skygiants | (no subject)

So technically I am an hour late on

rymenhild's December meme request to fanwank Kage Baker's Company novels in such a way as to preserve the awesome and jettison the OMGWTFBBQ, but given that I went straight from work to a six-hour car ride to DC I hope I will be forgiven!

Okay, so the Company novels. What you need to understand about the Company books is that I discovered the first book, In the Garden of Iden, probably about a year after it was published in 1997. I was thirteen and fell head over heels for Mendoza, misanthropic teen cyborg botanist in Elizabeth England, and her doomed and tragic romance with a brilliant heretic, and her equally doomed and tragic semi-father-daughter-relationship with the cyborg who created her, and Kage Baker's dark and hilarious blend of incredibly well-researched historical fiction and deeply cynical science fiction dystopia populated with SO MANY SAD FASCINATING CYBORGS. I devoured each new book as it came out! I fell in love with every single side character introduced! I was more than happy to let Kage Baker spend forty pages describing a bunch of cyborgs MST3K-ing D.W. Griffith's Intolerance; that kind of thing was EXACTLY WHAT I WAS HERE FOR.

In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that Kage Baker and her massive nerdouts about film history are a significant part of the reason why I am right now a moving image archivist. I referenced these books in my entrance essay to grad school -- and to be clear, this was after the last couple books came out; I was at that point under no illusions. But there is no way for me to shake how important the Company books are to me and how many feelings I am ALWAYS GOING TO HAVE ABOUT THEM.

But . . . the last couple books. Oh, the disappointing and quite frankly horrifying aspects of the last couple books. OH, MY OVERPOWERING DESIRE TO FEED EDWARD ALTON BELL-FAIRFAX, VICTORIAN DOUCHEBAG, TO THE CROCODILES.

So how would I fanwank fix the series? Well, I could write out a detailed and thoughtful treatment that took into account all the threads of the plot, but that would probably require me to reread the last book, which to be honest I have mostly blocked out of my mind except for everything involving Lewis and Princess Tiana Parakeet and immortal cyborg William Randolph Hearst. So right now, at 1 AM after a very long car ride, my diagnosis is pretty simple:

- MENDOZA FEEDS EDWARD ALTON BELL-FAIRFAX, VICTORIAN DOUCHEBAG, TO THE CROCODILES ROUND ABOUT THE MACHINE'S CHILD, AND EVERYTHING IS BETTER

(And then think of all the things a Mendoza liberated from the awful warping factor of Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax could do! She could go rekindle her friendship with Nan! She could plot revolution with Latif and Suleyman! She could sort out her relationship with Joseph! Hell, she could go hang out and shoot the breeze with Juan Bautista and his thirty pet birds and THAT WOULD MAKE FOR AN INFINITELY BETTER AND MORE REWARDING STORY than any plotline she had in the last two books.)

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/356960.html

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

pedanther

Is there a point in the series where a first-time reader might profitably just stop and pretend that there aren't any more books?

From:

rachelmanija

The Graveyard Game, I think.

From:

jinian

Before starting is also an option; I hated Garden of Iden, though since I read it when it came out I really can't say much about why. (Liked Mendoza, hated the contrived plot and damnfool men, as I recall.)

From:

sara

Oh, God, yes please.

From:

skygiants

Graveyard Game is definitely ending on a high point, but the problem is it also ends on a big cliffhanger about awful things happening to likeable characters!

In some ways I might almost recommend reading the short stories only, because I think a lot of the Company short stories are great, except I have no idea if I only think that because of my deep attachment to the world and the books.

From:

skygiants

DOWN WITH EDWARD ALTON BELL-FAIRFAX

From:

sara

He was...kind of an asshole at first but I hoped he'd learn the errors of his ways...and then no, the errors of his ways were apparently NOT AT ALL EVIDENT TO THE WRITER, indeed they looked like positive character traits!...and down the rabbit-hole we went.

I particularly liked the part where in the future, steak will be outlawed so only outlaws will eat steak. There's a particular kind of geek culture libertarianism reflected in that whole series of arguments which I find basically hilarious.

From:

hebethen

I remember Juan Bautista and his birds! Was that the whole of his name, am I making up a partialness out of having vaguely skripfed around too many double-barreled names, does the phrase "double-barrelled" have double-barreled L's, apparently not.

From:

skygiants

The worst of it was that there were never any consequences to his extremely awful actions because everybody - AND THE AUTHOR - loved him too much to impose them! The saddest part is it even tainted what had been, to me, one of the funniest things in the series, which is Lewis' terrible tropey Epic Edward/Mendoza fanfiction. It was hilarious when I thought he was dead! But when he came back to life it became JUST ANOTHER CONTRIBUTING FACTOR in the awful Bell-Fairfax Reign of Terrible.

