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...
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Dec 25, 2010
Robert
rated it: 
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, More...
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, More...
Mar 16, 2010
Kemper
rated it: 
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 More...
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 More...
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Nov 04, 2010
Maddy
rated it: 
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 More...
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 More...
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Nov 24, 2011
Raelyn
rated it:
In an alternate time line, LAPD cop Parker Haas has gone undercover in order to make “a bust of scale” on the black market of DR33M3R: a drug that grants sleep to those infected with fatal insomnia. This new plague eats away at its victim’s thalamus, causing them to become sleepless, and therefore hysterical. Parker’s wife has the disease, and it could soon pass to their infant daughter. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect them, which involves assuming the roll of a drug dealer, going to
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May 30, 2011
Jake
rated it:
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 onlin More...
Initially, Huston seems to have written Sleepless only to comment on how the prevalence of onlin More...
Jan 06, 2011
Tony
rated it:
Huston, Charlie. SLEEPLESS. (2010). ***. The novel is set in a dystopian world that now exists in L.A. The time is the year 2010, and we meet Parker Hass. He was educated as a philosophy major, but ended up joining the LAPD because he believed that he could truly help out his fellow citizens. He had an attitude, though, that ultimately led to his not being able to work with his fellow cops in a world that has run so low on fuel that they had to ride doubly, triply and even quadruply in a
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Sep 21, 2010
Clay
rated it:
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 More...
My rewards have been rich and creepy. First Paolo Bacigalupi’s steampunk epic “The Windup Girl” and now “Sleepless.”
The value of More...
Sep 14, 2010
Susan
rated it:
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 chapt More...
All that, however, cleared up a couple more chapt More...
Jul 23, 2010
Marc
rated it:
I came to Huston from his Joe Pitt vampire noir series, which were amusing enough, not too serious, fun but not very deep. So I took a chance on Sleepless - and I have to say - I'm impressed.
The content seems vastly matured from his genre series. Sleepless is incredibly imaginative, evoking a parallel world USA in the middle of social collapse. It's not post-apocalyptic - it's apocalypse now. It's so up-to-the second contemporary it's as if, today, July 22d 2010 - the book was someho More...
The content seems vastly matured from his genre series. Sleepless is incredibly imaginative, evoking a parallel world USA in the middle of social collapse. It's not post-apocalyptic - it's apocalypse now. It's so up-to-the second contemporary it's as if, today, July 22d 2010 - the book was someho More...
Apr 21, 2010
Sheehan
rated it:
So if you like the pulled back at the seams, raging Los Angeles detective stories of James Ellroy, but you also find yourself intrigued by the multivariate ways the world will fall on it's own sword, this story is for you!
Taking place primarily in LA, it is the story of characters in a very recent future grappling with the descent into lawlessness that comes from an increasing plague of sleeplessness. This plague is well researched and based on factual accounts of people with debili More...
Taking place primarily in LA, it is the story of characters in a very recent future grappling with the descent into lawlessness that comes from an increasing plague of sleeplessness. This plague is well researched and based on factual accounts of people with debili More...
Apr 02, 2010
Louvaine
rated it: 
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 pac
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Feb 20, 2010
Book
rated it:
Sleepless by Charlie Huston
This book is a noirish police procedural set in a dystopian near future. Parker Haas the main character is an undercover narcotics detective. His job is to track down illegal traffic of a drug called dreamer.
This drug is the only relief for a plague that causes permanent insomnia and slow death. The descriptions are quite frightening. It is based on a real disease that causes fatal familial insomnia. I More...
This book is a noirish police procedural set in a dystopian near future. Parker Haas the main character is an undercover narcotics detective. His job is to track down illegal traffic of a drug called dreamer.
This drug is the only relief for a plague that causes permanent insomnia and slow death. The descriptions are quite frightening. It is based on a real disease that causes fatal familial insomnia. I More...
Feb 07, 2010
Timothy
rated it:
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 ju 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 ju More...
