More Company Novels!

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The Life of the World to Come, by Kage Baker
The Children of the Company
The Machine's Child
Gods and Pawns
The Sons of Heaven

Phew, I have read a whole lot of Company novels!  I'm a little tired, so I think I won't read the last two I have--The Empress of Mars and Not Less Than Gods--for a little while. 

Still not very good covers.
The only problem with talking about these books is that the plot gets so complex and out-there that it becomes hard to describe to anyone who hasn't already read some of them.  I'll just do my best here...

The Life of the World to Come: the life story of Alec Checkerfield, Seventh Earl of Finsbury, ridiculously wealthy 24th-century playboy.  But Alec is an unusual little boy, with some odd talents, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Mendoza's two former loves...

The Children of the Company: meet Executive Facilitator Labienus, one of the most powerful immortals in Dr. Zeus.  Over the centuries, he has put together his very own empire of power within the Company, and here he looks over some of his old dossiers, which will fill us in on some of the story, and makes plans for when the Silence falls in 2355.

The Machine's Child: Mendoza was long ago sentenced to a time prison, and after that she just disappeared.  Alec Checkerfield plans to take down the Company (and he's got Nicholas and Edward to help or hinder him now), and when he finds Mendoza, he also finds one of Dr. Zeus' most horrific secrets.

What is this spaceship thing?
Gods and Pawns: several short stories, involving Lewis, Mendoza, Porfirio, and one of the Company's early tragic failures in the process to figure out immortality.

The Sons of Heaven: by now we're jumping back and forth in time like mad, as various factions (I count five, no wait six) plot and plan for the Silence and we just try to hang on and keep up. 

This is a great series--full of great ideas and characters, funny and tragic and weird--and it's well worth reading if you can find the books.  They're out of print at the moment, but available on Kindle.


Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 13, 2016 at 6:43 PM

    THIS SERIES. I wish more people knew about it! A lovely woman who used to leave the nicest and thoughtfulest comments all over the blogosphere, though she rarely blogged herself, once recommended it to me, and it remains one of the most fun reading experiences I've had since I started blogging. I'd love it if someone put these books back in print. With better covers. I'd buy them all in hardback and scream about them to all my bloggy friends.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kristen M.June 14, 2016 at 8:00 AM

    I actually just bought The Life of the World to Come yesterday so that I can read Mendoza in Hollywood now without worrying that I would only have one book left after it! It really is WAY too hard to find these books. I also bought another Kage Baker, The Hotel Under the Sand, which looks really fun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. KerryJune 20, 2016 at 2:11 AM

    If you're interested, Stefan Raets is doing a readalong of the Company series over on Tor.com at the moment. we're just about to start Sky Coyote. There is some good discussion and the most recent post was from Kage Baker's sister, talking about the writing of In the Garden of Iden.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JeanJune 20, 2016 at 4:43 PM

    Thanks for the tip, Kerry!

    ReplyDelete

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