Regenesis by C. J. Cherryh (February 2016)

[Taylor]

This book is the direct sequel to the Cyteen series we read with the group last year, and it looks promising! Has anyone started it yet?

[Dorene]

I've started my reread. I'm about a third of the way in. This is a favorite of mine, both Cyteen and Regenesis, so I'm thrilled to be visiting them again with discussion in mind.

[Tony]

I still need to read Cyteen. I have the audiobook from audible, but even the audio is somewhat intimidating at a whopping 36 hours long.

The only audiobooks I have that are longer are Clive Barker's Imajica (37 hours), Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 (almost 47 hours) and The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (a whopping 65 hours).

My apologies if that was too much of a tangent. I still very much look forward to listening to Cyteen sometime in the future.

[Taylor]

Cyteen is great, but yeah audiobooks that require that much time commitment are strenuous. I didn't make it to the end of 1Q84 because I got so tired of listening to it all the time, I would listen and listen and listen and still have like 20 hours left hahaha

[Tony]

For me audiobooks are actually much less of a time commitment Dan physical reading. Mostly because I can listen to digital audiobooks while I'm cooking, cleaning, doing other chores, driving, etc. still a lot of time though, so I want to be ready for it once I start

[Pam]

re: audio books. Same thing here! I listen whenever I can.

To those who gave read this before: do we need to read the first book to understand the sequel? Not that I'm opposed to reading it- just trying to an ahead.

[Pam]

*plan ahead

[Sandra]

Cyteen is great, but very complex. I'll be curious to hear how well it comes across in audio book format.

Reread Regenesis about a month before this started. I enjoyed it, but Cyteen still stays at the top of my favorites list.

[Dorene]

I agree, both books are complex both in plot and character development. For me, this is my 3rd or 4th reread of Regensis and I admit, I'm just now starting to wrap my head around the politics of the plot.
(view spoiler)[
I've previously paid more attention to the characters and their relationships and almost let the politics skim over the top. This time around I'm able to understand more the underlying political and historical aspects of the story. It helps to a certain extant having read 40000 in Gehenna: Roman as well as a couple other novellas set in the same universe. I'm getting a better feel for Ari and Arianne's importance to the overall setting and just how their brains were so crucial to the political direction their environment was taking.(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Chantal]

I really enjoyed Cyteen, in audiobook format btw. It does take some effort to wrap your head around it and then to remember who everyone is, how they fit within "the family", their agendas...

I still need to get a hold of Regenesis. I'm putting off reading it because I've been having a hard, heavy time lately so I'm mostly reading trashy lit I don't think my fellow feminists would entirely approve of ;)

[Alexa]

Hey, feminists can read trashy lit just like everyone else can! Depending on what your particular brand of trashy lit might be, you might really enjoy Cherryh's Merchanter's Luck. A light-weight space adventure/romance that I thought was lots of fun! It's amazing how many different writer personalities she has!