The Sons of Heaven is a science fiction novel by American writer Kage Baker. It is the eighth in her series of novels about The Company.
The Company, formally known as Dr. Zeus Inc., exists in the 24th century but employs immortal cyborgs to recover and save valuable artifacts in the past. The cyborgs are created by taking suitable children who would otherwise die and augmenting them with artificial components, physiological enhancements, and nanotechnology to continually repair their bodies so that they never age or die. In exchange for the gift of health and immortality they work to preserve the past for sale in the future.
Some cyborgs are corrupt, plotting against the Company and each other for the prize they expect to gain when they finally reach the 24th century, when they believe they will take over from the mortals who run the Company. Others despise mortals and plot to eliminate them. More benign factions try to counter them. Some individuals just want revenge.
Plot summary
The novel brings together the various threads begun during previous volumes. It takes place mostly in the 24th century, over the final 20 years leading up to the Silence in 2355, the point beyond which the future of the Company is unknown.
The Botanist Mendoza, disabled and psychologically scarred by the attempts of the Company to destroy her, is dealing with the three incarnations of her lover, whom she first knew as Nicholas Harpole in the 16th century. Two of them are imprisoned in her cyborg mind, while the third, the Victorian secret agent Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, has taken over the body of the latest incarnation, Alec Checkerfield. Edward is showing signs of megalomania. The four of them, along with Alec's artificial intelligence known as Captain Morgan, are hiding in the deep past, hundreds of thousands of years before the present. This is to allow them to recover from their trials and mount their own campaign against the company, for which they laid the foundations in The Machine's Child.
In the 24th century, Facilitator Joseph, having given up his quest for Mendoza after she disappeared, is putting the fix in again. This time it is on behalf of his own foster-father, the Enforcer Budu, who is intent on destroying the Company in his own way. To do this he will revive the army of Enforcers who have slept in Company bunkers for millennia, like heroes out of legend. Strangely, William Randolph Hearst is a necessary part of this plan, even if Hearst would like to be the hero Roland.
Preserver Lewis, after being captured by the strange little humanoids known as Homo umbratilis, is slowly recovering from their attempts to kill him as a way of developing a new way to destroy the Company cyborgs. He finds himself in a situation similar to that in the Arabian Nights: as long as he can keep telling stories, a princess of the little people will bring him food and water so he can repair himself. Fortunately Lewis is a Literature Specialist and knows many stories...
Bugleg, the mortal Company scientist encountered in Sky Coyote, is now so afraid of his own creations, the cyborgs, that he allows himself to be persuaded to spread a new poison among them, the result of experimentation on Lewis. His accomplice is a Hybrid, a genius born from both humans and Homo umbratilis. Bugleg himself has some umbratilis in him, it seems.
Suleyman, Executive Facilitator for North Africa, and his protégé Latif, continue their efforts to seek out the places where the Company has buried its mistakes, and rescue missing cyborgs such as Lewis and Kalugin.
The rival power groups headed by Labienus and Aegeus gather their forces for the final showdown. But things must be done correctly. They face off across the table at the sumptuous Banquet At The End of Time.
Preserver Victor, who has realized he is a carrier of deadly diseases, designed to be activated when the Company needs them, creates his own appropriate form of retribution for what was done to him.
Above all the Silence looms. After 11 a.m. California time on 9 July 2355, there are no more transmissions from the Company to its operatives in the past. As the time approaches, the disruption becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The mortal executives of the Company cower in a bunker, while the different cyborg factions schedule their various assaults on the Company for that time.
In Sky Coyote the mortal servants of the base New World One address the male cyborgs as "Sons of Heaven", believing them to be gods who have preserved them from death. However the theme of the Company novels is also tied to the legend of Zeus defeating his father Kronos, sometimes identified with Chronos, the personification of Time, to rule the rest of the Greco-Roman gods. In turn the cyborgs are the sons and daughters of Dr. Zeus Inc.
There are further resonances in the relations between the cyborgs, as Budu is regarded as a father by Joseph, Victor, and Labienus, among others. Another more literal reference involves Mendoza's giving birth to twin sons, augmented human baby boys, to house the recorded consciousnesses of Alec Checkerfield and Nicholas Harpole, the first and third incarnations of Project Adonai, her now-immortal lover.
Related Research Articles
In Greek mythology, Antiope was the daughter of the Boeotian river god Asopus, according to Homer; in later sources she is called the daughter of the "nocturnal" king Nycteus of Thebes or, in the Cypria, of Lycurgus, but for Homer her site is purely Boeotian. She was the mother of Amphion and Zethus.
