REBEL SUTRA

Far-future power struggle from the author of Interface Masque, 1997, etc. On the frigid, highly volcanic planet Maya dwell desperately poor humans in their crumbling city, Babelion, and the genetically modified, superior Changed in their sealed Dome high in the mountains. The Changed hold annual tests to find humans worthy of becoming Changed, but nobody ever passes; the most successful become servants of the Changed. Rebellious Changed Della runs off to live with the genetic-whiz Tinkers. Later, returning to the Dome, she has an intense affair with the best human candidate, Arsen, whose brief rebellion is subverted by the evil, manipulative Sithra; he chooses execution rather than betray Della and their baby, Anselm. Sending Anselm to human foster parents, Della flees into the Dome's Exchange, an artificial intelligence supplemented by human hookups—but it has its own agenda. As Anselm grows up, he learns from Della's Tinker benefactor, Auntie Suu-Suu, that the galactic situation involves a cloned Empress's civil war with the Pretender. Far from superior, the Changed are a failed experiment; Della was the last surviving Empress clone, rescued by Suu-Suu; the Pretender has allied with Sithra to steal Maya's plentiful power (an egregiously ludicrous notion). And so Anselm has plenty of motivation for his own rebellion.

An intriguing scenario whose thoughtful and mostly reasonable complications unfold with gratifying frequency: flawed, certainly, but this is the still-improving Lewitt's best so far.