Geek culture libertarianism! What a great and accurate phrase.

From:

skygiants

I think he may have had more names! It was a certainty that he had more birds. What an adorable little cyborg.

From:

ailis_fictive

>I might almost recommend reading the short stories only

I read Black Projects, White Knights without knowing there were any other stories and was delighted by it, so I think that's a perfectly plausible approach. I have been known to hand copies of the Shakespeare story to unsuspecting professors...

From:

rymenhild

YES FEED THE CROCODILES THE CROCODILES ARE HUNGRY. Actually, maybe Marco could eat Edward, Marco's nearly a crocodile.

I've been trying to think of a way to honor the spirit of your excellent "FEED EDWARD TO THE CROCODILES" plan while maintaining most of the plot. I think I can do it!

So actually, the mortals and immortals running Project New Enforcer (I ABSOLUTELY refuse to use the canonical project name) didn't know what they were playing at. The New Enforcers are so genetically-engineered badass that Dr. Zeus's programming techniques don't always work on them. Also whatever they are doing to create each new clone implants the memories and personalities of the last guy. So when Dr. Zeus creates a second New Enforcer in the nineteenth century, he's just Nicholas reborn. Oh, he has a new name, of course, but it's not Edward, and for ease of identification let's just call him Nicholas.

Nicholas wakes up in the nineteenth century, notices that Nennius is trying to make him amoral, and is smart enough to make Nennius think the programming is working while it isn't. He does serve his masters, to a point, so he's there working for Dr. Zeus in Mendoza in Hollywood, and he does have a delighted reunion with Mendoza, but he is not in fact an arsehole about it all. He dies. Mendoza grieves. Mendoza is sent Back Way Back. Lewis learns about Nicholas and Mendoza over the twentieth through twenty-second centuries and writes fanfic about them then. There are no further canonical changes until Nicholas is reborn for the second time in the twenty-fourth century.

Young Nicholas^3 DOES learn to read -- forget the illiterate future, he likes books. He may also hack an AI friend, whom I will declare to be less dull than the Pirate Captain. See above re: unsuccessful programming techniques, so Nicholas is not full of manpain. He is not entirely free of bad ideas, though, so Mars Two happens. But: Nicholas goes back in time and meets Mendoza at Back Way Back AFTER Mars Two, and he takes her to the indefinite future with him then. Mendoza does not get her mind blown out at Options Research. The finding and cleansing of Options Research has nothing to do with her, or maybe Joseph was looking for her there and didn't find her?

So now Mendoza and Nicholas are equal partners with an equal loathing for the Company, a time machine, a Crome-generating extra-special time-traveling power, and an AI friend. They seek allies.

But here I am stuck. The framework of the Sons of Heaven denouement, as written, requires two groups, Budu's Old Enforcers + Joseph + Hearst, vs. Suleyman + Latif + Nan + Sarai, left standing when the dust is almost clear. Alec comes in to Create Miracles and offer a sudden Third Way. How would Mendoza and Nicholas be this third way, if they've already reunited with one or both of the other teams?

From:

rymenhild

That's another one of my problems with the series that I'm not managing to fanwank out of existence. The future is just boring. I liked Elizabethan England with cyborgs, not to mention nineteenth-century LA with cyborg film festivals, much better than the steakless, bookless twenty-fourth century England. I mean, there are these patches of not-dull in Suleyman's household and Tiara Parakeet's Hill and Mars Two, but the rest of the world... zzzzz. Wake me up after the cyborg rebellion.

From:

sara

They are super-oppressed because they're rich and can't eat steaks! So they have to REBEL!

...yeah, really didn't do it for me, either.

Also the aliens started off scary and got to be kind of like the little yellow guys in Despicable Me.

From:

sara

Lewis totally came out less well than he should have. He was my favorite part.

From:

rymenhild

I can't care about Lewis's role at the very end. Yes, I know it's problematic, but...

Lewis wakes up from a multiple-decade coma and the first thing he does is quote Taliesin at Princess Tiara Parakeet. My heart is his forever, even if he does have an unfortunate thing for Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax.

From:

skygiants

WHAT A MUCH, MUCH BETTER PLAN.

I think the resolution would have to hinge somehow on Mendoza's Crome generation and the possibilities inherent in it, as well as with Mendoza's relationship with Joseph (since Mendoza-related issues are a large part of what is motivating Joseph ANYWAY.) I'm trying to remember what the actual conflict is between the two groups at the end of Sons of Heaven -- remind me? The problem is that I have forgotten so much of this ending plot, and you are making me want to reread it just so I can contribute!

