The Graveyard Game

Rating:
Summary: And I thought the world was ugly *now*!
Review: Four books into Kage Baker's science fiction series about "The Company," and things are getting quite interesting. The Graveyard Game is yet another standout addition to a series that doesn't stop, as we learn even more sinister secrets about the Company and how it handles the immortals that it has created. Baker's writing seems to have matured, tackling an even broader story that encompasses not only the personal (as she has done superbly before) but also the politics. She takes bits and pieces that have only been hinted at in previous books and ties them up, leaving us with even further questions about what is going to happen. With three more books left in the series (and the next one is coming out this year!), the situation is wide open. I love being along on this ride, and part of me wishes it wouldn't stop. With The Graveyard Game, Baker continues the roll she's been on since the hiccup that is Sky Coyote (and I say this to indicate that I don't necessarily like everything she's written).

The Graveyard Game opens in 1996, with one of Mendoza's best friends (Lewis) wondering what happened to her, especially after he briefly encounters a version of her that was inexplicably thrust forward from 1862 (before she ran away). He tries to recruit Joseph into his search, who is more than willing to join. It seems he thinks he saw Mendoza and her lover in 1923, plus he feels responsible for her. Years pass as their investigation continues, and they uncover more and more dirt on the Company. Why do some operatives disappear with no record? Why, as the 24th century approaches (this book actually ends in the late 23rd century), do secrets become even more impenetrable? Why is there little record of what happens leading up to 2355? Why does Mendoza's lover keep reappearing, and what is his connection to the Company? And, most importantly to Lewis as events unfold, who are the people who seem to know about the immortals and also seem to know how to damage one?

Baker throws us a bit of a change-up in The Graveyard Game. Despite there being a lot of personal interaction (especially between Lewis and Joseph) that Baker excels at as usual, the most interesting thing about the book is the world that Baker has created. As time passes in great chunks, she is able to show us how much the world has changed, and it's not very pretty. Britain has enforced veganism, personal interaction is almost forbidden. The birth rate has plummeted as people spend more and more time paying attention to their inner child and not having any real ones. It's against the law to do anything that might be bad for you (heaven forbid if you have a beer!). People get around this by living in the wilds, or out on sailboats in international waters.

Every time the scene shifts years, Baker takes a bit of time to tell us what's going on in the world. The best part, though, is that it's not as much of an infodump as it might be. All of this is told in the context of telling us what Lewis is up to, or Joseph. Many of the details slip out in the narrative. Sometimes it's used to explain just what the other immortals are thinking, especially as we get nearer the time of "The Silence" in 2355. They see this world as it approaches, and they have to wonder just what they are saving all of this stuff for.

Factions are starting to form inside the Company operatives, and many of them are just disappearing. Joseph seems to know a bit about what is going on, but his investigations get increasingly dangerous. He tries in vain to keep Lewis out of most of the danger, and watching Baker handle the relationship between these two is great. Lewis is a bookish, Noel Coward type who is at home in a library. He just won't let his investigation of Mendoza's lover go, despite Joseph's warnings. Joseph is the same character we've known and loved in the previous books: sarcastic, intelligent, witty and dedicated. You can tell that he feels deeply about Mendoza, almost like a father-figure (since he did recruit her into the Company) and he's increasingly horrified as he uncovers more and more about the Company he's serving. He's also very loyal, both to Mendoza and his own father-figure who disappeared a long time ago.

The Graveyard Game features these two immortals at the expense of everybody else. There are some other immortals in the book who are well-characterized, but they don't get the extensive treatment. We do see some familiar figures from past books throughout the course of Joseph's search, and that's always a pleasure. Baker handles them all deftly, giving us just enough information so that we think we know them without having to delve too deeply into them. She also handle the switch from personal to action very well, with a vivid description of a battle between three immortals and a Roman unit that was obliterated in England in the 1st Century.

I can't say enough good things about The Graveyard Game, or this series in general. You owe it to yourself to pick it up. Don't let the second book get you down. Just read it and absorb the Company politics, and then move on. If you do, then you'll be rewarded with wonderful books like Mendoza in Hollywood and this one.

David Roy

Rating:
Summary: And I thought the world was ugly *now*!
Review: Four books into Kage Baker's science fiction series about "The Company," and things are getting quite interesting. The Graveyard Game is yet another standout addition to a series that doesn't stop, as we learn even more sinister secrets about the Company and how it handles the immortals that it has created. Baker's writing seems to have matured, tackling an even broader story that encompasses not only the personal (as she has done superbly before) but also the politics. She takes bits and pieces that have only been hinted at in previous books and ties them up, leaving us with even further questions about what is going to happen. With three more books left in the series (and the next one is coming out this year!), the situation is wide open. I love being along on this ride, and part of me wishes it wouldn't stop. With The Graveyard Game, Baker continues the roll she's been on since the hiccup that is Sky Coyote (and I say this to indicate that I don't necessarily like everything she's written).

