Regenesis.  By C.J. Cherryh.

Was it a good idea to pick up a book in the middle of a series, when I hadn't read the previous books?   Perhaps not. 

"Regenesis" is at least ten books into Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe, and I've read none of the previous works, like Cyteen and Downbelow Station.  I did enjoy it.  I suspect it would have made more of an impact if I'd had the expected background knowledge, though.

The narrator, eighteen year-old Ari Emory is a clone.  She shares the memories of her predecessor, and has access to her computer system and an advisory program set up by the first Ari.  She needs all of that help, because she's in a fight for her life. Someone is out to murder her, just like  Ari One was murdered, and take over the immensely powerful empire she built.

To say "Regenesis" is dense is an understatement - it took me a week to read.  And there is surprisingly little action for a nearly 600 page book.  Much of it involves characters speculating about the motives and past actions of the other characters.  It does include some interesting ideas about what a future society might look like - good and bad. For me, that was interesting enough to repay the work of reading the book, but your mileage may vary.   

I would wholeheartedly recommend it to Cherryh fans.  The rest of us?  I'm not sure. But it may simply be that I read it immediately before "Hunger Games", perhaps the best fiction book I've read this year, and it suffered a little by comparison.