|
NOTE ABOUT SPOILERS
This reaction contains spoilers for the first
three novels in Kage Baker’s Company series. What I'm Reading
reactions to these earlier novels are, of course, available: THE
GARDEN OF IDEN, SKY
COYOTE, and MENDOZA
IN HOLLYWOOD.
END NOTE ABOUT SPOILERS
When I finished MENDOZA IN HOLLYWOOD, I was
fairly convinced that I had a long wait ahead of me for THE
GRAVEYARD GAME: The original hardback from Harcourt had gone out
of print, and the paperback would not be available until much
later this year.
Then the fates smiled down upon me: Against all hope, a
used copy appeared in Uncle Hugo’s. I immediately snatched it
up and brought it home.
As I discussed in my previous reactions,
the first Company novel, THE GARDEN OF IDEN, is a novel which
stands by itself. The second, SKY COYOTE, also stands by itself,
even while subtly beginning to lay groundwork for the series as
a whole. Even the third novel, MENDOZA IN HOLLYWOOD, while being
a clear sequel to the first novel, has an existence independent
of the series (although the presence of the series’ meta-plot
was increasingly evident).
But THE GRAVEYARD GAME, by contrast, is
simply an installment in the ongoing series: It has no
independent existence of its own, and cannot be read as an
individual novel at any level. The plot of the novel picks up
the loose threads laid down in the previous novels and begins
running with them: If the end of MENDOZA IN HOLLYWOOD left you
full of questions, THE GRAVEYARD GAME will immediately begin
satisfying your appetite for answers.
THE GRAVEYARD GAME, on the one hand,
reminds me of a simplified version of THE ILLUMINATI TRILOGY via
time travel – conspiracies are unraveled and mysteries at the
very heart of civilization are revealed. On the other hand, it
also reminds me of the CONTINUUM roleplaying game, which had a
very different philosophy when it came to time travel, but also
looked candidly at what it would mean for someone to have a
playground as large as human history without any practical
authority to answer to.
Those comparisons are probably worthless
to most of you, but its where the work resonated for me. (It
also lightly reminded of Asimov’s END OF ETERNITY, and
experienced some truly fascinating parallels with Philip K.
Dick’s DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, which I started
reading immediately afterwards. But I digress.)
Let me put it this way: The plot is a
conspiracy-buster set within the immortal world of Baker’s
time travelers. Watching conspiracies unwind themselves from
within the framework of other conspiracies is a lot of fun (kind
of like watching the Smoking Man channel Mulder). In fact, the
entire book is best characterized as a fast-paced adventure
story. (I’ve heard this book multiply described as the
“darkest” of Kage Baker’s novels. I honestly don’t know
where that’s coming from. Baker, in my opinion, has never been
darker than she was in THE GARDEN OF IDEN.)
For the first time, the Company novels
take us into future history – and the result is mixed. On many
levels, I’m fascinated by the narrative history she constructs
(particularly at the subtle suggestion that, as the time for its
own creation comes near, the Company’s interference with
history grows increasingly drastic). But, on the other hand,
Baker is also quite capable of giving my suspension of disbelief
a rollercoaster ride. For example, when she asserts that only 25
years from now a set of incredibly popular fantasy novels about
talking animals will trigger mandatory vegan laws and animal
emancipation laws, my rapidly rising eyebrows nearly cracked my
ceiling. That’s a little like claiming that the Harry Potter
books will trigger a mass conversion to wicca. Her
world-building also takes some truly unusual turns, and not all
of them sit quite right with me. (I think I’d rather see her
simply exploring the consequences of her central time travel
thesis, rather than littering the playing field with other
conceits.)
So, how to sum this up?
All in all, THE GRAVEYARD GAME is
something of a mixed bag. The plot is fun, but it also lacks the
emotional depth and impact of the first three novels. Perhaps
this fault can be laid at the choice of dual protagonists (which
inevitably divides the thrust of the work). Or perhaps it’s
the extended time period (several centuries) over which the book
takes place (which inevitably dilutes the thrust). But, on the
flip side, for those who have read the previous Company novels,
the revelations found here are worth the price of admission all
by themselves.
So I’m going to give this one a B. It’s a good
book, neither flawed nor superlative.
GRADE:
B |
