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

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.

( What's out so far, and where to look for it. )