2021/010: In the Company of Thieves -- Kage Baker and Kathleen Bartholomew

I know that history can’t be changed. But it can be lied to, and it’s no better at identifying a fake than anyone else.[loc. 4525]

I very much enjoyed Kage Baker's 'Company' books, about the corporate entity called Doctor Zeus, and uni-directional time travel (you can only travel back in time: the return journey is the slow route, one day at a time) and the historians, preservers and specialists -- all immortal cybords -- who carry out the Company's assignments and sometimes side-missions of their own. It's over a decade since I read any of the series, though, and I'd forgotten some of the detail. This anthology of short works, edited (and in one case completed) by Baker's sister, was at once a pleasure and a disappointment.

Disappointing, as several of the Amazon reviews mentioned 'The Women of Nell Gwynne's' but that novella (which I'm eager to read) is no longer included in this collection, though there is fossil evidence of its former presence in the Contents section. I was disappointed, too, that some of the introductory paragraphs (not to mention the title on the title page!) featured typos, and could have done with proof-reading.

There are five works herein. 'Hollywood Ikons' is a new story featuring Preserver (and Literature Specialist) Lewis and Facilitator Joseph, set in Hollywood in the Second World War. This story was completed by Kathleen Bartholomew from Kage Baker's notes, and I have to say it's a very smooth co-authoring, no seams visible.

'The Carpet Beds of Sutro Park' is a bittersweet story about a defective cyborg (he can't communicate, but wanders Los Angeles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 'a bee collecting the pollen of my time') and a woman dying from cancer. (I liked this one a lot.)

'The Unfortunate Gytt' is a Gothic adventure featuring Edward Bell-Fairfax, Rosslyn Chapel and a new initiate.

Mother Aegypt features a pre-modern con artist, Golesco, and the immortal Mother Aegypt, about who he understands nothing. I was not much better off, as -- although one character's idiosyncrasies rang a bell -- I couldn't recall enough from the novels.

And completing the collection, the novella 'Rude Mechanicals', which I'd already read (review here. As usual, I had forgotten enough of it to be entertained all over again ...

Certainly not a bad collection, but really only 'Hollywood Ikons' and 'The Carpet Beds of Sutro Park' were what I actually wanted. Though now I'm terribly tempted to reread the entire Company series ... and I am, again, disappointed to discover how much of Kage Baker's work is available only in high-priced physical formats.