Best Selling Books by Kage Baker

Before the Riders came to their remote valley the Yendri led a tranquil pastoral life. When the Riders conquered and enslaved them, only a few escaped to the forests. Rebellion wasn''t the Yendri way; they hid, or passively resisted, taking consolation in the prophecies of their spiritual leader. Only one possessed the necessary rage to fight back: Gard the foundling, half-demon, who began a one-man guerrilla war against the Riders. His struggle ended in the loss of the family he loved, and condemnation from his own people. Exiled, he was taken as a slave by powerful mages ruling an underground kingdom. Bitterer and wiser, he found more subtle ways to earn his freedom. This is the story of his rise to power, his vengeance, his unlikely redemption and his maturation into a loving father--as well as a lord and commander of demon armies. Kage Baker, author of the popular and witty fantasy, The Anvil of the World, returns to that magical world for another story of love, adventure, and a fair bit of ironic humor. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A collection of seven short stories set in the universe of the Company chronicles the history and adventures of the organization and its operatives, including Mendoza, Lewis, and Joseph.

Kage Baker''s stories and novels of the mysterious organization that controls time travel, The Company, have made her famous in SF. So has her talent for clever dialogue and pointed social commentary with a light touch. "Ms. Baker is the best thing to happen to modern science fiction since Connie Willis or Dan Simmons. She mixes adventure, history and societal concerns in just the right amount, creating an action-packed but thoughtful read," says The Dallas Morning News. The Anvil of the World is her first fantasy novel, a journey across a landscape filled with bizarre creatures, human and otherwise. It is the tale of Smith, of the large extended family of Smiths, of the Children of the Sun. They are a race given to blood feuds, and Smith was formerly an extremely successful assassin. Now he has wearied of his work and is trying to retire in another country, to live an honest life in obscurity in spite of all those who have sworn to kill him. His problems begin when he agrees to be the master of a caravan from the inland city of Troon to the seaside city of Salesh. The caravan is dogged by murder, magic, and the brooding image of the Master of the Mountain, a powerful demon, looking down from his mountain kingdom upon the greenlands and the travelers passing below. In Salesh, Smith becomes an innkeeper, but on the journey he befriended the young Lord Ermenwyr, a decadent demonic half-breed. Each time Ermenwyr turns up, he brings new trouble with him. The outgrowth of stories Baker has been writing since childhood, as engaging as Tolkien and yet nothing like him, Smith''s adventure is certainly the only fantasy on record with a white-uniformed nurse, gourmet cuisine, one hundred and forty-four glass butterflies, and a steamboat. This is a book filled with intrigue, romance, sudden violence, and moments of emotional impact, a cast of charming characters, and echoes of the fantasy tradition that runs from Lord Dunsany and Fritz Leiber to Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Recently returned from war, young Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax is grateful to be taken under the wing of the Gentleman''s Speculative Society. At the Society, Edward soon learns that a secret world flourishes beneath the surface of London''s society, a world of wondrous and terrible inventions and devices used to tip the balance of power in a long-running game of high-stakes intrigue. Through his intensive training Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax, unwanted and lonely boy, becomes Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax, Victorian super-assassin, fleeing across the Turkish countryside in steam-powered coaches and honing his fighting skills against clockwork opponents. As Edward travels across Europe with a team of companions, all disguised as gentleman dandies on tour, he learns more about himself and the curious abilities he is gradually developing. He begins to wonder if there isn''t more going on than simple international intrigue, and if he and his companions are maybe part of a political and economic game stretching through the centuries. But, in the end, is it a game he can bring himself to play? Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax, the idealistic assassin. Perhaps the most dangerous man alive. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Kage Baker''s In the Garden of Iden is the first novel in what has become one of the most popular series in contemporary SF--The Company--now back in print from Tor. In the 24th 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. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In a direct sequel to "The Life of the World to Come," Mendoza is banished to a prison lost in time, where rebellious immortals are "dealt with." Her past lovers Alec, Nicholas, and Bell-Fairfax are determined to rescue her, but first they must learn how to live together, because all three happen to be sharing Alecs body.

