Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
Eos (1998), Mass Market Paperback
Pages
320
Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: The first novel of Kage Baker's critically acclaimed, much-loved series, The Company, introduces us to a world where the future of commerce is the past. In the twenty-fourth century, the Company preserves works of art and extinct forms of life (for profit of course). It recruits orphans from the past, renders them all but immortal, and trains them to serve the Company, Dr. Zeus. One of these is Mendoza, the botanist. She is sent to Elizabethan England to collect samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden. But while there, she meets Nicholas Harpole, with whom she falls in love. And that love sounds great bells of change that will echo down the centuries, and through the succeeding novels of The Company. Breathtakingly detailed and written with great aplomb, In the Garden of Iden is a contemporary classic of the science-fiction genre..… (more)
Media reviews
In the Garden of Iden is Kage Baker's debut novel of "The Company." It's a science fiction novel set in the 1550s, during the reign in Britain of Queen Mary. Baker's fluid style is a joy to read and her transformation from "modern" English to Renaissance and back to modern is wonderful. This is a
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marvelous debut and I can't wait to read more in the series. Show Less
Right off, the title lets you know that this is a story about loss of innocence. If you're one of those people who are put off by obvious metaphors, don't let that stop you from reading this book. It manages to be quite funny and terrifying at the same time.
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1997
Physical description
320 p.; 6.7 inches
ISBN
0380731797 / 9780380731794
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User reviews
LibraryThing member bigorangemichael
Here's a book where I love the concept of the book a lot more than than execution.
The concept of using time travel to go back, create a new race of immortal human beings who will then preserve certain aspects and artifacts from history is an intriguing one. The opening segments of "In the Garden of
Unfortunately, that never really ...moreHere's a book where I love the concept of the book a lot more than than execution.
The concept of using time travel to go back, create a new race of immortal human beings who will then preserve certain aspects and artifacts from history is an intriguing one. The opening segments of "In the Garden of Iden" that set up this concept and idea are intriguing, fascinating and had me hoping something brilliant would happen in the novel.
Unfortunately, that never really materializes--at least not in this installment. Instead, we meet Mendoza, a botanist who is sent back in time to the titular garden to observe it and to collect some samples that were lost to the ravages of time. Instead she meets and falls in love with Nicholas Harpole, a man who isn't immortal but shares Mendoza believes could and should be.
I have a feeling a lot of what plays out in this story is a set-up for future installments. And that's all fine, but it still leaves "Iden" feeling like a bit of a disappointment in spots--especially after the solid and intriguing beginning.
I may read another novel or two in the series to see if things pick up a bit.
The concept of using time travel to go back, create a new race of immortal human beings who will then preserve certain aspects and artifacts from history is an intriguing one. The opening segments of "In the Garden of
Show More
Iden" that set up this concept and idea are intriguing, fascinating and had me hoping something brilliant would happen in the novel.Unfortunately, that never really ...moreHere's a book where I love the concept of the book a lot more than than execution.
The concept of using time travel to go back, create a new race of immortal human beings who will then preserve certain aspects and artifacts from history is an intriguing one. The opening segments of "In the Garden of Iden" that set up this concept and idea are intriguing, fascinating and had me hoping something brilliant would happen in the novel.
Unfortunately, that never really materializes--at least not in this installment. Instead, we meet Mendoza, a botanist who is sent back in time to the titular garden to observe it and to collect some samples that were lost to the ravages of time. Instead she meets and falls in love with Nicholas Harpole, a man who isn't immortal but shares Mendoza believes could and should be.
I have a feeling a lot of what plays out in this story is a set-up for future installments. And that's all fine, but it still leaves "Iden" feeling like a bit of a disappointment in spots--especially after the solid and intriguing beginning.
I may read another novel or two in the series to see if things pick up a bit.
