel destul de realistă, ceea ce mi-a mai atenuat din nemulțumire.
Nu pot să spun că e o carte extraordinară, dacă ar fi ecranizată probabil ar ieși un film de categoria B, dar mie mi-a plăcut pentru că mi-a oferit exact ce aveam nevoie în momentul în care am citit-o. O recomand cui are chef de o lectură ușoară, în pas alert. Mi se pare foarte bună pentru citit în tren, avion, aeroport sau alte situații similare cu ceva mai mult timp la dispoziție.
June 26, 2013
Charlie Houston's Sleepless certainly has an interesting premise. In a world not too different from our own (the novel takes place in 2010), there is a brand new worldwide pandemic: insomnia. Sleep being necessary for life, the sleepless are eventually driven mad and die because of a lack of REM sleep. Initially ascribed to things like mad cow, it was traced to the same genetic markers as fatal familial insomnia. Society collapsed. People retreated into virtual worlds of MMORPGs. The only hope is a drug called Dreamer, and LAPD officer Parker Haas's assignment is to find and stop the source of black market Dreamer.
Houston is more known for his Joe Pitt series, but I picked this one up at one of the many Borders liquidation sales I went to. I have to say I was a bit disappointed.
The book is split into three POV: a third person following Parker, a first person from a hit man named Jasper, and another first person of Parker's journal. I'm not sure why we were also shown Parker's notes, but that ultimately doesn't matter. Parker's story takes a little while to get off the ground, but I couldn't get myself to care at all about Jasper. There was a ton of leaden exposition and back story throughout the book, but Jasper's was even less interesting than Parker's. Even when Jasper was captured and was being tortured for information, the prose just laid there flatly on the page.
So much exposition in this book. And lists! Lists of things on shelves, in boxes, on tables, on the floor, and in car trunks. Lists that take up three or four lines of text. Lists of things the characters never use! At one point I wondered if Houston was using lists as a way to up his word count; then I summarily stopped reading the lists.
I liked Parker's story and found it twisty and engaging enough, but I couldn't help wondering what a different writer would do with it.
Houston is more known for his Joe Pitt series, but I picked this one up at one of the many Borders liquidation sales I went to. I have to say I was a bit disappointed.
The book is split into three POV: a third person following Parker, a first person from a hit man named Jasper, and another first person of Parker's journal. I'm not sure why we were also shown Parker's notes, but that ultimately doesn't matter. Parker's story takes a little while to get off the ground, but I couldn't get myself to care at all about Jasper. There was a ton of leaden exposition and back story throughout the book, but Jasper's was even less interesting than Parker's. Even when Jasper was captured and was being tortured for information, the prose just laid there flatly on the page.
So much exposition in this book. And lists! Lists of things on shelves, in boxes, on tables, on the floor, and in car trunks. Lists that take up three or four lines of text. Lists of things the characters never use! At one point I wondered if Houston was using lists as a way to up his word count; then I summarily stopped reading the lists.
I liked Parker's story and found it twisty and engaging enough, but I couldn't help wondering what a different writer would do with it.
September 15, 2010
I did not think I was going to like this book. After reading the Joe Pitt series, I was interested in what Sleepless was going to be all about and I'd heard good things. The first couple of chapters, though, left me with a vague confusion and also a vague dislike for the main character, the unbendingly good cop trying to keep being good in a system that is obviously failing in the wake of what amounts to the coming of the apocalypse.
All that, however, cleared up a couple more chapters in and I was totally sucked in to the dystopian world that was slowly being revealed, bit by horrifying bit. As with the Pitt series, I really didn't much like most of the characters, but I still ended up caring about them and sympathizing with them none the less, which to me is quite a feat for most any writer. You get why the main character, LAPD cop Parker Haas, is determined to stick to his own morality codes and views of the world, even when the world is literally collapsing around him and you know he's doomed to failure. And you feel bad for him, even when you think he's just being stupid and pig-headed and needs a smack upside the head.
There's also a good deal of science-y type plot things going on here and Huston seems to have mostly done his homework on that. Not that it's perfect, since it's a fictional scenario, but it makes it much more believable, having a detail base in things that actually exist. And, like the Pitt series, it's unapologetically gritty and pulls no punches when bad things happen, and bad things tend to happen a lot here. But, considering the setting, it wouldn't make sense if they didn't.
