Halfway Human

This book flows well even with frequent changes in the point of view. The characters and their responses are believable and well drawn, from the behavior of the blands in slavery to the relationship between Val and her dissertation advisor. I had to smile when her advisor told her some of the same "politically cautious" things that I remember mine telling me back in grad school and after. I liked the fact that, even without going into a huge amount of detail about their pasts, she managed to portray even some of the more minor characters as complex and multidimensional. This is an amazing accomplishment for a first novel! Despite being set in the distant future, the novel is quite believable and the societies quite plausible. She doesn't explain every little thing about the world that the characters live in though, and there are many unsolved mysteries and some loose ends (like what it was that Tedla had done that resulted in their making it a bland), but the reader can draw his/her own conclusions. I find it refreshing for a writer to leave some things to the reader's imagination, but I suppose that some might find it frustrating and wish for a sequel. The book doesn't need a sequel, but one would work. It's been a while since this book was published, and I hope that Ms. Gilman writes more novels someday. I saw something on the net that said she is currently working on a completely new book, and I hope that this is true and it gets published. In these times of the mass marketing of established authors and endless sequels and series, it's frustrating to see how rarely completely new authors with completely new ideas, even those with considerable talent, get the exposure and publicity that they deserve.

Carolyn Ives Gilman's science fiction novel "Halfway Human" is a work very much in the tradition of Ursula K. LeGuin's classic "The Left Hand of Darkness." Each novel envisions an alien society in which gender and sexuality differ radically from that of the ordinary human world. Ives' vision is as bold and as fully realized as that of LeGuin, and daringly different on certain levels.The heart of Ives' story takes place on the planed Gammadis, where a neuter third gender, known as Blands, serves as a slave population to the males and females that comprise the rest of the population. The situation is further complicated by the fact that all children of Gammadis are essentially neuter, with gender not manifesting itself until puberty. The story opens with Tedla, a Bland refugee from Gammadis, meeting a xenologist from another world. Tedla tells "its" life story to the sympathetic Val."Halfway Human" is a gripping drama filled with political intrigue and populated by a fascinating group of characters. Gilman fully fleshes out the complex culture of Tedla's world. The novel deals with such compelling issues as prejudice, slavery, sex, power, and the relationship of an underground subculture to a dominant culture. The story also looks at education and empowerment, hypocrisy and lust, and the longing for a love that transcends vast gulfs of difference.There are some really horrific and painful scenes in this story, but there is also much that is life-affirming. "Halfway Human" is a brilliant contemporary fictional version of a slave narrative, a genre which has played an important role in American literature; good companion texts for this novel would be such 19th century works as "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" or Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."

I adored this novel and was very disappointed to see that Gilman has not yet written anything else. I think this story says alot about culture and how we look at ourselves and the components that make up our society. I found the novel and the situation of the "blands" to be a very strong parralell to slavery in this country and how slavery was viewed by slaves as well owners. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly reccomned it not only as sci fi/fantasy but as fiction.

I really enjoyed this book, the characters were well developed, and I could not put it down. Being a double minority myself (African American Women), I thought the author did an excellent job of showing a different face of prejudice.This is an excellent book and I look forward to hearing more from this author.

This was a compelingly disturbing novel. Carolyn Ives Gillman has created a work of art. A socialogical look at another culture, that brings to mind all that we are most ashamed of in our own. I was instantly attached to the androgenous Tedla and was more than willing the laugh and cry and stay up till four a.m. getting to know it better. A must read for any one who wants to strech their brain.