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LibraryThing member DLMorrese
The first of Kage Baker’s Company novels is part science fiction, part romance, part historical fiction, and part YA coming of age story. It follows the rescue of Mendoza, a young Spanish peasant girl, from the Inquisition through the completion of her first assignment as an immortal cyborg for
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the Company at the age of nineteen in Bloody Queen Mary’s England in the mid sixteenth century. Summarizing the plot would be a spoiler, but suffice it to say that Mendoza’s attitude about humanity is adversely affected by her experience as a doomed prisoner of the Inquisition, and she feels conflicted about her attraction to a mortal man she meets at a small English estate during her assignment there to preserve several plant species from extinction. Through Baker’s first person telling of Mendoza’s emotional and intellectual conflict, she explores big issues of religious faith, intolerance, and prejudice. But despite the focus on these dark aspects of human behavior, it carries an overall optimistic tone and mood. Yes, humans can be irrational, intolerant, and cruel but they can overcome these things--eventually. This overlying optimism and the story’s theme of eventual human betterment are what make this book most enjoyable to me. That said, I can see where some will not like it. This is not hard Sci-Fi, which focuses on technology, and not even typical soft Sci-Fi, which focuses on the “soft” sciences of psychology, anthropology, sociology, etc. A lot of the story is conveyed by the romance between Mendoza and the young man, Nicholas. If romance is an immediate turn off for you, as it seems to be for some Sci-Fi readers, you won’t like this book. Also, it comes down hard on religiously motivated intolerance, so if you think of the Spanish Inquisition as the good old days and long for its return, you won’t like it either. But for others, this is a good read and I recommend it. Show Less
LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
A really incredible book, possibly the best book in the Company series. Mendoza is saved from the dungeons of the Inquisition to become an immortal cyborg working for Dr.Zeus, a company that has harnassed both immortality and timetravel. For her first trip to "the field", she travels to Tudor
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England to rescue rare plants from extinction. Unfortunately for her, she falls utterly in love with a remarkable mortal man--who is devoutly Protestant when Queen Mary takes the throne. Mendoza observes the mortal world with both a teenager's verve and naivete and a genius immortal's knowledge. Show Less
LibraryThing member TadAD
The series started quite well...very original and well written. Unfortunately, it wound down in enjoyment for me as it progressed. Some of the plot directions, like the whole Nicholas/Edward/Alec thing, I found plain boring. Some of the characters introduced later could have been quite interesting,
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but I found them a bit flat. Other than the first few novels, the short stories are actually the best part of this series. Show Less
LibraryThing member keeba
I'm a sucker for time travel stories and the premise of Kage Baker's The Company series is rife with possibilities. A mysterious 24th century corporation uses time travel to rescue endangered and extinct species from the past. Rather than sending 24th century agents into the past, they recruit
Mendoza is one such Company agent. Rescued from the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition, she specializes in botany with dreams of gathering samples in the New World, far from the dangerous bloodthirsty mortals who are so ready to burn heretics at the stake on the flimsiest evidence. Instead, she is sent to England during the waning years of Mary Tudor's reign as the daughter of a Spanish physician to gather plants on the estate of the eccentric Sir Walter Iden.
In the Garden of Iden starts off promisingly, but it lags in the middle. There's not enough action and there's not enough history. There is a love story, however, as Mendoza falls in love with Sir Walter's secretary, the stern Protestant Nicholas Harpole. But what future can there be for a clandestine immortal cyborg and a mortal man? And how safe will the Spanish visitors be in an England of growing discontent under its Catholic (and Spanish) monarchy?
There are six novels in The Company series. I hope Baker developed the theme more deeply in later volumes. This is her first novel so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
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their agents *from* the past. They rescue children from certain death, raise them, train them and turn them into immortal cyborgs.Mendoza is one such Company agent. Rescued from the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition, she specializes in botany with dreams of gathering samples in the New World, far from the dangerous bloodthirsty mortals who are so ready to burn heretics at the stake on the flimsiest evidence. Instead, she is sent to England during the waning years of Mary Tudor's reign as the daughter of a Spanish physician to gather plants on the estate of the eccentric Sir Walter Iden.