The Graveyard Game opens in 1996, with one of Mendoza's best friends (Lewis) wondering what happened to her, especially after he briefly encounters a version of her that was inexplicably thrust forward from 1862 (before she ran away). He tries to recruit Joseph into his search, who is more than willing to join. It seems he thinks he saw Mendoza and her lover in 1923, plus he feels responsible for her. Years pass as their investigation continues, and they uncover more and more dirt on the Company. Why do some operatives disappear with no record? Why, as the 24th century approaches (this book actually ends in the late 23rd century), do secrets become even more impenetrable? Why is there little record of what happens leading up to 2355? Why does Mendoza's lover keep reappearing, and what is his connection to the Company? And, most importantly to Lewis as events unfold, who are the people who seem to know about the immortals and also seem to know how to damage one?

Baker throws us a bit of a change-up in The Graveyard Game. Despite there being a lot of personal interaction (especially between Lewis and Joseph) that Baker excels at as usual, the most interesting thing about the book is the world that Baker has created. As time passes in great chunks, she is able to show us how much the world has changed, and it's not very pretty. Britain has enforced veganism, personal interaction is almost forbidden. The birth rate has plummeted as people spend more and more time paying attention to their inner child and not having any real ones. It's against the law to do anything that might be bad for you (heaven forbid if you have a beer!). People get around this by living in the wilds, or out on sailboats in international waters.

Every time the scene shifts years, Baker takes a bit of time to tell us what's going on in the world. The best part, though, is that it's not as much of an infodump as it might be. All of this is told in the context of telling us what Lewis is up to, or Joseph. Many of the details slip out in the narrative. Sometimes it's used to explain just what the other immortals are thinking, especially as we get nearer the time of "The Silence" in 2355. They see this world as it approaches, and they have to wonder just what they are saving all of this stuff for.

Factions are starting to form inside the Company operatives, and many of them are just disappearing. Joseph seems to know a bit about what is going on, but his investigations get increasingly dangerous. He tries in vain to keep Lewis out of most of the danger, and watching Baker handle the relationship between these two is great. Lewis is a bookish, Noel Coward type who is at home in a library. He just won't let his investigation of Mendoza's lover go, despite Joseph's warnings. Joseph is the same character we've known and loved in the previous books: sarcastic, intelligent, witty and dedicated. You can tell that he feels deeply about Mendoza, almost like a father-figure (since he did recruit her into the Company) and he's increasingly horrified as he uncovers more and more about the Company he's serving. He's also very loyal, both to Mendoza and his own father-figure who disappeared a long time ago.

The Graveyard Game features these two immortals at the expense of everybody else. There are some other immortals in the book who are well-characterized, but they don't get the extensive treatment. We do see some familiar figures from past books throughout the course of Joseph's search, and that's always a pleasure. Baker handles them all deftly, giving us just enough information so that we think we know them without having to delve too deeply into them. She also handle the switch from personal to action very well, with a vivid description of a battle between three immortals and a Roman unit that was obliterated in England in the 1st Century.

I can't say enough good things about The Graveyard Game, or this series in general. You owe it to yourself to pick it up. Don't let the second book get you down. Just read it and absorb the Company politics, and then move on. If you do, then you'll be rewarded with wonderful books like Mendoza in Hollywood and this one.

David Roy

Rating:
Summary: all coming nicely to a boil...
Review: Here's the trick: Give enough details about a span of two centuries worth of human history and technological innovation without getting bogged down in every detail of every gadget and widget. Explain the fads without a sociological breakdown for every chapter. For this alone, the book is a success. What you have here is a whirlwind tour of some two hundred years starting from the late twentieth century and going from there.

And that's just the backdrop for a story in which Joseph works covertly across the years to find out what happened to Mendoza (who is still a whiny prat, I imagine) and what The Company is about (which is still ominous) as well as what happened to his mentor. And while he's at that he has to use virtually every connection he has, including characters you've met in previous books.

And it works. The tension builds across decades and you're left with a feeling of impending doom at the end of the book.

Understand that this is, without a doubt, the WORST book to start the series with. The last three books have built to this point and without reading them, you'll be lost. This is a weakness if you haven't already done that. But if you've read the other books... oh but this is good stuff.

