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The Hive #1
Half Past Human
A novel of dystopian future in the tradition of SOYLENT GREEN and H.G. Wells' THE TIME MACHINE, with an introduction by Ken MacLeod. This is the second printing, with cover artists The Brothers Hildebrandt.
Tinker was a good citizen of the Hive - a model worker. But when he was allowed sexual activation he found Mu Ren who, like him, harboured forbidden genes. And so began the cataclysm.
But in a world where half-wild humans are hunted for sport - and food - can anyone overthrow the Hive? Greater by far than its stunted, pink-blooded citizens, the Hive is more than prepared to rise and crush anyone who challenges its supremacy...
Tinker was a good citizen of the Hive - a model worker. But when he was allowed sexual activation he found Mu Ren who, like him, harboured forbidden genes. And so began the cataclysm.
But in a world where half-wild humans are hunted for sport - and food - can anyone overthrow the Hive? Greater by far than its stunted, pink-blooded citizens, the Hive is more than prepared to rise and crush anyone who challenges its supremacy...
280 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
32 people are currently reading
1090 people want to read
About the author
T.J. Bass
10 books11 followersThomas Joseph Bassler, author of health & diet related non-fiction under the name Thomas J. Bassler
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
July 3, 2014
There’s a specific sort of book that I don’t care for. I am fine with being offended, or shocked, or grossed out, or shown terrible extremes, or being led into places I didn’t care to go. I imagine as readers, most of you are the same way, or at least you will be if you stay on the path of reading in a long and consistent-enough fashion.
But more than anything, what I can’t stand is a book that’s boring.
Half Past Human is a boring book.
Let’s not pretend it doesn’t have plenty of crazy, fun, weird shit filling it up, though. And it really does.
As someone who really loves a tight narrative, and who kind of avoids that kind of meandering slicing-life-until-there’s-a-progression-of-character narratives, I am naturally predisposed against novels like this. There are several instances of small narratives, but most of them don’t go anywhere particularly interesting and nor do they have big impacts on the work as a whole. And I bring this up to just show my bias—when a book isn’t tightly woven together, like some old sea-rope bringing in barges to shore, I start to get bored after about 150 pages of it.
Recently, though, I reviewed The City and The Stars. I didn’t like it, for similar reasons. But from searching around for other reviews to inform my interpretation of Clarke’s work, I found that a lot of people didn’t mind it’s lackluster plot and characterization because of the rich world they saw developed. I imagine that Half Past Human was popularized for similar reasons, because its world-building is top-notch.
The general premise is that one of the only living beings left on Earth are on evolved form of humans known as “nebbishes.” These nebbishes have adapted wholly to living in underground hives. They are short, fat, pale, and have four toes, and completely rule the earth.
One can’t help but see the fear of the author when describing a future in which mankind has “evolved” to become less of itself. Most of the nebbishes we see are lazy, drug-addled, resistant to change, and have severe agoraphobia which is overcome only by taking lots of meth. So, this was written in the seventies, and I have to imagine all of that is a sort of response to the inwardly-trending American culture that something like Network was also responding to (“We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD!”).
So, the nebbishes have a sort of symbiotic relationship with these techno-organic beings, the mecks and the cybers. The cybers seem to be entirely synthetic, while the mecks are organically structured with cybernetic brains of some sort. There’s something sort of charming about the way the nebbishes live—technology has completely ceased to progress for them for something like a thousand years, and so when the nebbish Hunters go out to hunt “Buckeyes” and “Coweyes” (unevolved homo sapien males and females), they are hunting with bows and arrows. The hives the nebbishes live in seem to be almost Zerg-like organic structures, complete with multiple systems of rectums dispensing calorie-bars for food.
There’s a lot here that’s terrifying if you stop to think about it a little. Calories are largely obtained from eating other harvested nebbishes. The nebbishes are so evolved that they can’t stop making more of themselves, and overpopulation is an enormous problem (to the point where the species is regularly killing itself off, almost as a sort of biological response to having too much of itself).
And then there’s the whole genocide angle. As I mentioned, regular homo sapiens are still around. They largely exist out in the wild; sometimes a “five-toed” nebbish is able to “go native,” so to speak, and join the wild homo sapiens. But the nebbishes are doing their damnedest to wipe out these buckeyes and coweyes entirely. Like the theory that homo sapiens wiped out Neanderthals however many thousands of years ago, the nebbishes are attempting to do the same to the race they “surpassed,” with the homo sapiens.
Masculinity is thoroughly undermined in every part of this story, which I always find a lot of fun. On the homo sapiens side, the coweyes take what they want from the buckeyes and then leave them after getting sufficiently pregnant. The buckeyes are continuously left puzzled as to why they can’t settle down with the coweye, start a family, protect her. That was a nice inversion of the usual pattern.
But more than that, men as a whole are seen as kind of destructive and awful in the nebbish culture. Women don’t ever seem to have any places of power or utility outside of being “pleasure models,” or however it’s put. And so the message seems to be that if men are left in charge long enough, they’ll turn the world into a series of hives bent on self-destruction that’s unable to stop trying to wipe out its past. Which I think is a pretty fair description of things, don’t you?
But yes, despite all this interesting background, there are lots of problems here. The dialogue is largely rubbish—people just don’t talk how Bass has them talk here. There are several sections where characters are explaining how this cyber or that meck works, and it sounds like they’re taking turns reading from a field manual.
Two of the characters—Moses and Tinker (and this is the nature of the book, that the only time it’s actually relevant to bring up the names of characters is about eight hundred words into a review)—are essentially the same, just in different locations. We get the sense that Bass wanted one character to do many things, but found that it wouldn’t work logistically in the world he’d created, so he just doubled the poor soul like he was the hive-mind of his own personal nebbish camp. I don’t know, maybe that’s the whole point of their similarity.
Finally, it’s just a bit of a slog to work through. There are dozens of pages in a row without any sense of conflict or tension, and that’s just anathema for readers in my experience. Half Past Human is a fascinating book, but not a good narrative.
But more than anything, what I can’t stand is a book that’s boring.
Half Past Human is a boring book.
Let’s not pretend it doesn’t have plenty of crazy, fun, weird shit filling it up, though. And it really does.
As someone who really loves a tight narrative, and who kind of avoids that kind of meandering slicing-life-until-there’s-a-progression-of-character narratives, I am naturally predisposed against novels like this. There are several instances of small narratives, but most of them don’t go anywhere particularly interesting and nor do they have big impacts on the work as a whole. And I bring this up to just show my bias—when a book isn’t tightly woven together, like some old sea-rope bringing in barges to shore, I start to get bored after about 150 pages of it.
