In the Garden of Iden: A Novel of the Company

In the Garden of Iden: A Novel of the Company

In this “highly impressive and thoroughly engrossing” (Kirkus Reviews) debut novel of the Company, Mendoza is sent to Elizabethan England to collect samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden all in an effort to save the Company. But her quest is jeopardized by Nicholas Harpole, who stirs unfamiliar emotions within her about her future-with a man she will long outlive. “If you’re reading something by Kage Baker, fasten your seat belt-you’re in for a wild ride” (Gardner Dozois). In 16th-century Spain, everybody expects the Spanish Inquisition, as they have a well-known tendency to cart people off to their dungeons on trumped-up charges. What 5-year-old Mendoza, on the brink of being tortured as a Jew, is totally unprepared for is to be rescued by the Company--the ultimate bureaucracy of the 24th century--and made immortal. In return, all she has to do is travel through time on a series of assignments for the Company and collect endangered botanical specimens. The wisecracking, mildly misanthropic Mendoza wants nothing to do with historical humans, but her first assignment is to travel to England in 1553--uncomfortably close to those damn Inquisitors--with Joseph and Nefer, two other Company operatives. Their intent is to gather herb samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden, a foolish though generous country squire. (Kage Baker knows her Shakespeare: Sir Walter is the descendant of Alexander Iden, loyal subject of Henry IV , who slew the hungry rebel Jack Cade in that very garden in Kent.) The cyborg trio poses as Doctor Ruy Lopez, his daughter Rosa (the irrepressible Mendoza, now grown), and her duenna, Doña Marguerita; Sir Walter's hospitality and discretion are bought for the promise of restored youth. (There are hilarious moments that call to mind the Coneheads, who claimed to be from France when caught doing anything peculiar.) Sir Walter's secretary, Nicholas Harpole, is immediately suspicious of and hostile towards the strange "Spanish" visitors, which prompts Mendoza to fall in love with him. Nicholas has his own badly kept secret: he's proudly Protestant at a time when Queen Mary and Philip of Spain are on a Catholicizing rampage. Mendoza knows Nicholas is probably doomed, and that as a Company operative she cannot meddle with his fate, but love makes people do desperate things. Baker surpasses even Connie Willis in humor and precision of period detail in this fresh, ingenious first novel. --Barrie Trinkle Baker's witty debut novel is a pip. Full of exquisite descriptions of 16th-century England and the Spanish Inquisition (Baker was an actor and director at the Living History Centre and has taught Elizabethan English as a second language), this is a bittersweet tale of a young woman's first love. The initial assignment for 18-year-old Mendoza, transformed into an immortal cyborg by the 24th-century Company, is to retrieve from Renaissance England an endangered plant that cures cancer. Posing as a Spanish lady accompanying her doctor father, she falls in love with the mortal Nicholas Harpole, secretary to the owner of Iden Hall and its exotic gardens. Amidst the raging Catholic/Protestant powerplays revolving around the English throne and the fervent religious bloodlust of common folk, Mendoza is torn between her task and her love. Baker's story comments powerfully on religious hypocrisy and xenophobia. Highly recommended for most collections. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. The ubiquitous Company is Dr. Zeus, Incorporated; by the year 2335, it owns nearly everything. How? Well, it invented time travel (you can't go forward from your own time, but you can travel into the past and return) and a flawed type of immortality. So Dr. Z sent operatives back into prehistoric times to gather up some promising children, make them immortal, and form them into a secret network that will make all the right investments--and preserve species that, according to history, will become extinct. In 16th- century Galicia, a little girl, Mendoza, is threatened by the Inquisition--until she's rescued and recruited by Company operatives Joseph and Nefer and trained as a botanist. Then, in 1554, Joseph, Nefer, and Mendoza, posing as Spanish grandees, travel to England as part of the entourage of Philip of Spain, soon to be the husband of Mary Tudor, the fervent Catholic queen dedicated to returning Protestant England to the Vatican. Mendoza's mission is to study and preserve the rare plants growing in the gardens of Sir Walker Iden of Kent. But young Mendoza soon falls in love with Nicholas Harpole, Sir Walter's (mortal) secretary. Worse, as Mary's brutal and repressive grip on England tightens, freethinkers like Nicholas are being condemned and burned at the stake. Can--should--Mendoza save Nicholas? What of her mission, her immortality--and the Company? Baker's time-travel rationale genuinely hangs together. Add on the authentic 16th-century setting. Set it forth in a narrative that sparkles with wit