Cyteen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Cyteen**

Cyteen paperback cover
Author	C. J. Cherryh
Cover Artist	Keith Birdsong
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science Fiction
Publisher	Warner Books
Released	May 1988
Pages	680 (Hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-446-51428-4

Cyteen (1988) is a Hugo award winning novel by author C. J. Cherryh, and at its heart is a realistic exploration of the myriad problems inherent in human cloning. It also fleshes out the various aspects of the nature versus nurture argument concerning human development.

1 Dramatis Personae
2 Plot
3 Nature V. Nurture
4 Apparent Discrepancy with "Forty Thousand in Gehenna"
5 Other editions
- 5.1 Cover artwork
6 References

[edit] Dramatis Personae

Ariane Emory I - Director of Reseune
Ariane Emory II - Clone and Personal Replicate of Ariane Emory I
- Both Arianes are referred to most frequently as "Ari"
Denys Nye - Department Director
Giraud Nye - Department Director
Grant - Azi (alpha-class) that has grown up with Justin, as a brother.
Jordan Warrick - Reseune scientist
Justin Warrick - Son and Personal Replicate of Jordan Warrick

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Cyteen is a novel that takes place in Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe. Founded in 2201 by a group of dissident scientists and engineers backed by financial interests on Mariner Station, the Cyteen system includes the planet Cyteen and Cyteen Inner and Outer Stations. Cyteen declared its independence from the Earth Company in 2300 CE and now serves as the capital of Union. It is located at Lalande 46650, referenced in current star catalogues as BD+01 4774.

The planet's atmosphere is moderately toxic to humans, necessitating enclaves, or semi-encapsulated city-states, which influences Union's political outlook. Cyteen is seen as the antithesis of Earth; the heart of Union is the research city Reseune, the center of all research and development concerning human cloning, which Earth refuses to use. Clones are incubated in "womb-tanks". Cloned humans, or "azi", grow at a normal rate, but unlike regular humans, they are socialized and educated via conditioning training, called "tape" technology, often involving sedation, effectively teaching the subject subconsciously. This technology is not limited to azi; it is used by normal humans as well, though to a lesser extent.

Ariane Emory runs Reseune, with the support of her department directors, Denys and Giraud Nye. Emory's heavy-handed management has fostered a strong dislike both within Reseune and in Union.

There are a number of political factions in Union's government, the main ones being the Centrists and the Expansionists. The Expansionists, led by Ariane, believe in enlarging Union, through exploration, building new stations and continued cloning. Her political enemies prefer to consolidate. The Centrists want to halt expanding and instead improve the existing stations and planets within Union.

The government of Union consists of a Council of Nine and the Senate. Ariane is one of the Nine, representing Science (as almost every administrator of Reseune has done). Other branches include the military and the state.

The government gives acknowledged geniuses "Special" status. An example is Estelle Bok, the inventor of the equation that led to faster-than-light travel, called jump. Specials are deemed national treasures and are tightly protected.

Ariane and Jordan, a co-worker she often clashes with, are both Specials. Jordan has also created a clone of himself, named Justin. Justin is friends with Grant, an azi made from the modified genome of another Special. Because Grant is a unique genome, and experimental, he remains the property of Reseune.

Ariane uses Grant's status to manipulate Justin and begins an "Intervention" on Justin, using Deep Tape and sedatives while having sex with him. When Jordan learns of this, he is furious, and goes to see Ariane. Ariane is found murdered later that day, and it is later revealed that she had the early stages of cancer.

Prior to her death, Ariane had cloned herself and arranged for the clone to relive her life as closely as possible, down to her hormone levels and including the gift of two bodyguard azi, Florian and Caitlin. Ariane also created a computer program to help guide her replacement to adulthood. The clone calls herself Ari in order to distinguish herself from the original.

Ari eventually repairs the botched "Intervention" on Justin to make him stop having tape-flash, which is like déjà vu, but much stronger. She also comes to terms with the fact that she is different from her predecessor, though it is hard to know where Ariane's memories stop and Ari's start. The book ends with her wresting back control of Reseune.

[edit] Nature V. Nurture

Within the story the reader is exposed to several different examples of Nature versus Nurture. In overview, the reader can see that Ariane Emory (1) was conducting experiments on fellow human beings to ascertain how much each was necessary for the final product. She creates the different variables, using herself and her clone as the "control" where everything is the same.

It is told that Estelle Bok, the scientist that created the Faster-than-Light equation that allowed humanity to supersede the speed of light was cloned. This clone, however, was not interested in Physics, but rather music, and was withdrawn her whole life, proving that a simple clone would not produce a similar personality, but rather an identical twin.

Specific mention is made in Ari's "notes" that a mother whose child had fallen to her death from a balcony had been given permission to be cloned, and it is further noted that the mother took the cloned child to raise as her own, as she had the original child.

Grant is used to evaluate Nature, and shows a modified genome, to see if he will turn out to be Special as his gene donor was, despite the change in a gene that lead to a heart defect.

Justin is used to evaluate late Nurture, to see if major life changing events can cause the same effect. This is the purpose of Ariane 1's intervention, as she's trying to make Justin become almost entirely similar to his father. Justin and Grant do become sexual partners, as his father Jordan has a long-term sexual relationship with an azi partner, and Justin does focus on the same area of Tape creation.

A chemist Special on Fargone Station is another attempt at a control, making a precise clone who passes through a similar life experience to see if he will become the same or similar person. This attempt occurs entirely during Ari 2's life, and ends with the Special from whom the clone is made committing suicide because of his overbearing, neurotic mother.

Ariane is herself in a similar situation to this last Special, but there are key differences. While her "mother" is transferred to Reseune facilities aboard the Space Station Fargone, (simulating the death of Ari 1's mother), other life experiences are abandoned. Ariane 2 discovers that Ari 1's uncle sexually molested her, while the Nyes who took care of her did not. Despite this heavy change, Ariane 2 still feels that she is Ariane 1 in entirety and resumes the identity of her predecessor.

This suggests that in Cherryh's opinion it is not just the genome but nurture as well, and that it is only through a combination of the two that we come to be who we are.

[edit] Apparent Discrepancy with "Forty Thousand in Gehenna"

Cyteen as described as having an environment hostile to human life, and considerable effort is needed to create habitable enclaves. This fact is, however, never mentioned by the colonists from Cyteen who appear in the earlier Forty Thousand in Gehenna. Although they have just come from a world where humans can live only in a few artificial enclaves to a world where humans can survive unaided by artificial means, they do not discuss this transition in the earlier work. They soon begin to call their new world "Hell" or "Gehenna".

The government of Cyteen is described to be slowly and painfully terraforming further bits of their planet's deadly environment, spending enormous resources to do so. But in Forty Thousand in Gehenna the same government "gives away" a habitable planet to the Alliance, and there is no mention in the book of retaining the world for Union.

[edit] Other editions

At one point, the novel was broken into parts and published in a 3-volume edition:

Cyteen: The Betrayal
Cyteen: The Rebirth
Cyteen: The Vindication

Cherryh has stated that she disapproves of this edition and has written, "There was a paperbound publication that split the novel into three parts, but this has ended: the current and, by my wishes, all future publications, will have Cyteen as one unified book." [1]