I think there's a way to read Cyteen in which the book is a puzzle game and you are supposed to be trying to figure out the puzzle based on all the clues she left in the prologues. Reading it that way gave me a massive headache the first time I tried to read it, and I only figured out a handful of the puzzles; CJ Cherryh is way smarter than I am. I eventually realized Cyteen is still a pretty great book if you don't try to play the puzzle game.