8 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Publication date 1998 ISBN 0-380-79799-2 Originally published 1998 Publisher Avon | 4/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print (paperback) OCLC 38198333 Cover artist J. K. Potter | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Novel, Science Fiction, Speculative fiction Nominations Locus Award for Best First Novel Similar Works by Carolyn Ives Gilman, Science Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Halfway Human (1998) is a science fiction novel written by Carolyn Ives Gilman. It was nominated for the 1998 Tiptree Award, and placed second on the Locus Readers Poll for Best First Novel in 1999.
Contents
The novel follows the life of Tedla, an asexual being from an evolutionary offshoot of humanity. It is neither male nor female and refers to itself as a “bland.” On its home planet blands are kept at a near-slave class, considered to be not human and much less important than either male or female. Blands are mentally, physically and sexually abused by their human masters, normally called guardians.
Tedla is found by a social worker named Val Endrada on the planet Capella light-years away from its home planet of Gammadis just after trying to commit suicide. The existence of the bland off-planet sets into motion a political confrontation between the powers on both planets.
Reception
The work was generally praised by critics at the time of publication. Fellow writer Lisa DuMond reviewed the book in 1998, and suggested that it would likely be included on the Hugo and Nebula ballots for that year.
Gender and Sexuality
Patricia Wheeler compares Gilman's treatment of gender and sexuality, and particularly her attempt to create a character that exhibits neither male nor female characteristics, to Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin. Wheeler mentions that many criticized LeGuin for ultimately failing to create characters that did not exhibit gendered traits, and suggests that this failure could possibly be evident in Halfway Human as well, depending on how the reader chooses to imagine Tedla. Wheeler wonders "Is it possible to see it [Tedla] as completely without gender attributes?" Wheeler remarks on Gilman's use of the juxtaposition of Capellan and Gammadian societies in her story as a way to examine how gender is treated in our society.