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35-821: The preceding novel, In The Garden of Iden , introduced the Botanist Mendoza, from her time of recruitment in the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition to her love affair with a mortal in Tudor England, followed by her being sent to base New World One in the Americas. Her recruiter and also her superior on the England mission was a much older operative, Joseph, who is the narrator of this novel. The story begins almost 150 years after Mendoza's arrival at New World One, when Joseph arrives there in

70-431: A cyborg botanist. In the introduction, she describes a 24th-century organization called "Dr. Zeus Inc." or simply "The Company". The Company has the secrets of immortality and time travel . Unfortunately the immortality treatment can only be used on young children; and time travel is difficult, expensive, and only possible when going into the past and returning to your own time. History cannot be changed. Dr. Zeus uses

105-427: A member of an ecstatic Christian cult that practised sexual freedom. Deciding that the cult leader was simply exploiting his fellows, he broke away and began preaching radical ideas, for which he was arrested and put in chains. Although Nicholas is illegitimate, he had well-connected friends and was freed with the warning to sin no more. Mendoza also has problems. As she matures, she finds she emits "Crome radiation",

140-463: A psychic field which can have unpredictable effects on time and space. This is not supposed to be possible for cyborgs, who are screened for such abilities when recruited. (In a later Company story, we learn that Joseph caused the tests to be fudged because otherwise Mendoza would be tortured to death by the Inquisition.) As the novel progresses, she is increasingly torn by love for Nicholas and

175-534: A small child and turned into an immortal machine, then made to work for "The Company." She loves her work and hates 'mortals'. All that changes when, on her first mission, she encounters love and learns the terrible price she has paid to live forever. American illustrator Michael Koelsch painted the cover art of Baker's first three novels in The Company series, beginning with In the Garden of Iden . This novel

210-541: A start, actual 24th-century Company operatives have come back to supervise. They are disgusted that the cyborgs eat meat, drink alcohol and consume other stimulants banned in their era. The cyborgs are not too impressed with the childish, phobia-ridden operatives either, but a job is a job. Mendoza starts her feud with Imarte, which continues in the next installment. There is a messianic religion encroaching on Chumash territory. This gets Joseph's hackles up. Nature throws in an earthquake or two. The Chumash go to their reward,

245-580: A walled garden. Mendoza's job is to take genetic samples. Iden's estate also includes a recreation of the place where Alexander Iden, a Kentish nobleman, captured and killed Jack Cade , a rebel leader during the civil wars in the previous century. Alexander Iden and Jack Cade are both historical figures, as well as being characters in William Shakespeare's play, Henry VI, part 2 . The fictional Sir Walter may have purchased both title and estate rather than inheriting them. Mendoza tells how she

280-421: Is "tall even for an Englishman" and has a horse-like face but is very intelligent and well-educated. She is immediately attracted to him, and Joseph, always on the lookout for an advantage, encourages her to seduce Nicholas. This she does, and settles in for a long stay, having decided that the Garden is full of unusual plants that will take years to catalogue. Nicholas, it turns out, has a dark past, having been

315-549: Is a more conversational style in those, as we argued out the reviews. One she recited in a single long soliloquy in her hospital room; it was written that evening, as I doggedly transferred Kage's voice from my head to paper. The last one is dated December 21, 2009. Three days later, we discovered her cancer had metastasized to her brain. A month later, she was gone. Baker left an unfinished novel, Nell Gwynne's On Land and At Sea , which has been completed by her sister Kathleen Bartholomew based on extensive notes left by Baker, and

350-527: Is about 20,000 years old, having been recruited from the Basque region as a child when his village was massacred. Joseph is a Facilitator, a 'fixer', a top agent. He is also world-weary, cynical and irreverent. His passion is his work, like all the cyborgs, but he also has a deep-seated hatred of religious fanaticism, partly because his parents were killed by a cult, partly because of what he has seen in his long life. The group also includes Nefer, whose specialty

385-672: Is best known for her "the Company/Dr. Zeus, Inc." series of historical time travel science fiction. Her first stories were published in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1997, and her first novel , In the Garden of Iden , by Hodder & Stoughton in the same year. Other notable works include Mendoza in Hollywood (novel, 2000) and " The Empress of Mars " (novella, 2003), which won the Theodore Sturgeon Award and

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420-463: Is farm animals, and Flavius, a technician. The mission is to travel to England as part of the entourage of Prince Philip of Spain , who is going to marry Queen Mary . Then they will go to the estate in Kent of Sir Walter Iden, who has been persuaded to let them sample rare plants from his garden. Mendoza is not pleased by all this. She is already deathly afraid of all 'mortals' as she calls them, and

