The Life of the World to Come

Mendoza, imprisoned alone billions of years in the past, is suddenly and unexpectedly visited by someone who looks a lot like not one but two other men she loved and lost under various violent and traumatic circumstances and despite knowing that history has every chance of repeating, she falls for him all over again, and even advises him on various ways of carrying on his time jaunt without dying. But how does this mysterious third iteration of something even a immortal time-travelling preservationist cyborg has a hard time crediting come to exist?

Way up in the future, close to the fabled blackout point from whence no report comes, four history buffs in a highly constrained world who are part of the Dr Zeus company invent a new type of show more enforcer. Alec Checkerfield is one of them, and this is his life. Staggeringly priveleged but deeply dysfunctional, he hides his genius and sails the world with an artificial companion he, at first inadvertantly, turned into the most powerful AI in the world. Searching for a purpose and a way to do good, Alec gradually homes in on the truth of his origins, following the path that will eventually lead to Mendoza, and then on further still to utter catastrophe.

I love these Company books. Witty and clever, they are also dark and exciting. I was also very pleased to come across a Dorothy Dunnett reference. show less

The 'Company' stories all deal with the idea that, in the 24th century, a company learns how to send people back in time. To creat agents for itself, it takes children of a part time period and turns them into immortal cyborgs, who work for them on missions such as saving 'lost' artworks and extinct species, hiding them safely so that they can be 'rediscovered' in the 24th century.
It's all very noble on the face of it, but as time goes on, the Company's motivations and methods begin to seem more suspect to many of the agents. Do the people of the 24th century really appreciate what they've done? What will happen when the agent finally 'get' to that century? Why does no one ever receive any communications or supplies from later than the show more year 2355? What Happens?

The series is very slow-moving, in some ways, because although the focal point of the series is the cyborg botanist Mendoza, some of the books look at events from other points of view and other characters. So although the stories themselves might be full of action, the larger picture hasn't developed very quickly.

'The Life of the World to Come' is an excellent entry in this series. Mendoza does appear - and plays an essential part - but the story focuses on Alec Checkerfield - neglected orphan, child prodigy, rogue, playboy, not to mention the Seventh Earl of Finsbury. Not to mention obsessed with pirates. A dissolute man of the 24th century - and a Company experiment. Coincidentally, he's a dead ringer for the only two men that Mendoza has ever loved, in her long, long life.
In this book, the reader finally gets a good look at the 24th century - it's worse than even the Company agents might have guessed.
My only quibble is that, although the trio of Company men who devise the Adonai project are just too dorky to be believed. They're funny, sure - but the amount of unchecked power they have, in their bungling way, just doesn't fit in with the smooth sophistication we see in the higher-ups. Perhaps it will be explained in a later book... show less

The latest "Company" novel. I don't remember many of the details of the five preceding books, but I'll always remember Mendoza, my favorite crankily lovelorn cyborg. The main story is about Alec Checkerfield, the boy introduced in some of the stories from White Knights, Black Projects. It brings us to two or three years before the silence, explains much, but nothing is yet resolved. (February 16, 2005)

This novel is a direct followup to The Graveyard Game, even though it follows a completely different set of characters. It begins in -- and repeatedly returns to -- 2351, just 4 years from the looming mysterious silence that has been troubling the time-traveling history-manipulating forces of the Company. Mendoza makes a short but critical appearance, but most of the book is about the life and development of Alex Chesterfield, Mendoza's twice-doomed (so far) lover.

While you need to have read the prior books to get up to speed on the various plotlines, this book, unlike The Graveyard Game, does have a satisfactory conclusion, that also suggests possible paths for the remainder of the series. There's lot of adventure and surprises, and show more it's all well-told. To me though, this is more of a comic book than the previous entries. Magical technology -- electronic, computational, and biological -- is invoked at the drop of a hat to make the necessary events happen. If The Graveyard Game was too much in-between everything, with no beginning or ending, this suffers a bit from tying too many things up too neatly. Still, I recommend it for anyone who's even moderately enjoyed the previous volumes. show less

I used to look forward to novels of The Culture; nowadays I look forward to another Company novel. That said, Paul Youll deserves to die a miserable death as a protagonist in one of Iain Banks's Culture novels for the hackneyed botch of a cover. That said, it's a ripping good yarn. Ah, cyborg love and intrigue...!

This installment of the Company series focuses on Alec, the latest incarnation of the Nicholas/Edward recombinant and the true love of Botanist Mendoza. And while it follows Alec’s life from the time he is a boy through early adulthood, it also follows the story of his creators. And what a tangled, very messy tale it is!

This one brings together two of my favorite characters in an unexpected plot twist that has been building over a few of the books. I loved the way it was done and I loved this book. I totally understand why people love rereading this series because you become really invested in the lives of these not-quite-humans.

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