The Anvil of the World - Kage Baker

   2003; 350 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book 1 (out of 3) in the “Anvil of the World” trilogy.  Genres: Fantasy; Steampunk Fiction; Novellas.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

 

    Well, Smith, it’s time we found you a job.

 

    How’s about we try you out as a caravan master?  There’s one leaving from Troon shortly and going to Salesh.  Yeah, I know, you have no experience as a caravan master and the road to Salesh is known to be full to robbers and demons, but maybe you’ll do okay.

 

    If you’re still alive when the caravan reaches Salesh, and don’t think that job’s for you, there’s an opening for a proprietor at the Hotel Grandview.  It’s a boring job, but all you have to do is make sure no one dies while they’re staying there.  You think you can handle that?

 

    If that doesn't work out, all that’s left is to send you on a quest for something called the "Key to Unmaking".  That job is idiot-proof because we’re pretty sure the Key doesn’t exist.  All you’ll be doing is confirming that it’s a hoax.

 

    Good luck, Smith.  Try not to get yourself killed.

 

What’s To Like...

    Neither the Amazon blurb nor the hype on the paperback cover hints at it, but The Anvil of the World is actually three novellas scrunched together to make a novel-length book.  The stories all follow the same main characters, Smith and Ermenwyr, and do appear to be presented in chronological order, but each is an independent storyline.

 

    The first novella, the “caravan” tale, seems primarily aimed at presenting the book’s tone, the world-building, and the various races and creatures that dwell therein.  Kage Baker does a marvelous job of this.  There are three races: humans (the “Children of the Sun”), demons (who try their best to be evil, but don’t always succeed), and Yendri (who are into New Agey things like meditation and vegetarianism).

 

    The tone is delicately lighthearted, which was a pleasant surprise.  The action is set in a sword-&-sorcery world, but might usually trumps magic, as alluded to in the second excerpt, below.  I loved the way Kage Baker chose names for the various characters.  For example, Lord Ermenwyr’s bodyguards are dubbed Cutt, Crish, Stabb, Strangel, Clubb, and Smosh, and other surnames include Greenbriar, Crossbrace, Coppercut, and Beatbrass.

 

    There’s a bunch of wit and humor running throughout the book, such as the deadly “Fatally Verbal Abuse” duel in the second story.  I was also thrilled to see Chemistry play a part as well, in the form of a caustic drain cleaner, dubbed “Scourbrass’s Foaming Wonder”.  The novellas have no titles and there are no chapter divisions, but there are paragraph breaks aplenty, which means you can always find a convenient place to stop.

 

    Each novella has its own ending, with the most significant one coming, appropriately enough, at the close of the third one.  Amazon and Wikipedia indicate there are two other books in this series, one of which, The House of the Stag, is a prequel that was published five years after The Anvil of the World.  It doesn’t appear that either of the other two novels are available in e-book format.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Princox (n.) : a self-confident young fellow.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.3/5 based on 122 ratings and 45 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.89/5 based on 2,030 ratings and 195 reviews.

 

Things That Sound Dirty, But Aren’t…

“Mr. Hummyhum is ready to play now.” (pg. 180)

 

Excerpts...

    “Hear, mortal, the lamentable tragedy of my house,” Lord Ermenwyr intoned gloomily.  “For it came to pass that the dread Master of the Mountain, in all his inky and infernal glory, did capture a celestial Saint to be his bride, under the foolish impression he was insulting Heaven thereby.  But, lo!  Scarce had he clasped her in his big evil arms when waves of radiant benignity and divine something-or-other suffused his demonic nastiness, permanently reforming him; for, as he was later to discover to his dismay, the Compassionate One had actually let him capture her with that very goal in mind.  But that’s the power of Love, isn’t it?  It never plays fair.”  (pg. 155)

 

    “Could you summon us up a catapult that’s bigger than theirs, then?” Smith inquired.