Maximilian "Maxie" Zeus is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as a minor enemy of Batman. He is depicted as a mentally ill former history professor who is obsessed with Greek mythology and believes himself to be the god Zeus, becoming a crime lord in Gotham City.
In the Garden of Iden is a 1997 science fiction novel by American writer Kage Baker. Although it is set entirely in the 16th century, in Spain and England, it is a science fiction story revolving around the activities of a group of immortal cyborgs, individuals who appear human but have been transformed by high technology.
Sky Coyote is a science fiction novel by American writer Kage Baker. It is the second in the series of The Company, which began with In The Garden of Iden and continues with Mendoza in Hollywood. American illustrator Michael Koelsch painted the cover art of Baker's first three novels in The Company series, including Sky Coyote.
Mendoza in Hollywood is a science fiction novel by American writer by Kage Baker; it is the third novel in her series concerning the activities of The Company. In the UK it was published as At the Edge of the West. American illustrator Michael Koelsch painted the cover art of Baker's first three novels in The Company series, including Mendoza in Hollywood.
The Graveyard Game is a science fiction novel by American writer Kage Baker, the fourth installment in the time travel series concerning the exploits of The Company.
The Life of the World to Come (2004) is a science fiction novel by American writer Kage Baker, the fifth installment in the time travel series concerning the exploits of The Company.
Black Projects, White Knights is a collection of short stories by American writer Kage Baker, published by small-press science fiction publisher Golden Gryphon Press, assembling various short stories set in the universe of The Company series, which comprises the bulk of her published fiction. Almost all of the stories contained within this volume have been published previously in the pages of Asimov's Science Fiction, with the remainder being previously unpublished. Note: not all of the Company stories extant at the time of publishing were collected into this volume.
The Children of the Company is a science fiction novel by American writer Kage Baker. It is another in the series concerned with the exploits of The Company, a 24th-century cabal which exploits history for profit with the aid of immortal cyborgs living in the past.
Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark, also known as Wonder Girl, is a superheroine appearing in DC Comics. She was created by John Byrne and first appeared in Wonder Woman #105. The second Wonder Girl, Cassie is a sidekick of the superheroine Wonder Woman and has been featured as a member of the Teen Titans.
Hercules is a fictional Olympian god in the DC Universe based on the Greek demigod and hero of the same name.
The Machine's Child is a science fiction novel by American writer Kage Baker. It is the seventh book in the series concerning the exploits of Dr. Zeus Inc., otherwise known as The Company.
Gods and Pawns is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Kage Baker, published by Tor Books. The stories are set in the same universe as her series about The Company.
Athena is a fictional deity appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is based on the Greek Goddess of the same name.
Dr. Zeus Inc., also known simply as the Company, is a fictional entity in a series of time travel science fiction stories by Kage Baker. Most of the characters in the novels are immortal cyborgs created by Company operatives throughout history and recruited to work on preserving art, artifacts, rare species and other valuable items which the Company can sell for huge profits in the 24th century. The cyborgs look forward to receiving their final reward when they reach the 24th century by living through all the preceding times, but some suspect that when they do, they will instead be deactivated, or worse.
City of Bones is the first urban fantasy book in author Cassandra Clare's New York Times bestselling series The Mortal Instruments. The novel, first published in 2007, is set in modern-day New York City and has been released in several languages, including Bulgarian, Hebrew, Polish and Japanese. It is the first book in the first trilogy of The Mortal Instruments which includes the books City of Ashes and City of Glass.
The Mortal Instruments is a series of six young adult fantasy novels written by American author Cassandra Clare, the last of which was published on May 27, 2014. The Mortal Instruments is chronologically the third series of a planned six in The Shadowhunter Chronicles but was the first one published. It follows Clary Fray, who interacts with a group of Nephilim known as Shadowhunters while also discovering her own heritage and her family history. The Shadowhunters protect the world of mundane/human people, who are also called mundanes or "mundies", from dark forces beyond their world. The book series falls under the young adult genre, specifically that of the paranormal romance/urban fantasy and supernatural genres.
Shadowhunters, also known as Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments, is an American supernatural drama television series developed by Ed Decter, based on the book series The Mortal Instruments written by Cassandra Clare. It premiered in North America on Freeform on January 12, 2016. Primarily filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the series follows Clary Fray, who finds out on her eighteenth birthday that she is not who she thinks she is, but rather comes from a long line of Shadowhunters, human-angel hybrids who hunt down demons, and has to deal with the struggle of forbidden love.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
