Kage Baker: The Sons of Heaven

The final book in the Company science fiction series.

Publication year: 2007
Format: print
Page count: 501
Publisher: TOR

This is the book where the series has been leading. I would recommend starting with the first book “In the Garden of Iden” rather than this one, if you haven’t read Baker before.

The book has multiple points-of-view. The main part is devoted to the Botanist Mendoza and her companions. These passages have a lot of wry humor and observations of domestic life. Unfortunately, I still find their situation more than a little creepy.

During the first half of the book we also follow a small girl who lives under a hill with Quean Barbie and her Uncles, and the stupids who live just to serve the others. The girl, who is initially called just Baby, finds a man who used to be a slave to the big people. But the man turns out to be alive, just hurt very badly. He’s Literature specialist Lewis who disappeared a long time ago.

We also follow Joseph who is busy freeing the old Enforcers and a couple of powerful Section heads, immortals who are poised to take over when the Silence starts. A couple of them want to destroy humans and one wants to protect humans. All of these powers have been building their powerbases and now, we finally see what will happen in 2355.

I felt the ending was somewhat too easy. Then again, we’ve been given so many hints and speculation about the Silence that I don’t know if anything would have been fully satisfying. It was certainly different from most SF (and fantasy) endings and Baker does weave all of the various plot threads together. Perhaps I was somewhat disappointed with just how cowering and ineffectual the human “master minds” are compared to the cyborgs they created. Of course, it was no surprise, because Baker has shown it plenty of times. Also, the more I see Alec, the less I like him and he has really taken over the series by now. But I thoroughly enjoyed the familiar immortals and their melodramatic ways, as usual.

 

Kage Baker: The Machine’s Child

The seventh book in the series.

Publication year: 2006
Format: print
Page count: 356
Publisher: TOR

“The Machine’s Child” continues from the cliffhanger at the end of the fifth book, “The Life of the World To Come”. At the end of that book something happened, which I didn’t know about and which I don’t want to spoil for any potential reader.

At the end of “The Life of the World To Come” Mendoza, the immortal cyborg botanist who was the main character in the first and the third book, was sent into a hellish place for rogue cyborgs where they are tortured forever. That place is situated in 300 000 BC. But Mendoza’s lover Alec and his companions have a time machine and they are tracking Mendoza to her jail. They manage to save her and the majority of the book is dedicated to Alec and Mendoza trying to heal each other and jaunting through time and Alec arguing with his companions. I really (mostly) liked the dynamic between Alec and his companions and the short vignettes of Alec and Mendoza in different times.

Unfortunately, the book also has a lot of things which I didn’t care for. Mendoza was hurt badly. In fact, so badly that Alec’s Artificial Intelligence (named Captain Morgan) has to rebuild her body. And he rebuild it as a fourteen year old girl. Mendoza has also lost her memory. Alec convinces himself (and his companions) that it’s best that Mendoza doesn’t remember her past. So he lies to her about her near past. But then he starts to lie more and more, about himself and about their shared past. I found this to be pretty icky. I started to hope that Mendoza would get her memory back and Alec would be held accountable for his lies. The longer this situation continued, the more uncomfortable I felt with it.

Also, I started the book liking Alec’s companions quite a lot (more than Alec) but then one of them makes a suggestion which was, well, beyond icky. And also I’m a bit puzzled as to why Alec is so enamored with Mendoza. One of his companions spent quite a lot of time with Mendoza so he could have fallen in love with her, but the other two have spent only a little time with her, so their almost instant adoration is a bit strange. Also, it was established in the fifth book that Alec (and his companions) have an almost magical ability to persuade others to do what he wants. So… is Mendoza’s love nothing more than reaction to that ability? Ick!

We also get to see some other immortals preparing for the year 2355 when the ominous Silence falls. Joseph is repairing his “father” and since he was the one who recruited Mendoza from the clutches of the Spanish inquisition, he thinks of himself as her father. So, Joseph is also trying to find Mendoza. Unfortunately, he blames Alec for ruining Mendoza’s life so he’s also trying to pay back to Alec. Both are trying to bring down the big bad, Dr. Zeus Incorporated.

Overall this felt like a yet another book whose main reason for existing is to prepare for the final conflict which should happen in the next book. And it ends with a cliffhanger!

 

Kage Baker: The Children of the Company

The sixth book in the series.