    “Don’t be silly,” said Lord Ermenwyr severely.  “Sorcery doesn’t work like that.  It works on living energies.  Things that can be persuaded.  I could probably convince tiny particles of air to change themselves into wood and steel, but I’d have to cut a deal with every one of them on a case-by-case basis, and do you have any idea how long it would take?  Assuming I even know how to build a catapult—"  (pg. 247)

 

“Hey nonny no! (. . .) Light the hubblebubble, Nursie dearest.”  (pg. 111)

    There’s a fair amount of cussing in The Anvil of the World.  I counted 17 instances in the first 20%, but they were all mild ones of the eschatological ilk.  Later on, the phrase “What in Nine Hells” was used a number of times, which I don’t really think counts as profanity.

 

    There are also quite a few allusions to “adult situations”, and the partaking of drugs, in particular “opiates”, is a common vice.  And some bars have edgy names, one of which was “The Winking Tit”.

 

    Alas, The Anvil of the World wasn’t a page-turner for me.  The stories are too short for any depth to be developed, and the reader has to start fathoming a completely new plotline at the start of each new novella.  I think this is unavoidable though; it’s just the inherent property of three novellas posing as a single novel.

 

    I’ll keep my eyes peeled when I’m roaming the used-book stores for the other two books in this series.  If they too are a combination of novellas, I’ll probably give them a pass.  But if they are written as actual novels, this is a series worth reading more about.

 

    6½ Stars.  One last thing.  Every human’s surname is simply “Smith”.  A few have first names, but most humans just have a modifying adjective added for clarity’s sake.  Examples: “Old Smith”, “Young Smith”, “Mrs. Smith”.  Surprisingly, the inhabitants of Kage Baker's world don't find it confusing at all.

The Life of the World to Come - Kage Baker

   2004; 392 pages.  Book 5 (out of 10) in “The Company” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Time-Travel; Dystopian Fiction; Science Fiction.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

 

    Mendoza could sure use a visit from a knight in shining armor about now.  Dr. Zeus has sent her into the mother of all exiles, and it's getting to be a drag.  Place-wise, it’s not so bad: a quiet spot on the coast of California.  But timewise, it’s a different story – she’s been sent back to 150,000 BCE, give or take a couple millennia.  She’s been stuck here for the past 3,000 years, which may seem a bit far-fetched.  But Mendoza is not your normal human, she's been reworked and is now an immortal cyborg.

 

    Well saints be praised, her Prince Charming has just arrived!  In a time-machine he stole from Dr. Zeus, no less.  How’s that for karma?  His name is Alec, and although he’s not particularly handsome, Mendoza is instantly attracted to him.  After all, he looks exactly like two other lovers Mendoza had in the past.  Or will have in the future.  Before they died.  Or will die.  Whatever.

 

    As for the charm, it turns out it was something programmed into his personality.  Which is possible because Alec is also a cyborg.  And although he’s got some prior business to take care of first – he’s determined to destroy Dr. Zeus once and for all – Alec promises to return after that’s done and take Mendoza back to the present time, which is his case is the 24^th century AD.

 

    Hmm.  Dr. Zeus is the leading expert when it comes to time-travel.  He knows everything that has happened, and everything that is going to happen, at least up to July 9, 2355 (see below).  I wonder why he’s not aware of Alec’s thievery and meeting with Mendoza.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Life of the World to Come is the fifth book in Kage Baker’s Company series, a completed 10-book series (ignoring novellas and short stories using the same setting) which I’m reading in chronological order.  Here, the scenes shift among three storylines: a.) Alec Checkerfield’s life story; b.) the secret activities of three Londoners named Rutherford, Chatterji, and Ellsworth-Howard; and c.) Mendoza’s whereabouts and whenabouts.  Alec’s storyline is by far the predominant one.

 

    Almost all of the story takes place in the future, which is a switch from the earlier books in the series.  We are moving closer to the Armageddon-like year of 2355 AD, when, thanks to past/future time traveling excursions, we've learned that everything in the time-traveling world seems to come to a standstill.  I much appreciated Kage Baker including a backstory in the first few pages; it’s been four years since I read the previous book.

 

    I loved Kage Baker’s worldbuilding in the 24^th century.  There’s a new cussword (“shracking”), new slang (bishareedo, puckamenna), and new gizmos (jotbooks, bukes, agcars, agboats, etc.).  The “ag” in those last two stands for “anti-gravity”, not “agriculture”; it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure that out.

