I hope you enjoy it! It and the sequels are all lovely. 🙂

Hi, Kathleen – thanks for stopping by. I am so very sorry for your loss. Your sister was an amazing writer, and she sounds like a wonderful person. I have three sisters myself, and I would be lost without them.

I stayed up late last night to finish the fifth Company book, and am now kicking myself for not getting the sixth, seventh, and eighth ones out of the library too. You’re quite right! The subsequent books have not disappointed me at all. I’m excited to read everything else she’s written, and I’ve become a total evangelist for her work. Every person I know who reads fantasy, I’ve been telling to find and read these books. 🙂

Hey! You were right! My one criticism turned out to be part of a Master Plan. 😛

The cover of the library’s copy looks a bit like a historical romance, too – there’s another copy out there with a cover I love, but I haven’t been able to figure out where it’s published or whether it’s hardback or paperback. When I have money again, I want to see if I can get a nice matching set of these, which means it’s important that I find the very best set of covers.

Do you like Lewis? (Or should I hold that question for a later post?)

I found out she had died on the blog Bookgazing about a month ago. I was surprised how much the news affected me. There is the unfulfilled story-greed of course, but I also felt like I’d got to know her a little as a person, particularly in her last company book. And then, the recent book in the Anvil world had a sort of dreamy, nostalgic tone and some religious themes that seems prophetic in retrospect. I wondered if she knew she was ill when she wrote it.

“Sometimes I accidentally read the best book first” This happens to me all the time, because I like to read books in chronological order, and I tend to like author’s first novels best. But not so with Kage Baker.

“tiniest smidge unrealistically tolerant and open-minded about religion for his time period.” Ah ha. You have a point. But you’ll find she’s covered her derriere on this one, by and by. I also think Nicholas is as much Baker’s personal hottie from history as Mendoza’s, and maybe she just couldn’t quite bear to make him a typical zealot, not finding that an attractive quality. The first British edition of this book has an interesting cover: they actually made it look like a straight-up historical romance.

Oh, good. I couldn’t get into Anvil of the World, and it is very unlike the company novels. It was kind of discworldy, and I think sort of a tribute to 50’s and 60’s pulp sci-fi.

LOL Oh Rushdie! 🙂 I enjoyed Shame more than you.