Publication year: 2005
Format: print
Page count: 300
Publisher: TOR

The previous book, The Life of the World to come, furthered the series’s overall plot and the book ended in a cliffhanger. Sadly, this book doesn’t continue the story but instead explores a ruthless cyborg who is trying to build his own power base both in the human world and among his fellow immortal cyborgs. This book is a collection of short stories which have a framing story around them to knit them together. This framing story is about cyborg named Labienus who contemplates his works through the times. When I got over my disappointment that the story didn’t continue, I was able to just sit back and enjoy various cyborgs’ adventures through time. It is, after all, what attracted me to the series in the first place.

Executive Facilitator General Labienus is a very old cyborg. Before recorded history began, he set himself up as a god-king of Sumeria. He was called Enna-aru and he treated mortals cruelly. Still, they revered him and allowed him to enjoy a most luxurious life. In fact, Labienus longs to return to such times and resents the fact that after recorded history started, he has had to work from the shadows and among the stinking mortals. He would like nothing more than get back what he thinks is rightfully his. Like all cyborgs, he knows that something monumental will happen in the year 2355, when the Silence begins. The time traveling Dr. Zeus Incorporated doesn’t have any information about anything beyond this date. So, Labienus is planning his own coup to start in 2355 and needs to have everything in place by then.

The book is split between four different time periods by the framing story. In the first two parts, the short stories are actually of different time periods than the framing story. I greatly enjoyed most of the short stories but found the framing story to be a bit clumsy. In the short stories we follow the cyborgs Lewis, Latif, Van Drouten, Victor, and Kalugin when they are caught in Labienus’ web of lies. We also get to see a couple of unfortunate mortals struggling to understand the wider world than just their little monastery or garden.

The framing story is written in present tense while the short stories are written in the past tense and some of them use third person POV and a couple use the first person POV.

 

Kage Baker: The Life of the World to Come

The fifth book in the series.

Publication year: 2004
Format: print
Page count: 392 + an excerpt of the Garden of Iden
Publisher: TOR

The book starts with an extract from Mendoza’s journal. She’s an immortal cyborg and the main character of the series. Because of what she did in a previous book, Mendoza in Hollywood, she was sent to Way Back When, also known as 150 000 BC, to grow vegetables to the wealthy tourists from the future. But Dr. Zeus Inc.’s efforts to confine Mendoza doesn’t work. A man in a time shuttle appears. He’s from the future but looks exactly like Mendoza’s lost lover Nicholas, from the year 1555, and like her other lost lover Edward, from the year 1862. Mendoza is now convinced that the three men are actually the same man and that he can’t be human. When the man, Alec Chekersfield , tells her that he’s on a quest to destroy Dr Zeus and he comes from the year 2351, Mendoza realizes that he will succeed. Dr. Zeus Inc is almost omniscient company which owns the secrets of time travel and yet, in 2355 the Company will become silent. Nobody knows what will happen after that year. Mendoza will do everything she can to help Alec. He has stolen the time shuttle and so Mendoza disables the shuttle’s self-destruct device and teaches Alec how to control the shuttle. Alec promises to return and vanishes back into the future.

That’s almost the last we’ll see of Mendoza in this book which focuses on the life and times of Alec Chekersfield, and the three men who created him.

Three idle rich men call themselves the Inklings Nouveau. They all adore history and re-enact it to the extent that they can, considering that most things are banned in the future (such as coffee, cheese, chocolate, alcohol…). They work for Dr. Zeus designing the cyborgs which the company uses. One of their previous designs have become obsolete and they are asked to design a new breed of Enforces. They start to design a new man which they call Adonai, a template, or an image of, King Arthur. They will try out this new man in various times to see how he will act. At the same time, we see quite a bit of this future.

Alec lives with his parents and their servants in a boat and even though his mother is cold towards him and his father is a drunkard, he’s early life is relatively happy. But then he has to move to London and everything changes. His mother gets a divorce and he doesn’t seen again. His father stays for a short while and then leaves. Alec is raised by the servants and his Pembroke Playfriend which is an AI. The AI is supposed to have strong moral rules and teach them to the child, too. However, Alec is able to get into the AI’s systems and turns off the AI’s moral code. Now, the AI’s primary goal is to keep Alec safe and happy.

Alec is a genius but the AI, named Captain, advises him to keep that a secret. With the AI’s help, Alec nurtures his instinctive grasp of computers and becomes a smuggler.

The future in this series is pretty bland, just like in the previous books. Almost everything is banned from touching children to walking barefoot on grass. Public health monitors are watching all the time and if anyone behaves illegally, he or she is sent to a hospital. Yet, when Alec and Mr. Lewin go to a museum, it has a statue of Nelson because he kept England free from Napoleon who wanted everyone to behave the same. Meanwhile England and US are trying to get all other countries to ban cheese and meat as well. There are two Mars colonies but nothing is said if they’re more free or not.

