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Cyteen #2
The Rebirth
A brilliant young scientist rises to power on Cyteen, haunted by the knowledge that her predecessor and genetic duplicate died at the hands of one of her trusted advisors. Murder, politics, and genetic manipulation provide the framework for the latest Union-Alliance novel by the author of Downbelow Station. Cherryh's talent for intense, literate storytelling maintains interest throughout this long, complex novel.
248 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
C.J. Cherryh
283 books3,448 followersCurrently resident in Spokane, Washington, C.J. Cherryh has won four Hugos and is one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed authors in the science fiction and fantasy field. She is the author of more than forty novels. Her hobbies include travel, photography, reef culture, Mariners baseball, and, a late passion, figure skating: she intends to compete in the adult USFSA track. She began with the modest ambition to learn to skate backwards and now is working on jumps. She sketches, occasionally, cooks fairly well, and hates house work; she loves the outdoors, animals wild and tame, is a hobbyist geologist, adores dinosaurs, and has academic specialties in Roman constitutional law and bronze age Greek ethnography. She has written science fiction since she was ten, spent ten years of her life teaching Latin and Ancient History on the high school level, before retiring to full time writing, and now does not have enough hours in the day to pursue all her interests. Her studies include planetary geology, weather systems, and natural and man-made catastrophes, civilizations, and cosmology…in fact, there's very little that doesn't interest her. A loom is gathering dust and needs rethreading, a wooden ship model awaits construction, and the cats demand their own time much more urgently. She works constantly, researches mostly on the internet, and has books stacked up and waiting to be written.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 7, 2009
5.0 stars (going on 5.5 to 6.0 stars). This is one of the most brilliantly written books I have ever read and I believe is a work of special genius (no pun intended based on the subject matter of the book). This is not an EASY book to read and is not what I would describe as TONS of FUN. It is a complex, richly detailed, psychological science fiction mystery peopled by characters of vast intellect and extreme cunning. This makes the story one in whiuch the reader must pay close attention. However, the pay off for such attention is well worth it. This is a very important book. In sum this book is BRILLIANT, VERY ORIGINAL AND A SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION.
Winner: Hugo Award for Best Novel
Winner: Locus Award Best Novel
Nominee: British Science Ficion Award
Number 30 on Locus list of All Time Best SF Novels.
Winner: Hugo Award for Best Novel
Winner: Locus Award Best Novel
Nominee: British Science Ficion Award
Number 30 on Locus list of All Time Best SF Novels.
May 26, 2020
The first paperback printing of C. J. Cherryh's large Hugo-winning novel Cyteen was in three parts, each one a separate book, and described as a trilogy.
Part 1: The Betrayal
Part 2: The Rebirth
Part 3: The Vindication
Since then, Cherryh has repudiated that format, and will no longer allow it to be published other than in a single volume. I couldn't find anywhere what the reason for that might have been. But after reading the entire novel, I feel that it could be because part 1 was so incredibly slow that no one would buy parts 2 and 3. While parts 2 and 3 do pick up a little, the writing is generally high on intrigue and low on action. It could be just me, as a non-student of 1970s jargon, but I had trouble understanding the innuendo and perceived threats that were motivating the characters in their decision making throughout the novel.
Fortunately, almost by random chance, I had recently read the precursor books in the correct order before this one. Downbelow Station and Forty Thousand in Gehenna provide important context for the setting of this book. It is set entirely on the Union homeworld of Cyteen, about which much is implied in those earlier books but never directly told. The plot begins (after 200 pages) with the assassination of the rich, powerful, sex-abusing scientist/politician Ariane Emory, of a founding family of Cyteen. A clone of her is grown, and as the girl grows she gradually learns to assume her destiny as a replacement for her predecessor. A somewhat more sympathetic character exists in Justin Warrick and his Azi (bio-engineered servant) partner Grant. Justin himself is a clone of another famous scientist now living in exile. While cloning and psychological programming are givens in this setting, the real science of the novel is political science, which unfortunately is not so interesting to me.