Now that I'm done, I almost want to go back and read it over again, just to pick up on the details I know I missed on the crazy ride to the end.
All that, however, cleared up a couple more chapters in and I was totally sucked in to the dystopian world that was slowly being revealed, bit by horrifying bit. As with the Pitt series, I really didn't much like most of the characters, but I still ended up caring about them and sympathizing with them none the less, which to me is quite a feat for most any writer. You get why the main character, LAPD cop Parker Haas, is determined to stick to his own morality codes and views of the world, even when the world is literally collapsing around him and you know he's doomed to failure. And you feel bad for him, even when you think he's just being stupid and pig-headed and needs a smack upside the head.
There's also a good deal of science-y type plot things going on here and Huston seems to have mostly done his homework on that. Not that it's perfect, since it's a fictional scenario, but it makes it much more believable, having a detail base in things that actually exist. And, like the Pitt series, it's unapologetically gritty and pulls no punches when bad things happen, and bad things tend to happen a lot here. But, considering the setting, it wouldn't make sense if they didn't.
Now that I'm done, I almost want to go back and read it over again, just to pick up on the details I know I missed on the crazy ride to the end.
April 2, 2010
Well, if you like your novels nihilistic and thick with "authenticity", this is the novel for you. I only made it 1/2 way through, though I wish I could have read more. It was simply too vulgar and rife with gaming terminology, which blocked the flow of the book. There are so many f-bombs in this book it's the literary equivalent of Iraq & Afghanistan. It felt like constantly moving around roadblocks to get thru the storyline. And that's a shame, because the actual story and the pacing moved along quite nicely. The book centers on "Park", an undercover drug cop in futuristic LA (Los Angeles-no angels here). His "assignment" is to find a connection to Dreamer, a new drug that apparently is the only thing that will help sufferers of the new pandemic. This pandemic robs people of sleep, with death eventually resulting. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to who or where it strikes, and no known cure. Only this drug provides some small temporary relief. To compound his desperation to find it, Park's family is affected. Because this is LA, and a futuristic LA at that, we meet all kinds of oddballs, criminals, desperados, and just plain freaks. Due to their sleeplessness, most sleepless spend their time gaming. Hence, the heavy clotting of gaming culture. As of half-way in, no real progress had been made to tie the various threads together, but it moves quickly so you barely notice. If this book weren't so vulgar or sordid, I'm sure I'd enjoy it. But then, it would be another book.
February 7, 2010
The hidden secret about Huston's books is the core of humor he displays in them, something that adds a layer of humanity to otherwise dystopic topics like the travails of mass-murdering baseball players and the struggles of hunted vampire private eyes.
Sleepless isn't funny, though -- but might be all the stronger for that lack.
Set in what might be best described as a pre-apocalyptic world ("pre" in the sense that, sure, everything hasn't gone to hell yet, but just wait a week or two), the book presents both a new take on zombie fiction, a well developed mystery (albeit with a few loose threads) and a captivating exploration of humanity and how one retains it.
As with Huston's latest work (Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, which was one of my best reads of 2009), Sleepless presents a more complicated read than the Joe Pitts casebooks -- something that I take as the author's growth as a writer. Most of the characters are not exactly nice people, and yet are presented in such a fullness of personality that both their flaws and motivations are explicable. Sleepless' view of the world and how -- on both a global and more personal scale -- it will all come to ruin is all-too-easily imaginable.
At this point, I'd pretty much read anything Huston wrote, anyway, but Sleepless has me anticipating his next book even more.
Sleepless isn't funny, though -- but might be all the stronger for that lack.
Set in what might be best described as a pre-apocalyptic world ("pre" in the sense that, sure, everything hasn't gone to hell yet, but just wait a week or two), the book presents both a new take on zombie fiction, a well developed mystery (albeit with a few loose threads) and a captivating exploration of humanity and how one retains it.
As with Huston's latest work (Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, which was one of my best reads of 2009), Sleepless presents a more complicated read than the Joe Pitts casebooks -- something that I take as the author's growth as a writer. Most of the characters are not exactly nice people, and yet are presented in such a fullness of personality that both their flaws and motivations are explicable. Sleepless' view of the world and how -- on both a global and more personal scale -- it will all come to ruin is all-too-easily imaginable.
At this point, I'd pretty much read anything Huston wrote, anyway, but Sleepless has me anticipating his next book even more.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 310 reviews