In the Garden of Iden starts off promisingly, but it lags in the middle. There's not enough action and there's not enough history. There is a love story, however, as Mendoza falls in love with Sir Walter's secretary, the stern Protestant Nicholas Harpole. But what future can there be for a clandestine immortal cyborg and a mortal man? And how safe will the Spanish visitors be in an England of growing discontent under its Catholic (and Spanish) monarchy?
There are six novels in The Company series. I hope Baker developed the theme more deeply in later volumes. This is her first novel so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
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LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
I enjoy the "Company" Novels and in this one, we begin to understand that there is a company, and its motives may not be particularly modest,, or benign. Good quality Kage Baker, and the many references to Henry VI by Shakespeare are clever. I read the 1997 hardback.
LibraryThing member stubbyfingers
This is based on the idea of what would happen if somewhere in the future the figure out how to make people immortal and also how to time travel. It's given in this story that you can't change history and you can't bring objects forward through time, but other than that, there's nothing you can't
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do. Even better, why not make immortal slaves and have them do all the dirty work for you? This is the story of one of those slaves...er, employees...as she becomes immortal during the Spanish Inquisition and then attempts to save various plants from extinction. Very little time was spent in the science fiction aspect of this story such as the time traveling, the immortality, and the rescuing of plant species. Instead, a great deal of time was spent dwelling on a romantic relationship that seemed improbable from every angle. This was entertaining, but nothing spectacular. I'd be willing to give the second book in this series a try, but I won't be in a rush to do so. Show Less
LibraryThing member martitia
historical fiction, Tudor England, science fiction, time travel, evocative setting, romance
LibraryThing member kmaziarz
In the far future, science has perfected both immortality and time travel. However, immortality can only be gained through a complex series of invasive operations with the end result being more cyborg than human. Time travel, too, has limitations: one can only go backwards in time, and then forward
Mendoza, a young orphan taken by the Spanish Inquisition, is one of those immortal operatives of the Company. For her first mission as a botanist for Dr. Zeus, she is sent, along with the man who rescued her from the Inquisition and a small team of other immortals, to the Garden of Iden, a typically British folly containing rare and unusual botanical specimens. Her mission is to retrieve samples of the many now-extinct plants, most of which have medical applications in the future. But she didn’t expect to encounter someone like Nicholas Harpole, a strong, passionate, and intelligent mortal man who serves as secretary to Iden’s owner and makes the worst mistake possible for an immortal: she falls in love with a mortal. When Nicholas is captured as a heretic and sentenced to burned at the stake, Mendoza must choose between the man she loves and her own immortal mission.
Replete with vibrant historical detail, brimming with insightful social commentary, and possessing some truly engaging characters, “In the Garden of Iden” is engrossing. And since it is only the first in a series about the immortal agents of the Company, fans will have a lot more to look forward to.
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again to one’s starting time; and recorded history cannot be changed. However, the Company, also known as Dr. Zeus, who perfected both of these techniques, realized that UNrecorded history could be their playground. They began sending operatives back in time to recruit orphans to become the Company’s operatives. These orphans were given the immortality cyborg treatments, trained extensively, and set loose in the hidden bits of history to rescue artworks, animals, plants, and cultures from extinction, so that, in the future, Dr. Zeus could miraculously discover or recreate them…and make a lot of money doing so. Mendoza, a young orphan taken by the Spanish Inquisition, is one of those immortal operatives of the Company. For her first mission as a botanist for Dr. Zeus, she is sent, along with the man who rescued her from the Inquisition and a small team of other immortals, to the Garden of Iden, a typically British folly containing rare and unusual botanical specimens. Her mission is to retrieve samples of the many now-extinct plants, most of which have medical applications in the future. But she didn’t expect to encounter someone like Nicholas Harpole, a strong, passionate, and intelligent mortal man who serves as secretary to Iden’s owner and makes the worst mistake possible for an immortal: she falls in love with a mortal. When Nicholas is captured as a heretic and sentenced to burned at the stake, Mendoza must choose between the man she loves and her own immortal mission.
