From Amazon.com
In the spirit of groundbreaking books that deal with gender, such as
The Left Hand of Darkness, Carolyn Ives Gilman gives readers
Halfway Human, the story of a "bland" named Tedla. Blands are gender-neutral inhabitants of Gammadis, a planet that also has traditional male and female sexes. In Gammadis society, blands are less than human, objects to be owned and used, brutally trained for a life of servitude and obedience. No bland has ever left Gammadis, until Tedla turns up on Capella Two, where it lands in the care of a xenologist named Val. As Val tries to help Tedla recover from a lifetime of misuse, readers come to learn Tedla's life story, a tale that is at times difficult to take but that is fascinating nonetheless.
Ingram
Tedla is young, beautiful and blond but is neither he nor she. On a far-off world, an asexual class of "blands" exists to serve their fellow humans, protected and isolated from contact with the rest of the universe. But no bland has ever left its sheltered homeworld--until now. Tedla has been found in an alley light-years away from its planet. And it has just tried to commit suicide. Val, an expert in alien cultures, helps Tedla recuperate and in doing so, uncovers the secret tortured world of the blands. Ads in "Locus". Online promo. .