 

    There’s not a lot of time-travel, although we do get to zip back to 150,000 BC to for the Alec/Mendoza meeting, as well as take a quick trip to Mars to help thwart Dr. Zeus.  I picked up a new Latin phrase - “nimium ne crede colori, puere” (wiki it), and found out what “Fiddler’s Green” is.  It was fun to see how Christmas is celebrated in 2350 AD, watch young Alec do his schooling online (shades to 2020!), rejoice that Toblerone chocolate is still around (albeit, as contraband), and learn not to mess with the religious zealots called the Ephesians.

 

    The ending is good, but incomplete.  The “why-and-how” of the triple-incarnation paradox of Nicholas/Edward/Alec is at last revealed, but there are a slew of other plot threads left unresolved.  We still don’t know how Rutherford, Chatterji, and Ellsworth-Howard fit in, ditto for Alec’s enigmatic and resourceful playfriend “Captain Morgan”.  And while the story ends at a logical spot, it nevertheless teeters dangerously close to being a cliffhanger.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Oubliette (n.): a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 43 ratings.

    Goodreads: 3.94/5 based on 1,544 ratings and 103 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “Spirits of Cause and Effect, I summon thee!  I bend thee to my will!  Spirits of Action and Reaction, I conjure thee, grant my desires!  Schrodinger’s Cat, heed my commands!  Oh, Spirit of Time, oh, thou Chronos, oh thou, er, Timex, Bulova, um, Westclox, Swatch, Rolex, Piaget!  Uh… In the name of Greenwich, in whose image all Time is made!”  (pg. 215)

 

    “I believe I mentioned that Dr. Zeus, possessing the secret of time travel, knows everything that’s ever happened in recorded history, as well as everything that ever will happen.  Beer?”

    “Yes, please.”  (…)

    “Everything that ever will happen, I say - up to the year 2355.  You understand this is a matter of intense speculation for everyone concerned with the Company.  But the fact is, beyond July 9, 2355, there’s just – silence.”  (…)  “Not one word from our future selves on the other side of that moment in time.  I have heard that the last message, badly distorted, says simply ‘We still don’t know -“  (pg. 305)

 

“Meminerunt omnia amantes.” (“Lovers remember everything.”)  (pg. 31 )

    There’s some cussing and a fair amount of rolling-in-the-hay in The Life of the World to Come, but I hesitate call this an R-rated book.  My big issue with it is that we see very little of Mendoza, apart when Alec comes calling, and for some reason we get to experience that twice.  My second-favorite character in the series, Joseph, is entirely MIA, and even the Ultimate Evil, Labienus, makes only a token appearance.

 

    I get the feeling that this book is really just a giant backstory Kage Baker wrote to get all her ducks in a row before plunging the series into an exciting conclusion that will be 3-5 books in length.  I appreciated the clarifications, but yearned for a bit more action.

 

    But be of good cheer: if you can make it through 300 pages of Alec’s biography, you'll be treated to 100 pages of an exciting, fascinating, twist-filled ending.  We are perilously close to the D-Day of July 9, 2355, and I for one want to find out how it all turns out.

 

    6½ Stars.  In looking forward, Book Eight, The Sons of Heaven, was originally marketed in 2007 as the closing volume in the series, but then in 2009 and 2010, Books 9 and 10 were added.  I have no idea why.  I've bought Book Six, The Children of the Company, but have yet to find any of the final four books at my local used-book stores.  The present pandemic limits my browsing opportunities, and none of my local libraries carry volumes 7-10.  The next book may be as far as I get.

The Graveyard Game - Kage Baker

   2001; 298 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book 4 (out of 9 or 11, depending what you include) of the “Company”.  Series. Genre : Dystopian Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    Just how would you go about eliminating an immortal?  Is it even possible to do that?  Joseph and Lewis, two cyborgs who have been working as agents for Dr. Zeus Inc. (aka the “Company”) for thousands of years, are pondering those questions.

     Theoretically, it’s impossible.  Chop a cyborg’s head off, and the nanobots within him are programmed to make repairs and put everything back into tiptop working order.  It may take a while to do the job, but thanks to 24^th-cetnury technology, it’s proven engineering.