Replete with vibrant historical detail, brimming with insightful social commentary, and possessing some truly engaging characters, “In the Garden of Iden” is engrossing. And since it is only the first in a series about the immortal agents of the Company, fans will have a lot more to look forward to.
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LibraryThing member francescadefreitas
Oh, I wish I'd reviewed this when I read it, I just remember liking it, but feeling frustrated by the ending. Mendoza is a delightful combination of ardent adolescent and scornful immortal.
LibraryThing member Jellyn
I think the idea of The Company is really cool. Time travel! Immortals! Though I do have a question about time paradoxes. If you can't change recorded history, no matter how hard you try, fine. But now it's set up so a lot more of history is being recorded than ever before, right? Isn't that
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causing problems?I liked it and I'll definitely read more of the series. Though I do hope it has a conclusion of some sort since the author's in ill health.My one problem with it is that there's this introduction that explains the backstory, which is fascinating, but then kind of took away from the joy of discovery. You're no longer learning things along with the main character, because you already know more than she does up until a certain point.Yet.. well, here's a paradox on its own.. the main character can do things that we didn't know she could do. Just, out of nowhere, she's doing some new Immortal trick that we the reader weren't aware she could do.So I wanted to know no more than the main character. Yet I also did want to know _as much as_ the main character.Anyway, yes, will read more. Show Less
LibraryThing member jbdavis
The Company's real name is Dr. Zeus. They are a 24th-century operation devoted to getting rich off the past. The Company turns orphans and refugees from the past into highly intelligent, physically invincible cyborgs and sends them on missions to save or hide precious paintings, cultural treasures,
In the first book, In the Garden of Iden, 5-year old Mendoza is rescued from the Spanish Inquisition by a company operative. After undergoing training and a series of surgeries to turn her into a cyborg, Mendoza is reunited with her rescuer, Joseph, and sent on a mission to Elizabethan England to rescue rare plants before they become extinct. Once there, she falls in love with Nicholas who has a secret of his own. He is a Protestant in Catholic England. Realistic, sometimes painfully so but Baker is a compelling story teller who leaves you turning the pages at a very fast rate and staying up too late to see the story's outcome.
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and genetic information useful to the future world.In the first book, In the Garden of Iden, 5-year old Mendoza is rescued from the Spanish Inquisition by a company operative. After undergoing training and a series of surgeries to turn her into a cyborg, Mendoza is reunited with her rescuer, Joseph, and sent on a mission to Elizabethan England to rescue rare plants before they become extinct. Once there, she falls in love with Nicholas who has a secret of his own. He is a Protestant in Catholic England. Realistic, sometimes painfully so but Baker is a compelling story teller who leaves you turning the pages at a very fast rate and staying up too late to see the story's outcome.
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LibraryThing member tcgardner
As a young child, Mendoza is plucked out of a brutal Medieval Spain and is made immortal by a time traveling organization from the future. She is trained as a botanist to saved plants from extinction. She comes to view humans as sub-human and beneath contempt.
Her first assignment is to take
In this love, she finds that the "The Company" is not all that she thought it would be and she is not what she thought she was.
A great book. Highly recommended.
Her first assignment is to take
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cuttings from an estate in 16th century England. In this place she finds ignorance, intolerance, bigotry, human foibles, and even love.In this love, she finds that the "The Company" is not all that she thought it would be and she is not what she thought she was.
A great book. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member bzedan
The same idea, of ageless timetravelers who are also scholars, has been done as well by others. A nice way to pass the time and more interesting when history bits like the Inquisition come up.