Facilitator Joseph has outlasted entire civilizations during his twenty-thousand years of service to Dr. Zeus, the twenty-fourth century Company that created immortal operatives like him to preserve history and culture. The year is 1699 and Joseph is now in Alta California, to imitate an ancient Native-American Coyote god, and save the native Chumash from the white Europeans.He has the help of the Botanist Mendoza, who hasn''t gotten over the death of her lover Nicholas, in Elizabethan England. Lately though, Joseph has started to have a few doubts about The Company. There are whispers about the year 2355, about operatives that suddenly go missing. Time is running out for Joseph, which is ironic considering he''s immortal, but no one ever said that it was easy being a god. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Nine-year-old Emma is lost at sea in a terrible storm. She awakens on a desolate island, frightened and lonely. Yet brave, quick-witted Emma will not be alone for long, as the ghost of a bellboy appears with the tragic tale of the Grand Wenlocke. More than a century ago, a brilliant inventor built a splendid Victorian resort, the Grand Wenlocke. The hotel was powered by a Difference Engine, a miraculous device that could slow down time (making your vacation just as long as you’d like). But just before it was scheduled to open, the Grand Wenlocke mysteriously sank under the sand. Now the storm that brought Emma to the island has awakened the hotel, perfectly preserved and as incredible as ever. While exploring the magical hotel, Emma encounters a kind-hearted cook and her faithful little dog, a seemingly fearsome pirate captain, and the imperious young heir to the Wenlocke fortune (should it ever be recovered). Adventure, friendship, peril, and perhaps even treasure—all these and more await Emma at the hotel under the sand.

In this new standalone story set in the world of The Anvil of the World and The House of the Stag, two teenagers join the crew of a huge river barge after their mother drowns. The girl and her half-breed younger brother try to make the barge their new home. As the great boat proceeds up the long river, we see a panorama of cities and cultures, and begin to perceive patterns in the pirate attacks that happen so frequently in the river cities. Eliss, the girl, becomes a sharp-eyed spotter of obstacles in the river for the barge, and more than that, one who perceives deeply. A young boy her age, Krelan, trained as a professional assassin, has come aboard, seeking the head of a dead nobleman, so that there might be a proper burial. But the head proves as elusive as the real explanation behind the looting of cities, so he needs Eliss''s help. And then there is the massive Captain of the barge, who can perform supernatural tricks, but prefers to stay in his cabin and drink.

In this rollicking novel of action, planetary romance, and high adventure, a determined Mary Griffith opens the only place to buy a beer on Mars'' Tharsis Bulge and soon becomes the center of a terraforming company''s machinations, its downfall, and the founding of a new world.

Do you want a jewel worn by Cleopatra, an original Shakespeare folio, or the combined genes of Socrates and Marilyn Monroe? Dr. Zeus can make your dreams come true. The Company, a powerful corporate entity in the twenty-fourth century, has discovered a nearly foolproof recipe for success: immortal employees and time travel. It specializes in retrieving extraordinary treasures out of the past, gathered by cybernetically enhanced workers who pass as ordinary people. Or at least they try to pass.... One rule at Dr. Zeus Incorporated must not be broken: Recorded history cannot be changed. But avoiding the attention of mortals while stealing from them? It’s definitely not in the Company manual. History awaits, although not quite the one you remember.

From Metropolis to the pre-technicolor Oz, this fantastical retrospective takes readers through the wildest frontiers of silent films. Glorious landscapes are explored from Tarzan’s jungle and Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory to the Adventures of Prince Achmed and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. Highlighting the earliest and cheesiest special effects, Kage Baker reviews 49 cinematic odysseys with acerbic wit and historical acumen. Contrasting the tour de forces with the utter train wrecks of the silver screen, these sci-fi movies are affectionately viewed, giving special recognition to the flimsy plots, terrifying fiends, and the best and worst directors that inspired generations of fans and filmmakers alike.

Mendoza is a Preserver for The Dr. Zeus Company, living in the past to collect species for the future. But when she kills six people in California in 1863, The Company makes her disappear. Joseph, a senior Preserver, loves Mendoza as the daughter he never had. Drunk on chocolate and fueled by rage, he''s determined to find her however long it takes. Being an indestructible, immortal cyborg gives him an unlimited well of patience. What begins as a rescue mission uncovers a conspiracy stretching across fifty centuries of recorded history. Behind it lie genocide, graveyards filled with Company agents, and the roots of the ominous Silence that falls across the world in 2355. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