455-468: Is further dismayed by the prospect of going to cold, wet, violent, disease-ridden England. When they arrive, without Flavius who stays in London, two things quickly change her mind. One is a hedge of Ilex tormentosum , or Julius Caesar's Holly, a plant with tremendous medicinal properties. It is already rare and, in the future, it is extinct. The other is Nicholas Harpole, Sir Walter's secretary. Nicholas

490-651: Is no longer human. Nicholas flees the estate. Later she learns he has returned to preaching in Rochester , and has been condemned to burn by the new Catholic authorities. She runs away herself to Rochester, but is unable to convince him to recant. At this point Joseph appears, having followed Mendoza. His only purpose now is to prevent her becoming a Company renegade. He denounces Nicholas as just another fake messiah who can only lead others to destruction along with himself. He reveals to Nicholas that he has lived many thousands of years and has yet to see anything resembling

525-528: Is snatched as a child from the Inquisition in Spain, having first been sold by her real parents to some 'noble Christians' who want her for pagan rites, but are instead arrested. In prison she is called Mendoza, after the name used by the pagans. She does not remember ever having a name of her own before that, her parents simply calling her "daughter" ( hija in Spanish). She does not even know her family name, or

560-456: Is the first in a series about "The Company" and its servants, human and otherwise. The series continues with Sky Coyote , Mendoza in Hollywood , The Graveyard Game , and The Life of the World to Come . The collection Black Projects, White Knights consists of Company stories, and there are allusions in the collection Mother Ægypt and Other Stories . The story is told by Mendoza,

595-418: The kantap fills the same needs. The guilds make sure that everybody gets what they need and pays handsomely for it. Oily salesmen try to make their percentage any way they can. Joseph is a little surprised to learn that they are so worldly, and they are quite surprised that he, well, exists. However Joseph spins his tale with his usual skill and pulls off the job. There are snags, but not the usual kind. For

630-511: The Company gets all the valuable information and samples it needs to sell to the rich and not-so-smart in the 24th century, and Joseph is left with a nagging doubt. For one thing, why does nobody know what happens after 2355, even though all history is available to the cyborgs up to that point? And why do cyborgs who talk too much about this tend to get suddenly reassigned? Why do the 24th-century people seem so cowardly and stupid? Didn't they go all

665-415: The Company then 'finds' the long-lost objects and sells them. The cyborgs are expected to arrive in the 24th century the old-fashioned way, by living through the intervening millennia. On the way, they can create more cyborgs from those who would otherwise die as children. Mendoza and her companions journey to England, to the county Kent estate of Sir Walter Iden, who keeps a collection of exotic plants in

700-422: The Garden of Iden is a 1997 science fiction novel by American writer Kage Baker . Although it is set entirely in the 16th century, in Spain and England, it is a science fiction story revolving around the activities of a group of immortal cyborgs , individuals who appear human but have been transformed by high technology. Mendoza is a cyborg, who, like others of her kind, has been rescued from certain death as

735-509: The Silent Screen (2011), edited by her sister Kathleen Bartholomew. From the foreword: All these reviews were written during the last year of Kage's life. I don't think that affected her view much—sometimes she was so tired that watching films and composing reviews was all she could manage, so they got her nearly undivided attention. As the year wore on, more and more of them were composed ex tempore and dictated to me; I think there

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770-684: The South American jungle. It is a secret Company base run like a luxury hotel, where the servants are Mayans rescued from sacrifices. She settles into her new air-conditioned existence, with an unknowable future. Kirkus Reviews praised it as "highly impressive and thoroughly engrossing", and "sparkl(ing) with wit". Publishers Weekly found it to be "lively" and an "agreeable read" for fans of time travel stories, with "robust and detailed" characters and setting, but faulted its pacing and its "unusually far-fetched" premise. Kage Baker Kage Baker (June 10, 1952 – January 31, 2010 )

805-562: The Truth that Nicholas and his like preach. Telling Nicholas that "of all the burnings I've witnessed, this is one I will actually enjoy" he takes Mendoza away. The next morning, they witness Nicholas' death. Returning to the Iden estate, Joseph promises to pull strings and get Mendoza sent to the New World, as she originally wanted. In the final chapter, Mendoza arrives at New World One in

