I’m willing.

And as long as I've raised the topic - I’ve been having a bit of a renaissance with the pod recently - let me offer this from #560, the conversation with Arkady Martine. A few interesting things early on (I haven’t finished). She’s 36, and describes her father’s SF reader-hood and her early experiences with Foundation, and the “deal was sealed” she says with her rapturous experience with Dune. She wrote A Memory Called Empire contemporaneously with her PhD thesis on Byzantium. Then the interviewer brings up Cherryh, and she expresses a huge debt and homage. She read Cyteen at 17, which “was a great age to read a book you are going to reread every five years for the rest of your life." She seems to feel about Cyteen as I do - one of the true classics of SF (I think it’s her deepest exploration of identity). She says people often think she’s writing in response to Ann Leckie, when in fact both are writing in response to Cherryh. She also describes her favorite character in A Memory being her attempt at writing Ari II. She intends to write an upcoming book centered around this character.
The host offers that it makes more sense having heard all this, as he sees Memory as having a bedrock in Foundation, a grounding in Dune, and infused with what he calls Cherryh's Downbelow stories.
I found all this of great interest. Her book is good too!

Surtac wrote:

And now I'll have to listen to that one too.  It 'explains' the obscure Cyteen reference I thought I'd found when reading A Memory Called Empire (and mentioned elsewhere hereabouts at the time in the What Have You Been Reading thread).  Guess I'd better add the sequel to The Pile also.

 And I'm reminded of the essay / discussion I still owe associates here on the topic of Cyteen and Gehenna which I haven't yet delivered.  Sigh.

 

Selfishly I'm very pleased you have now reminded yourself!
 

Just dropping in to note that Martine has picked up a second Best Novel Hugo Award for Desolation.so I'm pushing that one to the top of The Pile to read next.