[TNZ]∎ Download Gratis Half Past Human SF Masterworks TJ Bass 9780575129627 Books

Half Past Human SF Masterworks TJ Bass 9780575129627 Books

Download As PDF : Half Past Human SF Masterworks TJ Bass 9780575129627 Books

Half Past Human SF Masterworks TJ Bass 9780575129627 Books

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" The Godwhale (SF Masterworks) is the other), and echoed contemporary fictions of future societies—Orwell's "1984" 1984 (Signet Classics), for example, and Huxley's "Brave New World" 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 seminal novels are available on Kindle.


Tags : Half Past Human (SF Masterworks) [T.J. Bass] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>A novel of dystopian future in the tradition of SOYLENT GREEN and H.G. Wells' THE TIME MACHINE,T.J. Bass,Half Past Human (SF Masterworks),Gollancz,057512962X,Dystopian,Science Fiction - General,Science fiction.,FICTION Science Fiction General,Fiction,Fiction Dystopian,FictionDystopian,Science Fiction And Fantasy,Science fiction

Half Past Human SF Masterworks TJ Bass 9780575129627 Books Reviews

For those of us interested in intelligent and well thought versions of a future (optimistic or not), this book is one to read. It leaves people thinking.
Great book.
Ground breaking Science Fiction. Enjoyable and revealing with it's medical and physiological emphasis.
Different writing style , very clinical . Great gritty well thought out dystopian tales about the dangers over overpopulation , exhausting resources, the effects of soft living & reversing evolution .
I have read this book multiple times. I keep losing my copy and when I saw it on , I knew I had to have it again. This is a tale of a dystopian future, where mankind's expansion is taken to the extreme. Definitely worth reading.
I love the SF Masterworks series, they have turned me on to all kinds of cool books that I would probably have never heard of otherwise.
Half Past Human is one of those gems of science fiction which should never have been allowed to be forgotten in the first place. It paints a convincing and plausible picture of a dystopian future where overpopulation and automation has created the hive, an underground society where humans are bred for specific task only with permission. Humanity is almost lost under the crushing force of conformity and only a few ragged survivors known as buckeyes survive in the wilderness above ground where they are hunted like pest animals.
If you enjoy quality science fiction with real thought and depth to it then you can't go past this book.
Bass had a unique take on man's dystopian future. The world in which trillions of people live below ground in unending, crowded cities and the entire surface of the Earth has been transformed into a vast farm. Most animals extinct. Everything else optimized for consumption.

His creation of the "four-toed nebbishes", our evolutionary fate, is a stroke of literary genius.

There are, of course, some few old-style humans remaining on the planet. They live on the surface and survive (barely) by stealing from the planet-spanning factory farms. But they are constantly in danger of extermination.

The analog to Jewish mythology are obvious in the tale but entertaining and effective without the usual veil most authors drape over their message.

Bass published one other novel, set in the same world of the four-toed nebbishes and fugitive humans the superior GODWHALE which remains one of my favorite sf novels from that period.

I gave this novel five stars because, while not quite as great a book as GODWHALE, it's still better than most sf novels from this period.
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" The Godwhale (SF Masterworks) is the other), and echoed contemporary fictions of future societies—Orwell's "1984" 1984 (Signet Classics), for example, and Huxley's "Brave New World" 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 seminal novels are available on .