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Jan 09, 2010
Tim
rated it:
An epidemic of sleeplessness is sweeping the world. Governments are crumbling, chaos is rising and social order is breaking down. The only thing that can help the afflicted is a drug code named Dr33m3r, or dreamer. Los Angeles police officer Parker Haas has a wife among the afflicted and an infant daughter who may or may not be. He has also been offered a chance to really make a difference. Haas must go undercover, posing as a drug dealer to seek out the illegal trade of the special drug. What h
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Aug 08, 2010
Mattazuma
rated it:
I read Charlie Huston's previous book, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, and I really enjoyed it. I figured that Sleepless would be somewhat similar.
Nope.
FYI - This is not a happy book. That being said, Sleepless had me transfixed from page 1. It kept me up far too late reading it at night more than once.
The version of L.A. shown in this book is far too easy to see occurring in the future. The author does a great job showing the reader what goin More...
Nope.
FYI - This is not a happy book. That being said, Sleepless had me transfixed from page 1. It kept me up far too late reading it at night more than once.
The version of L.A. shown in this book is far too easy to see occurring in the future. The author does a great job showing the reader what goin More...
Jul 30, 2010
Ryun
rated it:
Now that Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt books have wrapped up, the ever-prolific author has turned his sights on a mid-apocalyptic California for his first science-fiction novel, SLEEPLESS. It’s undoubtedly sci-fi — since Los Angeles is slowly being driven into chaos by a brain disease that turns people into never-sleeping, hyper-obsessive crazies who, at the end, can’t distinguish reality from dreams or memories — but there aren’t any rayguns, aliens or alien languages to trip up SF-phobes.
Lik More...
Lik More...
Feb 01, 2012
Kelly
rated it:
I'll state up front that i didn't always follow everything going on - even with the help of a gamer spouse, I found the concepts of virtual and real economies confusing. What I can say is that the near future L.A. Huston gives us is so vivid I could absolutely believe that, indeed, this is the way the world will end. Unlike most visions of the apocalypse, individuals in this society do not valiantly fight their circumstances. Ten percent of the population is dying from a prion disease that cause
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Dec 30, 2010
Adam
rated it:
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
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May 01, 2010
Doug
rated it:
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, More...
is set in this post-apocalyptic Los Angeles.
The two protagonists in Sleepless are Park, More...
May 24, 2010
Jonathan
rated it:
This book isn't quite what I expected: I was imagining an introspective, world-gone-awry story with shades of the apocalypse and medicine, a quiet watch-the-world-burn sort of story. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic fiction and the premise--a disease that robs people of their sleep and, eventually, their life--was fascinating, conjuring up images of whole cities just staying up all night because they cannot sleep.
What I got was, unquestionably, pulp fiction. This book was written in More...
What I got was, unquestionably, pulp fiction. This book was written in More...
Apr 06, 2010
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it:
Readers pigeon-hole Charlie Huston at their peril. The only certainties about Huston's work are his penchant for deeply weird and flawed characters (Hank Thompson is a failed baseball player with some addiction issues and remarkably bad luck; PI Joe Pitt is a New York vampire ...) and his deliciously warped sense of humor. And few genre novelists are as literary (""writing ... simply too good to be genre-constrained,"" praises the Denver Post). With back-to-back hits in The M
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Sep 19, 2011
Maxi
rated it:
This was (unexpectedly) my best read this year! (…so far ;-)
Can’t get this story out of my head (that’s why I write this review 4 month after I finished the book!)
Sleepless is set in an apocalyptic L.A. where the population is infected with a spreading prion protein (SLP), which causes insomnia. There is no cure and infected people die after horrible suffering from the slowly advancing inability to sleep. Only one drug brings some relief, DREAMER, which is sold on the black ma More...
Can’t get this story out of my head (that’s why I write this review 4 month after I finished the book!)
Sleepless is set in an apocalyptic L.A. where the population is infected with a spreading prion protein (SLP), which causes insomnia. There is no cure and infected people die after horrible suffering from the slowly advancing inability to sleep. Only one drug brings some relief, DREAMER, which is sold on the black ma More...
