Sky Coyote
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Sky Coyote is a novel of The Company by Kage Baker. It is the second in the series which began with In The Garden of Iden and continues with Mendoza in Hollywood.
Themes
Based on the novels published up to July 2005, the series alternates between major episodes in the life of the character Mendoza and scene-setting installments involving other major characters such as Joseph and Lewis.Sky Coyote, though an entertaining read in its own right, also uses its side plots and sub-text to fill in much of the background which the previous book's first-person narrative from Mendoza could not. With Joseph as narrator, Sky Coyote ranges in flashback from 1699-1701 to 20,000 BCE as Joseph deals with aspects of his life he's been at pains to ignore. For instance his relationship with Budu, who recruited him originally, saving his life in the process, nags at him as more and more of the Company's activities look suspect. We also see the sybaritic lifestyle at the cyborg-run facility New World One, for contrast with the comfortable suburbanity of the Chumash and the ingrown self-denial of the 24th century technologists. The obsession of the cyborgs with Hollywood movies (and a certain eponymous cartoon character) comes to the fore for the first time. Important characters such as Lewis appear here, along with minor players like 'Latif who reappear in future installments.
Two aspects of the novel are based in reality. The Chumash were a real tribe in the location described. The monotheistic Chinigchinix religion which threatens them, and is in turn threatened by encroaching colonialism, was also real, although here it is portrayed as being every bit as oppressive and violent as medieval Christianity.
Other aspects of religion fare no better. The Chumash shamans are portrayed as needy attention-getters who obsess over minor details of Sky Coyote's behavior while the rest of the tribe looks on in amusement. Joseph gives full vent to his feelings about religions in general and aggressively evangelistic ones in particular. This theme also plays into the "all life is sacred" obsessions of the future, where stimulants and meat-eating are all illegal, and many attitudes and activities we consider normal will get you "re-education" or worse.
Notes
While the previous novel gloried in the use of Tudor English, this one is at pains to use colloquial modern English for all characters, especially the Chumash at home in their own language and culture, in contrast to the usual pidgin used by English authors, or any synthetic "noble savage" formalisms. The effect is to make the Company people, and especially the ones from the future, seem like the aliens, which is closer to the truth.Plot
Joseph, like all employees of The Company is an immortal cyborg. He is older than most, having been converted from a human child in about 20,000 BCE, give or take a thousand. Since he was about to have his brains bashed in when he was taken, he thinks he came out of it pretty well. Joseph has always been a Company man, playing role after role for them as they 'preserve' the past for 'discovery' in the future, a business which is very lucrative indeed.His latest role is that of Sky Coyote, the trickster, the foolish one, the animal god of many Native American traditions. He will play it for the Chumash, a tribe in California in the late 17th century. His job is to persuade the village of Humashup to give up their entire lifestyle, which the Company will take and "preserve," while the Chumash are shipped out to work in a Company facility. The Spanish are coming soon, and the Chumash culture will be wiped out along with all the others.
Of course, Joseph can't do this alone. He assembles a small army of his kind, including the erratic and moody botanist Mendoza, who he occasionally regrets recruiting in 16th century Spain, the anthropologist and former Babylonian Imarte, who is not averse to bedding her subjects to get more data, and many other specialists. Joseph is the Master of Ceremonies, however. He's also wearing a lot of non-standard equipment to turn him into a cavorting, fast talking (and priapic) god.
The Chumash turn out to be, well, ordinary. Superb craftsmen, their lives revolve around work, festivals, religion, festivals, getting ahead, and festivals. They may not have churches and boys clubs, but the kantap fills the same needs. The guilds make sure that everybody gets what they need and pays handsomely for it. Oily salesmen try to make their percentage any way they can. Joseph is a little surprised to learn that they are so worldly, and they are quite surprised that he, well, exists. However Joseph spins his tale with his usual skill and pulls off the job.
There are snags, but not the usual kind. For as start, actual 24th century Company operatives have come back to supervise. They are disgusted that the cyborgs eat meat, drink alcohol and consume other stimulants banned in their era. The cyborgs are not too impressed with the operatives either, but a job is a job. Mendoza starts her feud with Imarte, which continues in the next installment. There is a messianic religion encroaching on Chumash territory, which gets Joseph's hackles up. Nature throws in an earthquake or two.
In the end, the Chumash go to their reward, the Company gets all the valuable information and samples it needs to sell to the rich and not-so-smart in the 2300's, and Joseph is left with a nagging doubt. For one thing, why does nobody know what happens after 2355, even though all history is available to the cyborgs up to that point? And why do cyborgs who talk too much about this tend to get suddenly re-assigned? Why do the 24th century people seem so cowardly and stupid? Didn't they go all the way back to 30,000 BCE to start the ball rolling? Or was it 40,000? Nobody is quite sure.
However, Joseph is mostly satisfied. Mendoza has been cut loose to wander the redwood forest in a botanic daze, although she did run into that trouble later and hasn't been seen since. And Joseph is sure he saw her with that mortal she fell for in Tudor England, in 1923 no less. He'll never admit it, but he has more or less adopted Mendoza as his daughter. At the end, he's a 20th century Hollywood studio exec, sneaking material out for the Company, not to mention the edification of the other cyborgs up and down the centuries. He's got an expense account and a sports car. He's doing his job. So why isn't he happy?
External links
- [Kage Baker official site] - About the novel
- [Excerpt from the novel] - Chapter One
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