Cyteen is like a freight train. Half way down the first page the freight train hits you, and then you spend the rest of the book speeding along at eighty miles per hour, trying to figure out which is more exciting and terrifying: The pain from the impact, the rush of the air, or the beautiful scenery streaking by. Then, as the novel comes to an end, the train slams on its brakes and you’re thrown against a wall from sheer momentum. Stumbling away under the impact of so many disparate sensations, you come to the realization that this was one of the greatest experiences of your life. And like a madman on a rollercoaster, you’re wondering how long you have to wait before getting another ride like it.

I’d bounced off Cherryh twice before. When I was ten years old, I got Rimrunners from the SFBC. I bounced off that very hard, although I’m pretty sure now that it was a combination of being too young and entering a series at the wrong point. But it did leave a sour impression in my mind when it came to her, so I didn’t try her again until last year, when I picked up the omnibus edition of The Faded Sun trilogy. After getting about twenty pages into that book, it got left at home when I went to Las Vegas. While in Vegas I ended up getting involved in several other books, and, as a result, The Faded Sun ended up going back onto the shelf.

Then Cyteen came to my attention. And I’m glad it did.

THE BEGINNING
In media res, as a term, seems an insufficient description of the deep end into which Cherryh throws the reader at the beginning of Cyteen.

Here’s a little future history. Wham. Here are some characters. Wham. Here’s some political intrigue. Wham. Here’s some character drama. Wham.

For me, the experience was like dog-paddling wildly in a typhoon. If I had stopped paying attention and struggling, the novel would have overwhelmed me. If I had allowed myself to be distracted from the page, I think it would have become incomprehensible and – shortly thereafter – boring.

Or, to put it another way: Cherryh opens the book with a lot of sound and fury. If you don’t pay attention, then it will signify nothing – and the opening will simply read as an interminable barrage. But if you’re paying attention, you can see the clues being dropped: This does signify something. Something’s going on here. What is it? What does that mean? And if you’re in that mindset, then every little detail becomes crucial and intriguing.

THE STORY

Cyteen is a political thriller. It’s a murder mystery. It’s a generational epic. It’s a coming of age story. (Actually, it’s two coming of age stories. Possibly three.) It’s a psychological novel. It’s a future history.

Cyteen brings to mind thoughts of Dune, Ender’s Game, Use of Weapons, A Deepness in the Sky, and the Foundation Trilogy.

Cyteen demonstrates a remarkable breadth and depth. Cherryh has an equal willingness to tackle the big ideas and explore the small ones; to show her characters at the worst of times and at the best of times.

THE EXPERIENCE

Cyteen is not an easy book to read. And I mean that in a good way. This is a novel which is going to ask you to do your part as the reader: Its not going to hand you much of anything on a silver platter. Its going to force you read between the lines, draw your own conclusions, and interpret the narrative. If you don’t, the novel will simply read as a meaningless, turgid piece of self-indulgence.

But if you give it the careful reading it deserves, you will be rewarded with a richness which is hard to describe.

By way of example: I noticed at least five instances in which, if I had missed or glossed a single sentence, my entire reading of the work would have shifted profoundly. And as a result, of course, that means that the book demands a re-reading.

Cyteen is like a jewel: When you read it, you’re looking at it from a unique perspective. The smallest elements that stand out for you will shape the way the novel presents itself to you. Someone else reading the novel would notice a different set of details, and their reading experience will shift as a result. Cyteen presents itself as a truly multi-faceted work – a work whose appearance will change for the reader and the reading.

I simply cannot marvel at this enough: Reading Cyteen does not have the normal effect of starting at one point (page one) and traveling to another (the last page). Instead, you are immersed into a mental web in which your picture of the novel as a whole is constantly being revised: Something you see on page 10 will be reshaped by something you see on page 310.

Even as I sat down to write this review, I ended up glancing through the first few pages. I was immediately pulled right back into the book, and as I read just a handful of paragraphs I was amazed to discover that new details were revealing themselves and, once gain, my impressions of the entire novel were being transformed.

