Charlie Huston’s latest novel, Sleepless, is one of those rare reads that is so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s a post-apocalyptic thriller. It’s a gritty police procedural. It’s deeply provocative speculation about the long-term consequences of genetic engineering and the dangers of transgenic technology. It’s a story about embracing love. It’s a story about embracing death. But above all else, it’s brutal social commentary – with a plague of sleeplessness devastating humankind, does humanity collectively join together to find a way to find a cure for this dread pandemic that's wiping out more than ten percent of the world's population? No. Society devolves into chaos and a huge percentage of the populace self-medicates and seeks out online gaming realms as a way to escape reality: and responsibility.
As Los Angeles burns around him and a state of martial law is invoked, idealistic protagonist Parker Haas – an overworked, undercover cop – remains staunchly optimistic that the madness is just temporary and that sometime soon the world will return to some sense of normalcy.
“He knew the true world was hibernating, waiting to come out from its long winter nap. People were waiting to be themselves again. It wasn’t that human nature was base and obscene and brutal, it was only fear and confusion and despair that made them look and act that way.”
But with a wife who is slowly but surely dying from sleeplessness and a newborn baby who could also have the incurable disease, Haas finds his internal world crumbling just as fast as the external world around him. Tasked with uncovering black market sales of a drug called Dreamer – a hard-to-find pharmaceutical that gives those suffering from sleeplessness glorious, albeit temporary, relief – Haas finds himself drawn into the growing subculture of Chasm Tide, a seemingly infinite online gaming realm where players virtually incarnated as warriors or wizards can not only embark on labyrinthine fantasy quests but also meet and interact with family and friends, conduct illicit business transactions and, in a sense, create their own alternate histories, their own mythologies, their own legacies.
“…after we’re all sleepless… after we all die, something will persist. Information, energy coded as information, that will last when we are dust. When the last generator runs out of fuel, when the last windmill rusts and falls over, when the last solar panel cracks, the Web will stop, but the information will persist. After 9/11, they recovered hard drives in the ruins. They could still be read. Flesh turned to paste and mist, but data survived. When our society is excavated, our data will be our relics. And the characters, the personas the sleepless are creating, those will be the most unique, the most durable, the most diverse, the most cherished artifacts.”
Parker’s own wife spends much of her time in Chasm Tide as elemental mage Cipher Blue, while their poor infant daughter is neglected for hours on end. Parker even arrives home at one point to find his daughter lying unattended in a tub filled with three inches of cold water….
In an increasingly virtual world, just how important is reality? What IS reality?
Like any good novel, readers will find themselves digesting the images and events and themes of Sleepless for days afterwards. For me, the most disturbing aspect of the storyline was humankind’s collective propensity towards irresponsibility. Multinational agricultural corporations producing genetically modified foods without fully understanding the long-term effects on the environment, pharmaceutical companies developing drugs with potentially lethal side effects, the mega-rich of the world turning their backs on helping in any way the disadvantaged, parents whose addictions outweigh the safety for their children, the list goes on and on…
If the world were crumbling around you, if civilization was falling apart in front of your eyes, what would you do?
The ringtone on Parker's cellphone is as fitting as it is prophetic: Alice Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare."
Paul,
I agree with Deb and Toni. I have family and friends spread all over the states. I have faith that they would pull together in there areas as would I with family and friends in my geographic area. Thanks for still another thought provoking artical Paul. I know I can count on you for that!
Joan
PS- This one goes on my wish list; my very long wish list!