Part 1: The Betrayal
Part 2: The Rebirth
Part 3: The Vindication
Since then, Cherryh has repudiated that format, and will no longer allow it to be published other than in a single volume. I couldn't find anywhere what the reason for that might have been. But after reading the entire novel, I feel that it could be because part 1 was so incredibly slow that no one would buy parts 2 and 3. While parts 2 and 3 do pick up a little, the writing is generally high on intrigue and low on action. It could be just me, as a non-student of 1970s jargon, but I had trouble understanding the innuendo and perceived threats that were motivating the characters in their decision making throughout the novel.
Fortunately, almost by random chance, I had recently read the precursor books in the correct order before this one. Downbelow Station and Forty Thousand in Gehenna provide important context for the setting of this book. It is set entirely on the Union homeworld of Cyteen, about which much is implied in those earlier books but never directly told. The plot begins (after 200 pages) with the assassination of the rich, powerful, sex-abusing scientist/politician Ariane Emory, of a founding family of Cyteen. A clone of her is grown, and as the girl grows she gradually learns to assume her destiny as a replacement for her predecessor. A somewhat more sympathetic character exists in Justin Warrick and his Azi (bio-engineered servant) partner Grant. Justin himself is a clone of another famous scientist now living in exile. While cloning and psychological programming are givens in this setting, the real science of the novel is political science, which unfortunately is not so interesting to me.
September 13, 2018
I'm not quit sure what to think of that book. It was easy and fun to read but it was lacking a real focus. It was more about a child growing up than about scifi topics, which were there from time to time but more as a background than being the real core of the story, which I thought they were supposed to be.
Since this is the second book in a series I had trouble understanding this world during the first pages since things aren't explained. However, after a while I understood everything I needed to know.
Sometimes I wondered who this book was written for. It handles adult topics and isn't written childishly, but when things like horses or sexuality are explained in the same detail to the reader as to little Ari, I feel like I am not the target demographic. But these were just a few moments.
It was very interesting whenever something nrw about the first Ari, or the way this influences the new Ari, was revealed.
I just wished this would have been focused more on the sci fi aspects and the bigger picture than on the life of a little girl. I will definitely give another book by Cherryh a try some day.
Since this is the second book in a series I had trouble understanding this world during the first pages since things aren't explained. However, after a while I understood everything I needed to know.
Sometimes I wondered who this book was written for. It handles adult topics and isn't written childishly, but when things like horses or sexuality are explained in the same detail to the reader as to little Ari, I feel like I am not the target demographic. But these were just a few moments.
It was very interesting whenever something nrw about the first Ari, or the way this influences the new Ari, was revealed.
I just wished this would have been focused more on the sci fi aspects and the bigger picture than on the life of a little girl. I will definitely give another book by Cherryh a try some day.
July 20, 2017
Much better than the first part, the characters are more fleshed and the story is a lot more fun.
January 7, 2018
Love this series.
April 6, 2019
More politics. Intrigue. Bureaucracy - weaponized. This and more in a well-paced, rather quick read in the middle book of the trilogy. You develop some sympathy for the protagonist.
June 23, 2019
One of of Cherryh's early great novels.
July 25, 2019
Whoops! I thought this was the first book in the series. It was great though.
April 30, 2020
9/10
An amazing amount of tension winds through the story of the childhood and early adolescence of Ari Emory’s replicate, with political and military ramifications for Cyteen and Union at stake.
An amazing amount of tension winds through the story of the childhood and early adolescence of Ari Emory’s replicate, with political and military ramifications for Cyteen and Union at stake.
July 25, 2023
Read this series along time ago and re-read it a few years ago. Still loved it.
July 17, 2023
I came to understand that I had read the second book first. Highly recommend reading the first book first.
June 12, 2024
En ocasiones sospecho que la traducción tiene sus flaquezas, pero a modo general me parece un libro inteligentemente bien escrito, amable e interesante, que te sumerge en el mundo de Cyteen, su política y su código moral. Es mucho más liviano que su primera parte, sin dejar de lado los detalles y la creación de un contexto sólido.
January 25, 2014
brilliant. she raises all kinds of fun issues about a society that knows how to prolong life into the hundreds of years, but not indefinitely. Issues like increased inability to deal with one's own mortality. Psychological delusions that one's clone will be their own reincarnation sharply balanced alongside a strong scientific case for the said clone actually HAVING some of their predecessor's memories. Remembering things the original experienced. There is a very strong case made for that. However it gives way to delusions that such a thing is reincarnation. Characters who actually KNOW BETTER than to believe that a clone retaining some of the original's memories is actually the same thing as the original coming back to life in a new body.....STILL BELIEVE THEIR OWN CLONE WILL BE THEM BACK TO LIFE. Confusing the two things DELIBERATELY rather than accept the state of mortality. Bizarre.