    And yet…

    Lately, a number of Joseph and Lewis’s fellow cyborgs have disappeared.  Heck, the whole squadron of the “Enforcers”, used extensively by the Company back in prehistoric times, are now nowhere to be found.  The official line is that they’ve “retired”, but to where?  It seems funny that none of them has ever been seen again.

    It behooves Lewis and Joseph to find an answer to this enigma.  After all, they might be the next pair of agents that Dr. Zeus Inc. “retires”.  And for Lewis, it’s also a personal matter.  His fellow agent, Mendoza has gone missing and no one has seen her.

    And he’s in love with her.

What’s To Like...

    It’s always a treat to read an author who can write well  in addition to being able to tell a great story, and Kage Baker had a gift for this.  The Graveyard Game transitions the reader from the recent past (1996) through the present, and then several centuries into the future, ending at 2276 AD.  Overall, the series is closing in on its most critical point in time – 2355 AD, after which nothing more is known, even though time-travel technology is available.

    I loved the details of our future world.  Coffee, cream and chocolate are all illegal, although you can still get Toblerones on the black market, and you can get high on Theobroma, a cacao-like substance.  The Beast Liberation Party was a neat twist: they make PETA look like a bunch of wimps, and are pushing for the banning of silk, out of concern for the silkworms.  And the Yorkshire literary tour was a hoot.

    The Graveyard Game is a complex read, with a number of plotlines interweaving throughout the book.  Where’s Mendoza?  Why does her first love (who isn’t Lewis) seem to keep reincarnating?  What happens in 2355 AD?  Why does it seem like the Company is covering a lot of things up?  What’s become of the Enforcers?

Some threads remain unresolved at the end of the book.  The “little people” are a clear and present danger to the immortals, and while they don’t seem to be of the Company’s doing, all the same the agents are given no help in defending against this threat.  A mysterious “Site 317” is whispered about, but no one seems to know anything concrete of it.

    The Graveyard Game is heavy on the intrigue, with enough action to keep it from bogging down.  It is not a standalone novel; you really should read the books in this series in order.

Kewlest New Word...

Jitney (n.) : a bus or other vehicle carrying passengers for a low fare.

Excerpts...

    “You actually want to go see a necropolis tomorrow?”  (…)

    “It’s psychological,” Joseph said, pushing away from the coping and rotating slowly in his pool float.  “People are designed by nature to need a last resting place.  The idea of one, anyway.  We immortal guys never get graves.  The programming we’re given in school keeps the urge off for the first few millennia, but after a while you find yourself wondering what it would be like to just – lie down in a tomb and stop moving forever.  So it helps, see, to go and look at the reality.  Bones and dust.  Makes you glad to be alive.”  (pg. 131, and the explanation of the book’s title.)

    Religion isn’t illegal, but is increasingly being regarded with genteel horror by most people, except the Ephesians.  Faith is so … psychologically incorrect.

    Sex isn’t illegal, but there isn’t a lot of it going on these days.  There’s talk about how it’s a distasteful animal urge, how it victimizes women and robs men of their primal power.  It creates codependency.  It presents a terrible risk of catching a communicable disease.  Relationships of any kind, in fact, are probably a bad idea.  (pg. 217)

 “Really, Joseph, there weren’t any druids yet when Stonehenge was finished.  I was one, I should know.”  (pg. 17)

    It should be noted, and this is not really a spoiler, that the star of this series, Mendoza, doesn’t make an appearance in The Graveyard Game at all.  The story really revolves around Joseph and Lewis endeavoring to find out what has happened to her.

    On a larger scale, it felt like Kage Baker was using the book to fill in the non-Mendoza details of events that are leading up to whatever climax is coming in 2355 AD.  Since there are at least five more books to go in the series, I’m left wondering whether the timeline pace is about to slow down.

    It’s been five years since I’ve read the previous book in this series, Mendoza In Hollywood (reviewed here).  So I appreciated the short backstory given at the very beginning of this book, which is further fleshed out in the first couple chapters.  I was bummed  that Mendoza didn’t show up, but it was a pleasure getting to know Joseph and Lewis in greater detail.

