Most Popular Books by Kage Baker

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.

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. The Anvil of the World is her first fantasy novel, a journey across a fantastic 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 with 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 from Lord Dunsany and Fritz Leiber to Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny.

"A magnificent third entry in an intelligent, thoughtful, and absorbing series." —Kirkus Reviews The Botanist Mendoza is never happier than when she is working on her own to preserve extinct plants for the Dr. Zeus Company to bring into the future. Then, she can focus on her work instead of the heartbreak of her lost mortal lover, Nicholas, who died in Elizabethan times. Sometimes, however, the Company sends her on assignment where she must interact with other immortal Preservers, or worse: mortals themselves. This assignment brings Mendoza to the California of 1862, just in time to get samples of plants that will soon go extinct in a long drought. As the Civil War rages in the east, Mendoza and her fellow immortals watch movies from a future Hollywood. While her work proceeds apace, she is shocked to meet Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, a mortal Englishman who resembles Nicholas exactly. She quickly realizes that he is more than he seems, and that she would do anything to keep him from dying the way her previous lover did. Mendoza must deal with unexplained time phenomena in Laurel Canyon, fellow Company agents with their own agendas, and Edward, who has troubles of his own. If she breaks one of the Company’s most stringent rules for Edward, she may meet a fate even the immortals only whisper about . . .

"A compulsive page-turner that can keep even the most restrained reader on the edge of anticipation from beginning to end. Highly recommended." —Bookreporter The Botanist Mendoza is stranded in the distant past with only her experiments on corn cultivars to pass the time. Such is the punishment for immortals who defy the Company, as she did when she killed six mortal men for the murder of her lover, Edward—who, though he didn’t remember their past, seemed to be a precise copy of her first lover, Nicholas, who also died violently. Time slips away from her in fits and starts as three thousand years pass, until the monotony is broken by a timeship crashing into her cornfield, piloted by a man who resembles her dead lovers exactly . . . but has no idea who she is. Alec Checkerfield, the seventh earl of Finsbury, was born in the wrong time. Raised on a sailing ship by his artificial intelligence companion Captain Morgan and his servants rather than his distant mother and alcoholic father, he dreams of piracy and rebellion on the open seas instead of living in a puritanical future society where all pleasures of the flesh are distasteful, if not illegal. Alec’s search for meaning leads him from Mendoza to the secrets of his own nature. With the Captain helping him, he discovers his path has pitted him against the Company, and that the rebellion he longs for may require a price he is unwilling to pay.

“. . . An astonishing and thoroughly satisfying installment. What''s more, Baker''s overall concept and rationale, flawlessly sustained through five books, grows ever more spellbinding and impressive." —Kirkus Reviews “Baker’s trademark mix of serious speculation and black humor informs this solid addition to her time-travel series.” —Publishers Weekly The Company created immortals to preserve cultural artifacts, extinct animals, and lost treasures from the annals of human history for their enduring cultural value, and more importantly, for a profit. But what happens when an immortal despises the very people who created that which he is programmed to save? Executive Facilitator General Labienus’s career took off in ancient Sumeria, where he was worshiped as a god and learned contempt for his mortal worshippers. Since then, he’s had time to contemplate how best to attain power within the Company for his own purposes. From Labienus’s subversion of the ADONAI black project to his machinations in San Francisco before the Great Quake, from chocolate wars in Amsterdam to a monastery in Ireland where the Fair Folk might just be a forgotten branch of the human race, Labienus’s schemes thread through the Company’s history, and as the immortals get closer to the Silence of 2355, the time to unravel them may be running out . . .

When the British Arean Company founded its Martian colony, it welcomed any settlers it could get. Outcasts, misfits and dreamers emigrated in droves to undertake the grueling task of terraforming the cold red planet--only to be abandoned when the BAC discovered it couldn''t turn a profit on Mars. This is the story of Mary Griffith, a determined woman with three daughters, who opened the only place to buy a beer on the Tharsis Bulge. It''s the story of Manco Inca, whose attempt to terraform Mars brought a new goddess vividly to life; of Stanford Crosley, con man extraordinaire; of Ottorino Vespucci, space cowboy and romantic hero; of the Clan Morrigan, of the denizens of the Martian Motel, and of the machinations of another Company entirely, all of whom contribute to the downfall of the BAC and the founding of a new world. But Mary and her struggles and triumphs is at the center of it all, in her bar, the Empress of Mars. Based on the Hugo-nominated novella of the same name, this is a rollicking novel of action, planetary romance, and high adventure. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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.

“[Baker’s] a fine prose stylist with a skeptical intelligence and a black sense of humor.” —The Los Angeles Times Book Review “Baker''s Company novels are a monumental achievement of imagination and whimsy.” —Starlog Edward Alton-Bell Fairfax seems to be the perfect Victorian hero. The mysterious circumstances of his birth lead to his rise through public school and a career in the British navy before his recruitment by the Gentlemen’s Speculative Society, a secret fraternity pulling the strings of governments and individuals alike to bring about a scientifically-driven Utopia. Edward is trained as a spy for the Society, and joins a group of the GSS’s special agents on a journey through nineteenth-century Europe and the Middle East, armed with savoir faire, banter—and the GSS’s special gadgets. A James Bond for the Victorian era, Edward encounters self-propelled carriages, a galvanic underground train, flying machines, and unsavory characters. And through all his adventures, he learns that the Society might be connected to an even more shadowy organization. . .

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.

“Wise, sad, sometimes wildly funny—no Company fan will want to miss Baker’s rousing, astonishing conclusion.” —Kirkus Reviews July 8, 2355 . . . the day the Silence falls, an event after which no time traveler has ever been able to venture . . . and from which no communications have ever come back to the past. Is it an immortal cyborg rebellion, as mortals within the Company fear? Or do the mortal masters of the Company exterminate the cyborgs they no longer need, as some immortals have speculated? Factions within the Company plot for advantage as each seeks to come out on top of an event no one can predict. Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, Victorian superspy, plans to shape the world to his own purposes, while Mendoza comes to terms with yet another transformation in her long life. Facilitator Joseph helps his father, Budu, rally an army of Enforcers long thought dead. Literature Specialist Lewis awakens in darkness, blind and paralyzed, but helped by a very special little girl. Plans within plans evolve and change as the Silence approaches—and nothing can prepare them, mortal or immortal, for the world which is to come in the action-packed conclusion to the Company saga.

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.

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.

"By turns hilarious, terrifying, sad, and provocative, and always utterly intriguing. If there’s a better time-travel series out there, go find it." —Kirkus Reviews Facilitator Joseph has been questioning his place in the Dr. Zeus Company since the Botanist Mendoza, who he loves like a daughter, was disappeared by the Company in 1863. With Literature Specialist Lewis, who also loves Mendoza, he makes it his mission to discover what happened to her. As immortals, they have all the time in the world. As the two follow her trail, they discover more agents who have disappeared, including the man Joseph thinks of as a father, and uncover a conspiracy within the Company that stretches back centuries through recorded history, and touches on both of their pasts. As the two get closer to 2355 and the Silence, an event after which no Company agent has ever been able to travel, they get closer to the origin of Dr. Zeus, and uncover things the Company never meant for them to know. But what will the conspirators do to keep them from finding out more—and what happened to Mendoza?

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.

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.