Regenesis is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 science fiction and fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 author C. J. Cherryh

C. J. Cherryh

Carolyn Janice Cherry , better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is a United States science fiction and fantasy author...

set in her Alliance-Union universe

Alliance-Union universe

The Alliance-Union universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It is the setting for an epic future history series extending from the 21st century out into the far future....

. It is a sequel to Cherryh's 1988 Hugo award

Hugo Award

The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...

-winning science fiction novel, Cyteen

Cyteen

Cyteen is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel by C. J. Cherryh set in her Alliance-Union universe. The murder of a major Union politician and scientist has deep, long-lasting repercussions....

, and was published in hardcover by DAW Books

DAW Books

DAW Books is an American science fiction and fantasy publisher, founded by Donald A. Wollheim following his departure from Ace Books in 1971. The company therefore claims to be "the first publishing company ever devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy." The first DAW Book published was...

 in January 2009. As the teenage clone

Human cloning

Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...

 of a top scientist and political leader starts accumulating power, she discovers who her friends and enemies are.

Plot summary

Ariane Emory is the eighteen-year-old clone of an extraordinary woman who was both a preeminent research scientist and the leader of the Expansionist Party, which has controlled Union since its inception. Her predecessor had some very powerful friends and enemies. However, inasmuch as her genemother had died under suspicious circumstances before she was even born, Emory is unsure who they are.

She is not without resources though. A breakthrough experiment in "psychogenesis" has recreated in her the genius of her parent. Everyone knows that she will one day follow in her mother's footsteps and take charge of Reseune, a sovereign

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

 Administrative Territory and the premier azi

Azi (clone)

Azi are a fictional type of human clones invented by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. They appear in various books in her Alliance-Union universe. "Azi" is an acronym for "artificial zygote insemination"...

 research facility in Union, one of the three spacefaring factions of humanity.

In the meantime, she takes measures to protect herself, assembling a trusted staff with the assistance of her azi bodyguards and companions, Florian and Catlin. When she discovers that her new azi security chief has been tampered with, her list of possible enemies grows to include key men inside Reseune itself: Yanni Schwartz, the Director, and Adam Hicks, the head of security. Adding to the discord is the return of a bitter Jordan Warrick from a twenty year exile at an isolated research facility. He had been pressured into confessing to killing the original Emory.

The murder of Dr. Sandur Patil, a top scientist recruited by Schwartz to head up the terraforming

Terraforming

Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...

 of a planet, turns out to be but one step in a plot by Emory's unknown enemy that shakes Union to its core. As she struggles to deal with the escalating situation, she also unravels the decades-old mystery of her genemother's death.

Characters

• Ariane Emory - heir apparent to the directorship of Reseune; clone of Ariane Emory I
• Florian and Catlin - azi bodyguards to Emory
• Yanni Schwartz - Director of Reseune; Proxy Councillor of Science
• Jordan Warrick - a top Reseune tape designer; self-centered genius
• Justin Warrick - clone and son of Jordan Warrick; Ariane Emory's teacher and trusted member of her staff
• Grant - azi created by Emory I; grew up with Justin and is his lover; works with Justin for Emory
• Dr. Sandur Patil - the top scientist in the field of nanistics (biological nanomachines
  Nanotechnology
  Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
  
   whose main application is terraforming)
• Adam Hicks - Security Director of Reseune
• Kyle AK36 - azi assistant to Hicks
• Amy Carnath, Maddy Strassen, Sam Whitely - close friends of Emory from childhood
• Mikhail Corain - Citizens' Councillor, moderate leader of the opposition Centrist Party
• Vladislaw Khalid - ambitious former Councillor of Defense
• Catherine Lao - Councillor of Information and supporter of Reseune

Reception

In his Sci Fi Wire review, Paul Di Filippo

Paul Di Filippo

Paul Di Filippo is an American science fiction writer. He has been published in Postscripts...

complained that the "forward movement of the story is slow and halting".