Kage Baker: Sky Coyote

Avon Eos (Paperback), ISBN 0-380-73180-0

Entertaining read? Oh, yes.

Sly humor? Well, some of it dips deep into the pool of blatancy. Especially Uncle Sky Coyote’s involvement with a recalcitrant body part. You’ll know what I mean when you reach that section — if you can stop laughing long enough to read it.

Food for thought? A full menu and an incredible array of desserts. How does time travel, with Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals as the immortal travelers, fit on your plate?

How did that happen? Simple enough when money (the making of, not the spending) provides the incentive. The company, Dr. Zeus, discovered a process to make immortals, but the process could only be performed on children. Cost prohibitive — and working only backwards — a few dedicated time travelers went way back, grabbed stone-age children, made them immortal cyborgs and hired them to loot lost treasures for the future. From that time forward, the immortals created others by similar methods, and the reconstituted humans became good company employees — for the most part.

Facilitator Joseph, one such employee, sailed with the Phoenicians, traveled Egypt as a priest, became Athenian politician and eventually wound up as Uncle Sky Coyote, the trickster god of the Chumash tribe. His assignment? To save the entire tribe from the future invasion of Spaniards and Yankees by moving them to a company compound.

How? By being implanted, fitted with prostheses, artfully costumed (the tail looks great), and making his appearance in their village as their god. Facilitator Joseph makes an irreverent god, but the Chumash tend to be an irreverent people.

Be warned. Sky Coyote revels in the bawdy, never explains the obvious, and debuts as the second book in a series. It stands alone, but after being introduced to the interesting concept and the redoubtable Joseph, I bet’cha can’t read just one. But if you can, make sure it’s this one. You won’t be disappointed. Kadge Baker tells a great tale.

Patricia Lucas White

Patricia Lucas White’s latest historical novel, To Last a Lifetime, was an Eppie finalist for 2003. To Last a Lifetime and two of her fantasy romances, the Sapphire Award-winning A Wizard Scorned and The Godmother Sanction, can be ordered through Hard Shell Word Factory. Her recent contemporary, PS, I’ve Taken a Lover, is available from Lionhearted Books.