    8 Stars.  Revolution is nigh!  I’m sure I’ll be reading the next book in the series, The Life of the World to Come, in the not-to-distant future.  I’m hooked on finding out what and where Site 317 is, and how the simpleminded but highly focused “little people” figure into all this.

Mendoza In Hollywood - Kage Baker

    2000; 334 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book #3 of the “Company” series.  Books 1 and 2 are reviewed here and here.  Genre : Science Fiction; Time Travel.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    The title is only half-correct.  Mendoza is where Hollywood will be, but it’s 1862, the greater Los Angeles area is little more than a dusty collection of shacks and saloons, and the movie industry is non-existent.  The Company has sent Mendoza there to collect a number of plants that will shortly become extinct.

    But the climate is changing, the plants are dying out faster than Mendoza can collect them, there is jealousy among Mendoza’s colleagues, and worst of all are the troubling nightmares she’s having about her lost love from the 1600’s.  There are even hints that the Company may not be as beneficent as they claim.

What’s To Like...
    For those who are not reading this series in order, Kage Baker gives the backstory in a handy 3-page prologue.  There are new Company agents to get to know – Einar the zoologist; Oscar the anthropologist, Porfirio the Company overseer, and Juan Bautista, a young ornithologist who gets way too attached to some of his work.  Joseph is absent, but Imarte is back to spice things up.

    The setting – 1860’s California is superbly done.  There isn’t much of a plot for the first 2/3 of the book, but it’s fun to be immersed in the lives of Mendoza and company – taking field trips for specimens, ducking from the occasional gunshot, and eating crappy food.  Einar is a film enthusiast, and he smuggles some early movies in for entertainment.  Those are a joy to “watch”.

    There is some humor – Juan Bautista’s pet birds are – well – a hoot.  Imarte’s role is that of a saloon girl, and she collects several love-struck “clients”, who tend to not appreciate others vying for her attentions.  Oscar’s efforts to sell a “Criterion Patented Brassbound Pie Safe” are subtly hilarious.

    The Alt-History and Time Travel aspects are well done.  And Romance wheels its way back into Mendoza’s life, something she’s been missing for a couple centuries.  As always, Kage Baker’s writing is excellent.

Kewlest New Word...
    Shigella (n.) : A bacterium that is an intestinal pathogen of humans and other primates, some kinds of which cause dysentery.

Excerpts...
    If I had only stayed...
    “You couldn’t have, man,” Einar said.  “You know that.  You belong to the Company.  First time Dr. Zeus had a job for you somewhere else, you’d have had to go.  And even if you stuck around, do you think you could have kept on micromanaging their lives forever?  We may be immortals, but we can’t control mortal destinies.  We can help them when they want help, but that’s it.  When they want to destroy themselves, not even God can stop them.   (pg.194 )

    “There are those, sir, who might construe your detestable negligence as the next thing to treason, which, let me remind you, is a hanging offense.”  Ingraham brandished his cane.
    The driver explained where he was minded to put that cane if Mr. Calliman shook it at him one more time, and added that Mr. Calliman was going to find it uncomfortable to sing or, for that matter, dance in any shows with the cane in that particular location.  (pg. 212)

“We are the actors on a stage where the curtain hasn’t risen!”  (pg. 13)
        I’ve made my peace with this series – more than anything else, it is Science Fiction.  There is some Action-Adventure in Mendoza in Hollywood, but it’s towards the end, and is there mostly to advance the “big picture” plot of the Company’s manipulation of the cyborg protagonists.  This isn’t Xena, Warrior Princess; this is Mendoza, Immortal Botanist. 

    I’ve been reading this series in order, and MIH does advance the overlying storyline.  We discover that snafus can occur in the Company agenda, and that there may be dire consequences for Immortals who the Company no longer wants around.  Still, this is beginning to feel like Robert Jordan’s WoT series – there are a lot more questions being raised than being answered.  7½ Stars.  I’ll probably read at least one more book In the series, but I don’t feel compelled to read all 9 books.

