Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers

by Kage Baker

Book Overview

This collection brings together the early Company stories in one volume for the first time with three previously unpublished works, including 'The Queen in Yellow', written exclusively for this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1930846304
• ISBN13: 9781930846302
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Golden Gryphon Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Move Over O?Henry ? Kage Baker has arrived

What a surprise!! I was expecting little vignettes of Company life with the same roster of characters but the depth and variety of characters, settings and plots was simply stunning. Maybe it is true that the short story - as opposed to the novel, poem, saga, chant or song - is the real American art form. If so, then Ms. Baker has accepted that challenge with gusto. The author is said to be a fan of the X-Files and in that show, one quickly grew tired of monsters and weirdos, yearning instead for the ever-changing, ever-evolving mythology which girded the series. The Zeus books follow a similar pattern. If "The Garden of Iden" is almost childlike - you might say innocent - the following tales evolved into philosophical treatises on the nature, reason and ultimate fate of time travel and, more than anything, the mysterious Chronos Corporation and its hidden agenda. These are splendid stories although it is imperative that one is first acquainted with the preceding novels to which they allude. The sequence seems random but one discovers a serial-like order of presentation. The young lad with the extraordinary powers shows up several times and the attentive reader will discern both the hows and whys of his origin. Some of these stories sound boring in the extreme until the first paragraph. Suddenly you are caught in the web spun by the author and the only escape is finishing the tale. Some are tongue-in-cheek (Lemuria), some are explanatory (Search for the Delacroix), others are reflective of the author's great interest in English history (Shakespeare). All possess that unique "Baker" quality that permeates her works - the excellent turn of phrase, the fidelity to the character and the times, the occasional surprise and the relentless movement of the logic to its conclusions, tragic, maudlin or triumphant. Many of these could easily be developed into novels, a task I hope the author will undertake in the future

Move Over - O'Henry, Kage has arrived

What a surprise!! I was expecting little vignettes of Company Life with the same roster of characters but the depth and variety of characters, settings and plots was stunning. Maybe it is true that the short story - as opposed to the novel, poem, saga, chant or song - is the real American art form. If so, then Ms. Baker has accepted the challenge with gusto.The author is said to be a fan of the X-Files and in that show, one quickly grew tired of monsters and weirdos, yearning instead for the ever-changing, ever-evolving mythology which undergirded the series. The Zeus books follow a similar pattern. If "The Garden of Iden" is almost childlike - you might say innocent - the following tales evolved into philosophical treatises on the nature, reason and ultimate fate of time travel and, more than anything, the mysterious Chronos Corporation and its hidden agenda. These are splendid stories although it is imperative that one is first acquainted with the preceding novels to which they allude. The sequence seems random but one discovers a serial-like order of presentation. The young lad with the extraordinary powers shows up several times and the attentive reader will discern both the hows and whys of his origin. Some of these stories sound boring in the extreme until the first paragraph. Suddenly you are caught in the web spun by the author and the only escape is finishing the tale.Some are tongue-in-cheek (Lemuria), some are explanatory (Search for the Delacroix), others are reflective of the author's great interest in English history (Shakespeare). All possess that unique "Baker" quality that permeates her works - the excellent turn of phrase, the fidelity to the character and the times, the occasional surprise and the relentless movement of the logic to its conclusions, tragic, maudlin or triumphant. Many of these could easily be developed into novels, a task I hope the author will undertake in the future.

Excellent

This collection of fifteen short stories features characters from Kage Baker's Company novels, including Mendoza, Joseph, Lewis, and the mysterious Alec Chesterfield. I really don't know how she does it - each story is entertaining, the world-building is splendid, and her characters are wonderful. I especially love the thread of dark humor that runs through her books. I hope she keeps writing for many years to come.

Outstanding insights into history and character

The 'Company' sends its immortal cyborg operatives throughout time digging up extinct life forms, destroyed artworks, and lost writings--which it then sells at a handsome profit. BLACK PROJECTS, WHITE KNIGHTS is a collection of short stories about these cyborgs and about Alex, an alien lifeform that passes as human in the 25th century. Author Kage Baker delves into the thought processes and 'emotions' of her cyborgs bringing a fresh imagination to the 'lives' of these once-human creatures. Reflecting Baker's California upbringing, a majority of the stories take place in the Pismo Beach area--from the days of Spanish rule through the gold rush and the 1930s up into the future. Baker's future view, most clearly seen in the connected series of stories about young 'Alec' are of overly protective social urges gone dystopic--meat, cheese, alcohol, flour, and refined sugar are all banned to protect the innocent 'consumers.' Alec becomes a pirate of sorts, yet without the extreme self-justification and self-importance of, say, an ATLAS SHRUGGED. Among the cyborg stories, those hinting at conflict within the company are highly intriguing. After all, powerful immortals without equally powerful opposition hardly make for a competitive field. Baker's writing is engaging and her ability to detail insights into contemporary humans by her glimpses into the 'lives' of immortal cyborgs located in our past is outstanding.

Layers and Crevices...

I've been following Kage Baker's "Company" series of novels for a few years now, but it was only with the publication of this book that I discovered just how many "Company" short stories she has written as well. According to her own notes, she has written more than twenty. Fifteen of them are showcased here.For those of you unfamiliar with this series, it tracks the lives of a number of immortal cyborgs working for a company from the twenty-fourth century that has found the solutions to both immortality and time travel and uses them to send agents through time to collect bits of history. The catch to this, though, is that recorded history cannot be changed, so the operatives must work in the shadows of history - collecting artifacts after ships are sunk, graves are sealed, etc. This introductory story is actually an excellent introduction to the plot and the dramatis personae of the series.For those of you that are familiar with the "Company" series, the fifteen short stories in here cover most major characters we've seen so far - including Joseph, Lewis, Mendoza and her very mysterious lover - and manages to dig around in their stories enough to shed greater illumination on all the characters without making the collection necessary reading for those that are sticking only to the novels. It also details the childhood of Alec Checkerfield, a young mortal from the mid-24th Century who is undoubtedly another aspect of Nicholas/Edward, in four separate stories. Each is excellent, if slightly surreal, but they serve to raise more questions than they answer about him. Incidentally, for those of you curious, the breakdown for how often each character is featured in the collection is: 3 for Joseph, 3 for Mendoza (one featuring both of them), 1 for Lewis, 4 for Alec, 2 for Kalugin, 1 about Budu, 1 indeterminate and 1 introductory story telling a little about all the characters but not featuring any of them.Each of these stories is a gem and I really like how they flesh out the "Company" universe more fully. If I have one complaint, it is that I wish more of her stories would feature places other than California or Britain and she'd get out and play around with other parts of the world more. However, this is minor given the level of detail that she knows about both. This is 'must-read' material for the established Kage Baker fan and a not-half-bad starting spot for the novice - although you may want to pick up "In The Garden of Iden" first if you're really curious.