The Children of the Company

As the sixth book in the Company series, The Children of the Company follows Executive Facilitator General Labienus as he reflects on his long and immortal life. He’s quite old considering he remembers seeing the pyramids being built. By experiencing his memories we are taken to meet such people as his rival Aegeus and the facilitator named Victor. Betrayal and greed fuel Labienus’s actions, and though he is immortal the choices he will make may cost the innocent lives of thousands.

The Children of the Company is somewhat of a mosaic; there are parts of the book that were originally short stories (one was nominated for a Hugo), and other parts that are newly crafted by Baker. This has a choppy effect on the read, with jarring breaks in narrative and its pacing. As I had never read any other books in this series, I was looking more for a straightforward, two-sentence summarized plot that would be enjoyable to experience. Instead, I found myself loving the first third of the book, being bored somewhere in the middle, and a bit confused by the end of it. Maybe I should have read the earlier books to understand, but since The Children of the Company is more of a collection of ideas and stories I thought I’d survive it unscathed.

Essentially, the book is about learning who Labienus is and what he plans to do to others come the future. The only problem is that it takes learning about many other characters to finally see new things about Labienus’s character and history.

But don’t get me wrong. Baker is a beautiful writer, and at times I found myself lost in her world. The language and science are perfected to a point, and there was never a time that I thought the writing was below average. Time-traveling cyborgs, immortals playing God, plots of betrayal…all the good elements of a “Sci-Fi Essential” are there. The delivery of it just wasn’t what I was hoping for.

Definitely for fans of the series, but for non-followers I’d suggest either starting at the beginning of the Company series or looking elsewhere.

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Other Reviews of works by Kage Baker

Gods and Pawns - Apr 7, 2007