Alec tasted real freedom on the boat where he spend his early years and he has no problem later becoming a rebel and breaking all sorts of laws. By contrast, the Inklings Nouveau are far more timid lot, only hesitantly breaking minor laws, such as set a fire in a fire place or walking barefoot in grass.

I really enjoyed this one. It revealed the secrets around Mendoza’s lovers and continued the major plot.

 

K. A. Stewart: Wolf at the Door

My newest review: K. A. Stewart: Wolf at the Door.

The third book in the urban fantasy series about modern day samurai, Jesse Dawson. It wasn’t as intense as the previous book but I enjoyed it.

Sadly, Roc has cancelled this series but the writer is apparently aiming to self-publish the rest. I hope she succeeds.

 

Jocelynn Drake: Burn the Night

The last book in the series.

Publication year: 2011
Format: print
Page count: 418
Publisher: Harper

Mira has to confront all of her enemies in this final book of the Dark Days. She has a lot of them including the naturi Queen Aurora, her father, who is an ancient god, and the man who made her a vampire and manipulated her through out her whole life. Happily, she’s also got friends and allies she can depend on. Also, Queen Aurora’s younger sister Cynnia is offering Mira and the rest of the nightwalkers an alliance. If Cynnia’s forces beat Aurora, the naturi will live quietly side by side with humans and vampires. But the catch is that Mira will have to work with her nemesis, Rowe, and she doesn’t know if she can do that.

Most of the book is written from Mira’s first person POV. The book has another point-of-view, too: Nyx, who is Aurora’s and Cynnia’s middle sister. She was born different and most of her people have shunned her. Her father, the king, trained her to be a protector of her people. But Aurora has forced Nyx to hunt her own people and now she’s hated and feared. However, Nyx believes that Aurora has lost her mind and is leading the naturi towards destruction. So, she has sided with Cynnia against the queen she has served all her life. Cynnia has sent Nyx out to recruit other naturi clans to her side. Nyx also needs to recruit Rowe. Most of his life Rowe has been Aurora’s champion and husband until Aurora banished him recently. Nyx thinks that Rowe resents Aurora because of that and will join Cynnia’s cause.

Burn the Night is a good ending to the series. Mira has to face a lot of enemies and the plot lines are concluded. I was surprised when I realized that a new POV character was introduced. Nyx hasn’t had a significant presence in the series so far and she’s somewhat similar to Mira: a formidable fighter who wants to protect the people close to her. Yet, she brings an insider’s POV to the people who have been the major enemy throughout the series; we get to see the division inside the naturi lines and that some of them just want to live in peace. So, I think the new POV was needed.

Overall, I was satisfied with the ending.

 

Lisa Shearin: All Spell Breaks Loose

The last book in the fantasy series.

Publication year: 2012
Format: Audio
Publisher: Audible
Narrator: Eileen Stevens
Running Time: 9 hrs and 19 minutes

The previous book ended in a big cliffhanger when a goblin thief stole the soul sucking magical rock called the Saghred. The goblin king and his insane, powerful sorcerer Sarad Nukpana are going to use the rock to invade the elven lands and kill lots and lots of people. But before that happens, Nukpana has to feed souls to the rock. And because our heroine Raine Benares is bonded to the rock, she is going to feel excruciating pain every time a soul is fed to the Saghred. Eventually she’s going to go insane from the pain. Nukpana, the rock, and the goblin king are in the goblin kingdom capital, Regor, which is several days’ travel from Mid, where Raine is.

Fortunately, Raine has powerful friends who are going to help her. She also has the one magical artifact which is capable of destroying the Saghred. However, destroying the rock is going to release the souls already trapped in the rock which is going to lure in Reapers who guide the dead souls forward. Unfortunately, the Reapers are likely to take Raine’s soul, too. Fortunately, there’s one old mage in Regor who can control Reapers and help Raine. Also, even though Regor is far away from Mid, there’s a way to get there in time to stop the invasion: mirror magic. And the most powerful mirror mage in Mid is Raine’s other arch enemy Carnades Silvanus. Silvanus was caught in the previous book and in exchange for some mercy, he agrees to help Raine. Of course, Silvanus will be waiting for an opportunity to stab Raine in the back.

Raine, the exiled goblin king Chigaru, his spy master Imala Kalis, the leader of the most elite fighting force of Mid Mychael, a (former?) dark mage Tam, Carnades Silvanus, and a couple of other people are going to Mid where they will be the most hunted group of people in the whole kingdom. Oh, and Raine doesn’t have any magic.