Can hardly wait for the next one...

Rating:
Summary: You weren't expecting closure... or were you?
Review: I have to admit that my review is going to be a bit skewed because I was definitely expecting things that this book did not deliver. I don't necessarily think it's Kage Baker's fault. She really didn't lead me on or anything. But really, I was expecting to find out exactly where Mendoza was, to find out what happens after 2355 (when the big silence falls), and to understand what the heck was going on. I don't really feel like I got any of those things from this book, but I did get a very entertaining and fun story.

The most important thing for you to know before you buy this book is that you should do some pre-reading. Although the story does stand on it's own, it will make a heck of a lot more sense if you've read Baker's earlier Company books. BUT in addition to reading the books (Garden of Iden, Sky Coyote, and Mendoza in Hollywood), you'll understand a lot more of what is going on if you read Baker's short stories featuring several characters important to the story. The only place that I know of to get these stories is online at fictionwise.com. It's a set of 6 stories that explain where the heck these characters came from and what they are doing.

If there is any shortfall in this book, it is in the details missing from the story but present in the short stories. Since I had read the short stories already, this didn't bother me. But if you haven't read the short stories, I personally think you will spend a lot of time scratching your head and going "what the heck?", "huh?", and "who is THAT?!?".

When last we saw everyone's favorite Company operative Mendoza, she was having a major breakdown and killing a bunch of mortals. Then she disappeared. Graveyard Game (which has oddly few graveyards) is about her friends Joseph and Lewis searching for her. Joseph was the operative who originally recruited Mendoza and it seems like he feels a lot of personal guilt for what has happened to her. Lewis has a bit of a crush on Mendoza and he's also fascinated or possibly obsessed by her love affair with "the tall Englishman" (Edward).

This book is radically different than the early Company novels because all of those novels start in the past. This novel starts around the current time and moves forward from there. One of Baker's major strengths in earlier novels is that she is great at writing historical fiction. She puts in all sorts of neat details and goes to the extra effort to make her history believable. In earlier novels, I could always understand the perspective of the cyborgs with their technological sophistication reacting to backwards mortals. However, in the Graveyard Game, Baker does a relatively good job of showing people in the future. I had a harder time understanding the world she was creating, though.

Overall, as with all of the earlier company novels, a fun read and definitely worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Another Good Company Novel
Review: Kage Baker churns out another of her fantastic novels starring a group of immortal time-traveling cyborgs. 'The Graveyard Game' picks up where 'Mendoza in Hollywood' left off. Mendoza, having violated Company directives, is exiled to Back Way Back, many many thousands of years in the past. 'The Graveyard Game' relates the quest of two cyborgs, Facilitator Joseph (a main character from Books 1 & 2) and Literature Specialist Lewis, to find Mendoza and discover the ugly truth behind The Company's secrets.

Secrets like, what happened to the prehistoric Enforcers? What lies behind the mysterious date of 2355? And what happens to good cyborgs gone bad?

I love Baker's Company novels. They're well-written and easy to read. Baker creates enjoyable characters that stay within their parameters. They don't veer off into directions that leave the reader shrugging shoulders in exasperation. I enjoy the fact that Baker incorporates Cyborg characters from her other novels and short stories. It's fun to see how the various characters mature and grow over the centuries (especially watching Latif grow from a child to a cyborg).

Baker's novels are light easy reading. They won't challenge you, but they will intrigue you and more than likely keep you up past your bedtime. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The Baker Game
Review: Oh, golly.

If the Dr. Zeus series were a watch, with the denouement sitting at 12:00 midnight, "The Graveyard Game" would tick us forward to one minute prior to climax, then stop.

We would tap the crystal. We would hold it to our ear to see whether it was still ticking.

We would howl our misfortune when we realize that the watch has truly stopped without revealing the true nature of the company and the mysterious 2355 date that figures so strongly in the lives of the immortal cyborgs.

"The Graveyard Game" is a fascinating book, a much more accomplished and purposeful book than "Mendoza in Hollywood", but it is not the end of the story. I viewed "Mendoza in Hollywood" with a sense of good humor because it felt as though author Baker was slowing down, taking her time, teasing us a little so that this book would feel all the more momentous. Now that I realize it really was just filler, I feel a little more let down, a little more on the hook.

But that doesn't mean this is not an enjoyable story. We get to know Joseph, who is Mendoza's cyborg "father", and Lewis, who loves her deeply, as they take their time and try to unravel the mystery of her disappearance. Lewis' extended attempts at writing a novel using a photograph of the secret agent who tried to run away with Mendiza are telling, poignant and funny. Joseph's single-mindedness in tracking Mendoza down is intense and touching.