From idea to flesh to myth, this is the story of Alec Checkerfield: Seventh Earl of Finsbury, pirate, renegade, hero, anomaly, Mendoza''s once and future love. Mendoza is a Preserver, which means that she''s sent back from the twenty-fourth century by Dr. Zeus, Incorporated - the Company - to recover things from the past which would otherwise be lost. She''s a botanist, a good one. She''s an immortal, indestructible cyborg. And she''s a woman in love. In sixteenth century England, Mendoza fell for a native, a renegade, a tall, dark, not handsome man who radiated determination and sexuality. He died a martyr''s death, burned at the stake. In nineteenth century America, Mendoza fell for an eerily identical native, a renegade, a tall, dark, not handsome man who radiated determination and sexuality. When he died, she killed six men to avenge him. The Company didn''t like that - bad for business. But she''s immortal and indestructible, so they couldn''t hurt her. Instead, they dumped her in the Back Way Back. Meanwhile, back in the future, three eccentric geniuses sit in a parlor at Oxford University and play at being the new Inklings, the heirs of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Working for Dr. Zeus, they create heroic stories and give them flesh, myths in blood and DNA to protect the future from the World to Come, the fearsome Silence that will fall on the world in 2355. They create a hero, a tall, dark, not handsome man who radiates determination and sexuality. "Now," stranded 150,000 years in the past, there are no natives for Mendoza to fall in love with. She tends a garden of maize, and she pines for the man she lost, twice. For Three. Thousand. Years. Then, one day, out of the sky and out of the future comes a renegade, a timefaring pirate, a tall, dark, not handsome man who radiates determination and sexuality. This is the beginning of the end. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This steampunk novella, set in 1844 London, follows the exploits of the harlots of the exclusive establishment known as Nell Gwynne''s, where they gather intelligence for the shadowy Gentlemen''s Speculative Society, a predecessor to the Company featured in several of Baker''s novels (most recently 2006''s The Machine''s Child). Lord Basmond hires the ostensibly blind madam, Mrs. Corvey, and some of her girls to entertain his wealthy foreign guests at an odd party, where it quickly becomes clear that Basmond is selling a mysterious item to the highest bidder. Things heat up when someone goes missing and two people end up dead. The beautifully drawn Victorian era is neatly spiced up with futuristic technology such as mechanical eye implants. Baker''s fans will delight in this slight, bawdy and funny confection. Illus. by J.K. Potter not seen by PW. (July) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

It''s 1672 in Port Royal, Jamaica. John James, London bricklayer''s apprentice turned pirate, is returning from the sack of Panama with his share of the loot (a lousy 200 pieces of eight) and a resolve to go back to bricklaying, since piracy pays so badly. First, though, he has a duty: he must deliver a letter to a lady.

This is the Kage Baker novel everyone has been waiting for: the conclusion to the story of Mendoza and The Company. In The Sons of Heaven, the forces gathering to seize power finally move on the Company. The immortal Lewis wakes to find himself blinded, crippled, and left with no weapons but his voice, his memory, and the friendship of one extraordinary little girl. Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, resurrected Victorian superman, plans for world domination. The immortal Mendoza makes a desperate bargain to delay him. Enforcer Budu, assisted by Joseph, enlists an unexpected ally in his plans to free his old warriors and bring judgment on his former masters. Executive Facilitator Suleyman uses his intelligence operation to uncover the secret of Alpha-Omega, vital to the mortals'' survival. The mortal masters of the Company, terrified of a coup, invest in a plan they believe will terminate their immortal servants. And they awaken a powerful AI whom they call Dr Zeus. This web of a story is filled with great climaxes, wonderful surprises, and gripping characters many readers have grown to love or hate. It''s a triumph of SF!

Science fiction-roman.

