This is the first novel in what has become one of the most popular series in contemporary SF, now back in print from Tor. In the 24th century, the Company preserves works of art and extinct forms of life (for profit of course). It recruits orphans from the past, renders them all but immortal, and trains them to serve the Company, Dr. Zeus. One of these is Mendoza the botanist. She is sent to Elizabethan England to collect samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden. But while there, she meets Nicholas Harpole, with whom she falls in love. And that love sounds great bells of change that will echo down the centuries, and through the succeeding novels of The Company.
This book has been on my TBR list for quite some time, so I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. The writing was in a very easy to read style, and I got through it pretty quickly.
I loved the time travel idea, and I think I was hoping for a little more of it. Instead, we got one time travel to gloomy England, and there we stayed. And then it turned mostly into a love story with a typical obsessed heroine. There was more romance than science fiction in this story, it seemed.
With that said, I still liked the book, for the most part. There were definitely some interesting ideas here, and I'm quite looking forward to reading more in the series, especially if it gets better, as I've heard. I think this book could be read and enjoyed by fans of any genre. It seems to be pretty light on the science, and the writing style flows pretty nicely, except I felt that it started to fall apart a little bit near the end.
Book Details
Author: Kage Baker
Genre: science fiction
Page Count: 329
Publishing Info: December 2005 by Tor
Why I Read It: Beyond Reality group read
Grade: B- (good, but could've been better)
Cover Thoughts: I'm not in love with the cover, especially since it looks like some woman is driving a spaceship, and that doesn't really go along with the story at all.
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