The Graveyard Game [Hardcover]

Kage Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 16, 2001

You wouldn't take Lewis for an immortal cyborg: he looks like a dapper character from a Noel Coward play. And Joseph-short and stocky in his Armani suit, with a neatly trimmed black mustache and beard that give him a cheerfully villainous look-you'd never guess that his parents drew the Neolithic cave paintings in the Cèvennes. But what are these two operatives of the Company doing in an amusement arcade in San Francisco in 1996? They're looking for Mendoza, fellow cyborg of Dr. Zeus Incorporated who has been banished Back Way Back. They're also trying to solve the mystery of her impossibly reappearing English mortal lover. Soon they will begin uncovering some extremely hush-hush stuff about what the Company has been doing with the cyborgs it no longer wants in the field. With this fourth book in the Company series, Kage Baker once again takes the reader on a wry, intelligent, and absorbing journey into the future and the past.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Sin exists," says Joseph, an immortal cyborg agent employed by Dr. Zeus, Inc., and in this fourth novel of Kage Baker's Company series, it certainly does. The Graveyard Game follows agents Joseph and Lewis as they try to find their missing friend Mendoza, who's been exiled to the Back Way Back as punishment for anti-Company activities.

Dr. Zeus, a time-travel corporation, created cyborgs to selectively preserve artifacts from the past for the edification of the 24th century, when the Company exists. But as the centuries go by for the agents, they hear strange rumors of a "silence" in the year 2355. Ominously, cyborgs who try to investigate disappear forever, hidden away or shut down by Dr. Zeus.

Joseph and Lewis become obsessed with finding Mendoza, and along the way, they uncover evidence of bizarre and dangerous Company deeds. Joseph finds strange underground holding cells, with "retired" agents in vats of preserving fluid. Meanwhile, Lewis researches the activities of Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, the odd mortal who was with Mendoza when she disappeared. The two get together to discuss their disheartening quest in present-day Ghirardelli Square. Cyborgs get stoned on chocolate, and they order round after round of hot cocoa, even snorting the stuff, until a Company security tech finds them:

On the floor between their respective briefcases was a souvenir bag stuffed with boxes of chocolate cable cars, and the table was littered with foil wrappers from the chocolate they had already consumed.... The security tech scanned them and recoiled slightly at the level of Theobromos in their systems. He surveyed the litter of foil wrappers and empty cups, regarded the cocoa powder in Joseph's beard, and sighed. Two old professionals on a sloppy bender.

The Graveyard Game, the best and darkest Company novel yet, showcases Kage Baker's smart, witty style. She teases readers with enough evidence of Company nastiness to make us root for the sometimes morally shifty cyborgs, while continuing to further the substantial plot. It's an extremely satisfying chapter in an excellent science fiction series, one that sets the stage for the confrontation to come. --Therese Littleton

From Publishers Weekly

This entertaining romp, the fourth in Baker's the Company series, continues the excellent premise: time traveling, immortal cyborgs who were recruited in the past as mortal children seek to enrich Dr. Zeus's Company by rescuing artifacts, artworks, information, endangered species and more. They've been doing this throughout the centuries, but now they're about to meet up with the year 2355, when their mission will end. Will they be retired with honor and rewarded for their service? Or is there a more macabre fate in store for them? Rumors about their future have abounded for centuries, and now the natty Literature Specialist Lewis and Facilitator Joseph, born in the Neolithic era, are searching for the truth, as well as for their missing friend, the Botanist Mendoza, who has disappeared, perhaps sent hundreds of thousands of years into the past, following her travails in the third book in the series, Mendoza in Hollywood. Readers unfamiliar with that novel (Baker provides a brief summary of the previous books) may wonder at the intensity of their quest, but Mendoza's whereabouts may reveal exactly what the company has in mind for the operatives it no longer wants in the field. Bouncing between centuries and locations (an interlude in San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square in 2276 is especially amusing), Baker's latest stands on its own and will entice newcomers to previous titles in the series. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1st edition (January 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151004498
• ISBN-13: 978-0151004492
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,488,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fortunate preview, September 6, 2000

By 

Wayne Fisher (Livermore, CA. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Graveyard Game (Hardcover)

I was both fortunate and cursed if you will, by the occasion of borrowing a galley copy of this book. The latter for I shall have to wait another 18 months or so before reading the possible fifth book in the 'Novels of the Company' series. (Provided I cannot again get chance at a preview). The former for it is an excellent ride of a book, carrying me on a Mr. Toads wild ride at times around the world.

The best thing I could say about this book I think would be to tell you that I intend to purchase this book immediately. And, I've already read it once!

I'm also a fan of Asimov's Science Fiction and Amazing Stories, both of which have printed related novellas and short stories which really add extra flavor to this book series. I constantly found myself connecting the dots as they say, which added to the experience.

Mind you the story stands on its own, but I implore you to read the whole lot! Ms. Baker is a consumate story teller, I found myself really THERE with Joseph and Lewis. If you pick up this book I guarantee you will never look at two locals in California the same again, Catalina Island and Ghiradelli Square. I defy you not to laugh out loud at the antics of Joseph and Lewis in San Francisco in the late 1900's. I found myself saying "Of course he would! I would!"

I cannot type more for fear of spoiling my favorite parts for the rest of you.

Read this book! If for no other reason than so you may wait with me for the next wonderful installment!

-wayne

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You weren't expecting closure... or were you?, June 19, 2002

By 

Kim Unertl "kimz0519" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Graveyard Game (Hardcover)

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Good Company Novel, February 28, 2001

By 

Fosky Bob "human" (Vacaville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Graveyard Game (Hardcover)

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.