THE CHARACTERS

Cherryh also demonstrates an incredible gift for putting you inside the minds of her characters. The novel is incredibly enriched by the depth of her characterizations: Her POV characters are not there merely to narrate events, they are there to respond to them in both thought and deed.

The effect of all this becomes a master stroke in this story, which is largely about perception and personality. Reading Cyteen is like standing in an endless house of mirrors: You see nothing directly, but reality is limitlessly reflected all about you.

Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that every character’s perceptions are completely legitimate – even when they’re completely inverted from one another. You’ll read Character #1 and think you’ve got everyone figured out. Then Cherryh will jump over to Character #2, and you’ll realize that not only did you not have Character #2 figured out… you need to seriously re-analyze your opinion of Character #1, too.

I’ve seen plenty of authors put me into the heads of multiple characters. But only Cherryh has left me absolutely convinced that every single point of view is legitimately the vision of a fully realized character.

CONCLUSIONS

Cyteen is a masterpiece. Its supreme mastery of form and character, matched to a plot of epic proportions and psychological complexity, is simply awe-inspiring.

Perhaps its strength can be left to a simple testament: As I finish writing these words, I am nearly overwhelmed with a desire to go back and devour it again.

GRADE: A+

For additional comments on Cyteen, which include SPOILERS, click here.

NOTE ABOUT SPOILERS

The following reaction will contain spoilers for The Garden of Iden, the first novel in Kage Baker’s Company series.

As a policy, I’m trying to keep the spoilers in these reactions to a bare minimum and limited to the first fifty pages of the book. If the spoilers exceed those guidelines, I’ll make a point to include a note up front. Spoilers for the two books discussed here are kept to the usual absolute minimum.

END NOTE ABOUT SPOILERS

I found a lot to really enjoy in Baker’s The Garden of Iden, as I described in my previous reaction.

The Garden of Iden walked a fine line between a light adventure story and a character drama, and succeeded admirably at delivering a powerful dose of the latter wrapped in the appealing package of the former.

Sky Coyote, the second novel in the series, walks the same line, but ends up coming down firmly on the other side of it: This is a fun, rip-roaring, no-holds-barred adventure story nicely spiced with moments of character drama which ring true and strike deep chords. The result is very effective: Because the same thematic elements are used and explored in both The Garden of Iden and Sky Coyote, the book clearly resonates as a sequel. But because the ratios are shifted, Sky Coyote exists as a stylistically distinct work.

Unlike The Garden of Iden, Sky Coyote does begin to show clear signs of a series-in-progress: Moments of conspiracy and mystery lurk throughout the novel, but their resolution is distinctly left for another day (and a different book). Intriguingly, however, the result is not that of a half-finished product: The very lack of resolution for the moments of conspiracy in terms of plot is, in fact, the resolution of the major character drama of the novel. In a similar fashion, Kage Baker brings Mendoza, the main character of the first novel, in as a supporting cast member in Sky Coyote. Mendoza’s role in the novel is absolutely essential, justified, and complete… but it also serves, at the same time, as a foundation for Mendoza in Hollywood.

There’s a remarkable craft at work there. And a surprising depth in what appears, at first glance, to be a light read. And, in fact, the novel can be read as a light adventure story completely independent of the series as a whole.

Mendoza in Hollywood, by contrast, is the story of post-traumatic stress syndrome finally catching up with Mendoza. But its also a conspiracy story, and the twin threads wrap around each other in a delightful way as the books comes to a close.

The strength here, as it was in The Garden of Iden, is the depth with which Kage Baker draws the character of Mendoza. The emotional journey Mendoza endures through the novel is a gut-wrenching, heartbreakingly true experience.

The book doesn’t quite measure up to the first two, however, because it doesn’t find a plot for a long time. When it does, the whirlwind is intriguing and exciting, but ultimately short-lived. (And there are some suspension of disbelief issues with the deus ex machina which jump starts the plot once it arrives.) Two comments on this:

First, it creates a problem with the cover blurb. The blurb writer, clearly seeking exciting plot to write about, sums up the entire plot of the novel. Well, okay, he doesn’t describe the last 50 pages. But, nonetheless, if you read the cover blurb on this one your reading experience will drastically suffer. DO NOT READ THE COVER BLURB. I’m not kidding.

