The Life of the World to Come (The Company) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Rain comes on the west wind, ice out of the blue north..." (more)
Key Phrases: public health monitor, stasis gas, temporal physics, Captain Morgan, Billy Bones, Alec Checkerfield (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Baker's trademark mix of serious speculation and black humor informs this solid addition to her time-travel series that began with 1998's highly regarded In the Garden of Iden, in which the botanist Mendoza, an immortal female cyborg employed by the rapacious Company, fell in love with a mortal while on a mission in 16th-century England. Tragically, her lover was then burned at the stake. Later in the series, during the 19th century, she fell in love with another man who could've been her first lover's clone. Baker centers this latest on Alec Checkerfield, an English nobleman of the 24th century and the third of Mendoza's physically identical lovers. We discover that Alec and his predecessors have been created by Company scientists as prototypes for a new line of cyborgs designed to replace the occasionally fractious models they've heretofore employed to do their dirty work. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the spoiled, childlike men who run the project badly underestimate both Alec and Mendoza. The author answers a number of questions raised in previous volumes, but the novel doesn't stand well on its own; new readers are advised to start with In the Garden of Iden.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Cyborg biologist Mendoza has been exiled to the extremely distant past to live her immortal span farming maize and lettuce for wealthy tourists of the twenty-fourth century. She occasionally reminisces about the man she loved in, first, the sixteenth, and then, the nineteenth century. Then, one day, he crash-lands in her cornfield. It isn't precisely he, of course, but someone from the same Company project named Alec Checkerfield and gone pirate. Most of the story is his, from childhood spent on a sailing ship to his youth and education in London to growing wealth and power. As he discovers ever more about his parentage and the power of Dr. Zeus, Inc., to manipulate people and the world, he determines to bring the Company down. Mendoza provides him the key tidbit that, after 2355, Dr. Zeus' knowledge is blank. That time will be Alec's window of opportunity. Alec is quite a character, especially for the sedate twenty-fourth century, and in Baker's skillful hands, his story is well told and engrossing. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition first Printing edition (November 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765311321
• ISBN-13: 978-0765311320
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #919,170 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wrench named Alec is thrown into the works, January 9, 2005

By	David Roy (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Now that I'm caught up with Kage Baker's "Company" novels, waiting for the next one has been excruciating. At the beginning of December, however, The Life of the World to Come was finally published, and it was well worth the wait. Baker adds a lot more detail to the "Company" universe, telling us much more of the future than we even received in The Graveyard Game as we barrel toward the unknown event horizon of 2355, where not even Doctor Zeus Incorporated knows what happens. For any fans of the Company, rest assured that this book is well worth reading. If you're not familiar, then definitely don't start with this book. While it is understandable (for reasons I'll get into later), you'll lose a lot of the richness of the plot.

I was expecting this book to be mainly about Mendoza, and since I had not read the cover jacket, I was quite surprised when the book left her and never returned (except very briefly near the end). Instead, we get the story of Alec, who has appeared in a few Asimov's stories but who I never really knew how he fit into everything. The Life of the World to Come explains it all. Were you bothered about how Mendoza always seemed to be meeting reincarnations of her old lover? This book explains it quite rationally, making the Company seem even darker even as the scientists involved with his origin believe that they are doing good for the world.

The book does a wonderful job of explaining everything and keeps up a good pace as well. We see extended scenes of Alec while he's growing up and see how his personality is shaped by the strange, overly politically correct world that he's surrounded by, as well as the feeling that he was completely unwanted by his parents. His only true friend is the Captain, a former computer playfriend that he reprogrammed to be the ultimate artificial intelligence and now his companion in everything he does. He even goes so far as to get a cyborg implant so he can always be connected to the Captain. Mixed in with these scenes so we never get too bored by too much Alec are the scenes with the scientists. These are, at times, even better than the Alec scenes.

Rutherford is a historian that wants desperately to return to the old times. His ultimate goal is to recreate the Inklings, the writing group that Tolkein was a member of. He and his companions, Frankie Chatterji and Foxen Ellsworth-Howard have fake wine, fake tea, a fire that only their service to Dr. Zeus allows them to have (fires are against the law). They serve a couple of purposes in the book. First, they explain Alec's background so the reader knows it before Alec does, along with explaining what happened with Mendoza in the 16th century and the 19th. Secondly, they give us a little bit of insight into the company workings, or at least one side of it. When they realize that the third incarnation of what they are doing is happening in real time (contemporary to them, rather than in the past), they get an odd thrill. There's no way to know how it will turn out. It makes them nervous, too, as Alec has already become too unpredictable for them. Baker captures these scientists perfectly. They have many idiosyncrasies like a lot of scientists have and each one is truly three dimensional.

