In the Garden of Iden

A Novel of the Company, Book 1

By: Kage Baker

Narrated by: Janan Raouf

Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The first novel of Kage Baker’s critically acclaimed, much-loved series, the Company, introduces us to a world where the future of commerce is the past.

In the 24th century, the Company preserves works of art and extinct forms of life (for profit of course). It recruits orphans from the past, renders them all but immortal, and trains them to serve the Company, Dr. Zeus, Inc. One of these is Mendoza, the botanist. She is sent to Elizabethan England to collect samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden. But while there, she meets Nicholas Harpole, with whom she falls in love. And that love sounds great bells of change which will echo down the centuries, and through the succeeding novels of the Company.

Breathtakingly detailed and written with great aplomb, In the Garden of Iden is a contemporary classic of the science-fiction genre.

©1997 Kage Baker (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Fasten your seat belt—you’re in for a wild ride.” (Gardner Dozois, editor of The Year’s Best Science Fiction)

“Easily on a level with Le Guin’s or Resnick’s first novels.” ( New York Review of Science Fiction)

“Clever…[with] a generous dollop of antic wit.” ( San Francisco Chronicle)

Where oh where is #2?

Any additional comments?

I nearly abandoned this series after book one in print but was richly rewarded by the subsequent volumes.

The backstory is barely limned. The characters begin their development. And then it stops.

It gets considerably better. Where are the rest of them in audio format?

Scintillating but inconsistent

I discovered Kage Baker looking for authors similar in style to Jack Vance. Can't say I detect the similarity.

As for the story. The narration is superb. Raouf has a great emptional range and her diction is clear and compelling.

The story itself is labored in places, but Baker raises some interesting points extremely well. Her premise (that immortals work amongst us mortals and that they too question the meaning of life) works well, but she gets a bit bogged down in romance and religious hysteria.

If you enjoy this book then I recommend Jill Payton Walsh's Knowledge of Angels.

Interested in what comes next...

The concept was good, and I am interested in getting a hold of books after this one, Some of the descriptions of the company seem like they will be better after the audience has had time to get their brains around the concepts of the company.

Good character voice recognition, but It dragged a bit at times...

I was playing this in the car, and a friend of mine was with me randomly in the middle of the book. They were comfortably listening to something that could have been a historic story, then the immortals are by themselves, and anachronistic abounds. The sputtering, and shock of my passenger as they start talking about robotic parts, and listing off animals and plants that would be extinct by X date.

Cyborgs in Bloody Mary's England

What made the experience of listening to In the Garden of Iden the most enjoyable?

The story was fast paced, the characters are well drawn.

What was one of the most memorable moments of In the Garden of Iden?

There are quite a few.

What about Janan Raouf’s performance did you like?

Janan Raouf was able to convey the various characters as well as the various speaking voices the characters had (accented, spoken loud, or just transmitted between each other).

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not quite, but I was always looking forward to my daily commute.

Any additional comments?

Recommended! This is a smart chick lit with SF and historical elements.

Narrator ruined the book

Would you consider the audio edition of In the Garden of Iden to be better than the print version?

I am a long time recorded books listener from early 1980s. This is the first time I stoped listening to a book because of narration. I did finish reading the book on my kindle and enjoyed the rest of tthe book very much. Will be reading more of this series, but never listen to this narrator again.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator needs to take acting lessons, and voice lessons (for accents). The over dramatiztion was distracting to say the least.

Finally!

I was delighted to see Kage Baker's Company novel, "In the Garden of Iden" on Audible ! Am hoping to see the whole series done, plus her books of short stories about the Company.

Thank you, Blackstone Audio!

Interesting Take on Travel

Very clever humor, but a little too "girly for my taste. I'll probably try some of the other books in the series.

If only I liked historical fiction...

This book had been on my wishlist for a very long time. But that was because I had thought it was a science fiction book about time travellers. It is not.

The back story (i.e. how the characters got to the 16th century) is science-fictiony, but the story itself is an attempt at a literary romance (with religious underpinnings) set in the 16th century. The only humor is in the anachronisms the author intentionally added to the story (i.e. the main character accidently shows a 16th century maid a magazine from the 23rd century... haha)

I read somewhere that it is similar to Connie Willis' books (To Say Nothing of the Dog, for example), and that is actually a very accurate comparison. I don't like historical fiction, and don't find this kind of humor funny, and don't really care about romance in the 16th century, or the religious underpinnings of that era... hence my great disappointment in this story.

If you like Willis' work, you will probably like this story. If you're looking for a science fiction take on time travel, you won't find it here.

Don't get me wrong - it's well written and somewhat engaging, it's just not a science fiction novel as I had expected. If you like historical fiction this is probably a pretty good one. (And I will re-iterate that I really don't enjoy historical fiction so the fact I even finished this book says something as to how well it was written.)

The narration is well-done. There is no gore or foul language and no descriptions of sex (people have it, it's just not described).

Such An Intriguing Premise!

I like Time Travel stories and have not been this excited about one since reading ‘Blackout’ & ‘All Clear’ by Connie Willis in 2010, and in fact I can tell you that I enjoyed ‘In the Garden of Iden’ much more than those because (bear with me) it seemed more believable. Connie Willis’ future seemed too mechanical to me – not “techy” enough to be realistic… and YES I realize how ludicrous that all sounds.

This book hooked me right form the start with its captivating premise that Time Travel was invented out of necessity to test if the invention of immortality was successful! So intriguing! I did not realize when I started reading that this was book one in a series of (I think about) 10 books; I’m keyed up that there is more to look forward to. In this book, our heroine goes back to Elizabethan England and falls in love with a “local mortal”. I won’t tell you more because I don’t want to give away any spoilers.

While I don’t care for romances and that element in this story kind of slowed things down for me, I can still easily rate it as a favourite because the idea held my interest throughout the whole book, plus there is the promise of so many more interesting things to come over the course of the entire series – I am crazy curious!

Having said that, I won’t rush off and read Book Two (Sky Coyote) right away, I want to spread it out a little more and take my time with the series. I don’t want to gobble them all up and once and get sick of them.



The narration was fantastic so I am really disappointed that the rest of the series is not available on Audible. Maybe one day… let's hope!

So Much Fun!

Really enjoyed this story of time traveling psyborgs. Loved the world they inhabit as they work hard to fit into Tudor England.

But where are subsequent novels? Hey Audible -- get a move on!