Sky Coyote [Mass Market Paperback]

Kage Baker's first novel, In the Garden of Iden, was a smart, funny, top-drawer read. Fans will be happy to find out that Baker avoids a sophomore slump with Sky Coyote, the second novel of the Company, and another superbly witty and intelligent book. Baker switches focus in this sequel to Joseph, the immortal cyborg who rescued Iden's heroine, Mendoza, from the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition. Joseph and Mendoza work for Dr. Zeus, otherwise known as the Company, a 24th-century operation devoted to getting rich off the past. To accomplish this, the Company turns orphans and refugees from the past into super-smart, nigh invincible cyborgs and sends them on missions to save or hide precious paintings, cultural treasures, and genetic information useful to the future world.

Sky Coyote begins in pre-Columbian Mexico, where Joseph and Mendoza are reunited at New World One, an extravagant Company retreat. When European explorers are scheduled to arrive in the New World, the Company dismantles operations, and Joseph is sent to California in 1699 to save a Chumash village lock, stock, and barrel, before Europeans arrive with smallpox and slavery. To prep the Native Americans for their voyage to a Company enclave in Australia, Joseph poses as Uncle Sky Coyote, a trickster-god of the Chumash, and tells them he's there to save them from certain doom at the hands of white men. But can Joseph convince the wary, savvy Chumash labor unions, lodges, and entrepreneurs that he has their best interests at heart, all without screwing up history? And will he patch things up with Mendoza, who still hasn't forgiven him for everything that happened in 1500s England? Kage Baker delivers a terrific story and a worthy sequel with Sky Coyote. --Therese Littleton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Cunningly blending a pre-Columbian past with a 24th century extrapolated from every adult's nightmare about the younger generation, Baker's second installment in her Company series proves a witty match to In the Garden of Iden. Fresh from a cushy R&R after a supervisory stint in the Inquisition, time-hopping cyborg Facilitator Joseph jaunts to 16th-century Alta California. There, cybernetically outfitted with fur and paws, he apotheosizes to the cannily entrepreneurial Chumash Indian tribe so he can collect them and their entire biosystem for Company studies in the remote future. Joseph's Company is Baker's deliciously wicked platform for satirizing past, present and all-too-likely future human frailties. From sure-handed sendups of 24th-century Cinema Standard speech patterns and a dismayingly suggestive portrait of the Chumash Medical AssociationAstaring eyes, knotted hair and an air of too frequent consumption of alkaloidsAto the Company's sacred Greater Mission Statement, Baker nails her 20th-century targets: societal, religious and oh-so-personal hypocrisy.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The immortal cyborgs of Dr. Zeus's Company dedicate themselves to the preservation and relocation of lost Earth civilizations. When cyborg facilitator Joseph accepts the assignment to convince the Chumash Indians of pre-Columbian California to leave their homes for the stars?and thus escape conquest by the Spanish?he encounters unexpected problems. Baker's humorous and inventive sequel to In the Garden of Iden (LJ 11/15/97) blends accurate historical research and arch comedy to produce an entertaining tale of time travel and mythic adventure. A good choice for most sf collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A second novel of the Company, following Baker's fine debut, In The Garden of Iden (1998). Dr. Zeus, Incorporated, invented time travel and immortality in the 24th century, and thus owns the world: thanks to their foreknowledge of the future, the Company's faithful, immortal operatives can make all the right investments, rescue species from extinction, and grab artworks about to be lost to history. Now, in 1699, an entire village, Humashup in California, is to be preserved. Though hunter-gatherers, Humashup's Chumash tribe have already invented Big Businessalong with unions, sweatshops, and various sharp practices; they believe, tolerantly, in sky gods. So Facilitator Joseph (he's 40,000 years old, and has served in Egypt, Athens, and Rome) will be surgically altered to pass for Sky Coyote, the Chumash trickster god. Sky Coyote will persuade the villagers to cooperate in the forthcoming upheaval, wherein they'll all be shipped off to an earthly paradise, along with their possessions, lifestyle, and beliefs. There are problems, though: the Chumash are threatened with invasion by some ruthless, monotheistic neighbors; and Joseph's superiors, mortals from the 24th century, are prudish, ignorant, and childlike, though he does come to recognize that they have admirable qualities too. Most worrying of all is the future. Beyond a barrier in the year 2355, everything is shrouded in mystery. Utopia is supposed to begin then, but Joseph isn't so sure; conspiracy theories abound, and anyone who voices dissent soon vanishes, never to be seen again. Indeed, Joseph carries in his head an encoded file given him by an old friend, containing information about what's really going on, but he's never dared to decrypt it. An agreeably subversive, sometimes hilarious entry: Baker's Company is still impressive, but here she's more or less lost the plot. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Facilitator Joseph is quite a guy. He's sailed with the Phoenicians, and he's been an Egyptian priest, an Athenian politician, and secretary to a Roman senator. After all, his employer, the twenty-fourth-century Company, sends immortal cyborgs like Joseph all over the world and all over time. But now Joseph finds himself in 1699, in the Mayan jungle's Lost City (actually a spa for the Company's operatives) with his protegee, the Botanist Mendoza, who still hasn't forgiven him for that unfortunate incident in Elizabethan England. And he has to save an ancient people from encroachment by the coming white men -- even if it means convincing the entire pre-Columbian village to step into the future.Facilitator Joseph is quite a guy.He's sailed with the Phoenicians, and he's been an Egyptian priest, an Athenian politician, and secretary to a Roman senator.After all, his employer, the twenty-fourth-century Company, sends immortal cyborgs like Joseph all over the world and all over time.But now Joseph finds himself in 1699, in the Mayan jungle's Lost City (actually a spa for the Company's operatives) with his protegee, the Botanist Mendoza, who still hasn't forgiven him for that unfortunate incident in Elizabethan England.And he has to save an ancient people from encroachment by the coming white men -- even if it means convincing the entire pre-Columbian village to step into the future.Facilitator Joseph is quite a guy.He's sailed with the Phoenicians, and he's been an Egyptian priest, an Athenian politician, and secretary to a Roman senator.After all, his employer, the twenty-fourth-century Company, sends immortal cyborgs like Joseph all over the world and all over time.But now Joseph finds himself in 1699, in the Mayan jungle's Lost City (actually a spa for the Company's operatives) with his protegee, the Botanist Mendoza, who still hasn't forgiven him for that unfortunate incident in Elizabethan England.And he has to save an ancient people from encroachment by the coming white men---even if it means convincing the entire pre-Columbian village to step into the future.

Born in Hollywood, Kage Baker has been an artist, actor, and director at the Living History Centre, and has taught Elizabethan English as a Second Language. Sky Coyote is her second novel. Ms. Baker lives in Pismo Beach, California.