Second, I suspect that I would enjoy this novel on an entirely different level the second time through. Simply put, once the plot becomes clear near the end of the book, a plethora of small details – worked seamlessly into the character drama endured by Mendoza through the early part of the book – suddenly coalesce.

It’s a situation where, if you knew the plot of the book ahead of time, the thrust and direction of the story would be clear to you. I don’t think its coincidental that this is the same knowledge an author would have sitting down to write the book.

Which doesn’t mean that Mendoza in Hollywood is a waste of time the first time through. The character drama is intense. The development of the series’ meta-plot is intriguing. And the reading experience, for me, was very enjoyable.

It’s a good novel cursed by the fact that it followed two great novels, and it suffers somewhat in the comparison. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s good.

At the moment, I am very much looking forward to reading the next book in this series. Unfortunately, The Graveyard Game appears to be entirely unavailable to me at the moment. Fortunately, it is going to be re-released in paperback sometime next year by Tor, shortly before they publish the fifth book in the series. So I’ll be looking forward to that.

GRADES:

SKY COYOTE: A-
MENDOZA IN HOLLYWOOD: B

Kage Baker
Published: 1999 / 2000
Publisher: Tor
Cover Price: $6.99
ISBNs: 0380731800 / 0380819007
Buy Now!

To keep things a little mixed up, today we’ve got the next five What I’m Reading reviews:

6. Sky Coyote / Mendoza in Hollywood – Kage Baker
7. Cyteen – C.J. Cherryh
8. Archangel Protocol – Lyda Morehouse
9. Memory – Lois McMaster Bujold
10. Digital Knight – Ryk Spoor

These reviews were originally written for the rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup. Although originally rather informal productions, their scope and purview quickly grew to become substantially more elaborate. I’ve often thought of reviewing as an attempt to communicate an essentially experiential phenomenon — in other words, I am more interested in describing what it was like to read a novel rather than describing the novel itself. In many ways, therefore, the writing of the WIRs was (and is) an essentially blog-like activity.

Once I’ve finished reposting the WIRs originally posted to rec.arts.sf.written, I’ll continue posting new WIRs as they’re written.

For the past three decades, the state of our educational system has seen nothing but consistent decay. In math, science, literature, language, history, and every other subject, the educational standards to which we hold our children are lower than the standards to which their parents were held. We are supposed to be a nation of progress, and yet our children suffer in an educational system which continues to backslide out of control.

This is not the way it is supposed to be.

So we have a problem. What’s the solution?

Well, if our standards have declined, then it’s time to draw a line in the sand. In fact, we need to do better than that: We need a set of standards that says we can do better. We need to challenge ourselves. We need to challenge our teachers. And, most importantly, we need to challenge our students.

You may think we already have a set of standards: The state’s Profiles of Learning. But the truth is, they aren’t doing the job. There are two important areas where they fail:

Nature of the Standard. The state’s standards are vague, emphasizing methods of learning over the content of what is learned. Setting those standards as a minimum would result in students dotting i’s and crossing t’s… instead of knowing what the i’s and t’s actually mean.

What I’m proposing, on the other hand, is a knowledge-based standard. A standard which sets out what students need to know, and which can be used in an objective manner to determine whether or not students have learned what they need to learn.

Application of the Standard. The other problem with the state’s standards is that they are applied at the end of a student’s career, instead of being used as an integral part of the educational process. The Basic Skills Tests are given in 8^th grade, and are then given again and again – while the student continues to advance in school – until they are passed… at which point the student is allowed to graduate.

This is not an effective way of solving the problems our schools have. We have to address these issues earlier – and that means detecting problems before they become insoluble. Furthermore, we can no longer ignore problems in the hope that they will disappear of their own accord.

What does this mean? It means we begin assessing the progress of students at every grade level. And, furthermore, it means that we actually take action – on an individual basis – as a result of those assessments.

