Cyborg Immortals Rescue Priceless Lost History! (Kage Baker and the Company Novels)

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fairestcat was watching "Bringing Up Baby" with norabombay's brother when I called to confirm she knew about the belated birthday party I'm pulling together. "I don't think I've ever heard Katherine Hepburn described as 'bangable' before," she said.

The things we learn from when roommates' siblings move into the third bedroom.

Talking with fairestcat reminded me that I need to hook her on Kage Baker's Company novels. The series premise revolves around the discovery of effective immortality and time travel during the 24th century. Both disoveries come with catches: only a certain portion of the population can be rendered immortal. It is impossible to jump forward in time; people and objects can only travel backward in time. Recorded history cannot be changed: Archduke Ferdinand must be shot in 1914, the passenger pigeon will vanish from the face of the earth, Keats cannot be stopped from dying at the age of twenty five.

Unrecorded history, however, is an entirely different game.

The Company novels focus on a group of the immortals raised and trained by Dr. Zeus Incorporated as they carry out the assignments given them by the enigmatic Company, hiding "lost" art, "destroyed" documents, and endangered or extinct plants and animals for company officials to find in later centuries. Kage Baker writes excellent novels with a comedic sensibility that would fit in nicely with 1930's and '40's Hollywood. And I plan to hook everyone I can on her novels so I have someone to talk to them about.

Significant amounts of the information presented here is derived from the author's website. (When in doubt, go to the source.) The Internet Speculative Fiction Database was also used, especially to clarify what short stories had been anthologized.

Edited July 14, 2003: "Her Father's Eyes" added to the "Uncollected Stories" section.
Edited July 12, 2003: Information about hardcover/paperback availability added to novels section.

The Company Books
To date, there are four Company novels. Their publication follows internal chronology, so the first published is also the first in the series chronology. Isn't that handy?
The novels are:

• In the Garden of Iden
  
• Sky Coyote
  
• Mendoza in Hollywood
  
• The Graveyard Game

There's also one short story collection: Black Projects, White Knights. The thirteen stories (and one introduction/ministory) range all over the chronology, from prehistory to the 24th century. Garden, Coyote and Mendoza are out in hardcover and paperback; Graveyard and BP,WK are available only in hardcover.

The Company Short Stories
Baker's written a slew of short stories, many of them connected to the Company universe. I haven't read all of them yet, so may have misfiled one or more short stories in "other" when they should be listed as a Company story. Such errors will be fixed as I'm made aware of them, but caveat emptor applies.

The original publication information for all the short stories can be found on Kage Baker's website, so I'm going to focus on how to find them. Titles in italics can be found in Black Projects, White Knights; titles in bold are available for purchase online from fictionwise. Titles marked with an asterisk (*) were first published in Black Projects, White Knights and have not yet been reproduced elsewhere.

• The Dust Enclosed Here (Also available on Infinity Plus)
  
• Facts Relating to the Arrest of Dr. Kalugin
  
• The Fourth Branch
  
• Hanuman
  
• The Hotel at Harlan's Landing
, also collected in 'The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection', Gardner Dozois Ed.

• *The Hounds of Zeus
  
• Lemuria Will Rise!
  
• The Likely Lad
  
• The Literary Agent
  
• Monster Story
  
• Noble Mold
  
• *Old Flat Top
  
• The Queen in the Hill
  
• *The Queen in Yellow
  
• Smart Alec, also collected in 'Isaac Asimov's Utopias', Gardner Dozois and Sheila Williams Eds.
  
• Standing in His Light (From SciFi.com)
  
• "Son Observe the Time", collected in 'The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventeenth Annual Collection', Gardner Dozois Ed.
  
• Studio Dick Drowns Near Malibu
  
• The Wreck of the Gladstone

Non-Company Short Stories
Again, titles in bold are available for purchase online from fictionwise.

• "What the Tyger Told Her", collected in 'The Year's Best Fantasy Two', David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer Eds.
  
• How They Tried to Talk Indian Tony Down
  
• Katherine's Story
  
• Miss Yahoo Has Her Say
  
• Pueblo, Colorado Has the Answers
  
• Two Old Men

Uncollected Stories
Novellas, novelettes and short stories, both in and out of the Company universe, published in magazines and as yet unavailable in anything but the original 'zines. Bibliographic information taken from Baker's website. Hyperlinks lead to the front or splash page of the magazine the story was published in, if I could find a 'zine webpage.

• The Applesauce Monster: Asimov's, December 2001
  
• Black Smoker: Asimov's, January 2000
  
• The Caravan From Troon: Asimov's, August 2001
  
• Desolation Rose: Quantum, Last Quarter 1999
  
• The Empress of Mars: Asimov's, July 2003
  
• Her Father's Eyes: Asimov's, December 2002
  
• The Young Master: Asimov's, July 2000

Online
Excepts of all of Kage Baker's novels can be found on her website. The Dust Enclosed Here and Standing in His Light are both available online for free.

Forthcoming
A slew of stories and one fantasy novel, The Anvil of the World, this August. The Anvil of the World is unconnected to the Company stories. Two more Company novels are also in the works, but have no set publication date yet. For the full list of up and coming stories, check Kage Baker's website, which has an list at the bottom of her bibliography.

Comments

a fan of Kage Baker

[(Anonymous)]

hi there,

i came across your entries while searching for way to find some of Baker's stuff. I have all her novels to date but i am extremely fustrated that i cannot get a hold of any of her short stories or novellas and novellets. Most of the reason is that i cant buy online so the only way for me to go about it is through mail. Ive tried to contact Asimov's Magazine to see if i could purchase back issues through mail but they havent replied and no store in my area that i know of carries them. But seeing your entries you seem to be more of an expert on finding them than i am and i was wondering if you could help me out. If your willingyou can contact me, my e mail address is PipersMyst@hotmail.com

thank you

P.S. its always good to hear from another Baker fan- I absoulutly love her books yet no one else seems to have ever heard of her. :(