LibraryThing member mossjon
2.5 stars
My first exposure to Kage Baker's writing and to her Company series. In our future (about two centuries ahead of us), both time travel and immortality are discovered. As with most time travel scenarios in science fiction, history can't be rewritten, so said travel is of limited use to the
The Company (aka Dr. Suess) still finds a way to make a buck, sending scientists back to the distant past, recruiting young children from the native population, installing immortality, and putting them to work by scavenging and salvaging priceless art, books, plants, etc. for re-discovery and re-sale (by the Company of course) in the 24th century.
Mendoza is an orphan from the Spanish Inquisition rescued and then recruited by the Company at the very edge of the Pit. After several years of operations and education, she receives her first field assignment, not in the New World (as she desired to be as far as possible away from 'the monkeys'), but in dreary damp England. While collecting rare specimens from the Garden of Iden, she falls in love with one of the manor's servants, a fiercely fanatical Protestant young man adrift in a resurgence of Catholicism courtesy of Queen Mary and Prince Phillip of Spain.
I enjoyed the historical aspects of the novel, especially England during the Counter-Reformation. Kage Baker did a good job of immersing me in both Spain and England. I still prefer Connie Willis' writing style as evidenced in The Doomsday Book and her other Oxford time travel novels and stories.
I'm not a fan of romance, especially teenage romance (and Mendoza is in her late teens while on this first assignment), so I struggled through about half of this book. I also missed some of the humor (or failed to register it as such) exhibited by her fellow agents and their reactions to the 'monkeys' (the cyborg agents' derogatory term for mere mortal men). The predictably tragic ending arrived to my great relief and the novel finally moved back to the original mission - preserving plants.
Perhaps I took the fear and loathing of the immortal agents towards human beings too much to heart. It concerned me that these agents of the Company felt such disdain and dread towards their former brothers and sisters. Commerce and computers seized the day, while the monkeys scampered about and threw bananas at each other. I got the distinct impression that the Company and civilization of the 24th century felt humans were irredeemably inclined to violence and destruction, in a constantly repeating cycle.
My first exposure to Kage Baker's writing and to her Company series. In our future (about two centuries ahead of us), both time travel and immortality are discovered. As with most time travel scenarios in science fiction, history can't be rewritten, so said travel is of limited use to the
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plot and the science is foggy at best. Time travel then becomes a means to transport the reader to a different point in our past. Equally useless to the entrepreneurs of the 24th century is immortality, which can only be applied to very young children and requires extensive cybernetic enhancement. The Company (aka Dr. Suess) still finds a way to make a buck, sending scientists back to the distant past, recruiting young children from the native population, installing immortality, and putting them to work by scavenging and salvaging priceless art, books, plants, etc. for re-discovery and re-sale (by the Company of course) in the 24th century.
Mendoza is an orphan from the Spanish Inquisition rescued and then recruited by the Company at the very edge of the Pit. After several years of operations and education, she receives her first field assignment, not in the New World (as she desired to be as far as possible away from 'the monkeys'), but in dreary damp England. While collecting rare specimens from the Garden of Iden, she falls in love with one of the manor's servants, a fiercely fanatical Protestant young man adrift in a resurgence of Catholicism courtesy of Queen Mary and Prince Phillip of Spain.
I enjoyed the historical aspects of the novel, especially England during the Counter-Reformation. Kage Baker did a good job of immersing me in both Spain and England. I still prefer Connie Willis' writing style as evidenced in The Doomsday Book and her other Oxford time travel novels and stories.
I'm not a fan of romance, especially teenage romance (and Mendoza is in her late teens while on this first assignment), so I struggled through about half of this book. I also missed some of the humor (or failed to register it as such) exhibited by her fellow agents and their reactions to the 'monkeys' (the cyborg agents' derogatory term for mere mortal men). The predictably tragic ending arrived to my great relief and the novel finally moved back to the original mission - preserving plants.
