T. J. Bass

T. J. Bass, the pen name of physician Thomas J. Bassler, was an American science-fiction writer born in 1932 in Clinton, Iowa, and trained as an Army pathologist. His Hive series -- Half Past Human (1971) and The Godwhale (1974), both nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel -- depicts an overpopulated far-future Earth where most of humanity lives underground in tightly managed hives, with narratives noted for their unusually precise anatomical and physiological detail, reflecting his medical background, and their preoccupation with genetic engineering and cybernetics. Under his own name, Bassler also published the nonfiction book The Whole Life Diet (1979). He died in 2011.