Rating: 
Summary: A non-stop read
Review: In Mendoza In Hollywood, Ms. Baker's talent and ingenuity shine through making for an irresistible, non-stop read. As in her previous works, we are treated to the not so perfect lives of Dr. Zeus's immortal operatives in colorful details. Through her imagery and observations, we are shown the being immortal may not be all it is cracked up to be. With Mendoza's failed love life, Imarte's loss of Babylon, Porfirio's family trouble. These details and commentaries by the immortals on the silent movies, help to bring the fact while immortal cyborgs, there is a core to them that still feels like the human mortals they once were. Ms. Baker's extensive knowledge of the time period and locations put most history professors to shame and make for a most enjoyable reading and learning experience. Her ability to take little known historical events, and weave them into the fabric of Dr. Zeus operations make the reader take stock and wonder what exactly was being plotted 150 years ago. Looking back on the pervious works of In The Garden Of Iden and Sky Coyote, I am hard pressed to pick a favorite. I find the series premise to be full of possibilities, and Ms. Baker's wit and ability to engage the reader make for exciting and interesting reads. The only disappointment that I have is that I will have to wait for the next installment!
Rating:
Summary: Best of the three(so far)in "The Company" series.
Review: In the third of a projected eight titles in Kage Baker's "The Company" series, the author returns to the cyborg Mendoza, star of the first book "In the Garden of Iden." Fans of early California history and silent film will especially be delighted with the cyborgs' dealings with the humans of the really wild, wild, west of 1860's California, and their take on some of the big classics of silent film. Baker delivers with the mix of humor and seriousness that made the first book of the series so memorable. Baker also reveals just enough more about "The Company" as she did in "Sky Coyote" to whet our appetites for the next books and the fate of Mendoza and her fellow cyborgs in the future, especially in the mysterious year 2355.
Rating: 
Summary: Haphazardly plotted, but a fun supporting cast
Review: Mendoza in Hollywood falls somewhere above In the Garden of Iden and somewhere below Sky Coyote in terms of quality, when considering it as part of Baker's Dr. Zeus series. It advances the overall plot along and shows us a lot of details involving the lives of the company's immortal cyborgs, but the novel's plot ranges all over the place, with little sense of tension or urgency until the very end. It seems to be a "bridge" novel between two halves of a story.The novel follows Mendoza during her few months' stay with a cyborg outpost in Hollywood, 1862-63. These cyborgs don't have a grand mission as in the first two books; rather, they're just sitting around gathering physical and sociological evidence and data about the locale and era. As a result, they're bored a lot and spend most of their time thinking about their place and time in history. Sound dull? It's not as bad as it sounds, largely because the supporting cast is eccentric and amusing, resulting in a series of vignettes they get tangled up in during the year. The book's problem other than its plot is its narrator. Mendoza is a pretty dull character: Shallowly introspective, often wallowing in self-pity, and only vaguely amusing (unlike Joseph, the humorous and self-aware narrator of Sky Coyote), her dispassionate view of the world around her makes everything seem flat and gray. Fortunately, her supporting cast saves the day through their backgrounds and antics (the fellow who's keeping tabs on his mortal family in Mexico; the young immortal who rescues and collects birds;...), and it turns out that 1860s Hollywood has a few interesting phenomena around it which add to the ongoing Dr. Zeus mystery. (Unfortunately, Baker decides in the middle of the book to take us on a 40-page aside into one of D.W. Griffith's silent films, which is as interminable a piece of reading as you'll find in science fiction.) The story takes an abrupt turn in the last 100 or so pages, when a ghost from Mendoza's past appears and sends her off on a peculiar adventure, which reveal new mysteries for the reader of the whole series to wonder about. But it doesn't really fit into the overall tone of the book, feeling entirely tacked-on to the story. The book doesn't really end so much as stop. The bottom line is that this book lays some more groundwork for whatever conclusion to the series Baker is building towards, and provides some lively reading for most of its pages, but it's neither a deep nor a particularly satisfying installment, as it lacks the closure which Sky Coyote had. Hopefully the next book will be better.
Rating: 
Summary: Like Mendoza, you'll be begging to die halfway through
Review: Mendoza in Hollywood is a great disappointment. It lacks the wit of In the Garden of Iden. Of course, the 19th-century American west is never my favorite time period, and there's way too much traditional Anglo American history (a la Frederick Jackson Turner). Imarte (the anthropologist gathering information as a frontier whore) is the best part of the book. Far too much time is spent in film descriptions, in cyborg film buffs mapping "homes of the stars" onto 1864 California, and in slapping together conspiracy theories from the Company's data. What is brilliant about In the Garden of Iden is only a third-sequel re-hashing in Mendoza in Hollywood. But don't take my word for it!