Recently, though, I reviewed The City and The Stars. I didn’t like it, for similar reasons. But from searching around for other reviews to inform my interpretation of Clarke’s work, I found that a lot of people didn’t mind it’s lackluster plot and characterization because of the rich world they saw developed. I imagine that Half Past Human was popularized for similar reasons, because its world-building is top-notch.
The general premise is that one of the only living beings left on Earth are on evolved form of humans known as “nebbishes.” These nebbishes have adapted wholly to living in underground hives. They are short, fat, pale, and have four toes, and completely rule the earth.
One can’t help but see the fear of the author when describing a future in which mankind has “evolved” to become less of itself. Most of the nebbishes we see are lazy, drug-addled, resistant to change, and have severe agoraphobia which is overcome only by taking lots of meth. So, this was written in the seventies, and I have to imagine all of that is a sort of response to the inwardly-trending American culture that something like Network was also responding to (“We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD!”).
So, the nebbishes have a sort of symbiotic relationship with these techno-organic beings, the mecks and the cybers. The cybers seem to be entirely synthetic, while the mecks are organically structured with cybernetic brains of some sort. There’s something sort of charming about the way the nebbishes live—technology has completely ceased to progress for them for something like a thousand years, and so when the nebbish Hunters go out to hunt “Buckeyes” and “Coweyes” (unevolved homo sapien males and females), they are hunting with bows and arrows. The hives the nebbishes live in seem to be almost Zerg-like organic structures, complete with multiple systems of rectums dispensing calorie-bars for food.
There’s a lot here that’s terrifying if you stop to think about it a little. Calories are largely obtained from eating other harvested nebbishes. The nebbishes are so evolved that they can’t stop making more of themselves, and overpopulation is an enormous problem (to the point where the species is regularly killing itself off, almost as a sort of biological response to having too much of itself).
And then there’s the whole genocide angle. As I mentioned, regular homo sapiens are still around. They largely exist out in the wild; sometimes a “five-toed” nebbish is able to “go native,” so to speak, and join the wild homo sapiens. But the nebbishes are doing their damnedest to wipe out these buckeyes and coweyes entirely. Like the theory that homo sapiens wiped out Neanderthals however many thousands of years ago, the nebbishes are attempting to do the same to the race they “surpassed,” with the homo sapiens.
Masculinity is thoroughly undermined in every part of this story, which I always find a lot of fun. On the homo sapiens side, the coweyes take what they want from the buckeyes and then leave them after getting sufficiently pregnant. The buckeyes are continuously left puzzled as to why they can’t settle down with the coweye, start a family, protect her. That was a nice inversion of the usual pattern.
But more than that, men as a whole are seen as kind of destructive and awful in the nebbish culture. Women don’t ever seem to have any places of power or utility outside of being “pleasure models,” or however it’s put. And so the message seems to be that if men are left in charge long enough, they’ll turn the world into a series of hives bent on self-destruction that’s unable to stop trying to wipe out its past. Which I think is a pretty fair description of things, don’t you?
But yes, despite all this interesting background, there are lots of problems here. The dialogue is largely rubbish—people just don’t talk how Bass has them talk here. There are several sections where characters are explaining how this cyber or that meck works, and it sounds like they’re taking turns reading from a field manual.
Two of the characters—Moses and Tinker (and this is the nature of the book, that the only time it’s actually relevant to bring up the names of characters is about eight hundred words into a review)—are essentially the same, just in different locations. We get the sense that Bass wanted one character to do many things, but found that it wouldn’t work logistically in the world he’d created, so he just doubled the poor soul like he was the hive-mind of his own personal nebbish camp. I don’t know, maybe that’s the whole point of their similarity.
Finally, it’s just a bit of a slog to work through. There are dozens of pages in a row without any sense of conflict or tension, and that’s just anathema for readers in my experience. Half Past Human is a fascinating book, but not a good narrative.
February 24, 2012
Whilst sorting through my book collection last year I noted that under the Bs I only had one T. J. Bass: The Godwhale. My favourite, in fact one of my very favourite books of all time, seemed to be missing. However, this morning I found it!
January 4, 2009
Written as typing practice by an interning doctor in the early 70s (talk about "aw-shucks", but that's what he told me!), this is a detailed view of life thousands of years from now in a world of 3 trillion soft, domesticated people living in underground hives, the outcasts they hunt for sport, the robots who serve them, and the events that topple the whole order. Stands up well 35 years later. I read it once a year or so.
March 11, 2025
Check out a spoiler light discussion with Deb from Omnivorous Reader HERE.
T. J. Bass (real name Thomas J. Bassler) was a doctor, and it shows in this far future, dystopian, biological science fiction novel. Humans have evolved into 4 toed beings now referred to as Nebish. There are 3 trillion (yes, 3 thousand billion) of Nebish living below the earth’s surface in what is called ‘The Hive’. There are also about 1 million 5 toed ‘normal’ humans who are in danger of becoming extinct. The surface of the earth is mostly used for agriculture and there are no animals or insects left on the planet, except some rats in ‘The Hive’. The plot is fairly interesting due to the conflict between the remaining humans and Nebish, as well as the mythic/religious folklore that becomes the driving force of the plot. This one has amazing world building that is not for the faint of heart. There is also very interesting technology, and while there are some interesting characters and AI, don’t expect fully fleshed out characters. This book is so unique it’s hard to rate but I really enjoyed it for the biology heavy prose and world building.
T. J. Bass (real name Thomas J. Bassler) was a doctor, and it shows in this far future, dystopian, biological science fiction novel. Humans have evolved into 4 toed beings now referred to as Nebish. There are 3 trillion (yes, 3 thousand billion) of Nebish living below the earth’s surface in what is called ‘The Hive’. There are also about 1 million 5 toed ‘normal’ humans who are in danger of becoming extinct. The surface of the earth is mostly used for agriculture and there are no animals or insects left on the planet, except some rats in ‘The Hive’. The plot is fairly interesting due to the conflict between the remaining humans and Nebish, as well as the mythic/religious folklore that becomes the driving force of the plot. This one has amazing world building that is not for the faint of heart. There is also very interesting technology, and while there are some interesting characters and AI, don’t expect fully fleshed out characters. This book is so unique it’s hard to rate but I really enjoyed it for the biology heavy prose and world building.
June 26, 2019
When I was 17 years old I went into a bookshop and randomly picked up The Godwhale by the same author. It impressed me a lot but also left me feeling slightly baffled and uneasy. It was full of things I hadn't encountered in SF before, things that seem more familiar and even normal now, such as miniature computers embedded in objects and items of clothing. The writing was mainly crisp and sharp but sometimes peculiar. The focus on biology was also something very new to me and rather startling. I understood the environmental focus but the way this was blended with cybernetics, extrapolated biology, psychology and politics was like a slap in the face, a slap I turned out to be grateful for.
