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The Company #5-6
Company Men
collects The Life of the World To Come and The Children of the Company.
- GenresScience Fiction
611 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
74 people want to read
About the author
Kage Baker
162 books357 followersBorn June 10, 1952, in Hollywood, California, and grew up there and in Pismo Beach, present home. Spent 12 years in assorted navy blue uniforms obtaining a good parochial school education and numerous emotional scars. Rapier wit developed as defense mechanism to deflect rage of larger and more powerful children who took offense at abrasive, condescending and arrogant personality in a sickly eight-year-old. Family: 2 parents, 6 siblings, 4 nieces, 2 nephews. Husbands: 0. Children: 0.
Prior occupations: graphic artist and mural painter, several lower clerical positions which could in no way be construed as a career, and (over a period of years for the Living History Centre) playwright, bit player, director, teacher of Elizabethan English for the stage, stage manager and educational program assistant coordinator. Presently reengaged in the above-listed capacities for the LHC's triumphant reincarnation, AS YOU LIKE IT PRODUCTIONS.
20 years of total immersion research in Elizabethan as well as other historical periods has paid off handsomely in a working knowledge of period speech and details.
In spare time (ha) reads: any old sea stories by Marryat, the Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brien, the Hornblower books, ANYTHING by Robert Louis Stevenson, Raymond Chandler, Thorne Smith, Herman Melville (except Pierre, or the Ambiguities, which stinks) Somerset Maugham, George MacDonald Frasier.
Now happily settled in beautiful Pismo Beach, Clam Capital of the World, in charming seaside flat which is unfortunately not haunted by ghost of dashing sea captain. Avid gardener, birdwatcher, spinster aunt and Jethro Tull fan.
http://www.sfwa.org/2010/01/rip-kage-...
Prior occupations: graphic artist and mural painter, several lower clerical positions which could in no way be construed as a career, and (over a period of years for the Living History Centre) playwright, bit player, director, teacher of Elizabethan English for the stage, stage manager and educational program assistant coordinator. Presently reengaged in the above-listed capacities for the LHC's triumphant reincarnation, AS YOU LIKE IT PRODUCTIONS.
20 years of total immersion research in Elizabethan as well as other historical periods has paid off handsomely in a working knowledge of period speech and details.
In spare time (ha) reads: any old sea stories by Marryat, the Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brien, the Hornblower books, ANYTHING by Robert Louis Stevenson, Raymond Chandler, Thorne Smith, Herman Melville (except Pierre, or the Ambiguities, which stinks) Somerset Maugham, George MacDonald Frasier.
Now happily settled in beautiful Pismo Beach, Clam Capital of the World, in charming seaside flat which is unfortunately not haunted by ghost of dashing sea captain. Avid gardener, birdwatcher, spinster aunt and Jethro Tull fan.
http://www.sfwa.org/2010/01/rip-kage-...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 11, 2011
This is a two-book omnibus editon, so I'll review the books separately:
The Life of the World to Come:
This was great. The "big reveal" that the Company is basically run by a bunch of future-D&D style nerds with no real understanding of life or grip on the consequences of their actions is hilarious, and Alec's parallel story is a great little adventure/psychodrama. I wince a little at the "the future will suck because the ultraliberal feminist/vegan/thought police will take over" trope, especially since it hasn't aged well at all, but it does provide some amusing sources of conflict. My only gripe is that it ends without wrapping anything up, and the next book in the omnibus doesn't continue the story thread at all.
Children of the Company:
This was... weird. I liked it, don't get me wrong, but it's basically a collection of short stories (several of which I had read before) spliced together. It's not a novel in the usual sense. There are some eye-opening moments, and it was fun to reread some of the vignettes now that I have much, much more context for them, but it was a bit disappointing, especially after the brilliant previous novel.
The Life of the World to Come:
This was great. The "big reveal" that the Company is basically run by a bunch of future-D&D style nerds with no real understanding of life or grip on the consequences of their actions is hilarious, and Alec's parallel story is a great little adventure/psychodrama. I wince a little at the "the future will suck because the ultraliberal feminist/vegan/thought police will take over" trope, especially since it hasn't aged well at all, but it does provide some amusing sources of conflict. My only gripe is that it ends without wrapping anything up, and the next book in the omnibus doesn't continue the story thread at all.
Children of the Company:
This was... weird. I liked it, don't get me wrong, but it's basically a collection of short stories (several of which I had read before) spliced together. It's not a novel in the usual sense. There are some eye-opening moments, and it was fun to reread some of the vignettes now that I have much, much more context for them, but it was a bit disappointing, especially after the brilliant previous novel.
November 12, 2018
The Life of the World to Come
&
Children of the Company (finished 8/5/2006)
&
Children of the Company (finished 8/5/2006)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews