Black Projects, White Knights:
The Company Dossiers

Review by Jim Bone

You know, a short story collection by one of your new favorite novelists is a double-edged sword. On the one hand you are waiting breathlessly for the next installment of Baker's Company novels and while not exactly the novel you anticipated, this collection is great in its own right. On the other hand, while these stories are great, they only ultimately, and by their own damned greatness, make you want the next novel even more!

The 14 stories here, run the gamut of time and place, allowing Baker a delightful freedom that she doesn't enjoy in the novels. The stories that stand out here are the four directly concerning "smart" Alec Checkerfield ("Smart Alec," "The Dust Enclosed Here," "Monster Story" and "The Likely Lad") and the two that tangentially touch on his origin and influences ("The Literary Agent" and "The Wreck of the Gladstone").

The best aspect of Baker's short fiction in relation to her novel length work is that the shorter form allows her much more latitude for inserting her secret history of the Companies activities into any nook and corner of history she chooses. An example of this is the tale, "The Literary Agent," which wonderfully details the skillfull intervention of Company operative Joseph in the life and times of Robert Louis Stevenson (and then on to Agatha Christie).

The only difficulty here would be if you had not read any of the previous Company novels, you would have a bit of difficulty understanding the bigger picture into which these stories fit. Even so, the stories are so well written that they would still entertain and delight.

If you haven't read Kage Baker before, my advise to you is to turn off the machine on which you are reading this, hurry to a reputable bookseller, purchase and then devour the first four novels and this collection of short stories. Then you to can impatiently wait for the next installment (reportedly due out in August of 2003) like the rest of us. Oh yeah, Kage Baker lives in Pismo Beach, California (insert your own Daffy Duck/Bugs Bunny joke here).

JB