Overall, I did enjoy Cyteen for the story and the characters, particularly in the development of the second Ariane. However, much of the politics and the verbal sparring went over my head, and I fear this was a significant portion of the novel. All of the different alliances and enmities between the major political influences in the novel seemed to change so fast, and often to cues that I as a reader did not pick up for several pages after. The only point that remained constant was Mikhail’s dislike of both the young and old Ariane, and the need for everyone, everywhere, to watch what he or she says for fear of eavesdroppers. I would have liked more discussion on the sides for and against the system that includes all of the genetic manipulation and the purpose of the ‘azi.’ I think the Abolitionists were the major party against this, but I may be wrong. I guess with the severely limited starting population of a planet, some gene manipulation would have to occur to stop proliferation of genetic diseases and weaknesses, but I was surprised that this was not important to many of the characters of the novel. It appeared that the people had largely just accepted the changes and experiments, as long as the result was human. I have trouble believing the lack of controversy here. I guess the secrecy of the grander experiments done by Ariane and the other top researchers may have helped hide this from the public, but I just don’t think the population would accept this system.
Still, all this small starting population (meaning limited and often unified viewpoints) and the introduction of the ‘tapes’ seems to have created a society in which this is the norm. The tapes themselves are also controversial, both the tranquilizings needed to view the tapes and the level on which many of them affect the recipient. While the ability to learn and remember something very quickly and painlessly would be great, I am surprised that there has been no sabotage. The talk of a tape ‘worm’ interspersed in the novel introduces the idea of some latent danger from the tapes, but with the way they can affect the most basic logic of human consciousness, I would think there would have been some kind of terrorist or conspiracy attempt by those in control. On a similar note the azi, particularly Caitlin and Florian, have very little say in what they do, and constantly strive to make their master(s) happy. Perhaps this takeover has already occurred through selective breeding and tape inundation, but in such a way and on a scale as to make acceptable to the public as well. I would think that some kind of artificial intelligence could do many of the jobs just as well as the azi, while not being requiring all of the birthing and raising process. A society that has faster-than-light travel should be able to manage this. There is so much of this absolute control over human life, with cloning, breeding, and rejuve, and it strikes me as odd that there has been so little effort to create trouble.