Shame that T.J. Bass only ever wrote two novels. For some reason it has taken me 35 years to get round to reading Half Past Human, his other book, though I have long been aware of its existence, and in fact I regard it as having the best title of any SF book. I didn't find it difficult or baffling at all, but that's because more than a third of a century has passed since I last read Bass. This novel hasn't dated at all in the most important elements. It's true that the sexual politics might irk certain readers, for example the female characters tend to remain in the background and are assigned only to traditional female roles, such as mothering and nurturing, but I prefer to see this aspect as an anomaly of the society described in the story (which is meant to be a dystopia) rather than as some authorial formula for the way things should be.
Essentially it is very fast moving and unusual science fiction from the early 1970s with a strong biological and environmental slant. And it also raises some very interesting and difficult moral questions. I thought it was superb, a treasure of a novel, tightly plotted and satisfying.
Shame that T.J. Bass only ever wrote two novels. For some reason it has taken me 35 years to get round to reading Half Past Human, his other book, though I have long been aware of its existence, and in fact I regard it as having the best title of any SF book. I didn't find it difficult or baffling at all, but that's because more than a third of a century has passed since I last read Bass. This novel hasn't dated at all in the most important elements. It's true that the sexual politics might irk certain readers, for example the female characters tend to remain in the background and are assigned only to traditional female roles, such as mothering and nurturing, but I prefer to see this aspect as an anomaly of the society described in the story (which is meant to be a dystopia) rather than as some authorial formula for the way things should be.
Essentially it is very fast moving and unusual science fiction from the early 1970s with a strong biological and environmental slant. And it also raises some very interesting and difficult moral questions. I thought it was superb, a treasure of a novel, tightly plotted and satisfying.
February 13, 2017
Heavens but that was heavy going.
Good points: Bass' imagination of the future of mankind, with so many people crammed in they've had basic human emotions bred out... The author competently considers the psychology of the 'hive' and delivers the shocking consequences of over-population in a very underplayed way. The ending was satisfying and enables the reader to envision how the story continues once the last page has been read.
Bad points: Even with a degree in psychobiology, I frequently found myself having to dictionary.com words and phrases. The story is so peppered with biological and physiological references that it becomes wearing after a while. Although a few candidates raise their head above the parapet, there is no real protagonist and it's hard to find anyone to root for. Plus, women in the novel are little more than walking-uteruses (uterii?) and are notable by their absence. I have no qualms about a story led by a strong male cast, but as noted above, that's lacking here too.
Summary: Read the book. It took me a month to battle through it as I had to keep putting it down and coming back to it. But I'm very glad that it did. Wanting to understand the story was what lead me to this very website, hence why I feel the need to say my piece. I must add, I read for fun and for distraction - this book probably deserves far closer attention than I was able to give it and I'm sure subsequent re-readings would be more satisfying.
Good points: Bass' imagination of the future of mankind, with so many people crammed in they've had basic human emotions bred out... The author competently considers the psychology of the 'hive' and delivers the shocking consequences of over-population in a very underplayed way. The ending was satisfying and enables the reader to envision how the story continues once the last page has been read.
Bad points: Even with a degree in psychobiology, I frequently found myself having to dictionary.com words and phrases. The story is so peppered with biological and physiological references that it becomes wearing after a while. Although a few candidates raise their head above the parapet, there is no real protagonist and it's hard to find anyone to root for. Plus, women in the novel are little more than walking-uteruses (uterii?) and are notable by their absence. I have no qualms about a story led by a strong male cast, but as noted above, that's lacking here too.
Summary: Read the book. It took me a month to battle through it as I had to keep putting it down and coming back to it. But I'm very glad that it did. Wanting to understand the story was what lead me to this very website, hence why I feel the need to say my piece. I must add, I read for fun and for distraction - this book probably deserves far closer attention than I was able to give it and I'm sure subsequent re-readings would be more satisfying.
November 16, 2014
With some of the most interesting artificial intelligence I've ever come across, and despite an overdose of medical terminology, this is a worthy addition to the SF Masterworks list. My only gripe is that since all the animals are long extinct, cannibalism is seen as the only way of surviving, adding fuel to the misconception that a plant-based diet is not sufficient for us to be healthy, happy, and strong.
June 19, 2017
This weird, brutal little book is the first of only two published by the late T.J. Bass. Clearly sparked by the overpopulation fears of the sixties, it posits "what might happen to humanity if population wasn't controlled?" By turns disturbing, funny, and, ultimately, surprisingly poignant, Half Past Human is a very good, nearly forgotten work. Glad to see Gollancz had the wisdom to republish it and its sequel, Godwhale, as part of its Masterworks series.
April 25, 2024
I suspect that this book deserves more stars than I can award it and I admit that is because I'm pretty sure I didn't really get it. I got really close to the end and then decided to start again, but even on a second run through I think a lot of it went over my head.
We have here a really well thought out complex society full of interesting tech and strange social constructs. The plot lingers on sex and fertility issues for most of the first half and after a captivating trial in the middle it frequently returns to those topics. The next most frequent subject is death and not in a particularly philosophical format.
The trial and outcome was fantastic but it came to a bit of an anticlimax I think. It seemed like a whole revolution had occurred and then been swept under the carpet. Not until the very end did it feel like some closure was given but by then I was a bit lost in the woods.
I would say that I liked it overall but maybe just as an ideas book with plenty of hard scifi, especially considering it was written in the 70s. Maybe I will have to try it again in the future. I'm going to continue on to the sequel now, though that may be ill-advised given my current state of confusion.
We have here a really well thought out complex society full of interesting tech and strange social constructs. The plot lingers on sex and fertility issues for most of the first half and after a captivating trial in the middle it frequently returns to those topics. The next most frequent subject is death and not in a particularly philosophical format.
The trial and outcome was fantastic but it came to a bit of an anticlimax I think. It seemed like a whole revolution had occurred and then been swept under the carpet. Not until the very end did it feel like some closure was given but by then I was a bit lost in the woods.
I would say that I liked it overall but maybe just as an ideas book with plenty of hard scifi, especially considering it was written in the 70s. Maybe I will have to try it again in the future. I'm going to continue on to the sequel now, though that may be ill-advised given my current state of confusion.
April 8, 2013
Another of my favourite reads. Welcome to the future - you might not like it very much.
April 3, 2025
Something totally unique. Exactly what I am looking for in science fiction.
