Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best SF novels of all time, August 15, 1997
Cyteen. To me, the word just sounds evil. I don't know why, perhaps it's the way the syllables run together. All I know is that everytime I saw the word spoken in Cherryh's other great SF novel, Downbelow Station, I couldn't help but shudder. Perhaps it's was the coldness of the people there, or the whispered way everyone spoke about the planet, or the ranks of faceless soldiers, all the same.
And now about this diverse world comes Cyteen, the novel. What a novel it is, close to seven hundred pages, and Cherryh used every single page to tell this story of young friends trapped in a world of security constantly watching over their shoulder. This book reeked paranoia in a way that would make Thomas Pynchon proud. Friends and enemies all meld together in this novel and you can never tell which is which.
Cherryh does a great job detailing the planet Cyteen and the society that grows up on it. The people and culture are as diverse as (dare I say it?) Frank Herbert's Dune. You get a feel for the government and the politics that surround everyday life, the behind the scenes stuff regular people don't know about.
But that's not it. Cherryh also gives us arguments on the different between the born men and the azi, the genetically created people, weaving these threads into an already idea packed story.
Nothing Cherryh has written before or since can come even close to this book. The only two I can think of are Downbelow Station or maybe even Forty Thousand in Gehenna (which ties into this novel). It's a landmark of science-fiction and should be read by any who consider themselves a fan
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cherryh's masterwork . . ., May 8, 2003
When I first read this fat, extraordinary novel a decade ago, I concluded it was one of the best science fiction novels produced in (at least) the past half-century, and, having now re-read it, I still believe that. It's set in Cherryh's Merchanter universe (a couple of generations after the concluding war, the story of which she told in Downbelow Station), but that's really only the distant backdrop. (You'll also find here the back-story to Forty Thousand in Gehenna.) This is a very detailed, very in-depth, very carefully worked-out, very thought-provoking study of power and the claustrophobic effects of its mis-management, of the relationship of "natural born" psychology to manufactured and tailored minds, of the effects on a society of an artificial underclass (the "azi") that is both more and less than chattel slavery, . . . and along with all that, a satisfying and very affecting story of a cold, slightly inhuman genius and the mystery of her death (which was possibly a murder), and the replicate who is intended to replace her -- and who succeeds more completely, perhaps, than her creators ever anticipated. At 680 pages, there are, of course, several other plots moving full-tilt, also filled with detail and nuance, but they all interrelate nearly seamlessly. Her ability to play off one character's collection of concerns against another's is amazing, and she shows a considerable (and very speculative) understanding of the depths of psychological intervention. She's also a master of precise prose . . . when she wants to be. I have never doubted that this book did indeed deserve the Hugo it was awarded. And now I shall put it back on its shelf for another decade.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clone Wars, July 27, 2004
'Cyteen' - even the very word has a coldly menacing ring to it.
Readers coming in forearmed with knowledge gleaned from the author's 'Downbelow Station', or perhaps 'Merchanter's Luck', will have certain expectations when plunging into this densely-packaged story. After all, Cyteen, as the capital of a dystopian society controlled by runaway scientists, stands for the heart of darkness in Cherryh's Merchanter universe.
Remarkably Cyteen the novel takes a completely unexpected turn away from Ms. Cherryh's mediocre space operas; what we are treated to instead is nothing less than a personal epic detailing the lives of Ariane Emory, a female genius, murdered, and cloned back to life. A veritable female Bildungsroman in structure and intent, Cyteen chronicles the education and maturation of two versions of the same woman, nurtured from identical genes. But wait, there's more. Lots of more. You see, after Ariane Emory II is brought back to life, she inherits her genemother's life and all the associated baggage that comes with it, including friendships and long-time political enemies. And did I ever mention that her predecessor's murder case was never solved? Or was it?
Mixed in with the nature-versus-nurture theme and murder mystery is a group of brilliant scientists hell-bent on plotting against each other - and against their own future incarnations - over the course of outsized lifetimes extended by medicine and cloning. Evoking more tension with a couple of lines of dialogue than most authors pull off during their whole careers, Cherryh manages to flesh out believable portraits of nefarious, super-intelligent personalities.
At this stage I have to say that Cyteen just might be the best book I have ever read, and without a doubt the abolute best Cherryh has ever produced. If I had to compare Cyteen to other works of literature, I could throw in Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 'Aurora Leigh', tinged with an unhealthy dose of Philip K. Dick's brand of paranoia.
At its heart Cyteen is a realistic exploration of the myriad problems inherent in human cloning. No doubt this work could serve as a textbook in any bioethics class. What struck me as noteworthy and laudable is that Cherryh does not give any verdict on the ethical and moral dimensions of cloning a human being. What she does, however, is expose as laughable the fears that simply cloning a human being would create an identical person. As this book attests, something much more radical is required for that to happen...
A couple of warnings:
The first fifty or so pages tend to discourage even the stalwart reader from continuing further into the book; for some unfathomable reason Cherryh has decided to dump the only boring part at the beginning of Cyteen. There is also a rape scene involving the protagonist and antagonist that is appropriately disturbing in all of its ramifications, as its effects continue to haunt several generations of the same persons.
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