Twenty-eight doses of wonder, including contributions by Naomi Novik, Catherynne M. Valente, Elizabeth Bear, and Jeffrey Ford. From the distant past to the present day, from Antarctica and Mars to worlds that never were, the tales in this book bring news from nowhere-and everywhere. Fantasy is a mode of storytelling, a method of entertainment, a mode of argument, and a way of seeing. Here, presented by two of the most distinguished anthologists of the day, are twenty-eight stories that see, tell, argue, and entertain. Includes contributions from Elizabeth Bear, Peter S. Beagle, Kage Baker, Daryl Gregory, Lisa Goldstein, Al Michaud, Naomi Novik, Catherynne M. Valente, John Brown, Richard Bowes, Kij Johnson, Debra Doyle and James Macdonald, Geoff Ryman, Marc Laidlaw, Liz Williams, James Morrow, Kris Dikeman [as Kristine Dikeman], Randy McCharles, Kage Baker, Richard Parks, Peter S. Beagle, Richard Harland, Howard Waldrop, Delia Sherman, James Stoddard, Stephen Woodworth, Jeffrey Ford, and Kim Wilkins. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This is the third novel in what has become one of the most popular series in contemporary SF, now back in print from Tor. In the 24th 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. The death of her lover has been followed by centuries of heartbreak. She spends a period of time in early twentieth century Hollywood in the days of D.W. Griffith, and then Mendoza is in the midst of the Civil War, and runs into a man that looks disturbingly similar to her lost love. She is about to find love again, and be in more trouble than she could ever have imagined. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Hugo and Nebula Award-nominee Kage Baker, creator of The Company series and the fantasy novel Anvil of the World, delivers a spectacular collection that includes stories set in both universes, as well as several stand-alone pieces that demonstrate why she is one the most talked-about writers in the sf/fantasy genre. From contemporary settings to a not-so-innocent America of the 50s and 60s, to the roaring 20s, to Victorian England and to imaginary realms beyond, Kage Baker’s fiction delivers layers of historical and social detail that become the stage on which her instantly recognizable characters perform. Her insightful portraits of humanity create an immediacy that is undeniable and compelling. While the settings and characters of Mother Aegypt will leave you breathless, it is Baker’s accessible, yet oddly whimsical style that will keep you turning pages and coming back for more. Kage Baker’s remarkable narrative talents are a gift to readers of fantastic fiction. Her stories invariably deliver a sense of wonder and magic that transcends place and time.

A prestigious anthology series, Best American Fantasy is guest edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, with Matthew Cheney serving as the series editor, showcasing the best North American fantasy short fiction from the preceding year.

In a time beyond the apocalypse, when the remnants of society are trying to restore life to the way it once was, three young circus children go exploring in the town where the circus is camped. As they wander the empty streets they stumble upon a building they will never forget, in which floor after floor is crammed with an abundance of books. This library is heaven for these child survivors of the apocalypse, but they may not be the only ones who feel this way.

An anthology of original Alternate History Mystery tales from some of the genre''s leading lights. Includes brand new stories of the genre''s greatest authors.

“Imagine if Monty Python wrote the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book, and you sort of get the idea. Afraid you’re afflicted with an unknown malady? Finally you have a place to turn!” —Book Sense You hold in your hands the most complete and official guide to imaginary ailments ever assembled—each disease carefully documented by the most stellar collection of speculative fiction writers ever to play doctor. Detailed within for your reading and diagnostic pleasure are the frightening, ridiculous, and downright absurdly hilarious symptoms, histories, and possible cures to all the ills human flesh isn’t heir to, including Ballistic Organ Disease, Delusions of Universal Grandeur, and Reverse Pinocchio Syndrome. Lavishly illustrated with cunning examples of everything that can’t go wrong with you, the Lambshead Guide provides a healthy dose of good humor and relief for hypochondriacs, pessimists, and lovers of imaginative fiction everywhere. Even if you don’t have Pentzler’s Lubriciousness or Tian Shan-Gobi Assimilation, the cure for whatever seriousness may ail you is in this remarkable collection.

Thank you, Mr. Vance / Dean Koontz -- Preface / Jack Vance -- The True vintage of Erzuine Thale / Robert Silverberg -- Grolion of Almery / Matthew Hughes -- The Copsy Door / Terry Downling -- Caulk the witch-chaser / Liz Williams -- Inescapable / Mike Resnick -- Abrizonde / Walter Jon Williams -- The Traditions of Karzh / Paula Volsky -- The Final quest of the Wizard Sarnod / Jeff Vandermeer -- The Green bird / Kage Baker -- The Last golden thread / Phyllis Eisenstein -- An Incident at Uskvesk / Elizabeth Moon -- Sylgarmo''s Proclamation / Lucius Shepard -- The Lamentably comical tragedy (or the laughably tragic comedy) of Lixal Laoavee / Tad Williams -- Guyal the Curator / John C. Wright -- The Good magician / Glenn Cook -- The Return of the Fire Witch / Elizabeth Hand -- The Collegeum of Mauge / Byron Tetrick -- Evillo the Cunning / Tanith Lee -- The Guiding nose of Ulf?nt Banderoz / Dan Simmons -- Frogskin cap / Howard Waldrop -- A Night at Tarn House / George R.R. Martin -- An Invocation of incuriosity / Neil Gaiman.

Offers fourteen stories exploring the world of Dr. Zeus, Inc., known to its employees as "The Company," and the exploits of its field agents--once human, now immortal time-traveling cyborgs.