January 6, 2018
Half Past Human is a future dystopia, and I picked it up after reading Walter Tevis' excellent novel, Mockingbird, because I was still in the mood for that kind of future dystopian vibe. This book certainly delivers on that front, though it couldn't be more different from Mockingbird.
Where Mockingbird is fast-paced, elegantly written, and tightly focused on a few characters you grow to care about, Half Past Human is convoluted, difficult to parse in places, and contains many characters that are fairly flat. A few characters stand out (like Tinker, Val, Walter, and Toothpick) but none really get as much attention as they deserve.
And yet, Half Past Human really manages to shine in spite of these flaws, thanks to really evocative world-building.
The novel is set in the far future and the earth is populated by trillions of people, now evolved into the four-toed Nebish, who have tissue for skin and rosewater blood. The Nebish live in underground silo-like colonies connected by a vast network of tubes, pipes, and ramps, called The Hive, run by the CO (Class One) of the ES (Earth System). The entire surface of the planet has been given over to a massive (and largely automated) agricultural system.
Living on the surface of the world are feral and renegade five-toed humans, eking out an existence under the cultivated canopy, hiding from hunters, riding agromecks, swimming in biosludge-filled canals, and avoiding pesticidal agrofoam. The two societies live in tenuous balance until a mysterious cyber-spear from a bygone age named Toothpick starts to manipulate things.
There's no easing into this setting - you're thrown in head-first and it takes some time to acclimatize, but once you do you may well find yourself mesmerized by what you find, both inside and outside of the hive. Here are a few examples:
TJ Bass, a physician, obviously took great pleasure in describing biology and anatomy. His future society exists in a biological extreme, where the food chain has been completely condensed to only a few species, and where good work is rewarded by having flavours added to your calories. Reproduction is regulated, and bad genes are to be avoided.
Walter is a DABber (DAB = Dirt-Adobe-Bamboo) and keeps live earth on the floor of his home, a sort of back-to-earther. Val works for Hunter Control and hunts feral five-toed humans. Tinker and Mu Ren flee the hive after they have an unauthorized baby and can't get their classification changed. Moses is a piper (pipe inspector) who goes renegade and is later tried for it. Moon and his dog, Dan, are ferals who live on the surface, and Toothpick, a cyber-spear, helps them out.
This book takes some work to read, but I loved the wild imagination and, once I got used to the terminology, I rather enjoyed the feel of the whole thing. At times it reminded M. John Harrison's The Pastel City, Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer, and of some of the works of Karl Wagner and Brian Aldiss. It doesn't have the trappings of Sword and Sorcery fiction, but it does have that feel.
Recommended if you want to go places you've never even conceived of, even if it takes a bit of work to get there.
Where Mockingbird is fast-paced, elegantly written, and tightly focused on a few characters you grow to care about, Half Past Human is convoluted, difficult to parse in places, and contains many characters that are fairly flat. A few characters stand out (like Tinker, Val, Walter, and Toothpick) but none really get as much attention as they deserve.
And yet, Half Past Human really manages to shine in spite of these flaws, thanks to really evocative world-building.
The novel is set in the far future and the earth is populated by trillions of people, now evolved into the four-toed Nebish, who have tissue for skin and rosewater blood. The Nebish live in underground silo-like colonies connected by a vast network of tubes, pipes, and ramps, called The Hive, run by the CO (Class One) of the ES (Earth System). The entire surface of the planet has been given over to a massive (and largely automated) agricultural system.
Living on the surface of the world are feral and renegade five-toed humans, eking out an existence under the cultivated canopy, hiding from hunters, riding agromecks, swimming in biosludge-filled canals, and avoiding pesticidal agrofoam. The two societies live in tenuous balance until a mysterious cyber-spear from a bygone age named Toothpick starts to manipulate things.
There's no easing into this setting - you're thrown in head-first and it takes some time to acclimatize, but once you do you may well find yourself mesmerized by what you find, both inside and outside of the hive. Here are a few examples:
"Moses Eppendorf steered his minisub carefully through the mile-wide interior of the anaerobic digester... Flexing the craft's surface charge, he shook off the sticky trail of yeasts and mycelia. He maneuvered close to a yellow translucent mass about ten times the size of his sub and extended his sampler tube. Aspirating a fragment of the gelatinous material, he moved on. So far it looked like a routine inspection"
"Bitter stuck her head in the door.
'Meld time,' she smiled. Her body glowed from her long hot soak in the refresher. Even her finger nails had softened. Her vented robe hung in loose folds without its belt. Umbillicus and areola peeked out.
'Join us, invited Walter, nodding with three chins.
Val started to shake is head - no.
Bitter hooked her hand under his arm and pressed him with a bony knee. 'Certainly you'll stay. You brought the pressed rat. We'll sauce up the wafers and pour a little liqueur - might even pass around a little Molecular Reward. It will be a real warm meld.'
Walter took his other arm and the two of them swept a protesting Val into their living room. Neutral Arthur, nude sans genitals, was busy setting up ornate platters and tall goblets. The soft meld pad was unrolled on the floor beside the eating utensils. Jo Jo, young, thin and preoccupied, studied a small amount of sweet aromatic liquid in his glass. Busch, a slightly older, more roughly mannered male, stood against a wall. Val hadn't noticed Arthur's neutral body, but when old fat Walter began to struggle out of his muddy tunic his redundant folds of flesh were impossible to ignore. Although Walter was a polarized male, it was impossible to tell; for a fatty apron of meat hung from his belly to his knees - the panniculus. He looked more like an unfinished clay statue than a human."
"They were seated on the bank, munching shellfish. A bulky robot straddled the canal silently - an Irrigator. Moses pointed to the robot's optic pickups.
'Don't we have to worry about that thing reporting us?' he asked.
''Toothpick says that it's only a class eleven. Goes around checking soil moisture and spraying water. No circuits for Buckeye detection.'
Toothpick put in, 'We must watch out for class tens, though. Anything that can run around without a track usually has enough brains to detect us. Harvesters, Tillers, Metal Gatherers, things like that.'
Moses continued to munch thoughtfully. The white flesh of the shellfish had a definite crunchy consistency. It gave him a rich, full sensation - lots of good amino acids.
The water in front of him rippled noisily. He watched the spot. A large, ugly, humanoid head broke the surface, stared straight at him and ducked under again.
Then he saw it again - a human child riding on the back of a non-human dugong. Before he could comment on the genetic arithmetic, the mother - a human female, puberty plus four - left the water and approached. Her wet hair clung in dripping tangles. Streaks of mint-green scum rimmed her neck and chin. Sullen, dark eyes glared. She carried a wooden blade low in her right hand.
