The story combines Chumash Indian culture and legend circa 1700 (before the Spanish got there) with a bio-engineered Joseph posing as the trickster deity, Sky Coyote--a perfect mesh with his own personality. Along the way Baker does a witty parody of contemporary California culture, the current lack of historical/cultural perspective in our society, moral relativism, trendy ecology, pop culture, and Warner Brothers cartoons. Baker has a lot of fun, and so did I. But a warning: this book contains major spoilers for the first book.


Solid but not Baker's best   December 22, 2000
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

Kage Baker has suddenly arrived on the SF scene with several novels and a number of fine short stories. Most of her work so far, including Sky Coyote, is part of a series about the "Company", Dr. Zeus, Incorporated, and its time-travelling immortal servants. This is a pretty good setup for stories. Certainly, as with most time travel books, it doesn't do to look too closely at the paradoxes implied. In addition, the restrictions placed on the Company's technology have a sense of adhocery to them. But I quibble: suspension of disbelief is not too hard, and Baker's work has been interesting and involving. She is one of the most promising new SF writers.

Sky Coyote is told by the Immortal Joseph, a Facilitator for the Company who has been working for them for thousands of years. His new assignment, in 1700 A.D., is to appear to a town full of Chumash Indians in (what will become) California, as a figure from their legends: Sky Coyote. He is to persuade them to pack up their town, lock, stock and canoe, and be transported to the future. You see, their culture is about to be destroyed by the white men -- first Spanish missionaries; eventually the Americans -- and the Company wishes to preserve as much of this culture as possible for restoration or at least study in the 24th century. (Why and how they make a profit doing so is not ever convincingly explained, but let that pass.)

This makes for an enjoyable story. There is a lot of interesting detail about the impressively advanced Chumash culture, including their commercial nature, and their stories and legends. Joseph as Sky Coyote gets to make a lot of jokes, and have a lot of fun. There isn't quite enough conflict, and the plot isn't twisty enough, but the basic story is still worth reading.

However, Baker intersperses this with some other details. Events in Joseph's past life, some of which raise doubts in him about the Company. A lot of focus on an otherwise thoroughly minor character named Mendoza (who is the protagonist of some other books in the series). A few strange intimations of something portentous occurring in 2355 A.D. All this is really quite interesting. The problem is, it's really not got much of anything to do with the rest of the novel, and it serves mainly as a distraction. The main story is a bit thin anyway, and the hints of some really interesting stuff that we'll get to eventually (but not in this book!) don't help.

Make no mistake about it: Baker has the chops of a fine writer. Her characters are well drawn, her prose is sound, her stories hold the reader's interest. And whatever misgivings I have, I still enjoyed Sky Coyote. But I think it's somewhat flawed structurally by the intrusion of an external story arc that is presented only by hints. In the final analysis, this novel will mainly be of interest to readers committed to the entire series, and even those readers will probably find themselves chomping at the bit for the main event to come along.


Laugh-Out-Loud, Fall-on-the-Ground Funny!   December 3, 2000
 0 out of 2 found this review helpful

'Sky Coyote' is my favorite Kage Baker novel...so far. It features Baker's wonderful time-traveling, immortal cyborgs (which makes her work worth reading solely for the sheer originality). Joseph, a cyborg facilitator, has the job of preserving the culture of an Indian tribe on the coast of California. Joseph's mission is to evacuate the tribe away from their present location, where only death awaits them, to one of Dr. Zeus's safety zones. But first he must gain their trust...and so he is surgically altered to resemble Coyote, the trickster god from native american religious teachings. It only gets funnier from there.

The strength of this novel lies in Joseph's interaction with the Indian tribe. Rather than portray the locals as indigenous and backwards, Baker represents them much as we are today. They worry that if they go off to Heaven with Sky Coyote, how will they make money?

Any description of the plot can't do this book justice. This is a masterful comic novel on the scale of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, or P.G. Wodehouse. One of the funniest books I've ever read. Highly recommended.


4-Star Coyote   August 15, 2000
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I picked up Baker's 2nd novel in the Company series mostly to fill in the gap after "In the Garden of Iden", prior to reading "Mendoza". I was pleasantly surprised with the setting, character development, and storyline from this work. Baker takes the most interesting character from her first Company novel, the immortal Joseph, and fills in many historic gaps that lend further insight into her vision of this universe clandestinely directed from the future.

Baker also weaves a fascinating perspective of Native American culture into the piece, in a very believable and fun manner. The whole idea that the protagonist Joseph can masquerade as a tribal God to change the destiny of this race creates humorous and amusing situations for characters and readers alike. The book gives much better insight to the inner workings of Baker's Dr. Zeus, Inc. than did the first novel, and obviously sets the stage for part three and some climax with Joesph's protegy Mendoza.

Well recommended for all fans of "In the Garden of Iden", and also for new fans. Read them both, they are very different but work well as companions.


Excellent Read!   August 11, 2000
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

After coming across the first book in this series, Garden of Eden, I couldn't wait to read the future volumes. Sky Coyote is a great mix of sly humor, time travel,social commentary, and adventure. I couldn't put it down. The main character of this volume, Joseph, is fascinating. I highly reccommend this book.