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Mendoza In Hollywood (A Company novel) by Kage Baker
01/10/2006 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: TOR. 334 page enlarged paperback. Price: $15.95 (US), $21.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-31530-0. Buy Mendoza In Hollywood in the USA - or Buy Mendoza In Hollywood in the UK  check out website: check out website: www.tor.com
There are times when an author has a good idea but does not always have the skill to work it through and produce a masterpiece. Sometimes the book is a debut novel and it has obviously been published because the writer has enormous potential and an early success will hopefully spur them on to better things - a kind of hands-on works experience. Other times, it is the second novel that has the failings as the author has perhaps been pushed to produce a novel within a year of the first one and has not had the time expended on the first to polish it.
Kage Baker's 'Company' novels are a potentially good idea. It certainly speaks to those among us who dream of immortality. In our far future, two things have been discovered. The first is time travel. Baker has sensibly set down rules for this. The most important one is that the past cannot be changed. The second development is technology to make people immortal. Again, there are rules. The immortals are cyborgs. They have been changed to become less human. Children who would otherwise have died are recruited, altered and educated in secret bases. As adults, they are given assignments related to their training.
Mendoza was recruited in Spain at the time of the Inquisition. On her first assignment in 'The Garden Of Iden' in the reign of Queen Mary, daughter of Henry VIII of England, she messed up by falling in love with a mortal human who was subsequently burnt at the stake for blasphemy. 'Mendoza In Hollywood' is her third recorded assignment, the second being 'Sky Coyote'.
In 1862, Mendoza is sent to a staging post just outside the frontier town of Los Angeles. It is sited where Hollywood will eventually be. As a botanist, her job is to take cuttings and genetic samples of plants that the future historians know will become extinct because of local climactic changes in the following few years. The idea is to plant the specimens in a secluded place so that they can be rediscovered in future centuries. Mendoza is used to the future-modern luxuries of life but in this place, she is effectively slumming it. All her companions at the staging post are fellow Company personnel and they have the occasional luxury. One of her fellows, Einar, is a film buff and arranges showings of old black and white films. He is also able to point out where all the future landmarks of Hollywood will be. For readers who have a similar interest in the home of the American film industry or who know the area, this is probably fascinating but to an outsider it has much less significance and the cleverness of it quickly palls. Baker has undoubtedly done her research thoroughly but too much is thrown at the reader in large chunks. At one point, there is a tedious blow by blow account of one of the films Einar shows. This is a symptom of the problem with this book. It is good on background and setting but rather thin on action and plot. All the important events happen in the last hundred pages when a gun-slinger who is the spitting image of her lost English love, turns up at the staging post. Only then does the action really take off.
A few of the problems that were inherent in the first novel are addressed as throwaways. The Company has underground bases which are obviously safe during early time periods but would be discovered by modern technology. We are told that the network of tunnels under Los Angeles will be filled in during the 20th century. It will have to be a brilliant piece of camouflage to fool the modern geologist, unless all government agencies are run by the Company. Conspiracy theory, anyone?
The big problem with a series such a this is that if history cannot be changed, then what is the point? Major historical events are known. To be told only about frontier society is not enough. To make the book worthwhile there needs to be either intense personal interest involving characters whose fate we do not know and who we care about or it should give us a greater insight into human nature. The former criterion is introduced far too late and the latter is not present. Baker writes well, she knows her history but she does not engage the reader with a meaningful plot.
To be fair, there are a few incidents that are unusual and which intrigue. Unfortunately, there are not enough of them and they are not followed up. Saved for future novels, perhaps? When Mendoza finally lives into our future, the straight-jackets Baker has set in place will be released. Then the stories may well take off.
Pauline Morgan
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