Toothpick called: 'Back out, men; I detect a golden corpus luteum'
Moon jumped quickly to his feet and backed up the canal, picking up Toothpick. Moses followed...
'That was a coweye, 'explained Moon. 'They are dangerous in the luteal phase.'
TJ Bass, a physician, obviously took great pleasure in describing biology and anatomy. His future society exists in a biological extreme, where the food chain has been completely condensed to only a few species, and where good work is rewarded by having flavours added to your calories. Reproduction is regulated, and bad genes are to be avoided.
Walter is a DABber (DAB = Dirt-Adobe-Bamboo) and keeps live earth on the floor of his home, a sort of back-to-earther. Val works for Hunter Control and hunts feral five-toed humans. Tinker and Mu Ren flee the hive after they have an unauthorized baby and can't get their classification changed. Moses is a piper (pipe inspector) who goes renegade and is later tried for it. Moon and his dog, Dan, are ferals who live on the surface, and Toothpick, a cyber-spear, helps them out.
This book takes some work to read, but I loved the wild imagination and, once I got used to the terminology, I rather enjoyed the feel of the whole thing. At times it reminded M. John Harrison's The Pastel City, Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer, and of some of the works of Karl Wagner and Brian Aldiss. It doesn't have the trappings of Sword and Sorcery fiction, but it does have that feel.
Recommended if you want to go places you've never even conceived of, even if it takes a bit of work to get there.
June 3, 2016
Few science fiction readers "of a certain age" have not read this dystopian novel. The peculiarly ecological vision of Bass found expression in only two books (
The Godwhale
is the other), and echoed contemporary fictions of future societies—Orwell's 1984, for example, and Huxley's
Brave New World
—in its view of human society as doomed to dark collapse under a weight of population and totalitarian control.
In a far-future Earth, our distant descendants have been altered genetically to allow them to live in ultra-crowded hives. The genes that code for aggression when people are pressed too closely together turn out to be linked to the gene for five toes, so the Nebish people are four-toed and complacent. They fill their dark underground warrens in their billions, despite another genetic shift (and social mores) that limit reproduction.
They are also cannibals. Unapproved children are allowed to exist until they begin to walk and talk. Then they are thrown into the "patty press," producing "flavors" for the Nebish who reports them. Other flavors come from rats and Nebish corpses tossed into the patty press. Aside from the taste of flesh, Nebish society is fed by the world-covering gardens of algae, and the lack of protein in their diet makes them weak and soft-boned, prone to die after only 25 to 30 years of life.
Within the Nebish genome, though, the five-toed gene still thrives. Occasionally, children are born with all five toes, or with "the bud of a fifth toe." These children are allowed to mature, because the hive needs their mechanical skills, but they are not allowed to procreate.
Without help, the Nebish are neuter. This gives Earth Society (the "big ES") control over reproduction, for in all except a few Nebish, hormone therapy is required to "polarize" into male or female. Tinker, an ingenious Nebish mechanic, has been authorized to produce a clone-type bud-child of himself, and is polarized male. He finds his attitudes about other Nebishes and life in the hive changing drastically; he fixates on the female, Mu Ren, who was assigned to carry his bud to term, and instead gets her pregnant with a hybrid child. Their child is born with five toes.
To save their child, Tinker and Mu Ren must escape the hive, and join the savage wild humans who live on the surface and steal from the world garden. Once there, they encounter a host of curious characters: the ancient human Moon and his equally antique dog Dan, the spear-shaped robot Toothpick, a liberated mechanical harvester, the wild human shaman with his cybernetic Ball, Moses the escaped hive pipe-master, and Nebish Val the human-hunter.
Bass gives us a chilling view of the future of humans under the foot of the Big ES, but also offers hope. Olga is coming, and her purpose is to save the five-toed humans from the Big ES. But what shape will that salvation take?
This is a classic novel that ought to be in every thinking reader's library, and studied along with Burgess and Orwell, Huxley and Harrison. If you've read it once, it's time to read it again, especially now that all these novels are available on Kindle.
In a far-future Earth, our distant descendants have been altered genetically to allow them to live in ultra-crowded hives. The genes that code for aggression when people are pressed too closely together turn out to be linked to the gene for five toes, so the Nebish people are four-toed and complacent. They fill their dark underground warrens in their billions, despite another genetic shift (and social mores) that limit reproduction.
They are also cannibals. Unapproved children are allowed to exist until they begin to walk and talk. Then they are thrown into the "patty press," producing "flavors" for the Nebish who reports them. Other flavors come from rats and Nebish corpses tossed into the patty press. Aside from the taste of flesh, Nebish society is fed by the world-covering gardens of algae, and the lack of protein in their diet makes them weak and soft-boned, prone to die after only 25 to 30 years of life.
Within the Nebish genome, though, the five-toed gene still thrives. Occasionally, children are born with all five toes, or with "the bud of a fifth toe." These children are allowed to mature, because the hive needs their mechanical skills, but they are not allowed to procreate.
Without help, the Nebish are neuter. This gives Earth Society (the "big ES") control over reproduction, for in all except a few Nebish, hormone therapy is required to "polarize" into male or female. Tinker, an ingenious Nebish mechanic, has been authorized to produce a clone-type bud-child of himself, and is polarized male. He finds his attitudes about other Nebishes and life in the hive changing drastically; he fixates on the female, Mu Ren, who was assigned to carry his bud to term, and instead gets her pregnant with a hybrid child. Their child is born with five toes.
To save their child, Tinker and Mu Ren must escape the hive, and join the savage wild humans who live on the surface and steal from the world garden. Once there, they encounter a host of curious characters: the ancient human Moon and his equally antique dog Dan, the spear-shaped robot Toothpick, a liberated mechanical harvester, the wild human shaman with his cybernetic Ball, Moses the escaped hive pipe-master, and Nebish Val the human-hunter.
Bass gives us a chilling view of the future of humans under the foot of the Big ES, but also offers hope. Olga is coming, and her purpose is to save the five-toed humans from the Big ES. But what shape will that salvation take?
This is a classic novel that ought to be in every thinking reader's library, and studied along with Burgess and Orwell, Huxley and Harrison. If you've read it once, it's time to read it again, especially now that all these novels are available on Kindle.
December 29, 2024
This book, published in 1971*, is part of the SF Masterworks collection. This is part of a duology of books, with Godwhale being the second part.
Set in the far future where Earth has basically become one giant megacity managed by ES. Humanity has evolved into a four-toed species that is part of the 'Hive'. Their breeding** is managed. There is still a social status of sorts. There are also the remnants of five-toed humans that live 'outside' the Hive. Stealing crops and living a stone aged existence. These people are hunted by the four-toed. They are seen as a threat to the Hive.
