Time Travellers in Tudor England

[bibliogramma]

In the Garden of Iden, Kage Baker

I've been reading all sorts of recommendations of Kage Baker's The Company series for some time now, and I must say, having read the first book of the series, that the recommendations were right.

It's an interesting set-up - a time travel corps recruited among abandoned children across the millennia with the purpose of saving things - from artwork to biological specimens - that would otherwise have perished and "hiding" them in time so they can be discovered later. Later being when the 24th century corporation running the show unearths them for profit.

Because these recruits really don't have much of a choice - or rather, their choice is, esentially, join or die - this is not a bunch of happy and idealistic self-selelcted folks, but rather a collection of real people drafted into work that is sometimes dangerous, some of whom like the job they're doing, some of whom don't, many of whom are perhaps not the best suited for the task but they're all there is.

The protagonist of the first book is Mendoza, who was snatched from certain death at the hands of the spanish Inquisition when she was only five (under suspicion of secretly being a Jew), raised in the australian outback of several million years ago, given extensive modification that end up making her, like other members of the Comapny, virtually immortal, and sent out at 18 on her first mission, to salvage what will become rare plants from the estate of a 16th century gentleman gardener/collector/botanist.

And yes, the book is about a loss of innocence, on many levels.

And it's a very good read. Baker at times uses a tone that is breezy, almost flippant, but this only serves to underline some the the very serious issues she is exploring in between the plot points of a time travel adventure. I expect to be returning very soon to the universo of The Company.