Cyteen is a densely textured psychological thriller set around the genius scientist-politician Ariane Emory, and the laboratory complex Reseune. Roughly 120 years old, Ari is a titan in her field of psychological engineering and human cloning, responsible for much of the developments that make the planet of Cyteen and the whole political system of Union work. She's also a dangerous sociopath, mixing science, politics, blackmail, and sex with her 17 year student Justin Warrick. When she is murdered in her lab, Justin's father Jordan takes the blame and accepts exile.

Ariane has a contingency in place for her death. She's to be cloned and raised in an environment as close to her own childhood, recreating her irreplaceable scientific and political talents with barely a break in continuity. Most of the book follows Ari (II) growing up and coming to grips with the looming figure of her predecessor as she learns to outmaneuver her enemies, forge new alliances within her fractured family, and repair what was done to Justin Warrick.

It's an interesting concept, and definitely one big enough to hang a series around. Can a personality be preserved through death? Can "greatness" be turned on like a light switch, with the right combination of genes and experiences. Unlike Downbelow Station, I fully bought into the details of the setting: The deadly ecology of Cyteen outside the safe space of human habitation; The immense psychological pressure of the labs and apartments; the politics of Union; and particularly the technology of the azi. Azi are humans raised on subliminal tape, the major product of Reseune, and probably why Union won the war. In their niche, azi are quick and clever, although they lack general adaptability. They're also perfect slaves (although some Alpha models can earn citizenship), and the abolition of azi is *the* major political conflict in Cyteen, and one that inspires fanatical violence.

Unfortunately, this book is also such a slog. Some of it is Cherryh falling in love with her imagined biological and psychological science. I think 90% of the sentences containing the phrases 'endocrine flux' and 'deep tape' could have been removed to the benefit of the book. Technical points of parliamentary procedure and computer security play similar important, and tedious roles. A lot of it is "close camera" on deeply unhappy people, like Justin Warrick, or the frankly monstrous Ari. There's little pleasure in watching a girl grow into the tyrant that the elder Ariane Emory began the book as, whatever her genius.

But I think I've hit on what I dislike about Cherryh as an author, and that is that she is relentlessly opposed to the traditional forms of science fiction storytelling. I'm not a strict Campbellian by any means, but there's a reason why the monomyth format is enduring. In a very general format: Here's a character you can identify with. Here's a world different from our own. He's rising danger, a test of skill and character, a decisive victory. Here is the return home. Cherryh doesn't do any of that in the "proper" order, because life isn't tidy, history isn't tidy, and things don't happen for a good reason.

But stories do, and if I want to read things without any kind of narrative structure, I've got a whole shelf of RPG sourcebooks.