This book basically tells the story of a number of different humans - of different types - who are involved in escape and hunting, hunting and escape. Then rebellion. And then...well...something else altogether. I could see where this was going from about half way through, although I wasn't entirely certain. That didn't spoil the book.
Indeed I thought at the beginning I wasn't going to enjoy it but once I settled into the rhythm of it and the changing view points I enjoyed it a lot. It reminded me of both Blood Music by Greg Bear (indirectly) and Hothouse by Brian Aldiss (more directly).
The world building is excellent, the writing is pretty good and the story cleverly structured. I'll definitely be reading The Godwhale soon.
*The year I was born.
**This book forsee a future society where women have pretty much no rule except as breeders and r*p* is treated pretty casually. It isn't exactly a feminist masterpiece.
Set in the far future where Earth has basically become one giant megacity managed by ES. Humanity has evolved into a four-toed species that is part of the 'Hive'. Their breeding** is managed. There is still a social status of sorts. There are also the remnants of five-toed humans that live 'outside' the Hive. Stealing crops and living a stone aged existence. These people are hunted by the four-toed. They are seen as a threat to the Hive.
This book basically tells the story of a number of different humans - of different types - who are involved in escape and hunting, hunting and escape. Then rebellion. And then...well...something else altogether. I could see where this was going from about half way through, although I wasn't entirely certain. That didn't spoil the book.
Indeed I thought at the beginning I wasn't going to enjoy it but once I settled into the rhythm of it and the changing view points I enjoyed it a lot. It reminded me of both Blood Music by Greg Bear (indirectly) and Hothouse by Brian Aldiss (more directly).
The world building is excellent, the writing is pretty good and the story cleverly structured. I'll definitely be reading The Godwhale soon.
*The year I was born.
**This book forsee a future society where women have pretty much no rule except as breeders and r*p* is treated pretty casually. It isn't exactly a feminist masterpiece.
May 28, 2011
I began reading this and quickly gave it up; so fair warning, anything I say below may be unfair, as it's based on 70-odd pages at the beginning and end of the book.
This book is written as a protest against the hyper-organization and hyper-regulation of "civilization"; at the end, one character says fervently that even if it was necessary for survival, civilization would be too high a price to pay. The entire Earth has been turned into an underground Hive-society, run by "the Big ES", which keeps its three-toed citizens' soft, sun-sensitive bodies sheltered, in return dictating their activities, thoughts, and reproduction; the surface is all gardens, inhabited by robots and by five-toed "evolutionary throwbacks" (plenty of misunderstood genetics in this story) who live a "neolithic" life and are bloodily hunted. The one possible originality of this story, which has otherwise been done over and over by science fiction writers of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, is firstly the prominence given to pregnancy and birth (though not well-written), and secondly the fact that it is stated that one way the Big ES keeps Hive people tame is for them to be neuter, and they are not really aware of their surroundings until they are made reproductively active by being "polarized" with hormones, which makes them more enterprising (at least the males).
The book is written in short sentences, with few embellishments except for throwing in 2-dollar words the author doesn't always use correctly. It cuts quickly from scene to scene, switching between characters; but actually there aren't characters so much as what I might call "Representative Social Components" (which sounds like Hive-speak). This goes double for any females, who are little more than sexual attractants and wombs. All in all, the concept is so-so, the plot is passable, and the writing is pretty ham-handed.
This book is written as a protest against the hyper-organization and hyper-regulation of "civilization"; at the end, one character says fervently that even if it was necessary for survival, civilization would be too high a price to pay. The entire Earth has been turned into an underground Hive-society, run by "the Big ES", which keeps its three-toed citizens' soft, sun-sensitive bodies sheltered, in return dictating their activities, thoughts, and reproduction; the surface is all gardens, inhabited by robots and by five-toed "evolutionary throwbacks" (plenty of misunderstood genetics in this story) who live a "neolithic" life and are bloodily hunted. The one possible originality of this story, which has otherwise been done over and over by science fiction writers of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, is firstly the prominence given to pregnancy and birth (though not well-written), and secondly the fact that it is stated that one way the Big ES keeps Hive people tame is for them to be neuter, and they are not really aware of their surroundings until they are made reproductively active by being "polarized" with hormones, which makes them more enterprising (at least the males).
The book is written in short sentences, with few embellishments except for throwing in 2-dollar words the author doesn't always use correctly. It cuts quickly from scene to scene, switching between characters; but actually there aren't characters so much as what I might call "Representative Social Components" (which sounds like Hive-speak). This goes double for any females, who are little more than sexual attractants and wombs. All in all, the concept is so-so, the plot is passable, and the writing is pretty ham-handed.
September 12, 2017
An incredibly dark and twisted view of the future. Something very different about this one. I can't quite say what it was, but I can say that I loved it.
Edit: This is one of my all time favorite science fiction novels. The sequel is not as good as the original piece. It's also very under appreciated. I highly recommend it.
Edit: This is one of my all time favorite science fiction novels. The sequel is not as good as the original piece. It's also very under appreciated. I highly recommend it.
April 25, 2018
This was a great sci fi novel. The biology had some flaws of course, but the idea was interesting. Near the end the plot got a little convoluted and it wasn't totally clear why loads of the 5-toeds died. But the language they used to create a future culture was interesting, as was the well-written world of algae farms and destroyed ecosystems. I liked the poetry as well.
May 5, 2013
Hands down, my all-time favourite book. Every time I read it I discover something new.
September 22, 2015
This book could only have been written by a doctor. I'm also a doctor, and I laughed for ages at the Ass at Tabulum joke, and the Howell-Jolly body. However, even I thought it was pretty niche.
October 14, 2025
(if this shows a date, it's technically wrong I finished reading this in like June or something like)
A really interesting novel the main problem being I know actually very little about scientific biological terms so sometimes I'd be like *blank* and straight in one ear and out the other
I also decided to read this before Godwhale (as I had bought that well before this one) but decided to buy this one and read it first as they are related (somewhat)
Also read the SF Masterworks version
A really interesting novel the main problem being I know actually very little about scientific biological terms so sometimes I'd be like *blank* and straight in one ear and out the other
I also decided to read this before Godwhale (as I had bought that well before this one) but decided to buy this one and read it first as they are related (somewhat)
Also read the SF Masterworks version
May 27, 2016
Even in those moments when it isn't misogynist or generally disgusting, Half Past Human is extremely uncomfortable and I think more than a little fascist. Although similar to the superior Stand on Zanzibar in its concerns about overpopulation and in following the (I think wrong) ideas of The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Inquiry Into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations, Bass's warning takes a different tack with a far future post-human earth. A lot of science fiction has genetic engineering or cyborgs or whatever that give humans super powers or at least what most readers could call "improvements." Half Past Human is perhaps more realistic in imagining that administrators would probably use those technologies to make people more obedient and docile. I also really liked the spiraling hallways of the Hive, where crowds of spaced out, neutered workers casually trample and crush the bodies of suicides and the starving. In my mind it began to look like a cross between soul-less corporate hallways and H.R. Giger.
