More CJ Cherryh: Cyteen

Downbelow Station, for all its strengths, is not my favorite CJ Cherryh. For that we must go to Rimrunners (centered around another strong heroine, Bet Yeager) or Tripoint (hard sci-fi combined with commentary on, of all things, a son's relationship with his mother; also a very freaky-cool spaceship navigator named Capella) or -- Cyteen.

Here's one of the interesting things about Cherryh as a writer: we have seen the universe through the eyes of the characters in Downbelow Station, we have seen them fighting against an enemy called 'Union' - and Unioners are the bad guys, for sure - and then we have Cyteen, an entire novel seen through Union eyes. And it turns out they are people as well, and not so bad after all.

At least not all of them.

Cyteen (the title of the book is the name of the central planet of Union) is confusing in places, another Cherryh trademark. A major character is murdered early on - we think. We don't know who did it in the beginning - and at the end of the book we're still not sure. I re-read the passages dealing with the incident several times, thinking that I must be the only reader who couldn't figure this out. But then I discovered (on amazon again!) that others have wondered as well.

(A sequel to Cyteen will be published early next year: Regenesis. It's already pre-ordered and in my shopping cart. Supposedly all will be revealed at that point, at least re the death of Ariane Emory.)

Another trademark of Cherryh: sex. You betcha. I'm not talking about explicit sex. Sometimes you need to read between the lines, in fact, to decide whether two characters are sleeping together or not. But sexual relationships are definitely part of the story in Cyteen.

The apparent murderee, Ariane Emory - a powerful older woman, confident, a genius - has had sex with a young man (with an element of duress attached).

Said young man - Justin, who is certainly one of Cyteen's heroes - is (probably) having a sexual relationship with another young man, an azi (azi are manufactured people - that's the best short description I can manage). This homosexual relationship with the azi, Grant, seems to be a source of emotional conflict for Justin. Although we're not quite clear on that.

The cloned and re-born (post-murdered) Ariane Emory, whose birth and development into a young woman make up the majority of the story, has a crush on Justin, and at one point half-heartedly tries to blackmail him into sleeping with her.

And Grant, the azi, offers to sleep with the young Ariane - just to get her off Justin's case:

"I'll do whatever you want, young sera. Any time you want. I
have no objection. Here, if you want. Or at your apartment.
All you have to do is ask me."

Although there are many other strands in the story (politics, teenagers, power, friends and enemies, trust), the many and varied sexual relationships have an ultimately subversive effect: these people are different. This society is different.

Welcome to Cyteen.