Dec 29, 2009
Sera
rated it:
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
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Jun 19, 2010
Lilla
rated it:
This novel has totally restored my faith in good writing (sorry Mira Grant – as the last book I read, your novel Feed has paled into insignificance next to this!)
I struggled with Sleepless at first - and for my lazy reading, I must sincerely apologies to Huston. The true quality of this novel was lost on me in those first chapters. The book is mesmerizing. Gripping. Set in a world that is struggling to cope with the global pandemic of SLP – Sleepless – a fatal disease that renders th More...
I struggled with Sleepless at first - and for my lazy reading, I must sincerely apologies to Huston. The true quality of this novel was lost on me in those first chapters. The book is mesmerizing. Gripping. Set in a world that is struggling to cope with the global pandemic of SLP – Sleepless – a fatal disease that renders th More...
Feb 16, 2010
Russell
rated it:
Wow, what a fantastic book. I've liked/loved everything Charlie Huston has written so far, and this is easily my favorite stand alone novel by him. Setting is very near future Greater Los Angeles, in the midst of a gradual breakdown of all society. Over and over again, I was struck by the insights Huston offers in how people would handle the end of the world coming by inches instead of all at once. As with the Caught Stealing and Joe Pitt books, the characterization in this book is awesome a
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Mar 19, 2011
Debra
rated it:
Sleepless, a well-crafted story told well, presents a realistic dystopian LA landscape ravaged by a worldwide plague of sleeplessness—a terminal disease that infects indiscriminately (young, old, rich, poor). The city teeters on the edge of chaos, yet somehow also maintains an indulgent elite with enough toys and money to distract it from the surrounding devastation. And everyone, whether or not privileged, must carry on. For me, Huston’s details hit the mark almost every time, from his descript
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Feb 08, 2010
Spuddie
rated it:
I'm not sure how to describe or even classify this book. Part mystery, part sci-fi/fantasy, part dystopian fiction, Sleepless is set in the present, but with an alternative near-past. There is a voracious new plague out there, but it won't kill you outright. It involves a brain prion related loosely to 'mad cow disease' and something called FFI--Fatal Familial Insomnia, which oddly enough I'd just been reading about a few weeks before.
Basically, you get the prion, it starts eating ho More...
Basically, you get the prion, it starts eating ho More...
Feb 24, 2010
Jason
rated it:
Wow. Reading Sleepless will keep you up late every night. The two main characters are polar opposites - an undercover cop trying to find a big drug ring whose life is spiraling out of control with a wife suffering from the SLP prion and a newborn who might be, and someone who kills for a living and is very much in control of his life and environment. The story goes back-and-forth between them and their stark contrasts and interactions with the same environments and sometimes characters are fa
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Aug 02, 2011
Huston takes another turn here -
He's done a "wrong man" breathless character driven trilogy; a hardboiled vampire arc, a strangely uplifting tale of a murder scene janitor... Here he creates a near apocalyptic Los Angeles populated by "sleepless" citizens in search of a cure or at least a palliative... The race between two main characters, a cop and a killer may seem a basic plot device, but the characterization, depth of story merging reality and virtual worlds come togeth More...
He's done a "wrong man" breathless character driven trilogy; a hardboiled vampire arc, a strangely uplifting tale of a murder scene janitor... Here he creates a near apocalyptic Los Angeles populated by "sleepless" citizens in search of a cure or at least a palliative... The race between two main characters, a cop and a killer may seem a basic plot device, but the characterization, depth of story merging reality and virtual worlds come togeth More...
May 19, 2010
Jared
rated it:
An utterly depressing, and amazingly written book. The foundation of the book is that a percentage of the world's population (between 10 and 25%) suffers from a sleepless disorder. They get literally NO sleep once they are afflicted. Based on a true disorder (FFL), the victims begin to suffer waking nightmares, and begin either taking uppers to stay awake (i.e. keep away REM dreams) or kill themselves. The third option is a drug called Dreamers that is highly regulated and tightly controlled
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