i believe "regenesis " would stand alone perfectly satisfactorily, but will need to re-re-re-read it to be certain to of this.
- you'd certainly miss a great deal of the political differences and rivalries within reseune, as well as those on cyteen outside that company, and of the various crises the death of ariane emory triggered - not to mention several of those that have been slowly arising from decisions taken during the company war by more than one powerful actor in the struggle for union's existence - and the almost accidental birth of the merchanter alliance.
''cyteen'' started a decade-long argument amongst quite a number of merkin sf fans who were labouring under the misapprehension that that major work was primarily - or even solely (!) - a ''whodunnit''. . .
the hearst corporation william morrow h/cvr first printing, first edition (so stated in indicia)
cover (d-j) art by jerry lofaro (probably credited on d-j back flap; found on artist's website)
cover (d-j) price $23.00 u.s./canada (check d-j)
356pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, bound with endpapers between covered boards