© James Pyles

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Half Past Human is a dystopian novel by T.J. Bass (Thomas Joseph Bassler) that I found recommended on social media by science fiction writer Neal Asher. The prolific Asher seems to read as much science fiction as he produces and I’ve followed a number of his suggestions in the past.

This 1971 story starts out as a typical “after-the-end-of-the-world” dystopic tale where much of humanity lives in a series of worldwide underground cities collectively known as “the Hive.” They follow an ultimate authority called the “Big-ES” and their lives are programmed by that authority for various functions. They only reproduce when Big-ES sanctions certain citizens to be “polarized” or to develop sexually as male and female. Otherwise, they are neutered four-toed Nebishes.

On the surface, vast crops are grown to support the Nebish population, tended to and harvested by intelligent machines. Also on the surface are large groups of five-toed “Buckeyes” who live a stone age level of existence. Where the Nebishes value community and compliance above all else, the Buckeyes cherish individuality and freedom (you see where this is going?).

A few of the Buckeyes have found oddly intelligent companion technology from another age including “Ball” and “Toothpick,” who advise their five-toed companions. They are able to override the commands and programming of Hive machinery, both on the surface and under the surface-caps, down the spirals to the Hive.

Since the Buckeyes endanger the surface crops, Big-ES periodically calls for selected citizens, the strongest and most competitive, to participate in hunts. They ride in flying machines and wearing protective clothing against sunlight and other harsh surface conditions, preying on the Buckeyes with bows and arrows.

But something else is going on. Some of the Nebish population is defecting to the outside, finding methods of surviving on the surface, and joining bands of Buckeyes.

Also a strange religion has cropped up, not only among Buckeyes, but also within some of the Nebish citizens, the worship of a deity called Olga. The sign of Olga’s return and rescue of all the Buckeyes is hidden within astrology, but humanity has lost much of its previous knowledge including about the stars.

Also the book is considered a “fixup,” or a novel made up of a series of related short stories, but in reading it, the story is seamless or almost.

What started as a typical 1970s dystopian story ended up being a lot more intricate than I anticipated. I’d read a bunch of these books in my youth and this one is different. Bass delves into the complexities of both societies which at first appear to be both evolutionary dead-ends. The whole of their existence above and below ground is depressing and pointless. I’d have expected the Hive to ultimately win against even a large population of stone age refugees but that impression was deceiving.

Olga turns out not to be a myth and the signs of her return misinterpreted. Especially the latter part of the story mines much of the Christian belief of the rapture, where the faithful are taken up into Heaven to be with God, leaving the rest of humanity to struggle and suffer on Earth.

However, there is no supernatural solution involved, no matter what the worshipers of Olga may have believed. There is an ancient and technological intelligence involved which periodically takes the more evolved five-toes away to other planets. It also teases out the four-toes who carry the more advanced gene, having them reproduce and eventually spawn a new race of five-toes on the surface every so many centuries.

In that sense, humanity’s salvation from the dregs of obedience, conformity, and bland, dead-end “unity,” (not to mention “hope” and “joy”) is repeated in recurring raptures to the literal heavens.

Admittedly, I struggled to keep reading through about the first third to half of the book. As I said, it’s grim and depressing with no apparent end in sight. However, a bit at a time, the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel begins to emerge.

It’s always a pleasure to read legacy science fiction since it’s not needlessly encumbered with the elements insisted upon by the current SF/F gatekeepers (inclusion, representation, progressivism, and gender ideology). That said, Half Past Human most definitely does speak to the world we live in today. As progressivism “progresses,” we are continually bombarded with messages of compliance to authority, even if their directives result in sickening and weakening the herd, making us dependent on our own “Big-ES” (ES stands for “Earth Society” but could also be interpreted as government or culture).

Anyone who advocates for individual autonomy, promoting of health and physical well-being (in opposition to “body positivity” and living on an endless stream of pharmaceuticals and processed food), is deemed a “hater,” “incel,” “nazi,” and spreader of “disinformation/misinformation.”

Depending on your religious or spiritual beliefs (or the lack thereof), you may or may not adhere to your own version of an Olga who will save you in the end. Maybe the real life Olga is just the will to oppose Big-ES and the Hive. We can hope to continually move toward the goal of living an authentic human life, one where we can appreciate ourselves, each other, and a world not weighed down by dependence on drugs, technology, or the lure of the “Hive” or herd.

Bassler was not only a SciFi author but a physician (which explains a lot of the details he included in his book). He died in 2011 at the age of 79. He won two Nebula awards, one for this novel and the other for The Godwhale.

This one wasn’t in my local public library system, so I had to purchase a surplus copy. I’ll probably hang onto it for a while, but eventually, I’ll likely donate it to the library and share the wealth.