In the second novel of Mendoza''s adventures, the 16th century girl is saved from the Spanish Inquisition only to be transformed into a 24th century cyborg (a partly artificial person). The time is now the 1860s, and Mendoza, who has never recovered from losing her lover to martyrdom in the 1540s, is in California being a botanist and living with other immortals. Suddenly a man who is her lover''s exact double appears - an English spy intent on stealing California from the Americans while they are fighting their civil war.

"A treasure trove that gathers together twenty stories and novellas, eleven of which have never been collected anywhere."--Front jacket flap.

Kage Baker, celebrated creator of the Company novels and the standout collection Mother Aegypt, now brings together pirates, primates, eldritch horrors, maritime ghosts, and much more in Dark Mondays. This captivating new collection of fantastic short fiction is sure to cement her reputation as one of the most original storytellers working in the fantasy and speculative fiction genres today. Whether spinning tales of the mysterious young woman and the dreadful pirate captain Henry Morgan in the original novella “The Maid on the Shore,”or the tiny California beach community assaulted by Lovecraftian terrors in “Calamari Curls,” or the girl menaced by a haunting photograph and a trio of aspiring vampires at the heart of “Portrait, With Flames,” Kage Baker distinguishes herself throughout Dark Mondays as a storyteller extraordinaire, crafting intricately woven plots, compelling characters, and captivating settings filled with convincing detail. As likely to shock and surprise as it is to fill you with a sense of weird wonder and delight, Dark Mondays will entrance you with its inventive prose, astound you with its action, and seduce you with its style. Dark Mondays features five never-before-published stories, including the forty-one-thousand-word pirate novel, “The Maid on the Shore,” which chronicles the lesser known aspects of Captain Henry Morgan’s infamous sacking of Panama City.

Mars is an old world, one that has been mapped by science fiction writers for over a century. The late Nebula and Locus Award winning writer Kage Baker was among the most skilled cartographers to render the Red Planet as full of life and love, hope and heroism. Gathered together here for the first time are all of Baker''s Mars stories, beginning with "The Empress of Mars," for which she won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. It was in this story that Baker first laid out her vision of our neighboring planet, with its patchwork quilt of societies based in part on the history of the British Empire. Here are Celts and colonialists side by side with adventuring Haulers who bring ice from the poles and missionaries who bring the message of their goddess from Luna. These tales are all part of an imaginatively worked out near future, where raucous frontier people intermingle with devoted terraformers in an uneasy mix overseen by Areco, Baker''s version of the British East India Company. Turn by turn, each story sets its protagonists the task of understanding and altering a world that resists change. In "The Empress of Mars," a woman gathers her family--her children along with outcast Eccentrics--and turns an unexpected windfall into the founding of a place they can be proud to call their own. "Plotters and Shooters" recounts a series of incidents in an orbital defense station involving characters who may be delightfully familiar. In the "Maelstrom," one of the Eccentrics remakes himself into a theatrical impresario, founding a theater that serves as "a cathedral to pure weirdness." Finally, in "Attlee and the Long Walk," a young child of the agricultural tunnels takes a journey through both her physical and emotional worlds, making unexpected discoveries in both. Maelstrom and Other Martian Tales stands as a testament to the gritty and glorious imagination of a writer gone too soon. These are remarkable stories by a remarkable author.

Tout commence en Espagne. Mendoza, une fillette de parents inconnus, est tirée des griffes de l''Inquisition par des agents très spéciaux, venus du XXIVe siècle. Immortels, ils voyagent dans le passé pour sauver les espèces en voie de disparition. Ils en feront une des leurs. Pour sa première mission - sauver l''Ilex tormentosum, une variété de houx qui va disparaître cent ans plus tard -, Mendoza est envoyée dans un pays froid, arriéré et dangereux, où la pluie forme un manteau gris, un pays où la nourriture est infestée de bactéries, où les toilettes sont primitives : l''Angleterre de la Renaissance. Marie Tudor est montée sur le trône et les Anglais haïssent les Espagnols... Racontée à la première personne par l''héroïne, cette première aventure de la voyageuse temporelle Mendoza est pleine de fantaisie, d''humour et de rebondissements. L''érudition historique et le talent de conteuse de Kage Baker font de ce Jardin d''Iden un roman pétillant, audacieux et véritablement ambitieux.

This book includes the concluding novels of Kage Baker''s "Company" series and brings all the counterplots to a head in a final showdown.