Rude Mechanicals: Free audio version at SubPress

Rude Mechanicals by Kage Baker

I love pretty much everything that Kage Baker wrote — her concise to-the-point style, the ironic way she looks at the world, and her wry subtle sense of humor suits me perfectly, more so than any other author I know save Jack Vance. I’m sure that if I’d ever met Ms. Baker while she was living that she would have been one of my favorite people on Earth. I say this because I feel the need to warn anyone reading this review that I’m unlikely to ever think any of Kage Baker’s stories are bad… So do with that what you will.

Rude Mechanicals is a novella set in Baker’s well-known futuristic COMPANY world. The Company is a group of cyborg time-travelers who work for Dr. Zeus. He sends travelers back in time to fetch or hide objects that will be valuable when they’re “found” and sold by the Company in the future. In Rude Mechanicals, two familiar travelers, Joseph and Lewis, are on two separate quests that overlap and eventually converge in Hollywood in 1934.

Lewis, an expert in literature, is acting as assistant to Max Reinhardt who is preparing his famous stage production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Hollywood Bowl amphitheater. Lewis is supposed to secretly replace Reinhardt’s stage notes with a forgery and steal the original notes so they can be sold in the future by the Company. Lewis spends his evenings creating the forgery. Joseph is trying to retrieve the Hope Diamond which he lost on a previous mission. When the diamond ends up in Hollywood in 1934, Joseph’s mission gets tangled up with Lewis’s and chaos ensues as they chase the diamond through Hollywood streets, famous parties, an elementary school, a Shakespearean play, and even a pornographic movie set.

Anyone who loves Kage Baker, Hollywood history, or madcap adventure will enjoy Rude Mechanicals. You don’t need to have read the rest of the COMPANY novels — it can stand-alone. In fact, if you’re new to Kage Baker, it’s a great way to quickly determine whether you might enjoy her work. It’s not her best, but…. it’s Kage Baker.

I listened to the audio version of Rude Mechanicals which was read by author and audiobook narrator Mary Robinette Kowal. You can download a free copy at Subterranean Press’s website. I would have preferred a male narrator for this book since it follows two of Baker’s male characters, but Robinette Kowal gets the tone just right and, hey, it’s hard to beat free.