A review by morebedsidebooks
Halfway Human by Carolyn Ives Gilman

dark emotional hopeful
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

She smiled. “I think you overestimate how steeped in sexuality we are. It doesn’t dominate our waking thoughts you know.” 

“You’re not even conscious of it, for the most part, but it’s always there. It’s very subtle: levels of formality, types of language, deference, rivalry, respect. Even your voices and the way you hold your bodies change, depending on which sex you’re with. I don’t know why you don’t find it oppressive, except that you’re so used to it.” 

 

In 1998 American author Carolyn Ives Gilman made her striking debut with the science fiction novel Halfway Human. 

When an unprecedented visitor from the currently closed off planet of Gammadis lands in one of the clinics on the moon Capella Two after a suicide attempt, xenologist Val is called in. A unique opportunity she finds much more than one could first imagine. The patient named Telda will slowly share not only a firsthand account of the culture of these genderless aliens, occurring with male and female on its planet, but of domestic slavery and sexual abuse at a tender age. Literally unspeakable in a society that doesn’t even have a word to express rape. Memories that have driven Telda into mental imbalance and desperate actions. Further political and capitalist interests swirl as the two find themselves in a fraught tug of war against the powers that be. One that pierces the veil of not only a mysterious planet but realisations about the Capellans as well. 

Halfway Human is one of my favourite novels in the genre, if not in general of all time. Nominated for awards, even today a reader might see why this was such a buzzed about book. Themes examining gender, class, exploitation, and capitalism continue to resonate. Gammadis and Capella may be imaginary worlds but many of their aspects reflect and bore into uncomfortable truths of our own. Structures of oppression are maintained, human rights suffer, inequalities increase, everything including information becomes heavily restricted and a commodity. 

Perhaps the best books while having us look at something also have us look at ourselves. I can’t fully express the power of reading this novel which deals in heavy matters. (Do give serious consideration to the content). Too how Halfway Human was something like an having an epiphany. 

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