This was a great ending to the series and stays true to the light spirit of the previous books. We get to meet Tam’s family and his former teacher and see more of the goblin country. One of my favorite literary troupes is enemies forced to work together so I enjoyed seeing Carnades with the group.

For a last book in the series, we’re introduced to a lot of new characters, including Tam’s brother and parents. My favorite was the crusty old mage who eats stinky cheeses.

I’ve really enjoyed the characters in the series and most of them are brought together here. The villains are villainous and the heroes have to overcome their own fears to save the day.

Some might find the ending a bit too convenient but considering the length of the series, I think that was appropriate.

 

Lisa Shearin: Con & Conjure

Fifth book in the series.

Publication year: 2011
Format: print
Page count: 322
Publisher: Ace

Raine Benares is an elf seeker and a member of a very notorious criminal family. She got accidentally bonded to a very powerful magical rock, the Saghred, and since then pretty much everyone has wanted to use or manipulate her to their own ends. Now, she’s on the island of Mid for her own protection as well as others’ protection. The head of the Seat of Twelve, who rule Mid, wants to imprison Raine and use Saghred through her. But because the king of the goblins and a very powerful goblin sorcerer also want Raine, she’s marginally more safe on Mid.

Now, the goblin king’s exiled brother is coming to Mid and bringing his enemies with him. Unfortunately, those enemies don’t care how many other people their kill to get to Prince Chigaru. In addition to the goblin king’s assassins, someone has hired the best assassin in this world to kill the prince: Rache Kai, who just happens to be Raine’s former boyfriend. Raine fears that Rache will come after her or her current boyfriend.

However, Raine and her family are also trying to solve some of Raine’s problems. They know that the head of the Twelve, Carnades Silvanus, and his cronies are corrupt; they just don’t have any proof. So, Raine’s banker cousin is coming to cut off Silvanus’ and his cronies money supply. Raine has also a part to play because she’s very good at glamoring herself and so she can pretend to be another banker.

Unfortunately, things rarely go according to plan and soon Raine is again on the run, as an outlaw.

If you’ve read the previous books in the series, I think you will like this one, too. Raine is again dodging enemies left and right. The love triangle was solved in the previous book, just in time for Raine’s ex-fiancé to pop up and make Raine really uncomfortable.

The plot puts Raine’s glamoring ability to good use and that’s always fun: Raine disguises herself as a male banker and talks to one of Silvanus’ top cronies about their future plans. Unfortunately, Raine also makes a point to talk about how, er, badly endowed the poor banker is and that he might have turned to crime because of that.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the book. The main plot is in full gear and going forward. The next book is the last in the series and so Con & Conjure ends with multiple cliffhangers.

As always I enjoyed the cast and the witty, if somewhat repetitive, writing style.

 

K.A. Stewart: A Shot in the Dark

The second book in an urban fantasy series where the main character is a modern day samurai.

Publication year: 2011
Format: print
Page count: 306
Publisher: Roc

Jesse Dawson is a champion. When someone has made a deal with a demon and contacts Jesse, he can make another deal, with his own soul as the collateral. The demons’ physical bodies don’t have vital points, like a human body, so Jesse needs a bladed weapon to fight them. However, Jesse’s not alone: he’s part of a network of Champions who share information when it’s needed. Old Ukrainian Champion Ivan Zelenko has brought the Champions together even though they work alone and in different parts of the world.

Jesse is happily married to Mira and they have a daughter which is quite a departure from other UF books and I liked that. Even though Jesse hates demons, he’s on speaking terms with one of them. Axel appears when he wants to and sometimes gives Jesse information. He has quite a big role in this book.

A Shot in the Dark is quite different in tone and structure than the first one, A Devil in the Details. While the first one was solidly an urban fantasy, this one has more horror elements.

The males of the Dawson family and their friends have a yearly retreat in a mountain cabin in Colorado. Jesse, his brother Cole, his best friend Will, his friend Marty, the cabin owner Oscar, and Oscar’s teenaged son are going to the cabin to get away from the world and to shoot paint balls at each other. But this time, they have an addition to the group. Jesse’s doctor and good friend has a new boyfriend Cameron and the good doctor pressures Jesse into taking Cameron to the retreat. They also have to take Marty’s mastiff Duke who turns out to be extremely useful.

However, once the group gets to the mountain, Axel warns Jesse to leave immediately. But Jesse can’t just leave his friends and soon they are all trapped into the cabin with bloodthirsty monsters all around.

