I am selective about the sci-fi I read. It’s not a genre I know my way
around in and I’ve read some that struck me as, well, just silly. But lo,
my son has now grown to the age where he is reading adult fiction and
spends most of his free time with his nose stuck in sci-fi novels.
Robert A. Heinlein is his current passion. Plus, summer is
coming and he’s too young to drive which means he’ll be spending long
hours out here at the farm. I need to have some authors lined up to throw
his way when he gets bored and we’re browsing the library shelves.

And then Will talks about how good Cherryh is. I usually concur with
Will. Not always; it’s highly unlikely that I will ever make it thru the
entire Patrick O’Brian “Jack Aubrey” series though I did give
the first one a go. But usually Will is spot on. So when I saw
Cyteen on
the shelf at the local Large Chain Bookstore, it was a sale, right then
and there.

If you want a good plot summary, go to our C.J. Cherryh page
and read Will’s. He nails it well. I read it in a weekend and wanted more
so I stopped and picked up a few more at the used bookstore on the way
home. 40,000 in Gehenna was there and I opened it thinking it
would be more of the same. Wrong. Nothing like it. Initially, I was
disappointed but as the book progressed, it grew on me.

Gehenna is the name of the planet where 40,000 born-men and clones are
left in an experiment in sociogenesis. The clones are programmed to
reproduce and farm; the born-men are there to administer the society and
fulfill the upper-level functions required. And it goes wrong when
sentient life is discovered in the form of huge lizard-like critters that
build mounds and tunnels in swirl patterns. The book is about the
evolution of the society from one that is structured by off-world
standards to one that has adapted to the environment and has become
viable in its own right. And then the off-planet men come back to check
up on how things are going. And things start going wrong. It’s a theme
that’s been done before. What fascinated me were the lizards, called
calibans. They create the patterns in the dirt and change the
way people communicate. They provide the forms that shape the society.
They create the power structure in the society. I wish she had made the
novel longer and fleshed it out more. Cyteen
detailed everything but we
only get a taste in 40,000 in Gehenna. And that taste left me
wanting more.