Gods and Pawns (Company S.) - Tapa dura

"Keep your eye on Kage Baker! You never know where she's heading next, but it's always worth going there. She's an edgy, funny, complex, ambitious writer with the mysterious, true gift of story-telling."-Ursula K. Le Guin "Anything Kage Baker publishes I will immediately rush out and read! I am never disappointed. The woman is a marvel. . . . I've been hooked from the beginning . . . ."-- Ellen Kushner"Funny, heart-rending, terrifying, pellucid, Baker's magnificent series grows in stature with every installment." -"Kirkus," starred review on "The Children of the Company""" "Vividly evoked. . . .Baker has a light touch, and her effervescent characterization and talent for social comedy make "The Children of the Company" picturesque and picaresque, sometimes extremely funny." -Nick Gevers, "Locus""Keep your eye on Kage Baker! You never know where she's heading next, but it's always worth going there. She's an edgy, funny, complex, ambitious writer with the mysterious, true gift of story-telling."--Ursula K. Le Guin "Kage Baker is the greatest natural storyteller to enter the field since Poul Anderson." -Gardner Dozois "The book unfolds through both Labienus' memories and the journals and artifacts of Victor and others caught in his web. As in the other Company novels, the time line spanned is prodigious, despite which Baker never stints on characters and details that capture the reader's fancy."--"Booklist" on "The Children of the Company""""Another entry in Baker's superlative series about Dr. Zeus . . . . An astonishing and thoroughly satisfying installment. What's more, Baker's overall concept and rationale, flawlessly sustained through five books, grows ever more spellbinding and impressive." --"Kirkus Reviews" (starred review) on "The Life of the World to Come"

In the Company, you're either a God or a Pawn, but sometimes you have to be both. These eight stories, reprinted for the first time, delve further into the history and exploits of the Company and its operatives, including Mendoza, Lewis, and Alec. The book opens with the novella, "To the Land Beyond the Sunset": starring Lewis and Mendoza, and involving a strange tribe in Bolivia whose members claim to be gods. Their ability to grow a small tropical paradise in the middle of the desert certainly seems godlike, and it's Mendoza's job to figure out their secret. "Standing in His Light" features Van Drouten and her role in the career of the artist Jan Vermeer. The story illustrates how, with a little help from the Company, lost masterpieces can be found (or created) easily. Other stories include the original novelette, "Hellfire at Twilight," that concludes the volume and tells of Lewis infiltrating the famous Hellfire Club in the England of the eighteenth century. This book is a compelling read for every Baker fan, and essential for Company addicts.