Rating: 
Summary: Long but worth it.
Review: Cyteen is quite a long book, but it is still very good and has all the things I have come to love about C.J's books. It is also thought provoking making you think about what strange things our decendants will have to deal with.
Rating: 
Summary: Conceptual Brilliance
Review: Cyteen may be the most powerful piece of modern science fiction to date. It brilliantly maintains drive and coherence in grand yet highly personal scope. Cherry's characters display the clash of pure intellect and basic humanity in a manner I have not experienced outside of Crime and Punishment. Essential for any intelligent sci-fi fan. Also great for picking up women.
Rating:
Summary: This is a wonderful book!
Review: Cyteen was the first book by Cherryh that I read. While I do agree with some of the other people who posted reviews that the plot does become somewhat complex at some points, I have to disagree about this being a reason for people not to read this book if they haven't read any of Cherryh's other works. The complexity of the plot is one of the main things that I liked about this book. When the plot twists and turns a bit, it makes a book that much more enjoyable for me. Since most of the characters in the book are psychologists as well as geneticists, the book explores the realm of the human psyche quite a bit. Try not to analyze yourself too much while you read the book. :)
Rating:
Summary: One of the best SF novels of all time
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Great, except for a few flaws.
Review: First I think a great deal was left unresolved, second something undefinable, & lastly there were some seeming tech incongruities i.e. people drove cars to hyperspaceports etc. That last is minor since I'm not nitpicky. However it was an intense tale of manipulation, intrigue, violence, & ambition. The parts about a young girl's life were sometimes as intense as the parts about murder, rape, & terrorism. Also it wasn't as confusing as her other novels I've read in that it didn't have as many subplots. It is still hypercomplicated. Also there was enough lighthearted moments to keep it from being bleak or dreary. It's still a hard edged book that I wouldn't recommend to younger readers. I mostly enjoyed it, & enjoyed it a great deal, but I wish more would've been resolved.
Rating: 
Summary: Nope!
Review: Good idea but too long because unnecessarily trying to be too complex. Poor characterization - if you think Justin's constant whinings is characterization that's another matter. The overlong political intrigue is bland and because of that the book misses the point (cloning and slavery) altogether. It ends up with a "surprise ending" which makes you think "so what?!".
Rating:
Summary: A strong, well written story of a touchy subject
Review: How do you know that when you wake up in the morning, all your memories and knowledge is yours? How do you know when what people do around you is entirely spontaneous reaction to the world around you? For little Ari, she doesn't and she can't. Otherwise the experiment fails.
Cherryh has done a masterful job in this story to show how a complex concept like cloning can be done. As science breaks through even now with techniques for cloning, it only gives us a body. Cherryh gives one possible method, one that works with the kind of Big Brother future SF tends to hint so strongly at. Take all the records of a person's life. Every tidbit, every mistake, every triumph, and recreate them.
I haven't given this a 10 mostly because while I think this is a superb book, there are a few drawbacks. It's *long*. It covers the entire childhood of a woman. It's not the easiest of reads, which isn't a problem, but makes it difficult to encourage others to read it.
Regardless of which, if you get a chance to read it, do so. It's well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Cyteen
Review: I agree that this is a wonderful book. However the word 'Book' does not explain, in any of the reviews, that it is a triad of three previously published books by C.J Cherryh: The Betrayal; The Rebirth; The Vindication. Therefore, its considerable length.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: I can't identify what it is about this book, but I read it years ago, reread it a few years later, and will probably never be able to get it out of my head. The book is quirky, ragingly paranoid (as another reviewer pointed out), and not easy to make friends with, but it is one of the greats of science fiction, right up there with the very best by writers like Sterling and Gibson. And there are characters in it who will be with me til the day I die ... maybe because, somehow, they are me ... terrifying notion! Cyteen is indescribable. You just have to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Simply beautiful.
Review: I discovered this book almost by accident--I hadn't (and still haven't) read any of her Alliance-Union books at that point, but I was hooked. Ariane Emory and most of the supporting cast are beautifully drawn--not good, not evil, but *human.* And the azi, too, have their own humanity. I admit I'm utterly confused by the ending but the rest of the book was so good that I *still* love the story. (And email me if you can explain the end!)
| 
