---
product_id: 116761718
title: "Half Past Human (SF Masterworks)"
brand: "t.j. bass"
price: "Rp758457"
currency: IDR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.id/products/116761718-half-past-human-sf-masterworks
store_origin: ID
region: Indonesia
---

# Half Past Human (SF Masterworks)

**Brand:** t.j. bass
**Price:** Rp758457
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Half Past Human (SF Masterworks) by t.j. bass
- **How much does it cost?** Rp758457 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.id](https://www.desertcart.id/products/116761718-half-past-human-sf-masterworks)

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- t.j. bass enthusiasts

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- Trusted t.j. bass brand quality
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## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![Half Past Human (SF Masterworks) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514pCmmnu-L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Genetically-Modified Us
  

*by D***T on Reviewed in the United States on 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" 
  
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.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 3.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Not as enjoyable as it was in the past, but still a good read
  

*by H***N on Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2022*

I read this book, and THE GOD WHALE, several times in the 70s & 80s. By the 90s, I found more books by and about women, and stopped. The author introducing this edition is correct: The book fails the Bechdel test (or any varient), completely. HOWEVER, I just finished watching the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings. Those are great movies.  LoR was written bya man for men, and the almost total lack of female characters makes me nuts! I still enjoyed the movies.I still enjoyed this book, but I wouldn't recommend it to most SciFi fans. Maybe just to the lovers of classic SF or those who are bored to tears with the preponderant coming of age angst.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    An original take.
  

*by J***H on Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2013*

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.

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*Product available on Desertcart Indonesia*
*Store origin: ID*
*Last updated: 2026-02-13*