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carolynf's review
4.0
This installment breaks into the recent past, and then into the future. The focus is Joseph's quest to find what happened to both Mendoza and the Neanderthal who had tutored him. The technology and political struggles of the future are not so overblown as to be unbelievable, but I prefer the previous books' historical settings better. This novel does read more like a spy thriller though, with intentional references to Bond and other fictional spies.
lisalark's review against another edition
5.0
Oh I loooooved this one. Overlapping mysteries and conspiracies drifting across centuries with lots of history and then some science fiction woven in? Yes, please.
Like this much more than Sky Coyote, the other of the Company books that primarily features Joseph rather than Mendoza. Sky Coyote was funnier, though, this one is darker, the first stirrings of a major storm. Also, oddly, mole men, which are not high on my list of enjoyable villains, but Baker makes it work. Not like homeless people tapping cable lines, like actual mole people who I can accurately describe as mole men since we are only introduced to male ones.
Totally excited for future adventures.
More Company, please!
Like this much more than Sky Coyote, the other of the Company books that primarily features Joseph rather than Mendoza. Sky Coyote was funnier, though, this one is darker, the first stirrings of a major storm. Also, oddly, mole men, which are not high on my list of enjoyable villains, but Baker makes it work. Not like homeless people tapping cable lines, like actual mole people who I can accurately describe as mole men since we are only introduced to male ones.
Totally excited for future adventures.
More Company, please!
katmarhan's review
4.0
This series is getting more complex, and this installment mostly follows Lewis and Joseph through the years as they explore their own pasts and try to discover the fate of Mendoza and other Company operatives.
While I miss the lighter tone of the first couple books, I have found books 3 & 4 to be far more intriguing and thought-provoking.
While I miss the lighter tone of the first couple books, I have found books 3 & 4 to be far more intriguing and thought-provoking.
wordnerdy's review
4.0
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2020/08/2020-book-146.html
The fourth Company novel finds Joseph and Lewis trying to uncover the mysteries of The Company in the first couple centuries of the 2000s. It’s great stuff! This series is really gripping.
The fourth Company novel finds Joseph and Lewis trying to uncover the mysteries of The Company in the first couple centuries of the 2000s. It’s great stuff! This series is really gripping.
unabridgedchick's review
2.0
The third and fourth books in Baker's light and entertaining Company series follow the further adventures of immortal botanist Mendoza. Located in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area, Baker lovingly recreates Civil War era California in Mendoza in Hollywood, where Joseph and his protege are reunited at a dusty, out-of-the-way stagecoach stop. While her fellow company agents keep busy, Mendoza is left own her own, still festering with hurt; it is unsurprising when the double of her long dead lover shows up and whisks her into a complex espionage plot.
Mendoza in Hollywood maintains Baker's quick and sarcastic tone: her characters are pat and quirky, and the plot has nice mix of Company mystery and historical drama. Next to Elizabethan England, California clearly holds a place in Baker's heart, who relishes the chance to have her characters (and the reader) share her passion. This trick takes a tragic turn, however, when Baker devotes 22 pages to describing D.W. Griffith's film Intolerance and her characters' reactions to it. Mind-numbingly boring doesn't come close to articulating how painfully dull this chapter is; fortunately, once past this hump, the story resumes it's silly, breezy pace. Mendoza runs into a spy who is the physical double of her long dead lover, and unsurprisingly, drops everything to be with him, even aiding his espionage work. To her surprise, seemingly banal Catalina Island off the coast is key to her lover's mission, and she discovers, with devastating result, that even the Company is intensely interested in the island.
The Graveyard Game takes up hundreds of years in the future; Mendoza has disappeared from the historical record, and Joseph is discovering that the future--especially the years after 2355--may not be the utopia that the Company is promising. Meeting up with Lewis, Mendoza's friend from Sky Coyote, the two begin tracking down other immortals that have gone missing. More serious than Baker's other three novels, The Graveyard Game greatly elaborates on the mystery and mythos of the Company, introducing a darker, doomsday feel to this fairly easy series.
I liked both of these books, although I found Mendoza in Hollywood slow-moving at times. I've come to count on this series for when I need a quick, entertaining read and these two books fill that need well.
Mendoza in Hollywood maintains Baker's quick and sarcastic tone: her characters are pat and quirky, and the plot has nice mix of Company mystery and historical drama. Next to Elizabethan England, California clearly holds a place in Baker's heart, who relishes the chance to have her characters (and the reader) share her passion. This trick takes a tragic turn, however, when Baker devotes 22 pages to describing D.W. Griffith's film Intolerance and her characters' reactions to it. Mind-numbingly boring doesn't come close to articulating how painfully dull this chapter is; fortunately, once past this hump, the story resumes it's silly, breezy pace. Mendoza runs into a spy who is the physical double of her long dead lover, and unsurprisingly, drops everything to be with him, even aiding his espionage work. To her surprise, seemingly banal Catalina Island off the coast is key to her lover's mission, and she discovers, with devastating result, that even the Company is intensely interested in the island.
The Graveyard Game takes up hundreds of years in the future; Mendoza has disappeared from the historical record, and Joseph is discovering that the future--especially the years after 2355--may not be the utopia that the Company is promising. Meeting up with Lewis, Mendoza's friend from Sky Coyote, the two begin tracking down other immortals that have gone missing. More serious than Baker's other three novels, The Graveyard Game greatly elaborates on the mystery and mythos of the Company, introducing a darker, doomsday feel to this fairly easy series.
I liked both of these books, although I found Mendoza in Hollywood slow-moving at times. I've come to count on this series for when I need a quick, entertaining read and these two books fill that need well.
mlinsey's review against another edition
5.0
I love the great long spaces in this series. And how occasionally lines would GUT ME when I was reading this as a teenager. I'm pretty sure my reactions this time around were less emotional, but I'm still fondly attached to Joseph and getting so much of his perspective in this book was a good reminder of why I LOVED THIS SERIES SO HARD AS A KID.
I still love it, but I'm not going to have long fights about it on message boards anymore.
I still love it, but I'm not going to have long fights about it on message boards anymore.