In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker (Italian edition)
In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker (Italian edition)

The novel “In the Garden of Iden” by Kage Baker was published for the first time in 1997. It’s the first novel in the Company series.

Dr. Zeus, Inc., also known simply as the Company, has discovered the secret of immortality. For its long-term tests, it developed time travel and this has allowed it to accumulate enormous wealth going into the past to save lost artworks but also extinct animals and plants. The immortals that are created make rescue operations on behalf of the Company in various periods.

Mendoza is an agent of the Company born in Spain in the darkest years of its Catholic fundamentalism. Ended up in the clutches of the Spanish Inquisition on suspicion of being Jewish, she’s rescued by an agent of the Company because she was deemed suitable for the immortality treatment. Turned into a cyborg, she specializes in botany and is sent on her first mission in England in 1553, in the turbulent period of religious wars. Her task is to save a plant with great medicinal properties that is extinct in the future but an encounter with a mortal complicates the situation.

“In the Garden of Iden” is the first novel by Kage Baker and introduces Dr. Zeus, Inc., a company that in the 24th century has the technology for immortality and time travel. In the stories focused on time travel there’s always the problem of defining the possibility of altering the past and the possibility of paradoxes. In this case, the “rules of the game” are explained at the beginning of the novel.

“In the Garden of Iden” is narrated in the first person by Mendoza, an agent of the Company, who tells the story of how she was turned into an immortal cyborg and her first mission. With her there are other agents, especially Joseph, who had saved her from the Spanish Inquisition when she was a child and has thousands of years of experience, and Nefer, an expert on animals.

The mission of Mendoza and her colleagues is to save a plant from extinction but the period isn’t the simplest for their job as it’s the turbulent era of power struggles in England in the mid-sixteenth century. Those were the years in which the political and the religious powers were united and who seizes the throne can decide whether the nation is Catholic or Protestant.

The theme of religion and fundamentalism in particular is very strong in “In the Garden of Iden”. Kage Baker adds fantasy elements such as the story of a fierce religious persecution carried out in prehistoric times but the novel refers mainly to historical tragedies.

Mendoza tells her terrible experience with the Spanish Inquisition in one of the darkest periods of Catholic fundamentalism and antisemitism. For this reason, after being saved, she assumes an attitude that is rather misanthropic, at least towards mortals. She specializes in botany, particularly of the New World, hoping to limit her contact with people but is assigned to a mission in England and has to overcome this kind of phobia.

Mendoza has to do her work in the botanical garden of Sir Walter Iden. The title of the novel is a clear reference to the Eden and, also because of some themes, among Kage Baker’s sources of inspirationseems there seems to be the story “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In “In the Garden of Iden” however there seems to be especially the loss of innocence by the protagonist.

Despite all the changes and the knowledge she was given, Mendoza is a teen-ager who has an experience of life in the world lower than her mortals peers. It’s therefore almost inevitable that her meeting with Nicholas Harpole, who is a mortal and yet far more educated and intelligent than average and also has a dark past, is the beginning of a love story between them.

“In the Garden of Iden” is largely the love story between Mendoza and Nicholas. The readers not interested in romantic elements can be indifferent or even annoyed, luckily Kage Baker manages to avoid this part of the plot from becoming too corny and anyway the tone becomes more and more dramatic throughout the novel.

The love between Mendoza and Nicholas is impossible from the beginning because she’s immortal and must keep her secrets. Although the novel is set almost entirely in the sixteenth century, there are several science fiction elements thanks to the presence of the cyborg agents of the Company with their very advanced equipment, obviously well disguised to avoid arousing suspicion among mortals.

The historical setting is one of the foundations of “In the Garden of Iden” and many elements of the culture of the sixteenth century are discussed in the course of the story. This helps to make this book an excellent example of a plot based on time travel. The novel works also thanks to the well developed characters, better than it usually happens when the narrative is in first person. Mendoza describes in detail both the setting and her colleagues, giving depth to all the elements of the story.

“In the Garden of Iden” isn’t an action novel so the pace is slow. The story contains many philosophical digressions and thoughts on ethics and morals. Important events for England take place in London, far away from the Sir Walter Iden’s residence, though Mendoza and her colleagues receive continuous updates from other agents of the Company.

The slow pace may be a negative element for some readers but in my opinion it’s outweighed by the merits of the story. In my opinion, overall “In the Garden of Iden” is a really good novel that introduces the Company series in an excellent way. For those reasons, I recommend reading it.

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