December 7, 2017
Was passed this book by a friend who recommended it for its Orwellian picture of a future set several thousand years in advance of where we are now. The basic premise is that AI / machines control humanities future and the objective function they work to is to increase biomass. Because biomass = anything living, the world ('hive') is vastly over-populated and also strictly controlled by the AI. Of course, outside of the hive there are rengade poulations of humans / nebish (mutated humans that are largely found in the hive) and this is where the story begins (redolent of brave new world?).
Having now finished the book and I can honestly say I wish I had never started this. The narrative is hidden beneath layers of abbreviation, the characters and their positions realtive to the narrative are confusing and ultimately obsfurcates the plot. I do believe however there is a great storyline here that with the judicious use of editing could have been a great book rather than a mediocre one. Overall, dissapointing.
Having now finished the book and I can honestly say I wish I had never started this. The narrative is hidden beneath layers of abbreviation, the characters and their positions realtive to the narrative are confusing and ultimately obsfurcates the plot. I do believe however there is a great storyline here that with the judicious use of editing could have been a great book rather than a mediocre one. Overall, dissapointing.
January 14, 2020
I loved this book for the world that was created.
There are some issues I take with certain philosophical and character aspects but...as with almost everything I read, I take it with the proverbial "grain of NaCl".
I mainly got this book because I very much want to read "The Godwhale" which I had bought, not knowing that it was a sequel of sorts to "Half Past Human".
A note on the language: A doctor wrote this. My parents are doctors and I am hoping I can get Dad to read this to tell me how well the author used his MD in his writing. Having listened to my parents talk work for years and gleaning a tiny bit of medical terminology, I am dubious.
Also, TJ Bass had some interesting ideas on health. Two words. One name. Jim Fixx.
There are some issues I take with certain philosophical and character aspects but...as with almost everything I read, I take it with the proverbial "grain of NaCl".
I mainly got this book because I very much want to read "The Godwhale" which I had bought, not knowing that it was a sequel of sorts to "Half Past Human".
A note on the language: A doctor wrote this. My parents are doctors and I am hoping I can get Dad to read this to tell me how well the author used his MD in his writing. Having listened to my parents talk work for years and gleaning a tiny bit of medical terminology, I am dubious.
Also, TJ Bass had some interesting ideas on health. Two words. One name. Jim Fixx.
July 20, 2019
Fascinating book from 1971 which, whilst it does suffer from some of the typical flaws of books from that era, such as the relegation of women to second class citizens, is not nearly as bad as some and that is balanced by a story that is excellent and challenges many preconceptions about good and evil. Here the 'hive' humans are not dissimilar to Wells' morlocks and they are easy to dislike but the savage humans, whilst closer to ourselves, are the ones that actual practise cannibalism. Bass makes no judgements as to which is better and challenges you to try and make your own. Very very good book which I picked up after seeing Neal Asher raving about it and which I highly recommend.
April 12, 2025
Here's a fascinating blast to the past--by way of thousands of years in the future. This 1971 SF is obviously a thing of its time, but let's ignore the male/female oddities for a moment to focus on what's actually GOOD about this novel.
Opposing sets of AIs have domesticated humanity, so much so that they're almost two different species. And before you say it's Wells all over again, at least those far-future peeps weren't outright eating each other for protein because almost ALL other life on Earth has been exterminated. Trillions of humans, all managed FOR THE GREATER GOOD, are now practically nothing better than vermin, rats, hunting for little pleasures and never for meaning.
It's damn plausible. And I can see it happening to us, too, when all other things are taken away and managed by others--men become hunters (to eat the other human species) and women are baby makers. It's a tight ecosystem. It's also shockingly plausible, and reminiscent of any efficiency-expert today.
The rest of the novel is pretty damn good, too. The characters are memorable, if not enviable, and they DO fight for meaning, breaking away from the constraints, and eventually murder so many of the sheeple--but at this point, we're just as disgusted with the way things are managed, so why not?
Helpful AIs sound and feel just like the ones we have today, oddly enough. The balance of logic and necessity on a big scale has utterly crushed the small.
So, let me just say one thing, before the brilliant minds holding the power today get any bright ideas--This, like other novels like Dune, are NOT SF visions of the future we ought to emulate. These are a WARNING, you MF's.
My synesthesia has been on a steady wave of nausea--these people don't have an issue with what they eat, but DAMN.
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.
Arctunn.com
Opposing sets of AIs have domesticated humanity, so much so that they're almost two different species. And before you say it's Wells all over again, at least those far-future peeps weren't outright eating each other for protein because almost ALL other life on Earth has been exterminated. Trillions of humans, all managed FOR THE GREATER GOOD, are now practically nothing better than vermin, rats, hunting for little pleasures and never for meaning.
It's damn plausible. And I can see it happening to us, too, when all other things are taken away and managed by others--men become hunters (to eat the other human species) and women are baby makers. It's a tight ecosystem. It's also shockingly plausible, and reminiscent of any efficiency-expert today.
The rest of the novel is pretty damn good, too. The characters are memorable, if not enviable, and they DO fight for meaning, breaking away from the constraints, and eventually murder so many of the sheeple--but at this point, we're just as disgusted with the way things are managed, so why not?
Helpful AIs sound and feel just like the ones we have today, oddly enough. The balance of logic and necessity on a big scale has utterly crushed the small.
So, let me just say one thing, before the brilliant minds holding the power today get any bright ideas--This, like other novels like Dune, are NOT SF visions of the future we ought to emulate. These are a WARNING, you MF's.
My synesthesia has been on a steady wave of nausea--these people don't have an issue with what they eat, but DAMN.
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.
Arctunn.com
September 19, 2018
I would probably rank this a 3.7. I liked the premise and some of the execution, however the author was a doctor and it showed. He would lapse into medical jargon at the drop of a hat. As for the story, it is sometime in the far future, man has evolved due to overpopulation into underground dwellers and they've used the surface as gardens in order to feed everyone. In order to manage underground, man has also evolved smaller and four toed. For some reason five toed humans are banished outside and hunted. By this time apparently mankind had hunted all animal life to extinction, and these four toed humans live on "patties" some kind of extract of plant, though it is basically tasteless, those that can afford it can get "flavored" protein, which it turns out is basically the hunted five toes and any four toed that have died.