Sky Coyote - Kage Baker

1999; 310 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book #2 (of 9) in "The Company" series.  Genre : Historical Fiction; Fantasy.  Overall Rating : 6*/10.

    It's 1699 AD.  Joseph is a Facilitator, an Immortal, a Time-Traveler, and a Cyborg.  Also he's been a dedicated agent for a 24th-century group called "The Company" for, oh, 10,000 years or so.

    His latest assignment is simple - persuade a village of the Chumash (a California Indian tribe) to abandon their settlement before the Spanish arrive and wipe them out.  Which will happen eventually.

    But there's a ulterior motive.  The Company wants the village - lock, stock, and pottery bowls (but not the people; just their DNA) to add to their cultural antiquities collection.

   To help him in his quest, Joseph will be surgically modified (there are certain advantages to being a cyborg) to look like Sky Coyote, the local trickster god.  The Chumash are overjoyed.  It's not every day a deity comes down and visits them.

What's To Like...
  It's been a while since I read the first book (reviewed here).  Sky Coyote seems a bit "lighter" than that one; with a lot less romance (yay!) and a lot more wit.  For those who haven't read Book 1, Kage Baker provides a brief-yet-adequate backstory near the beginning.  And the prologue - set in post-Mayan Guatemala, is a hoot.

    There really was a tribe of Indians called the Chumash, but Baker opts to imbue them with modern traits.  They have trade unions, they are into astrological fortune-telling, and they tend to speak like Valley Girls.  I assume the point is to spoof the absurdity that is modern California, but it falls flat.

    Joseph is the main character, and consequently gets fleshed out a lot more than in In The Garden of Iden.  But Mendoza is along for the quest too, and she's always a draw.

Kewlest New Word...
Epergne : a type of table centerpiece, typically with a bowl that holds fruit or flowers.

Excerpts...
    "It was time for you to move on anyway," I told Mendoza consolingly.  "It was stuffy.  Decadent.  Nothing should be decadent and dull."
    "Your father was a Moorish groom and your mother performed circumcisions on soldiers," she informed me.
    "Hey, that's okay.  I know you're not really sore.  You're going to love it in California."
    "I won't be able to get a cocktail there for at least a hundred years," she brooded.  "And longer, for a Ghirardelli's hot fudge sundae."
    "Well, you hated parties, anyway."  (pg. 64)

    When a guy in a Cro-Magnon hunting party fell into a bear den, his friends would step away from the edge and wring their hands.  They'd compose sorrowful elegies about him afterward, or maybe horror stories about bears; but no way would they endanger themselves to get him out.  When a guy from a Neanderthal tribe fell into a den, though, his friends wouldn't even stop to think: they'd jump right in after him and lay about them with their fists, if they had nothing else, until the bears stopped biting or their friend managed to scramble out.
    Of course, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that eventually there were a lot fewer Neanderthals than Cro-Magnons...  (pg. 189-190)

We are the bright ascending bubbles in the black wine of mortality.  (pg. 50)
    Sky Coyote has humor, alt-history, and some incisive social commentary.  Alas, it has zero tension, and very little action.  Joseph carries out his task (this is easy when the natives think you're a god) without any delays or hitches.

    I suspect Kage Bakers's purpose in penning Sky Coyote was to advance the bigger tale.  We are introduced to several new cyborg operatives, and the first seeds of doubt about The Company's motives/benevolence are planted in Joseph's brain circuits.

    This might pay off down the line, but for now, it would've been nice to have a more compelling storyline.  The Chinigchinix might have posed more of a menace, the Chumash might have balked at moving, and/or the Spanish might have shown up ahead of schedule.  Instead, it's simply Metro - Boulot- Dodo.  6 Stars, cuz it's kinda meh, but it cooda been a lot worse.

In The Garden of Iden - Kage Baker

1997; 294 pages. Genre : A mixed bag (see below). New Author?: Yes. Book #1 (out of 8) in Baker's "Company" series. Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

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In 1541, a five-year old girl called Mendoza is about to die in the Spanish Inquisition, when she is rescued and turned into a cyborg immortal via drugs, hormones, implants, and training. She now works for the Company, a shadowy 24th-century organization who has mastered time-travel and is into acquiring lost works of art and relics, as well as extinct plants and animals.

