The Life of the World to Come, by Kage Baker

This is the first time I have truly been disappointed with one of Kage Baker’s Company novels. At first I thought my disappointment had to do with the fact that the novel opens with Mendoza in exile 150,000 years in the past and after that opening she only shows up once for a short chapter. I am a fan of Mendoza. But, then I realized that what I liked about Sky Coyote had little to do with Mendoza, and The Graveyard Game was entirely absent of Mendoza. While I would have appreciated more of Mendoza in The Life of the World to Come, her appearance in the novel is not required.

What was it, then?

Alec Checkerfield.

I pretty much can’t stand the character of Alec Checkerfield. His first appearance in the novel is a chapter titled “Smart Alec”, which was a story in Baker’s Black Project, White Knights collection (my other Company disappointment). The Life of the World to Come seems to alternate chapters with some Company operatives a few years before The Silence, and with Checkerfield. Unfortunately, we get Alec Checkerfield chapters dealing with Alec at various ages. Yeah, it gives the reader a full and complete background of Checkerfield, but I’ve got to tell you – it sucked. Unfortunately, Checkerfield is the spitting image of both Edward and Nicholas, the two previous loves of Mendoza, and this means Checkerfield is about to become integral to the remainder of the series.

God help me. I love this series, but have a borderline literary hate for Alec Checkerfield.

The one real plus to this novel, besides the couple of brief Mendoza interludes, was the Company scientist chapters when we got a glimpse of them manipulating things in history and when we discover the whys and hows of Alec / Edward / Nicholas.

And then things get just stupid when we get the 23rd Century Alec pulling multiple personalities with both Edward and Nicholas.

I’m reading a series with immortal cyborgs who love twentieth century movies, time travel, and a company that snatches artifacts from the past for future profit. I can buy into a whole lot of stuff. But that multiple personality thing...Baker damn near lost me there.

I sincerely hope that The Children of the Company is better and that Alec is somehow less obnoxious a character, because The Life of the World to Come was rough going.

Mendoza in Hollywood, by Kage Baker

Mendoza in Hollywood
Kage Baker
2000



Mendoza in Hollywood is Kage Baker’s third novel about the Company operatives tasked to preserve missing historical artifacts and planet and animal life which would otherwise become extinct. The operatives work for the Dr. Zeus Company and due to the scientific discoveries of the 24th Century, the operatives are once human, but now immortal cyborgs. Baker’s first Company novel, In the Garden of Iden, introduced us to both The Company and to Mendoza, a Spanish child saved from the Inquisition and made more and less than human to work for The Company as a Botanist. In that first novel she fell in love with a mortal man but had to watch him die because the Company could not and would not intervene. She grew bitter and disillusioned and betrayed and spent centuries working alone in the California wilderness during the 1700’s. Now, during the 1860’s, Mendoza is assigned to the region which would eventually develop into Hollywood. California in the 1860’s was a rough place, but Mendoza is not alone. She joins a crew of operatives with their own tasks of recording the culture of the region, taking samples of the local fauna, and a variety of other jobs to do for The Company.

When Mendoza in Hollywood opens, however, Mendoza is narrating her story to Company interrogators. We learn early that Mendoza has killed several mortals, which is an absolute taboo for The Company. Mendoza in Hollywood is narrated by Mendoza in captivity as an explanation for how she got to the point where she would and could kill mortals and why she did so. This is hanging over every part of the novel, that at some point Mendoza may snap and kill and we don’t know why. Mendoza is upset about the new assignment, but she also seems to enjoy the company of her fellow operatives.

Kage Baker takes us on a journey through the Hollywood wilderness before it became Hollywood. Because of the nature of the Immortals, Baker is able to reference hundreds of years of Hollywood history, some of which we know and some of which has not happened yet. There are screenings of classic movies, and a tour of the future homes of celebrities. But, Mendoza in Hollywood is also the story of a very emotionally broken Immortal. Mendoza has accepted the death of Nicholas, but hundreds of years later she still has not gotten over it. It changed her irrevocably.

With each novel Kage Baker tells a very different story. In the Garden of Iden was partly a Victorian romance, Sky Coyote was a classic trickster tale of indigenous culture. Mendoza in Hollywood is a western complete with bandits and prostitutes. With each novel Kage Baker develops what we know and suspect of The Company. There are further more references to that mysterious year in the future where there is no further information coming from The Company and speculation as to what that means (though less speculation than in Sky Coyote). There are little tidbits that build the reader’s understanding and sense of wonderment about the greater world of the future even as the characters are slowly making their way through the past.

The Company novels have improved steadily with each new entry. Mendoza in Hollywood is a stronger piece of fiction and storytelling than either In the Garden of Iden or Sky Coyote was, and Sky Coyote was an entertaining story indeed. Finishing Mendoza in Hollywood serves to whet my appetite for the next Company novel The Graveyard Game.



Thinking about the conclusion of Mendoza in Hollywood makes me question something of the nature of time travel in regards to The Company novels. Since time travel requires that a person can only move backwards in time and forward only up to the original departure time, what happens if an operative is working in one time period (A) and is subsequently sent back farther in time (B)? If said operative is not moved from the time period he or she is sent to (B) would not said operative from (B) eventually co-exist at the same time as the operative was originally in (A)?