Baker's writing is clever, as always. In every Company novel, she comes up with at least one idea that makes you think, "Huh. Why didn't I think of that?" And her facility in writing a book about a character who does not actually appear would make Samuel Beckett blush with envy.

If you are the type of person who tears their hair out at cliffhangers, you might want to wait for the next book before starting this one. But if you read it anyway, don't say I didn't warn you.

Rating:
Summary: Baker's Best yet!
Review: There's something wonderful about watching an author's style evolve. In her earlier novels of the Company, Kage Baker was clearly having fun, but at times (notably in Sky Coyote), she seemed to sacrifice character development for cheap humor. In her fourth novel, The Graveyard Game, she has proven to be capable of fully integrating the tragedy of her erstwhile heroine, Mendoza, with solid, complex character development.

The Company is a shadowy organization (officially called Dr. Zeus) that has mastered time travel and immortality, and the cyborgs they've created as a part of their immortality process are the stars of the series. Mendoza, the heroine of the first and third novels, is this novel's macguffin. Her arrest at the end of Mendoza in Hollywood is unknown to all but a few Company operatives, and when, in the year 1996, Facilitator Joseph (who rescued Mendoza when she was a child, and views himself as her father), and Literature Specialist Lewis (who has been in love with Mendoza for centuries) find out about the arrest, they set out to discover what happened to her.

Of course, since the Company monitors its agents remotely, and since few know what has happened, their quest spans hundreds of years, and starts to uncover the vast conspiracy that was only hinted at in Sky Coyote. Joseph already knew something was amiss -- the Enforcers, a group of Company operatives from the old days, when violence was a more common tool of the Company, have all vanished. Joseph's own "father," Badu, is among the missing, and he left an encrypted clue about his fate with Joseph (from which the book gets its title).

Lewis, meanwhile, is uncovering even more unsettling news about Mendoza's fate, and that of her second human lover, Edmund Bell-Fairfax. Events that had previously been thought to be coincidences now appear to have been contrived by the Company. And the Company itself seems to have dark origins that were only hinted at previously. As Lewis and Joseph delve further into the conspiracy, and as the 24th century (and the official creation of the Company) approaches, the book takes our heroes down a paranoia-laden path, as they find reasons to distrust both their human masters at the Company and even some of their fellow cyborgs.

Although Baker takes us through three centuries of conspiracies and tragedy (especially as we discover the fates of Mendoza's colleagues from the previous novel), she paces The Graveyard Game wonderfully, fleshing out Lewis and Joseph as genuinely interesting characters, providing some wonderfully humanizing (and humorous) moments along the way, including a delightful scene in which our heroes go on a chocolate bender -- chocolate having the same effect on them as alcohol on mortals. Lewis's love of Mendoza (and his obsession with Bell-Fairfax), and Joseph's anguish at losing both his father and his daughter, add a depth to their quest for the truth about who they are, and who they work for. This makes the tragic denouement all the more poignant.

Baker's writing style has come a long way over the course of four novels. She has moved from writing fun romps to writing some of the best character-driven science-fiction out there. With The Graveyard Game, she has proven that she deserves to be placed on the same shelf as such writers as Connie Willis, John Barnes and Nancy Kress. It would be a delight to see her shortlisted (and even winning) a World Fantasy Award in the near future.

Rating:
Summary: Best so far!
Review: This book is my favorite, so far. It was much more interesting than the last two. Lots of 'strings' left hanging for the next book. Can't wait to see what happens next. Really enjoyed the Joseph and Lewis characters--especially the Theobramos binge in SF.

I love reading about historical California (probably because I'm a native).

I'd highly recommend 'Black Projects, White Knights' and hope that the characters will show up in next novel. Especially Budu!

Is Alec Mendoza's reincarnated lover?

Rating:
Summary: Baker may be losing his grip on the plot . . .
Review: This fourth volume in the series is a considerable improvement over the last two. Things are coming to a head among the cyborgs employed (owned) by the Company, as time marches on toward the Silence that will occur in or before 2355. Mendoza is still missing, and Joseph and Lewis find ways to search for her -- and for the mysterious reappearing tall Englishman who caused her to go AWOL in the third volume. However, Baker this time introduces another extraneous and unnecessary element in the form of "fairie folk" who have been hunting Lewis for some 1,700 years. This annoying development smacks of deus ex machina. Well, we'll have to wait for the fifth (and probably last) volume to see if the author can bring all this together.