Rude Mechanicals by Kage Baker
reviewed by David Soyka
The title alludes to a famed staging of the Shakespeare comedy, A Midsummer's Night Dream, by German director Max Reinhardt in the 30s.
More specifically, it concerns the comic exploits of two cyborg operatives from the author's long-running Company series.
Those who seek to perform the play as part of the duke's wedding celebrations
are considered "rude" due to their low class and "mechanical" because they are tradesmen, skilled at making things, but lacking
"higher" intellectual abilities, which include acting skills.
The Children of the Company by Kage Baker
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
The Company novels, beginning with In the Garden of Iden, are among the best examples in current science fiction
of a series of individual works that taken together add up to a larger, more comprehensive whole. This one
is a look below the shiny surface of the Company and its time-travelling agents seeking lost historical artifacts into the life
of one of the immortals, Executive Facilitator General Labienus, and his quest for power.
The Angel in the Darkness by Kage Baker
reviewed by Margo MacDonald
It's an interesting contemplation. Many people who decide to have children feel that in having offspring, a part of themselves becomes
immortal. But what if you already are truly immortal and can't have offspring? What if you lived forever watching generation after
generation of your kin be born, grow, and die? How far would you go to protect them? What would you risk to be near them and to
keep them out of harm's way?
The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker
reviewed by Gabe Mesa
In addition to being billed as her first fantasy novel, the novel is also an opportunity to give the author's
comedic talents a broader canvas. The book turns out to be not so much a novel per se as a series of three linked novellas featuring
Smith, a successful ex-assassin seeking to begin a new life in the city of Troon, and Lord Ermenwyr, the offspring of a saint and
a half-demon who becomes, oddly, both Smith's protector as well as his bête noire, his blessing together with his curse.
Black Projects, White Knights by Kage Baker
reviewed by Pat Caven
She is a storyteller. A consummate storyteller. This lady is the queen of tale telling with a twist. Great characters
well conceived plots, thought provoking, funny and with a charming intelligent style anyone would enjoy. You get the
point. Pat likes this author.
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The Graveyard Game by Kage Baker
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
The story opens as Literature Specialist Owen Lewis witnesses a time anomaly in which Mendoza,
heroine of earlier volumes, moves briefly
forward in time, from 1862 to 1996. This is something that's not
supposed to happen: one of the disadvantages of time travel is
that you can only go backward. But Mendoza is a generator of Crome
radiation, an indicator of paranormal abilities no cyborg is
supposed to possess, so there's no telling what she might be able to do.
Sky Coyote by Kage Baker
reviewed by Rich Horton
The Company makes a profit by saving things lost to history: works of art,
rare plants, even whole cultures. The Company's immortal agents are mostly
recruited from among doomed children throughout history and pre-history.
For, you see, the Company has discovered the secrets of both time travel and
immortality... but the use of both is limited.
Mendoza in Hollywood by Kage Baker
reviewed by David Soyka
More of a sequel to The Garden of Iden, it is again a 1st-person narrative by the
cyborg Mendoza on her unlucky love-life with mortal men. After centuries of preserving botanical specimens in California
mostly on her own, Mendoza is assigned to a stagecoach stop in an area that will eventually turn into the famous
movie-making capital.
Sky Coyote and Son Observe the Time by Kage Baker
reviewed by David Soyka
The second book in the Company series is related by Mendoza's
mentor, Joseph. It is laden with a cynicism that, while in keeping with a
being who has not only witnessed but collaborated in acts of human stupidity
and cruelty over the course of several centuries, ultimately becomes wearisome.
The novella in Asimov's May issue follows yet another Immortal,
and this time gets all the elements right that made the first
Company novel such a good read.
In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
reviewed by David Soyka
In the 24th century, time travel is used for one thing: profit. As her
first assignment, a Company operative (and effectively indentured servant to
the Company) is sent to England during the reign of Queen Mary to retrieve
now extinct plant specimens from the garden of Sir Walter Iden. Funny,
terrifying, and extremely well-researched.
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