Rating: 
Summary: A fresh interesting book
Review: Mendoza is a 4 year girl being destined to die at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition until she's rescued by an operative of Dr. Zeus Inc. This is a company from the 24th century that founded a school in Neolithic times to create immortals to serve their needs throughout history. Mendoza is made immortal through bionics, etc, educated, and sent off on her first mission to England, which happens to be enduring the reign of Bloody Mary. Time travel and immortality are concepts seen a lot in SF, and don't often hold my interest any more unless the writer is really talented. I think Kage Baker is really talented. The premise for this story could have easily lead to a space opera, Buck Rogers in the 16th Century. Instead Baker makes it personal, getting into the head of this young woman who has been saved from the Inquisition and made immortal. We see her misplaced arrogance at her own perfection, and we see how and why that arrogance crumbles. We also have the pleasure of being slowly exposed to this wonderfully developed society of immortals that Mendoza belongs to. Their culture results in a lot of the book's humor. I can't think of a better compliment than to say after I read this, I immediately went out and bought the next books.
Rating: 
Summary: Wasting Good Ideas With Bad Writing.
Review: There is no greater sin than to waste a good idea with bad writing. The author creates a world where time travellers working for a mysterious organization can find themselves in any era of the past. This opening novel moves from the prisons of the Inquisition to Phillip II's Spain, to England just before the Elizabethan era. These are great settings. Then it is ruined. The main character, Mendoza, is a troubled retiring sort, precisely the kind of character least likely to show off the settings. The love story is prefunctory. The writing is slow. The historical research and descriptions are bland and shallow. If an author is going to take you to neat places, the story has to open those places up! This book is a great dissapointment, and not worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Book!
Review: In the Garden of Iden is the best of the three Baker has written of the series, as of yet. The firstperson narrative is comical and witty. The story of Dr. Zeus' "Company" is told through the eyes of the main character Mendoza, an imortal. Being young and naive she falls in love with a mortal, a British man named Nicholas, whom she meets at her first project stationed in The Garden of Iden as a botonist to collect rare plants ect..As an imortal, her love with the mortal man cannotgo on forever but it is fun and exciting in the process! I highly incourage you to read this book! It is my favorite book of all time. Baker has also written two sequils to this book (the latter is my favorite of the two)Read them!
Rating:
Summary: Eternal Life or Humanity
Review: This was the first book of Ms. Baker's I have read. It will not be the last. I found it engrossing, and thoughtful both on an "enjoyable read" level and a metaphysical level. The victorian language takes some concentration to get a grip on, but the moments of real insight are in plain English. Mendoza faces fear at a very early age, and will be facing it repeatedly throughout her very long life to come. Good reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Light-weight Entertainment
Review: Undoubtly this book will spawn a whole series of books dealing with immortal time travlers, hardly the makings of grand fiction. No matter, the sci-fi elements are mere window dressing for the central story of a young girl's first love in early 16th century England. And thank goodness those elements are there because all of the giggles help disguise a bare bones, cliche-ridden love story. Now don't get me wrong - it is a fun read - but the hardly original observations that mankind is doomed to ever repeat his mistakes throughout history do not lift this book above the level of pulp fiction. As seems to be the norm these days - vastly overrated.
Rating:
Summary: Witty, Touching and Intriguing
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Ms. Baker is an excellent writer, who managed to bring Elizabethan England with its religious schisms and plotting to vivid life, yet integrate the science fiction aspect of the time travelling cyborgs seamlessly into the plot. Mendoza was a fascinating character, as was Nicholas. I can't recommend this book highly enough - I just ran out and bought "Sky Coyote" in hardback and will be turning the ringer off on my phone tonight...
Rating: 
Summary: An impressive first novel by a writer with promise
Review: I found her Company stories in Asimov's entertaining, so I decided to get this book. I found it very good for a first novel. The humor is thrown in at the right moments. Baker makes an Elizabethan history lesson at the beginning quite funny with her clearness and cynicism. I look forward to the rest of her work.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! I mean...Wow!
Review: Simply wonderful. Not perfect, true, but definitely noteworthy, and even moreso for a first novel. Kage Baker's Dr. Zeus, Inc. and their time-travelling cabal is a fun concept, but I am very glad she chose instead to focus on the *story*, and not try to impress us with a lot of "how clever am I?" nonsense. Kage Baker has iron nerve, too, as she marches steadily onward to the logical conclusion. Brava to her for having the gumption to pull it off satisfyingly.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book
Review: Strangely enough, I picked up this book just after seeing the movie Elizabeth, not realizing how much the events of the two overlap. The rich visuals of the movie carried over well to the England portrayed in Iden. The "valley girl" comment by another reviewer obviously refers to the "Cinema Standard" English used by the Company's agents and is a result of training very young children, largely by the use of the 20th and 21st century movies. I'm not sure if I buy it, but it is explained. Although I prefer Elizabethan England to North American Indian stories, the excerpt from Sky Coyote looks promising and I'll certainly keep an eye out for Kage Baker in the future...
Rating: 
Summary: Valley Girl Meets Elizabethans
Review: In the 16th century a girl is rescued from the Spanish Inquisition, whisked to Australia for some secret training, and cybernetically altered into a genuis. What would you expect? Author Kage Baker clearly thinks the result must be a valley girl. This makes for a jarring incongruity which the novel never quite overcomes. Neither is it explained why our girl genius never seemed to have any affection for anybody, yet later somehow manages to fall in love. This book is typical of a certain sub-genre of sf which offers the illusion of character while missing the essential truth of the heart. Its first person narrator also provides detailed recollections of what happened to her when she was five - down to the things she didn't comprehend. Given the acclaim given "Angela's Ashes", this must now be acceptable even in "nonfiction." This reader finds it amateurish.
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