This is the story of a revolution when the five toed, fight back. There is a recessive gene among the four toed, that occasionally results in a five toed baby. One of the recessive gene carriers, Tinker, has an unauthorized baby, with five toes. Instead of dumping it down the chutes, like a good citizen, he runs away and goes outside. There he meets a band of five toed people and the story is underway. There is some humorous scenes, which I liked, but the over use of medical terms and the kind of far fetched outcome knocked it down a bit.
This is the story of a revolution when the five toed, fight back. There is a recessive gene among the four toed, that occasionally results in a five toed baby. One of the recessive gene carriers, Tinker, has an unauthorized baby, with five toes. Instead of dumping it down the chutes, like a good citizen, he runs away and goes outside. There he meets a band of five toed people and the story is underway. There is some humorous scenes, which I liked, but the over use of medical terms and the kind of far fetched outcome knocked it down a bit.
August 21, 2025
In a future where humanity lives almost entirely underground, packed into hyper-organized structures known as the Hive, people have been genetically engineered to be docile, specialized, and perfectly adapted to a collective life devoid of individual freedom. The surface of the Earth has become the domain of a few rebels and agricultural machines, called “Agrimachs,” which exploit every available patch of land.
Bass, a trained biologist, constructs a subterranean civilization populated by “Nebishes” — sterilized, compliant humans incapable of violence or desire. The Hive is a functional utopia, but a deeply dehumanized one, where every calorie is counted and every square meter optimized. The surface, meanwhile, is left to the system’s outcasts: the “Broncos,” wild five-toed humans who live on the margins. Unlike the four-toed Nebishes underground, the Broncos retain instinct, freedom — and vulnerability. Hunted like game, they embody a form of organic resistance to the Hive’s hyper-technological and soulless society.
Having already read The Godwhale, I was eager to explore its prequel, Half Past Human. And while my preference still leans toward The Godwhale, Half Past Human remains an excellent novel — fascinating in its dystopian precision and its biologically driven vision of the future.
Bass, a trained biologist, constructs a subterranean civilization populated by “Nebishes” — sterilized, compliant humans incapable of violence or desire. The Hive is a functional utopia, but a deeply dehumanized one, where every calorie is counted and every square meter optimized. The surface, meanwhile, is left to the system’s outcasts: the “Broncos,” wild five-toed humans who live on the margins. Unlike the four-toed Nebishes underground, the Broncos retain instinct, freedom — and vulnerability. Hunted like game, they embody a form of organic resistance to the Hive’s hyper-technological and soulless society.
Having already read The Godwhale, I was eager to explore its prequel, Half Past Human. And while my preference still leans toward The Godwhale, Half Past Human remains an excellent novel — fascinating in its dystopian precision and its biologically driven vision of the future.
December 7, 2024
A Mark in New Wave Science Fiction
New Wave in science fiction is unique and its portrayal of what you would normally expect from the genre. The story is a testament to that notion. With the author being a doctor, in this book he absolutely fills the language with medical terminology. This is useful because in the story, the main characters are anatomically different from humanity. Getting a closer look at the “Nebish” opens the door of the imagination. It adds a flavor to the story that you would not find in others, making for a unique story with concepts that are uncommon. It starts slow, but quickly grows to be incredibly engaging.
It took me about 20 pages before I was inspired to read it vigorously. Once it picked up, I couldn’t put it down and finished it in two days. There are countless twists and turns, and the story ultimately goes places that you would never expect with novel concepts that astound the mind. Very callous and honest in its portrayals of the human species and various cultural and sociological elements of our lives.
I’ll definitely be revisiting this book after I finish the sequel The Godwhale
New Wave in science fiction is unique and its portrayal of what you would normally expect from the genre. The story is a testament to that notion. With the author being a doctor, in this book he absolutely fills the language with medical terminology. This is useful because in the story, the main characters are anatomically different from humanity. Getting a closer look at the “Nebish” opens the door of the imagination. It adds a flavor to the story that you would not find in others, making for a unique story with concepts that are uncommon. It starts slow, but quickly grows to be incredibly engaging.
It took me about 20 pages before I was inspired to read it vigorously. Once it picked up, I couldn’t put it down and finished it in two days. There are countless twists and turns, and the story ultimately goes places that you would never expect with novel concepts that astound the mind. Very callous and honest in its portrayals of the human species and various cultural and sociological elements of our lives.
I’ll definitely be revisiting this book after I finish the sequel The Godwhale
February 4, 2025
Half Past Human feels like a science fiction novel written by someone with a PhD in Biology and a very odd sense of humor. The book is set in the far future where mankind lives mostly in underground hives, while a select few live above ground in neanderthal-like conditions. Look at the artwork on the cover, and in this case that's exactly what you get. The technology advanced hive dwellers hunt the primitive men, until a Messiah-like figure emerges to lead them to "paradise.".
This book is chock-full of biology references, many of which I think went over my head, and the story is interesting enough, although it took a while to get into the world Bass created here. One of the main premises of this book is that in the far future mankind has depleted the biological diversity of Earth until basically only humans remain. This creates an interesting/amusing situation where almost all protein is derived from "recycling" humans, meaning a world of cannibalism! Ultimately though the difficult bio terminology and the weirdness of the world itself made this an interesting read, but not one I think I'll remember much of in the future. 3.5/5 rounded down
This book is chock-full of biology references, many of which I think went over my head, and the story is interesting enough, although it took a while to get into the world Bass created here. One of the main premises of this book is that in the far future mankind has depleted the biological diversity of Earth until basically only humans remain. This creates an interesting/amusing situation where almost all protein is derived from "recycling" humans, meaning a world of cannibalism! Ultimately though the difficult bio terminology and the weirdness of the world itself made this an interesting read, but not one I think I'll remember much of in the future. 3.5/5 rounded down
December 28, 2021
This book was work to read. It's not terrible but focuses more on the science than the fiction in sci-fi, with overly long scientific jargon just being regurgitated on the page. It's not bad but can make for a trying read. This book also loves its anagrams and good luck if you miss it. It all gets explained-both the scientific terminology and anagrams unique to this story- the first time they're mentioned but never again so if you forget something you're screwed. This book could benefit from a glossary for when you forget these things. There's also an abundance of characters and I wouldn't say it's a bad thing but it makes it hard to get interested in any one characters story arc when you don't know how important they are or will be to the story. I understood about half of this book and it's really easy to miss stuff. It gets explained but sometimes the explanation leaves me with even more questions. Only read this cause I wanted to read The Godwhale- the loose sequel to this- but if this is indication of what's to come I can't say I'm overly eager to dive in.
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