From:

skygiants

I love everything to do with Lewis and Princess Tiara Parakeet, though! Telling stories to tiny terrifying adopted daughters: I LOVE IT. And then once again Bell-Fairfax comes in and warps the entire story around himself for the extreme worse.

From:

skygiants

The other problem with the terrible turn late in the series is I don't feel confident enough in my taste to debate about the earlier ones. ;___;

From:

sovay

because I think a lot of the Company short stories are great, except I have no idea if I only think that because of my deep attachment to the world and the books.

Nah; I never finished the series, but I love Black Projects, White Knights.

From:

skygiants

Honestly I think a lot of her best work comes out in short story form anyway. Just let her get fascinated by some weird bit of information + weird character and work with them, and she's golden!

From:

skygiants

Black Projects, White Knights is great but I think Gods and Pawns is even better -- the Vermeer story! The Garbo story! THE TERRIFYING BASEBALL STORY!

From:

sovay

Gods and Pawns

I don't have that one! Is it still in print?

From:

skygiants

In print, and apparently on sale as a bargain book at Amazon right now! And as an e-book, too.

From:

rymenhild

Definitely. Crome generation is basically magic as far as story development is concerned, so Mendoza can do, er, whatever we want.

Final conflict:

Joseph wants revenge for Mendoza, and also for all the other various injustices. His solution is to raise Budu and follow Budu's instructions. Budu's solution is KILL ALL THE WICKED ONES. Suleyman and his party, conversely, want to keep the human race alive and fertile.

The really wicked ones, Labienus's team and Aegeus's team, are already down. The mortal masters are present and terrified out of their wits. Personified Last Minute Plot Development AI Dr. Zeus gets eaten, at the last minute, by Alec's AI friend. (We could probably drop this whole subplot, or else build it in throughout the story so it's not a sudden development in Sons of Heaven.) Budu and crew could kill the mortal masters easily, but the ones who really deserve retribution are out of the picture. Suleyman wants to defend the mortal masters. Suleyman and Joseph are staring at each other in horror, and Budu is about to set off a gratuitous nuclear bomb, when Alec (I think it's Alec, anyway, unless it's Nicholas) walks in and says, "Uh, your bomb doesn't exist, everyone gets to live, the end."

...now that I've written that down I realize that it's all entirely gratuitous and we can scrap everything but Lewis and Princess Tiara Parakeet and Victor, although that still doesn't solve the problem of how Budu and Friends get to KILL THEM ALL.

From:

tempestsarekind

Oh man, I am so glad I discovered these books after the series was finished - I only had to endure the slide into WTF for about a month, a few summers ago! I can't imagine how conflicted I would feel if I'd been in love with the earlier books for years.

For me, the whole thing goes somewhat downhill once Alec becomes a part of the story, because the amount that I don't care about the Future in these books is immense. I have all the time of day for any wacky cyborg hijinks in the past that Kage Baker cared to deliver (one of my favorite stories is the one where Latif basically sets up his own black market side business in early modern Amsterdam), but the future full of illiterate vegans…why?

But even that PALES next to my utter hatred for Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, for lo, he is THE WORST. The terrible, rapey worst. I've reread several of the Company books, but I always stop at The Children of the Company. On balance, this is the best thing for my sanity, even if it means no Lewis and Princess Tiana Parakeet for me.

From:

tempestsarekind

I would probably stop at The Graveyard Game, too, but to make sure to read The Children of the Company along with the other two short-story collections, which is basically just a book of short stories anyway.

From:

skygiants

Oh, man, totally gratuitous. First of all, no one cares about the AI. Second of all, if we want to keep the Doomsday Device to Kill All Mortal Masters, we can and have Mendoza make it unpossible with Crome generation somehow!

Actually that makes even more sense because then, okay, what you have is an ACTUAL CONCLUSION to Mendoza's constantly increasing attitude of "humans all suck, except for my favorite human, who's not REALLY a human," and her drive for vengeance! Then you sow some stuff to go counter to that in the last couple books, stuff working with Team Nan/Latif/Suleiman/Kalugin, so she has a reason to make a different choice. MENDOZA MAKING THE FORMATIVE CHOICE OF THE SERIES. AS SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE ALL ALONG.

From:

skygiants

It took me about a year to even allow myself to admit the fact that the last books were full of WTF! I went back to read my book recaps from that time and they are SO DETERMINEDLY CHEERFUL. I wanted so hard to believe it was good. ;___;

Yeah, everything to do with Alec is just pretty much kind of boring. Alec is boring! Like, he looks better in comparison to The Hated Bell-Fairfax, because anyone does, but all the same. DULL, DULL, DULL.