Also warns us that the perfection of human cloning will most likely result in the clones being considered property of the company that made them. Definitely makes sense....let's hope not but anyone's gotta admit it's believable.
Also warns us that the perfection of human cloning will most likely result in the clones being considered property of the company that made them. Definitely makes sense....let's hope not but anyone's gotta admit it's believable.
May 21, 2016
Mucho mejor que su predecesor porque hay más concentración en Ari II.
Oh, la parte de la nueva base de datos me encantó, muy lindo "diálogo". Sin embargo, esta parte es más cotidiana, más centrada en cómo creció Ari y qué hizo mientras crecía, sí, sigue manipulando personas, por suerte.
Definitivamente más digerible que el anterior, menos técnico, quizá con menos aventura, pero me lo leí en un tirón (una noche).
Veremos el próximo que supongo que ahí estará concentrada todas las municiones pesadas.
Oh, la parte de la nueva base de datos me encantó, muy lindo "diálogo". Sin embargo, esta parte es más cotidiana, más centrada en cómo creció Ari y qué hizo mientras crecía, sí, sigue manipulando personas, por suerte.
Definitivamente más digerible que el anterior, menos técnico, quizá con menos aventura, pero me lo leí en un tirón (una noche).
Veremos el próximo que supongo que ahí estará concentrada todas las municiones pesadas.
June 2, 2010
I've been amazed with Star Trek and Time Trax when I picked up this book in my local bookstore for 5000 rupiahs! And boy it amazed me with all the "adult" interaction between 13-year-old clone and her azis alongside with detailed political discussion and a lot of hard words to figure out, one thing describe it best: AMAZING. :)
July 31, 2013
Writing is only slightly better than the first. So now at the end of the book we are 2/3 of the way through the original and there is still not much explanation of what is going on. Many characters are overly paranoid that someone is going to find out what they are thinking and send them "away". Too much political fighting for my taste.
February 7, 2019
8/10. Media de los 13 libros leídos de la autora : 8/10
Me llevo yo bien con la Cherry. Casi siempre entretenida de leer, me quedo con “Hermanos de tierra” o “Paladín”. Y de series la de Cyteen (la de Chanur tb está bien). La chica ha ganado creo que 4 Hugos, que no es poco.
Solo me ha defraudado suyo “La puerta de Ivrel”
Me llevo yo bien con la Cherry. Casi siempre entretenida de leer, me quedo con “Hermanos de tierra” o “Paladín”. Y de series la de Cyteen (la de Chanur tb está bien). La chica ha ganado creo que 4 Hugos, que no es poco.
Solo me ha defraudado suyo “La puerta de Ivrel”
January 27, 2022
Fairly standard empowered-but-ignorant-superchild fare. The burgeoning Machiavellian mindset is delightful, though. The book has dated somewhat, but is still very readable, and this is certainly more fun than Cyteen: The Betrayal (Cyteen).
September 2, 2012
Excellent fictional future world! Rivals Azimov's Foundation Trilogy. Interesting exploration of applied psychology and the role of masters and slaves, parents and children, protectors and primitives. This is #2 of 3 in the Cyteen series. Glad to find this even 30 years after publication ...
October 5, 2014
I have mixed feelings about this series. Part of my problem is that it is above my head. Part of it is that I don't like where the author is taking the lead character, having her grow up to quickly. Yet, I have to keep reading to see how Ari turns out.
February 14, 2009
A fine grained tale of intergalactic political machinations and planned genetic manipulation.
December 31, 2010
Part 2 of Cyteen: a lot faster paced than the first part. The psychologies of growing up with secrets change a person, and those around her might not be ready for those changes....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2012
The cyteen series is a favorite from one ofmyfavorite authors.
November 30, 2007
Genre: Science Fiction
OMG, how did I miss these?! Absolutely brilliant!
OMG, how did I miss these?! Absolutely brilliant!
Read
April 12, 2009Among my favorites. Ever.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews