Sky Coyote: The Company, #2 -- Kage Baker

If you're unfamiliar with Dr. Zeus, Inc. and what it does, see this post.

1699.  Facilitator Joseph, who has just spent many years with the Church in various roles -- not the least of which was serving with the Spanish Inquisition -- has been given a new assignment:  to appear to the Chumash people as their trickster god, Sky Coyote, and to convince them to avoid annihilation at the hands of the coming white men -- by leaving their own world forever.

Before even picking it up, I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy Sky Coyote as much as I'd enjoyed In the Garden of Iden.  For one thing, my love for the first book was due in part to Mendoza's voice.  For another, it seemed that the responses to this one were pretty mixed -- some people loved it, others said to skip it.

I'm glad that I didn't.  Because I fell squarely into the LOVE camp.  I think, actually, that I might even prefer Joseph's voice to Mendoza's -- though it might just be that I found his perspective more exciting.  Whatever the reason, poor Josh got an earful while I read this one, and then he got even more of an earful after I'd finished.  Blather city.

Major reason for the love:  Joseph's voice.  He's been around since the very beginning -- his father's cave paintings were some of the earliest works of art that the Company preserved -- and despite his cynicism (in regards to human nature and in regards to the Company) and despite his worries (about his current mission, about Mendoza, about the rapidly approaching future -- a future that he and the other immortals know very little about), his sense of humor remains intact, and his love of noir fiction often sneaks through into his dialogue and his description.

Some people, I think, may be put off by the extremely modern-sounding Chumash, but I loved that style choice -- I attributed it to Joseph's storytelling and to his translation, which made me enjoy it all the more.  But I could see how it would be a bit of a shock, especially when compared to the extremely different stylistic choices made in the first book. 

For me, this one wasn't really about the plot -- I didn't think it really mattered all that much.  Not a whole lot happened, really.  But I was so engrossed that I didn't even really realize that until I'd finished the book.  Because in Sky Coyote, Kage Baker really begins to lay out some of the dark, scary, shadowy aspects of the Company.  And suddenly, the existence of the immortal operatives seems very perilous -- not because of their work in our past, but because of their creators in our future.

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Book source:  ILLed from another library.  Because my library has NO books by Kage Baker.  NONE.  Still.  So now I will ILL #3.

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I'm part of the Amazon Affiliate program.  Which I'd assume would be apparent by the ad in the sidebar, but assuming that you're bright enough to understand that is not enough for the FTC.  So, I will spell it out:  if you click through to Amazon and buy something, I get money.  Why, you ask?  Well, gosh.  How else will I ever hire the Company to bring back the dodo?

Comments

[Ali]

After reading what you wrote about In the Garden of Iden, I went out and read it and am now on the fifth book in the series. Dude, they only get better! Also, I have been talking non-stop about this series, and finally convinced a friend to try it. She ordered the Garden of Iden at her local bookstore, and the cover is atrocious. Like, really, really terrible. I had to do some fast talking to convince her to read it anyways.

[Lisa]

This is still my favorite of all the Company books -- I was just thinking of it fondly the other day while watching Looney Tunes. Time for a re-read!

[Arlene]

Her fantasy stand alone, Anvil of the World, is amazing too -- rather original for an epic fantasy (hard to do these days) and not book one of the Gazilliad (also hard to do these days). I LOVE her writing style.

[Beth]

I love Kage Baker. All of her stuff is good, it's even worth the time to track down her short stories. I have no idea why she's not more popular. We have all of her books at my library, but that's because I order adult fiction. We have two local chain bookstores in my small town, and neither of them has any Baker books, which continues to puzzle me.

[Claire]

I picked In the Garden of Iden after your recommendation and while I really liked it -- enough to ILL Sky Coyote -- I have to say that as of halfway through, I'm loving Sky Coyote so much more. (I accidentally picked up another one out of order and it didn't sense to the extent that I returned it after 30 pages. So I was skeptical.) I totally think Kage Baker make the right choice in not using a faux-dialect. Can you imagine how awful that would be? At best it would be stilted, and at worst totally horrifying. Instead the language draws the "history repeats itself" parallels for her.

Anyway, thank you! Totally loving it so far, and I would never have picked it up without your recommendation.

[Leila]

Isn't it amazing how different the voices are? It was so surprising, and in such a good way! I'm so glad you're enjoying -- and that you agree about the awesomeness of the dialogue!