The star of the show, however, is Alec. He is a very rich character and Baker is able to fully examine him. He is damaged by the way he grew up, and he's even more damaged when he finds out the truth behind his childhood. Baker never falters in her telling of the two intertwining stories, always capturing the reader's interest and moving on to the other story just when the reader needs a break. The opening, told from Mendoza's point of view, gives us an update on how she's doing and becomes even more important when we see the same scenes from Alec's point of view later on. For not being in the book much, we find ourselves caring even more about Mendoza as she does something that leaves her in quite the precarious circumstance.

For fans of Joseph and Lewis, Mendoza's fellow immortals, I'm sorry to say they are not in this one. The way The Graveyard Game left off, that's too bad, but we must wait until the next one. Baker is slowly building up to the event in 2355, and she's ratcheting up the tension as she goes. The Life of the World to Come progresses the story a little bit, but it also fills in a lot of back detail. It's clear that Alec will play an important part and so it's imperative we get to know him first.

Both Baker's characterization and her plotting skills are on vivid display here. Do yourself a favour and pick this book up.

David Roy

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baker's latest Company novel is a must-have, December 5, 2004

By	A. Richards (Columbia, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After a long wait, it was thrilling to get my hands on "The Life of the World to Come." It is a superb installment in the line of Company novels, yet functions just fine on its own chronicling the life of Alec Checkerfield in the sterile dystopia of the 24th century. Baker's books and short stories constructing the intricate legacy of Dr. Zeus, Inc. have been hilarious, heart-breaking, and compelling. "The Life of the World to Come" finally gives readers insight into the more mysterious inner workings of the Company and what might be done to ultimately bring about its demise.

Sure, this latest novel leaves quite a few unanswered questions while tying up a whole slew of open ends left by "Mendoza in Hollywood" and "The Graveyard Game." That's really the beauty of this series, though - its captivating nature through the well-timed revelation of more and more pieces of puzzle as the overall story progresses. These glimpses of the truth are satisfying tidbits of Company lore that keep us reading. This novel delivers the truth about Alec/Edward/Nicholas; a little more insight into the silence that falls in 2355; knowledge that the Company might not be as infallible as previously thought; and a time-travelling trip to Mars. It's quite a ride.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book (as well as the four preceding it, plus the short stories contained in "Black Projects, White Knights" and the chapbook "The Angel in the Darkness"). It's an excellent addition to Baker's previous works. I, for one, can't wait to find out what Joseph and Budu are going to do once they've reemerged on the scene and how Labienus and his band of immortal malcontents have managed to stay under the radar. But these are questions for another book, and you can believe I'll keep reading after being given a prize like "The Life of the World to Come."

Alex Richards

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just one more volume to go . . . I think, May 27, 2005

By	Michael K. Smith (Gonzales, Louisiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This is the fifth novel in Baker's "Company" series about Dr. Zeus, Inc., which operates as a massive plutocratic conspiracy down through history. It's certainly the best since the first two, _The Garden of Iden_ and _Sky Coyote._ The frame story is about the immortal Mendoza's imprisonment on Santa Catalina in the Back Way Back of 150,000 years ago, and the sudden appearance of Alec Checkerfield, 7th Earl of Finsbury, in a stolen time shuttle. Of course, he's the image of Nicholas and Edward, her two lost loves of the first two books. So what's going on? Telling that takes up the rest of the book, and it's based on Baker's preparatory short story, "Smart Alec." Actually, this book stops just before what I expected was going to be the big climatic scene, so I shall have to wait impatiently for the *next* (and probably last) volume. Alec is certainly a fascinating character, a manufactured hero who outsmarts his makers through the help of an AI he modifies by removing its moral restraints, and which eventually becomes an equally powerful opponent to Dr. Zeus. The "pretend Inklings" of the 24th century, who constitute a small circle of idea men for the conspiracy, are also much more convincingly portrayed than in the last couple of volumes, where they had an annoying comic book, straw-man quality. Baker is an uneven writer -- but when she's hot, she's smokin'.