840-554: The anthropologist and former Babylonian Imarte; who is not averse to bedding her subjects to get more data; and many other specialists. Joseph is the Master of Ceremonies, however. He's also wearing a lot of non-standard equipment to turn him into a cavorting, fast talking (and priapic ) god. The Chumash turn out to be, well, ordinary. Superb craftsmen, their lives revolve around work, festivals, religion, festivals, getting ahead, and festivals. They may not have churches and boys clubs, but

875-517: The dying days of 1699 with a new mission in California. This episode focuses on operatives Lewis , Latif and Imarte , all of whom have roles in future stories. Joseph's latest role is that of Sky Coyote , the trickster , the foolish one, the animal god of many Native American traditions. He will play it for the Chumash, a tribe in California in the late 17th century. His job is to persuade

910-436: The end of the book he has become a 20th-century Hollywood studio executive, hiding artifacts of the era for the company. The Chumash were a real tribe in the location described. The monotheistic Chinigchinix religion which threatens them, and is in turn threatened by encroaching colonialism, was also real; although it was not necessarily as oppressive and violent as it is portrayed here. In The Garden of Iden In

945-456: The household is being inventoried for the sale, Joseph is damaged in an accident which would have killed a normal human. Though he talks his way out of the immediate situation with his usual skill, he is eventually found out by Nicholas, who sees him doing self-repairs to his internal machinery. Nicholas, having been prepared to elope with Mendoza, confronts her, believing her to be a devil in human form. She admits that, even in her own eyes, she

980-523: The name of her village. One of the Inquisitors is Joseph, a cyborg, who is able to deliver her to his fellow agents for 'augmentation'. Fifteen years later she returns to Spain for her first mission. Although she trained as a botanist and wants to go the New World, she has to spend time in Europe on an expedition to England. She finds that the expedition leader is Joseph, the cyborg who saved her. He

1015-420: The need to lie to him, to play her assigned part. Nicholas himself is suspicious of Mendoza and her companions. Old Sir Walter Iden, having been given rejuvenating treatments by Joseph as payment for their stay, decides to sell the estate and move to London. The entire household is already amazed by his transformation from doddering old man to virile middle-age. Joseph is furious but can do nothing. Then, while

1050-414: The technology simply to get rich. By travelling far into prehistory, the company creates its own immortal cyborg agents, who then have the mission of preserving cultural artifacts and other valuable items for sale in the 24th century. Usually these items are hidden in safe places, but in the case of extinct species, for instance, they are kept in secret Company caches run by the cyborgs. In the 24th century

1085-459: The village of Humashup to give up their entire lifestyle, which the company will take and "preserve," while the Chumash are shipped out to work in a Company facility. The Spanish are coming soon, and the Chumash culture will be wiped out along with all the others. Of course, Joseph can't do this alone. He assembles a small army of his kind, including the erratic and moody botanist Mendoza, whom he occasionally regrets recruiting in 16th-century Spain;

Sky Coyote - Misplaced Pages Continue

1120-481: The way back to 30,000 BC to start the ball rolling? Or was it 40,000? Nobody is quite sure. However, Joseph is mostly satisfied, but unfulfilled and, at his core, unhappy. Mendoza has been released to wander the redwood forest, a dream task for the botanist. Joseph believes that in 1923 he saw her with a mortal she fell for in Tudor England, but that story is not completed in this volume. Joseph has more or less adopted Mendoza as his daughter, though he cannot admit it. By

1155-574: Was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Baker was born and raised in Hollywood, California , and lived in Pismo Beach later in life. Before becoming a professional writer she spent many years in theater , including teaching Elizabethan English as a second language. Her unusual first name (pronounced like the word cage ) is a combination of the names of her two grandmothers, Kate and Genevieve. Baker had Asperger syndrome . She

1190-622: Was nominated for a Hugo Award . In 2008, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University . In 2009, her short story "Caverns of Mystery" and her novel House of the Stag were both nominated for World Fantasy Awards , but neither piece won. In January 2010, it was reported that Baker was seriously ill with cancer . She died from uterine cancer at approximately 1:00 a.m. on January 31, 2010, in Pismo Beach, California. She

1225-635: Was survived by five younger siblings, mostly located in southern and central California. In 2010, Baker's The Women of Nell Gwynne's was nominated for a Hugo Award and a World Fantasy Award in the Best Novella categories. On May 15, 2010, that work was awarded the 2009 Nebula Award in the Best Novella category. Kage spent much of the last year of her life watching and reviewing silent films . Many of her reviews were collected posthumously into Ancient Rockets: Treasures and Trainwrecks of

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