Rating: 
Summary: Tales of the past in a fresh light
Review: Mendoza is back with an interesting cast of characters. The only problem with the novel is the plot - admittedly a big portion of any book, but in this case occupying a secondary position of importance. We meet the cyborgs of the future, each with a a monomania for whatever scientific subject the Company decides. The fact that they are helplessly addicted to studying every aspect of this subject is something they recognize but are helpless to prevent. It is the Civil War and as Ms. Baker has explained - adding an original twist to the age old time-travel paradox problem - it is impossible to change any RECORDED historical event. But think of all those that are not recorded! Anyway, we are in early Hollywood and Mendoza meets her former lover from the first book in another man's body. The face is the same and he seems to be unaware of anything amiss. She is overwhelmingly captivated yet once more tragedy intervenes and this time she commits a cardinal sin - murder. Mendoza has somehow attained the ability to travel FORWARD in time. (Baker explains that according to time-travel rules, one can only go backward, not forward.) Her breaking of this rule and killing those who murdered her lover earn a prison sentence of ungodly cruelty - exile to a time before humans. Several questions arise: How does Mendoza travel forward in time? What is the meaning of the reappearance of her former lover? And what will Joseph do about the approaching convergence between the end of history and the workings of the Company. The
Rating:
Summary: Tales of the past in a fresh light
Review: Mendoza is back with an interesting cast of characters. The only problem with the novel is the plot - admittedly a big portion of any book, but in this case occupying a secondary position of importance. We meet the cyborgs of the future, each with a a monomania for whatever scientific subject the Company decides. The fact that they are helplessly addicted to studying every aspect of this subject is something they recognize but are helpless to prevent. It is the Civil War and as Ms. Baker has explained - adding an original twist to the age old time-travel paradox problem - it is impossible to change any RECORDED historical event. But think of all those that are not recorded! Anyway, we are in early Hollywood and Mendoza meets her former lover from the first book in another man's body. The face is the same and he seems to be unaware of anything amiss. She is overwhelmingly captivated yet once more tragedy intervenes and this time she commits a cardinal sin - murder. Mendoza has somehow attained the ability to travel FORWARD in time. (Baker explains that according to time-travel rules, one can only go backward, not forward.) Her breaking of this rule and killing those who murdered her lover earn a prison sentence of ungodly cruelty - exile to a time before humans. Several questions arise: How does Mendoza travel forward in time? What is the meaning of the reappearance of her former lover? And what will Joseph do about the approaching convergence between the end of history and the workings of the Company. The
Rating:
Summary: Mendoza asleep
Review: Mendoza is normally pretty sharp but in this yawn Kage Baker is too busy setting up the background some larger tome to follow that she doesn't bother to include a plot in this one.
Rating:
Summary: An intelligent look at immortality
Review: Oddly enough, I have recently stumbled upon the works of two authors who finally are addressing the immortality theme with intelligence, sensitivity, and subtlety. After the heavy-handed melodrama of popular authors such as Anne Rice, both Kage Baker in her Company Novels and Jane Lindskold in her Athanor novels have shown us, in very different ways, what kind of tragedy (and comedy!) immortality might truly bring. Reading about Medoza's latest adventure was heartbreaking -- her gradual descent into madness, juxtaposed with the sublime absurdity of the future-Hollywood setting, was genius. The only criticism I have of this book is that it does wander a bit in places -- I would have preferred the narrative to be a little tighter. But this is an outstanding effort, definitely the best so far in the series.
Rating:
Summary: * Good, Fun, But Uneven *
Review: Of definite interest to fans of the increasingly popular "Company" series by Kage Baker, "Mendoza In Hollywood" is a good but uneven novel. New readers are advised to start at the beginning of the series with the enjoyable first Company novel, featuring their immortal employees (agents), called "In The Garden of Iden". Current fans will appreciate the book overall more than first-time readers. In "Mendoza", many interesting sub-plots are introduced, but too many remain underdeveloped. Also, Baker rambles on unnecessarily in several places, lengthening the work without significant substance. Better editing by the publisher could have strengthened this book considerably. This book introduces some new characters without developing many of them greatly. One fascinating exception is the Company project leader Porfirio. Here is an agent of the Company who has had long-term relationships with his actual extended mortal family, an almost unique situation for an immortal. But other characters are left wanting, as if for future books. Instead of droning on for 22 pages (paperback version) in a scene-by-scene metaphoric description of D.W. Griffith's film Intolerance, Baker could have better used the pages to evolve more history about the Company in general, or to give the reader a more thorough development of her usually interesting characters. Baker has great skill in doing that, but under-utilizes her talent in several areas herein. The final third of the book has better appeal, as we finally get to the reason for the story, which is Mendoza being united with her reincarnated, but yet again tragic lover. Also, Baker does a good job of weaving historic scenes of Los Angeles in its infancy, quite well done, especially for a Northern Californian. I was left wanting to hear more about the mysteries of Laurel Canyon, and other twists she leaves virtually unfinished. The writer can improve future stories by not succumbing to too many open-ended plot devices, increasingly used by modern authors to allow for future books and money-making writing opportunities. I wanted to rate this book higher, as it was an enjoyable read, and I couldn't put it down when finally reaching the third (of three) sections. But too many segments of the novel go on and on without contributing, taking away from the action and suspense Baker is adept at creating. Therefore, this book rates at 3.33 stars out of 5.00, rounded down to 3.00. Read the novels that come earlier first, skip the part on Intolerance that serves as a long-winded metaphor for the lives of Company agents, and you will enjoy the novel better.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the 1st two, but...
Review: that'd be difficult since the The Garden of Iden and Sky Coyote were both books that made me wake up out a reader's stupor. My main complaint with this book: 18 pages devoted to relating the plot of DW Griffith's movie Intolerance. Instead of insightful examinations of the human character (Baker's usual choice for the meandering sections of her books), this read like padding. Still, the book continues to unravel the mystery of 'the Company' in a slow, tantalizing way. Unlike many contemporary SF authors, Baker doesn't seem to be writing a long series to ensure that royalties keep rolling in year after year. She seems to be releasing the bits and pieces of the overall story out in a controlled flow. These nuggets tantalize and start the thought processes rolling. This way, you the reader attempt to puzzle out the big picture. I felt myself becoming a Fox Mulder-like seeker because the way the books are written, you know that 'the truth is out there.' If it takes another 7 books to find, fine by me!
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