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After 15 years of prepping to be a botanist, Mendoza is part of a team of operatives sent to England during the time of the Counter Reformation (the 1560's). Her assignment is to acquire a number of valuable (and soon to be extinct) plants, without the pitiable mortals knowing it. But at the estate of Sir Walter Iden, Mendoza discovers several things : lousy English weather, lots of priceless plants, a unicorn, unsanitary food, religious fanaticism in several colors, and one Nicholas Harpole, who makes her cyborg heart (other other bodily parts) go all a-twitter.

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What's To Like...

The book starts out being a sci-fi time-travel story. After about 50 pages, it decides instead to be historical fiction. And after another 75 pages, it morphs into a romance novel instead. So if you don't like the genre, just wait a few pages and it will change. There are also some adult themes (violence, sex, etc.), despite this being classified a YA book. And it has both serious and funny moments.

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The characters are likeable. Besides Mendoza, the cyborg team consists of animal-collector (and confidante) "Nef", technical pro Flavius (who stays in London and issues some hilarious radio reports), and wise-but-cyinical team-leader Joseph. Sir Walter is a clueless hoot, and Nicholas is a troubled-yet-lovable soul.

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The time-travel and immortality rationale is cleverly done. But for me, the best thing about the book was the attention to the historical setting. In the Garden of Iden made me feel like I was there in 16th-century England. Not many alt-history books do that.

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If you're looking for lots of sci-fi, killing and bloodshed, or graphic sex; you might be disappointed. This is "drama" (except for the very beginning and very end), and a set-up to the rest of the books in the series. Even romance-lovers may feel a bit let down.

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Kewl New Words...

There were a bunch. Prognathous : having a projecting lower jaw. Settle (n) : a long wooden bench with a high back. Gibbet : a gallows. Catamite : a boy kept by a pederast (this in a YA book??). Pomander : a mixture of aromatic substances, enclosed in a bag and used for protection against odor or infection. Caitiff : a cowardly or despicable person. Biretta : a stiff cap with ridges across the crown, such as worn by Roman Catholic clergy. Sophistry : plausible but false argument. Quondam : former; erstwhile. Here : "quondam countrymen". Maunder : to wander aimlessly. Dandle : to playfully dance or bounce a child up and down on one's knee or in one's arms. Pullulating : swarming or teeming (like a hive of bees). Posset : sweet, spiced milk curdled with ale or beer.

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Excerpts...

It was a good decision because I really loved the things I grew. The leaf that spreads in the sunlight is the only holiness there is. I haven't found holiness in faiths of mortals, nor in their music, nor in their dreams: it's out in the open field, with the green rows looking at the sky. (pg. 46)

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"I remember one of mine once. Golly. She was a sweet thing, you know, and I was just nuts about her, but she had this devotion to Ishtar and you simply could not argue with her. I had to become an initiate, go the whole route. When she finally died, I was heartbroken, really, I just moped around for weeks, but on the other hand - it was so nice not to have to paint my ass blue and go whack the heads off doves at the temple every night. Always date atheists, that's my advice." (pg. 173)

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"Funny thing about those Middle Ages," said Joseph. "They just keep coming back. Mortals keep thinking they're in Modern Times, you know, they get all this neat technology and pass all these humanitarian laws, and then something happens: there's an economic crisis, or science makes some discovery people can't deal with. And boom, people go right back to burning Jews and selling pieces of the true Cross." (pg. 192)

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A few words about Kage Baker...

Born in 1952, Kage Baker burst into the sci-fi spotlight in 1997 with In The Garden of Iden, and her "Company" series garnered several sci-fi awards over the next decade. Alas, the light has gone out; she passed away in January of this year.

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This is the purpose of my life. Men burned; flowers were rescued. (pg. 236)

Although In The Garden Of Iden teetered on the edge of too much "icky romance", it never quite fell off. Genre-mixing is always a risk, but somehow it works here. The big question is whether the rest of the series reverts back to its sci-fi roots (that's where I found it at my local library) or instead devolves into a two-bit pulp romance, like Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series did. We shall see. 7½ Stars.