Name: Cyteen
ISBN: 9780446671279

C. J. Cherryh

Cyteen

Gavin

Magnificent. Cherryh is often deeply unclear (examples to follow), but she makes it work by using just enough unclarity to cover the gaps in her made-up mind engineering. I could call it allusion rather than unclarity.

Very uncomfortable: large parts are about the internal motivations and human strengths of the leaders of a budding scientific dystopia with an immortal dictator. The humanists and abolitionists are the antagonists, and foiled at almost every turn. We follow the development of a charming little girl destined to (view spoiler)[grow into an anti-democratic power broker, the centre of a slave economy, and a serial rapist. (hide spoiler)] Or is she?

Better even than Vinge at baroque skulduggery, chilling effects, the spiritual harm of surveillance, and decades-long cons.