That may not have made sense.

Let me try again. I was born in 1979 and in 2007 I am a Company operative working to preserve the great novels lost to history. After I preserve the works of Matthew Stover (for example) I am sent back to 1712 to do something literary. Now, I already existed between 1979 and 2007 otherwise I could not have been sent back in time to 1712. I’m immortal, so I’ll live forever. If nothing else changes I will live from 1712 back to 1979-2007. Because I had to exist in 1979 in the first place (otherwise this is all moot) starting in 1979 there has to be two of me existing at the same time: the me born in 1979 and the me that was sent back in time.

So how does that work? Obviously the me born in 1979 will do whatever I did until 2007 when I was sent back in time...but isn’t there a potential paradox or conflict with two of me existing at the same time? I know Back to the Future solves this by having the time traveling Marty / Doc not reveal himself to the past Marty / Doc, but wouldn’t that still cause an issue if I wanted to check in on myself in high school or elementary school? Or is the problem solved by the fact that had the older Joe actually interfered in young Joe’s life I would have remembered it because it had happened and changed nothing because it had to happen?

And my head just exploded.

Kage Baker Pirate Novel

Ooh!

Subterranean Press is proud to present an exclusive pirate novel by the author of the acclaimed "Company" series.

His name is John James--at least, that's the name he gives to anyone asking. He's a former pirate just back in Port Royal from the sack of Panama, and he has every intention of settling down and leading a respectable life. First, though, he must honor a promise and deliver a letter to the mistress of one of his dead comrades.

But the lady is much more than she seems, and the letter turns out to contain detailed instructions for recovering a hidden fortune. It's one thing to know where treasure may be found; finding it, and keeping it, is quite another. On his quest for a prince's ransom John is joined by two unlikely allies: a black freedman named Sejanus Walker and a humble clerk named Winthrop Tudeley. Pirate attacks, hurricanes, shipwrecks, sharks, unearthly visitations and double-crosses follow. Especially double-crosses...

Her "Company" novels are outstanding. She is a frequent contributor to Asimov’s.

I'm in. Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key.

Sky Coyote, by Kage Baker

Sky Coyote
Kage Baker
1999


Kage Baker followed her debut In the Garden of Iden with the highly entertaining Sky Coyote. Both In the Garden of Iden and Sky Coyote are novels of The Company. The Company is an organization from the 24th Century which has discovered both the secrets of both time travel and immortality. Immortality, however, comes at a price. The procedure is too dangerous for adults and can only be performed on human children, and doing so makes them cyborgs, as robotic as they are human. The scientists who discovered the secrets of immortality are unable to reap the benefits themselves. Time Travel has its own catch: A person can only go into the past and then back to the "present day" they left. The cost is exorbitant. One other thing: Recorded history cannot be changed. The Company operatives work in the grey areas between the recorded events of history. They take samples of extinct plants and animals, record the lost cultures of the world, and in some cases remove individuals from the past for further study. At the same time they amass a great fortune for The Company as they recover the "Lost Treasures" of history, be it art or artifacts.

In the Garden of Iden introduced us to Mendoza, a young girl taken by The Company during the Spanish Inquisition, trained up, and given a job to do. Sky Coyote is set several generations after the events of In the Garden of Iden but focuses more on Joseph, the Company operative who recruited Mendoza. Joseph is sent to Old California to live as one of the gods of the Chumash, their Sky Coyote. He is to prepare one village of the Chumash to be preserved by the Company. The Chumash will be all killed by the Spanish in a generation or two and all that will be left is the empty pueblo villages.

The great surprise and fun of Sky Coyote is that the Chumash are not the primitives that Joseph (and the reader) expected. Oh, sure, the Chumash are not technologically advanced, but they are clever and intelligent and nearly as modern in other ways: They have unions, guilds, trade, festivals, culture, capitalism, and they feel like a modern day society with some primitive traditions. The fun of Sky Coyote is watching Joseph interact with the Chumash and be their trickster god.

In the Garden of Iden was an impressive debut for Kage Baker and The Company, but it suffered a bit in pacing of the novel. Sky Coyote surpasses Iden on nearly all levels. Baker is able to mix together the Chumash work with the Company operatives together at their facility and also with Joseph's backstory, as well as a bit of foreshadowing for the future of The Company. Bakers mixes this all together and still forms a coherent and clear narrative with plenty of entertaining banter and a good sense of wonder at both the Chumash as well as The Company. If the rest of The Company novels are up to the level of Sky Coyote, this could be an exceptional fantasy series.

Sky Coyote makes solid improvements upon the foundation of In the Garden of Iden and extends the series and even hints at what the next entry could be. Just as important, there is no need to have read In the Garden of Iden to understand Sky Coyote. Both novels are linked by The Company, but Sky Coyote gives enough intro to what the Company is, and the history between Mendoza and Joseph. Sky Coyote tells its own story independent of Iden. Jump in at either novel and you'll be satisfied. In fact, I would recommend Sky Coyote over Iden as the starting point as Sky Coyote is a better novel.