My third RIP read is the fourth novel in Kage Baker's The Company series. The first three books have fairly standard mishaps and perils as the immortal cyborgs that work throughout time for the company called Dr. Zeus (collecting artwork, literature, historical artifacts, animal, and plant species that would otherwise have been lost in time) interact with humans and each other. This book, though, reveals a couple of major conspiracies and also takes us into our future, a time that is not pleasant in many parts of the world. I found it very hard to read right now, as we too have a very uncertain future. Mention of a second U.S. Civil War never seemed like such a threat as it does right now. And targeted pandemics in a time of such open and unrepentant racism seem just as likely. I truly hope that Baker's bleak visions of the future end up to be nothing more than science fiction after all.
If you're interested in starting this series, there's a great recent post by rocalisa that lists all of the books, novellas, and short stories by publication date (and also includes where to find them, which can be tough these days -- many Kage Baker books are out of print). There's also a big reread going on at tor.com and they're only in the middle of the third book so you could easily start and read the posts that are already up!
Hoping for the best,
K
If you're interested in starting this series, there's a great recent post by rocalisa that lists all of the books, novellas, and short stories by publication date (and also includes where to find them, which can be tough these days -- many Kage Baker books are out of print). There's also a big reread going on at tor.com and they're only in the middle of the third book so you could easily start and read the posts that are already up!
Hoping for the best,
K
Thanks for the shout out.
ReplyDeleteI have promised myself I will not start this one until the Tor reread gets up to it. Otherwise, I'll motor through the series and then not be able to remember what happened when Stefan discusses it. But I'm still kind of jealous you've already reread it.
Well, it's actually my first time through the series so I'm having trouble going slow. ;) I actually have to start looking for more of the books because I'm almost caught up with what I own so far!
DeleteThings start hotting up in the fourth book, don't they? The fifth one is the one where I really fell in mad passionate irrevocable love though -- I think! It was somewhere between the fourth and the fifth. That was just where I started realizing that Kage Baker had a major endgame for these books and it was going to be gooooooood.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I wasn't expecting conspiracies because "major future corporation manhandles the entirety of the past" isn't exactly a recipe for honesty and transparency!
DeleteRight now I only own the next novel and the short story collection that was purchased right after this book but I'm going to need to find the rest of the books soon so that I can speed through them!