Helpful Score: 3
I am so glad I took time to sit down and start reading this book before giving it away unread. It's been a very long time since I've read a book that I'd give a top rating. The story revolves around a "bland" named Tedla and confronts issues of gender, slavery, love and despair. On Tedla's isolated planet there are males, females and blands -- the asexual class who live behind gray doors and spend their lives in servitude to the humans.
As a child, like all children on its planet, Tedla was raised to believe that it would one day be either male or female. After all, blands are dumb and Tedla is bright and beautiful but things don't work out well for Tedla and its beauty makes it more of a target as it matures and learns exactly how best to "serve" its cruel humans. Defenseless, heartbroken and torn between two worlds, after being taken in by a kind human, Tedla's story is one I won't soon forget and one I will probably reread more than once.
As a child, like all children on its planet, Tedla was raised to believe that it would one day be either male or female. After all, blands are dumb and Tedla is bright and beautiful but things don't work out well for Tedla and its beauty makes it more of a target as it matures and learns exactly how best to "serve" its cruel humans. Defenseless, heartbroken and torn between two worlds, after being taken in by a kind human, Tedla's story is one I won't soon forget and one I will probably reread more than once.
This is a disturbing science fiction piece, on a world where some grow up without a gender and become part of a powerless underclass. I found some portions of the book upsetting, but it will really make you think.
I could not put this book down. A fascinating tale of a neuter human from a planet with three genders. One of the best books I have read in a long time!
this is a very unusual story - unique
