Rating: 
Summary: one of the best!
Review: I just finished 'Halfway Human' (originally published 1998 by Avon Eos) and came here to check to see if it won the Hugo or the Nebula that year. This book is that good! It has a very believable far future feeling, with deep deep characterization and one of the most poignant heroes in recent SF history. I'm here to root and cheer and shout for Carol Ives Gilman.
Rating:
Summary: What a read!
Review: I just re-read this novel and wanted to comment that this is one of the best books I have ever read in my life.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read that leaves you disturbed at the concepts.
Review: I liked this book. It's reminiscent of Huxley's "Brave New World". Similar in concept. In Huxley's world, they alter the fetus producing dim witted, manageable humans for cheap labor. In "Halfway Human", Gilman sets it up where lack of intervention will produce the same results. If you are like me and and think that slavery and the manipulation of people to that purpose is abhorrent, you'll find this book interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, very thought provoking!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Great book about society values and human emotion
Review: I think the concept of this book laid a good groundwork to explore society values and personal feelings. I really love books of that nature (Orson Scott Card writing some of my favorites of this type). I highly recommend this if you like science fiction just to be able to look more thoroughly at the human race. But if you're more into sci-fi for heavy politics or war, this isn't that type.
Rating:
Summary: Great book about society values and human emotion
Review: I think the concept of this book laid a good groundwork to explore society values and personal feelings. I really love books of that nature (Orson Scott Card writing some of my favorites of this type). I highly recommend this if you like science fiction just to be able to look more thoroughly at the human race. But if you're more into sci-fi for heavy politics or war, this isn't that type.
Rating:
Summary: Alien seeks refuge from info-industrial complex.
Review: Poor Tedla. A "bland" it may be, but it's story is a rich broth of xeno-ethnology and perfectly non-Freudian psychology. All those well-meaning people telling it that it's 'problem' can be fixed. Why? It doesn't have a problem. But, it's advisors all seem to have problems and they all find Tedla to be the genetalia rasa to work them out on.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent sci fi book on gender role and power issues
Review: This book was a fascinating study of societal roles, including those of gender and minority issues. I found the juxtaposition of the character Tesla, a "bland" trained by society to serve others as an asexual servant, with a visiting intellectual studying the role of blands, both interesting and sad. As Tesla's interaction with others continued to show that she was intelligent, insightful and resourceful, the book was able to portray her growth as a character. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered why some of us feel "halfway human" and believes one can achieve despite negative life circumstances.
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