In the system as it exists today, we already conduct aptitude tests – but we ignore the results. Applying a standard means making those aptitude tests mean something. It means applying a minimum standard of knowledge for advancement.

Why is this important? Because the first time you push someone beyond their capabilities, it’s over. You’ve doomed them to failure. If you take someone who cannot read and promote them ruthlessly until they find themselves in a high school setting – still unable to read – you have not done them a favor: You have crippled them for life.

Is testing going to solve our problems? No. But setting a standard – and having a willingness to enforce that standard – will. A child who cannot read should not be prevented from graduating; they should be prevented from reaching the second grade. Why? Because the high school setting is not – nor should it be – designed to teach reading and writing: That’s what the first grade is for. And attempts to rectify in high school a problem which should have been corrected ten years earlier compromises the educational quality of the high school experience. If we make sure that the only students who reach second grade are those students who are ready for second grade, then we’re going to have a lot fewer students reach high school who aren’t ready for the experience.

It’s a matter of not letting children slip through the cracks.

Knowledge, not process.

Teachers, not bureaucrats.

Education, not socialization.

Three years ago I ran for the Minneapolis School Board. I believed then, as I believe now, that education is the fundamental bedrock on which a successful democracy is built. And I believed then, as I believe now, that the dire and worsening condition of the American education system is the largest and most troubling threat to this nation’s long-term security and prosperity.

I believe that many of the problems in our educational system today can be traced back to the fact that, by and large, we have no understanding, at a very basic level, of exactly what our schools are attempting to accomplish. And that’s a charge which I direct not only at our community as a whole, but, more importantly, at the school system itself.

The problem is that our educational goals — our standards — are often left unspoken. And because they are unspoken, they are unclear. The result is, inevitably, not only a lowest common denominator, but a lowest common denominator which becomes poorer and poorer with every passing year.

To make matters worse, when attempts are made to set goals for our educational system, the standards which result are usually vague, poor, or both. For example, when I was attending public school in Minneapolis (I graduated in 1998), students were required to pass a Basic Skills Test in order to graduate. This test was given in 8th grade and then, if the student failed, given again in 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades until the student passed. For all intents and purposes, this Basic Skills Test was the graduation standard for the Minneapolis Public Schools.

And what did the Basic Skills Test require? Basic reading skills. Arithmetic, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and basic geometry.

In practice, the school district waited until we were in 8th grade to test whether or not we had skills which should have been learned in 3rd. If we didn’t have those skills, we were simply promoted into 9th grade and given the test again.

It shouldn’t take too much effort to understand the fundamental problems with this system. And it shouldn’t come as any particular surprise to learn that, in 1996, only 50% of 8th grade students managed to pass these tests.

But here’s the scary part: The Minneapolis Public Schools consistently test in the top 10% of the school districts in Minnesota. And Minnesota is routinely ranked somewhere in the Top 5 states for education. So when we talk about the problems of the Minneapolis Public Schools, we’re talking about the problems of the top 10% of the top 10%.

Things have gotten a little better in the Minneapolis Public Schools. Four out of every five 8th graders are now passing the Basic Skills Tests on their first attempt. This tells us that merely setting goals and then assessing our success at meeting those goals can be an effective way of achieving improvement in our educational system. When clear goals are communicated, those within the system can work towards achieving those goals in a substantive and meaningful fashion.

But I still believe there is a fundamental failure to take meaningful and substantive action to address the educational needs of those who fail the Basic Skills Test. And I am even more concerned by the fact that the Basic Skills Test are, essentially, an expectation of mediocrity.

Over the next few days I’m going to be posting the three position planks I used for my 2002 campaign. I’ll be following that up with a very general outline of what I believe a truly effective educational standard would look like. Then I hope to wrap things up by posting my thoughts on the No Child Left Behind initiative, which has begun to change the landscape of public education.

SCHOOL BOARD GOALS
Goal 1: Setting a Standard
Goal 2: Forming a Foundation
Goal 3: Opportunity and Support

An Outline for a Standard of Education