Sky Coyote
Kage Baker
292 pages
published in 1999

Even though I was somewhat disappointed with In the Garden of Iden, Kage Baker's first novel, that didn't stop me from reading the sequel, Sky Coyote. Which fortunately, was a lot more interesting then In the Garden of Iden had been. Sky Coyote has a much more interesting and sympathetic hero, a more interesting plot and especially a much more imaginative setting. Also, Baker's writing has improved noticably.

Instead of Mendoza, the hero here is Joseph, who we first met in the previous book as Mendoza's elder and much more cynical mentor. In Sky Coyote Joseph is also revealed as being much more involved in the politics of Dr Zeus --the time travel company from the 24th century which makes fortunes by salvaging lost treasures from the timestream by using immortal cyborgs like Joseph and Mendoza -- which form a big part of the plot here. Whereas In the Garden of Iden was largely a standalone novel, Sky Coyote is clearly part of a series; there are some subplots going on whose payoffs will come in future installments.

The main plot is similar to that of In the Garden of Iden: Joseph is sent to (what will eventually be known as) California, to a village of Chumash Indians as one of their "gods", the Sky Coyote, to convince them to move to the future, the 24th century for some grand set piece p.r. operation of Dr. Zeus. Sky Coyote is a very irreverant god and this disguise allows Joseph much fun and games, not in the least with the nubile young maidens of the village.

The Chumash themselves are written fairly convincingly, remarkably modern in their outlook and speech, with none of the cliches about Native Americans lesser writers would've used. You get the impression Baker has done her research here, but unlike the previous book there's less of a need to show off this research here and the details of Chumash culture are integrated much more naturally in the narrative.

Less integrated, as Rich Horton also noted, are the subplots regarding the politics of Dr Zeus. It's seems the future from which the Company operates is somewhat politically correct, to use that hoary old cliche, straight from a rightwinger's worst nightmare: no smoking, no meat eating, discomfort with violence and sex other then in virtual reality games, etc. This naturally leads to some conflicts with their cyborg operatives, who are somewhat fonder of these things, especially in closely monitored and led operations like this. Naturally, Joseph's 24th century boss is useless in a crisis and almost bungles the whole operation.

It's all a bit predictable and doesn't fit that well witht he main plot. Either Baker should've reduced the focus on those subplots more, keeping them hints or she should've made it the main focus with the Chumash operation in the background. The way she did it now it overwhelms the book at times without any payoff.

As with In the Garden of Iden, there's still more potential here than was realised with this novel. Sky Coyote is an improvement over the first Company novel, but Baker has still a ways to go to realise her full potential.