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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. 1   jenex | Aug 18, 2009 |  This is based on the idea of what would happen if somewhere in the future the figure out how to make people immortal and also how to time travel. It's given in this story that you can't change history and you can't bring objects forward through time, but other than that, there's nothing you can't do. Even better, why not make immortal slaves and have them do all the dirty work for you? This is the story of one of those slaves...er, employees...as she becomes immortal during the Spanish Inquisition and then attempts to save various plants from extinction. Very little time was spent in the science fiction aspect of this story such as the time traveling, the immortality, and the rescuing of plant species. Instead, a great deal of time was spent dwelling on a romantic relationship that seemed improbable from every angle. This was entertaining, but nothing spectacular. I'd be willing to give the second book in this series a try, but I won't be in a rush to do so. (  ) stubbyfingers | Jul 21, 2009 | As a young child, Mendoza is plucked out of a brutal Medieval Spain and is made immortal by a time traveling organization from the future. She is trained as a botanist to saved plants from extinction. She comes to view humans as sub-human and beneath contempt. Her first assignment is to take cuttings from an estate in 16th century England. In this place she finds ignorance, intolerance, bigotry, human foibles, and even love. In this love, she finds that the "The Company" is not all that she thought it would be and she is not what she thought she was. A great book. Highly recommended. (  ) tcgardner | Apr 13, 2009 | Looking to make money, a group of scientists in the 24th century discover immortality. However, in their present, they have no way to test if the process works, so they are forced, so to speak, to discover time travel. When it is discovered that the immortality process is too dangerous to sell on the market, scientists with The Company begin to use their immortal experiments as agents for them. As a little girl in Inquisition Spain, Mendoza finds herself on trial and heading for death when she is rescued by a Company recruiter; her first assignment is in Elizabethan England, where she is to work at the Iden Estates, preserving profitable plants that will be extinct in the far future. Unlike her savvy counterparts, she is unprepared for her first assignment with non-immortals and the confusing swirl of religion and politics in England. I enjoyed Baker's inventive spin on the immortals idea and the quirky plot; and even though this is a quick read, it is totally worth the time. (  )1 daykeeper | Mar 31, 2009 | This book is unusual, to say the least. What exactly is it? Sci fi, steampunk, historical, romance, melodrama - a little bit of all these things. The ideas were interesting, but to be honest I skimmed a lot of the book, especially the last third. Too many repetitive scenes and not enough tension. Still, I will try the next in the series to see if it picks up. I didn't relate too well to Mendoza so I hope she is not the main character of this series - I don't think so. ( ) simone2045 | Dec 9, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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The cyborg trio poses as Doctor Ruy Lopez, his daughter Rosa (the irrepressible Mendoza, now grown), and her duenna, Doña Marguerita; Sir Walter's hospitality and discretion are bought for the promise of restored youth. (There are hilarious moments that call to mind the Coneheads, who claimed to be from France when caught doing anything peculiar.) Sir Walter's secretary, Nicholas Harpole, is immediately suspicious of and hostile towards the strange "Spanish" visitors, which prompts Mendoza to fall in love with him. Nicholas has his own badly kept secret: he's proudly Protestant at a time when Queen Mary and Philip of Spain are on a Catholicizing rampage. Mendoza knows Nicholas is probably doomed, and that as a Company operative she cannot meddle with his fate, but love makes people do desperate things. Baker surpasses even Connie Willis in humor and precision of period detail in this fresh, ingenious first novel.--Barrie Trinkle
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:09 -0400)
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"I read my first Kage Baker novel, In the Garden of Iden, by accident, thinking it was a different sort of book entirely. It turned out to be a lucky accident, as Baker’s Company series has become one of my favorites of all time. Iden does a fair job of pretending to be a historical romance set in 16th century England. But that’s only a very small part of it – there’s the Spanish Inquisition, to begin with, and a five-year-old girl rescued by cyborgs. There’s the time travel. And the immortality. And the nifty science fiction gadgets. As well as passionate romance, impeccable historical detail, and rare plant life. I was hooked."
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