Perhaps I took the fear and loathing of the immortal agents towards human beings too much to heart. It concerned me that these agents of the Company felt such disdain and dread towards their former brothers and sisters. Commerce and computers seized the day, while the monkeys scampered about and threw bananas at each other. I got the distinct impression that the Company and civilization of the 24th century felt humans were irredeemably inclined to violence and destruction, in a constantly repeating cycle.
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LibraryThing member redswirl3
This was the book that hooked me. I couldn't put the book down. My local library did not have any of the other books. It was difficult for me to wait as purchased or mooched the other books in the series.
LibraryThing member zina
Ingenius without being pretentious. Time travel, immortality, historic detail and thought-provoking comments on society and the human race
LibraryThing member amf0001
Reallly interesting concept, wonderful prologue. Doesn't quite sustain itself and I grew bored, but the ideas were so clever that it didn't matter if the characters were not as engaging as they could have been. After about 100 pages I began to skim, but I still like the ideas it explored and what
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immortality, (and brain implants)do to a personality and perspective. Show Less
LibraryThing member Tyllwin
A light and enjoyable read, but not, for me, a memorable one, nor one to draw me in to the series.
LibraryThing member JohnGrant1
The first novel of the late Kage Baker's The Company series.
The infant Mendoza is plucked out of the torture dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition by a man called Joseph and recruited to become a member of Dr Zeus -- a.k.a. The Company -- a 24th-century organization that has infiltrated all of its
Once Mendoza has been cyborgized, stuffed with almost all of the world's knowledge, and trained as a botanist, she's sent on her first mission, with Joseph and an older woman, Nef. Posing as Spanish temporary emigrees, they come to Kent and specifically to live in the manor of Sir Walter Iden, in whose garden of rare plants there are countless species that could bring medicinal and other benefits to the future -- and will in fact do so, because it's Mendoza's job to take samples and make records such that, centuries later, The Company can "rediscover" these long-lost varieties. Despite herself, Mendoza falls in love with Sir Walter's secretary, Nicholas Harpole, a seemingly grim Protestant zealot -- not the best thing to be in England during the reign of the Mary Tudor, Bloody Mary, intent on reimposing on the people, by torture and the stake, the Catholicism her father Henry VIII had driven out.
Aside from the basic setup, which is great, there are all sorts of good things about this novel. One is the cyborgs' prevailing contempt for the mortals they work among, whom they regard as monkeys and whose various mythologies and supposedly moral barbarities they treat with a justified withering scorn:
"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. Don't you ever make the mistake of thinking that mortals want to live in a golden age. They hate thinking." (p217)
Some of the incidentals are joyous, too: the way that the lingua franca used among the immortals is called Cinema Standard; the live radio broadcasts to which the cyborgs listen to keep themselves abreast of current affairs, rendered as parodies of our own coverage of royal weddings and the like; the list could be continued.
The writing style for the first few score pages is very appealing . . . but then we really get into Mendoza's lusty affair with Nicholas and the dialogue suddenly starts clogging up with dreadful forsoothly-type speech. As for that lusty affair, it fills a disproportionate amount of the book: it seems to be about every other page that we're told the happy couple are off for yet another quickie, a piece of information that soon comes to convey all the thrill and interest of the guy next to you on the bus trying to tell you about the bonk he had before breakfast. Other people's sex lives really aren't all that interesting if they're active, happy, faithful and fulfilled. By the end of the book I wasn't precisely bored, but I can't say I was hugely enjoying myself either -- such a pity, because I raced eagerly through the first eighty or a hundred pages.
I'm told the further novels in the series show a big improvement, so when I find time I'll certainly try another; the good bits of this one were definitely enough to tantalize.
