Cyteen
This month I read Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh for my sci fi book club.
tl;dr I rate the book 2 ½ stars.
Drinking game
Okay, drink every time:
- Justin is traumatized
- Gehenna or Sociogenesis come up
- Someone gets Worked
- Any capitalized Word
- Justin and Grant make coffee
- Someone dines at Changes
- Corain is stuck between the extremists and the expansionists
- Young Ari saves Reseune's finances (guppies, horses, etc.)
- Young Ari saves Reseune with a television interview
- Standby. Ari, this is Ari senior..
I could go on. This book is a trip. It felt like more of a soap opera than a science fiction novel. There are so many plot holes and loose ends that I read the ending pure azi.
Waiting for the plot
From the beginning, which introduced a few dozen characters, only for a tiny few to materialize into recurring involvement in the story. But what was the story? There was no discernible plot, time just seemed to move along, events occasionally interspersed between dozens of pages of the same inner dialogue repeated over and over. By the end of the book, I realized there was no climax, no plot curve, just a steady stream of dialogue, internal monologue, and observation.
Okay, but that wasn't the point, right? The point was the character development. Justin is psychogenesis'd into becoming Ari 2's close teacher and research partner - he has the potential for genius, but it has to be brought out through vicious means. Jordan was too headstrong, independent, and in constant conflict with Reseune, so Ari manipulates young Justin's psychsets to mold him into her ideal.
Ari 2's development felt like it was on rails. There were not any surprises or subverted expectations, which may have been part of the point - she became Ari senior, just as cunning and manipulative. Something about that didn't fit right for me. It seemed that Ari 2 was becoming a slightly different person than Ari senior, which I felt strongly when Ari 2 was becoming aware of the manipulation / psychogenesis. I half expected Ari 2 to give up the fight and choose a different path - I think this would've been a more fitting character arc.
Azi
Another recurring theme is the integration of azi into CIT society. There are multiple levels, from genetic engineering to the individual psychology to the group sociology down through following generations (sociogenesis). I thought it an interesting reversal from humanoid robot to robotic human, and it posed challenging moral questions: are the azi human? Can azi consent? Are humans able to be manipulated to such an extent? I would have liked more exploration of this.
Loose ends
So why did Denys try to kill Ari 2? Did Jordan kill Ari 1? Probably not, so who did and why? How did 20 years go by in Union after Ari 1's passing, with practically nothing changing in the political landscape? Who are the rest of the Family running Reseune?
I felt quite frustrated with the loose ends and plot holes - for such a long book, I expected a cleaner ending.
That said, I did manage to finish the book.