The start of the book is quite slow with the Dawson family barbecue and then the long car trip to the mountains. The action doesn’t really start until about 100 pages in but then it’s very intense and the book’s mood changes abruptly from light-hearted to horror. Even though Jesse’s friends know intellectually that demons exist, they haven’t ever met one. Still, when they are threatened, they quickly accept that demons are real and concentrate on staying alive. There’s some tension between the characters, too, so it’s not all “us vs. them” mentality.

I really enjoyed the relationships between the characters and Duke was a real delight. We find out that there’s a far larger plot moving beneath.

 

Kage Baker: The Graveyard Game

The fourth book in the series.

Publication year: 2001
Page count: 298
Format: print
Publisher: TOR

Lots of spoilers for the previous book, Mendoza in Hollywood!

At the end of the previous book the Botanist Mendoza was sent far away. Two other immoral cyborgs, Joseph and Lewis, are searching for her. Joseph recruited Mendoza from the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition and Lewis has apparently fallen in love with her. In addition to having some fatherly feelings toward Mendoza, Joseph is driven by guilt. For a long time, he has known that something is wrong. The cyborg who recruited him, one of the really old ones named Budu, has also disappeared but Budu gave Joseph a file first. Joseph has been too afraid to access it but now he’s forced to do so and he’s afraid of the information he finds there.

The story starts in Hollywood 1996. In the previous book Mendoza and another cyborg, Einar, were thrown forward in time from 1863 to 1996. This should be impossible but it turns out that Mendoza produces Crome particles which enable time travel. But she can’t control it.

Lewis witnesses Mendoza and Einar being sent back to 1863 where they are suppose to be. The Company doesn’t tell Lewis much about it but he investigates on his own. This is dangerous because he’s defying Company’s orders not to do so and the Company can and does monitor the cyborgs all the time: they have been engineered to send a continuous data stream to the Company. Lewis contacts Joseph who has accidentally gotten on his hands a device that can short circuit the data stream for a day. Joseph and Lewis question the last immortal who saw Mendoza. Later, Joseph questions another of the group who was stationed with Mendoza.

However, it takes a long to find out any clues about where Mendoza is and what else the Company is hiding, especially because it has to be in secret. The story takes place in 2025, 2142, 2225, and 2275. Lewis and Joseph meet and compare notes. We also find out a lot about the changes in the world. By the way, while the story jumps forward in time, the characters live through the years normally (if that’s the word for immortal cyborgs).

Between each jump forward in time, there’s an interlude called “Joseph in Darkness” where he talks about the search, about his motives and feelings and about the changes in the world. To other people they probably feel like infodumps but I was fascinated. We don’t, of course, know the details about how most of the world became vegetarian, for example, but I enjoyed the broad strokes, too.

Lewis is a Literature Specialist, not a secret agent. He becomes fascinated with the mortal man, Edward, who looks just like Mendoza’s first (and only) mortal love. Who was burned at the stake in 1554. In 1863 Mendoza left her post and killed mortals because of Edward. Lewis becomes convinced that Edward is some sort of Company tool, somehow living for centuries even though he’s suppose to just a mortal. Eventually, Lewis starts to write a book where Edward is one of the central characters. We also get to know his back story.

Joseph is a more serious character. He doesn’t actually want to be in danger but in the end, he feels too guilty about not find Mendoza and Budu earlier. He’s lived a long time and he doesn’t have a high opinion on humans.

The book has quite a lot of humor. In the future alcohol, tobacco, chocolate, and animal products have been made illegal and so the cyborgs do their best to indulge while they can. They can’t actually get drunk but chocolate produces the same kind of effect. So, there’s a scene where Lewis and Joseph are in a chocolate bar, drinking hot chocolate and eating chocolate, and the waiters wonder why they behave like they’re drunk. Lewis even snorts chocolate powder up his nose.

The previous books have hinted that the Company is doing pretty awful things but here we witness some of them first hand. Apparently, they’ve even taken a hand in human evolution. When humans still lived in caves, there was a large cult who killed anyone who tried to invent anything new. The Company decided that the cult should be exterminated and created a race of huge, aggressive cyborgs to essentially kill other people. Unfortunately, after a while they became too inconspicuous and the Company couldn’t have that. Unfortunately for the Company, the cyborgs can’t be killed so the Company had to something else with them. It seems that the Company don’t value the cyborgs as individuals but just for the work they do.

And then there’s the ominous year of 2355 when the silence starts.

The Graveyard Game advances the big plot a lot which was great. Mendoza isn’t seen in the book at all.