The infant Mendoza is plucked out of the torture dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition by a man called Joseph and recruited to become a member of Dr Zeus -- a.k.a. The Company -- a 24th-century organization that has infiltrated all of its
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past time to create cyborg immortals who manipulate events such that, by the 24th century, vast wealth and influence will be Dr Zeus's. This scheme depends on the discovered fact that, while you can't change history, history isn't history unless it has been recorded. Since the vast majority of the past hasn't been chronicled, and since we're never certain how great scads of the present (any present) came to be, time travelers and their cyborg colleagues have a far more considerable freedom of action than you might expect.Once Mendoza has been cyborgized, stuffed with almost all of the world's knowledge, and trained as a botanist, she's sent on her first mission, with Joseph and an older woman, Nef. Posing as Spanish temporary emigrees, they come to Kent and specifically to live in the manor of Sir Walter Iden, in whose garden of rare plants there are countless species that could bring medicinal and other benefits to the future -- and will in fact do so, because it's Mendoza's job to take samples and make records such that, centuries later, The Company can "rediscover" these long-lost varieties. Despite herself, Mendoza falls in love with Sir Walter's secretary, Nicholas Harpole, a seemingly grim Protestant zealot -- not the best thing to be in England during the reign of the Mary Tudor, Bloody Mary, intent on reimposing on the people, by torture and the stake, the Catholicism her father Henry VIII had driven out.
Aside from the basic setup, which is great, there are all sorts of good things about this novel. One is the cyborgs' prevailing contempt for the mortals they work among, whom they regard as monkeys and whose various mythologies and supposedly moral barbarities they treat with a justified withering scorn:
"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. Don't you ever make the mistake of thinking that mortals want to live in a golden age. They hate thinking." (p217)
Some of the incidentals are joyous, too: the way that the lingua franca used among the immortals is called Cinema Standard; the live radio broadcasts to which the cyborgs listen to keep themselves abreast of current affairs, rendered as parodies of our own coverage of royal weddings and the like; the list could be continued.
The writing style for the first few score pages is very appealing . . . but then we really get into Mendoza's lusty affair with Nicholas and the dialogue suddenly starts clogging up with dreadful forsoothly-type speech. As for that lusty affair, it fills a disproportionate amount of the book: it seems to be about every other page that we're told the happy couple are off for yet another quickie, a piece of information that soon comes to convey all the thrill and interest of the guy next to you on the bus trying to tell you about the bonk he had before breakfast. Other people's sex lives really aren't all that interesting if they're active, happy, faithful and fulfilled. By the end of the book I wasn't precisely bored, but I can't say I was hugely enjoying myself either -- such a pity, because I raced eagerly through the first eighty or a hundred pages.
I'm told the further novels in the series show a big improvement, so when I find time I'll certainly try another; the good bits of this one were definitely enough to tantalize.
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LibraryThing member SithCrow
it isn't possible to say enough good things about kage baker. i read through the "company" series every now and then and feel the urge to go out and buttonhole people and explain exactly why they should go and buy the books and read them right now because they really are just that good. "in the
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garden of iden" is the weakest of the series and that's pretty damn amazing because even weak, it's fascinating. it was, i believe, baker's first full-length novel and she only commits one major faux-pas for which i am willing to forgive her for the sake of the rest of the series. she never makes the same mistake again. Show Less
LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
I have read quite a few Company short stories and adored them, but was too lazy to seek out the novels until Kage Baker's recent death. I am happy to report this, her first novel and the beginning of the series, is just as good as her later short work.
LibraryThing member paperloverevolution
The first (and best) of Baker's Company novels. The whole series is well worth reading for its entertaining combination of twisty conspiracy-theory intrigue, swashbuckling romance, nail-biting cliffhangers, hardboiled detective adventure, and comedy. Demanding readers will enjoy it for the
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incredible intricacy of the plot and for Baker's gift for historical detail. Addictive. Show Less
LibraryThing member mattwa33186
Very good book, very well written.
LibraryThing member mirihawk
The first book in the Company series; I was so excited to discover them. Now, I'm nostalgic since the author is no longer with us. I found her writing provocative. In the next few books Mendoza will mature, but in this one she is a teenager who will get a life lesson.