Mendoza in Hollywood is book three of Baker's Company Series. The series features two main characters: Joseph and Mendoza. Both are immortal and both work for the Dr. Zeus Incorporated although Joseph was recruited several hundred years before Mendoza and was responsible for her initiation in the Company.

The Company has discovered time travel, although there are physical limits. It is only possible to travel backward and then forward again to your own time. No one can travel forward from their time. You cannot bring anything forward again out of history into your own time, nor can any aspect of recorded history be changed. Dr. Zeus has also discovered a particle that makes it possible to send messages across time as long as they have already built a receiving station in the past.

The Company has also discovered immortality -- of a sort. The process only works on children and requires drugs, surgeries, hormones and implants. The resulting immortal is no longer human, although it still feels human emotions. It is a cyborg. Company operatives have traveled back to several points in time, set up hidden stations and rescued children who were about to be killed and turned them into immortals. The immortals were then dedicated to the Company's service (one suspects that there is some kind of hardwiring done to make the immortals loyal).

These inventions and the army of immortals have allowed Dr. Zeus to fulfill the fantasies of rich collectors in their own time, which seems to be 2355. If someone wants an original sketch by some famous artist, Da Vinci for example, the Company simply sends a message through time that tells one of the immortals to acquire the sketch, by stealing it, buying it, receiving it as a gift, or through some other device. Then the sketch is placed in a special warehouse in one of the Company bases, from which it is removed in 2355 and sold to the collector. The Company also collects detailed anthropological, historical and political information, as well as samples of plants that will become extinct.

The first book, In the Garden of Iden, tells the story of Mendoza's rescue from the Spanish Inquisition, her transformation into an immortal, her education and her first mission for the Company as a botanist, in the gardens of Sir Walter Iden. She collects samples of several valuable plants, including one that will become extinct and will later be introduced as a cure for cancer by the Company. Mendoza falls in love with a mortal, with tragic consequences. Most of the action is set during the reign of Queen Mary. I loved this book and give it a .

The second book, Sky Coyote, is the story of Joseph's mission to kidnap (for the Company) an entire tribe of California Native Americans. The story is set just before the Spanish begin trading along the California coast. The tribe is soon to be destroyed by a small pox epidemic, and the Company wants to transport them to one of their bases and employ them as workers: mechanics, janitors, servants, and so forth. It is Joseph's job to convince all the tribe members to move. I didn't like this book. It includes all kinds of jokes about the capitalist and flaky nature of the tribe, implying that there is something about the area that makes people into stereotypical "Californians." I found the whole thing dull. The interesting part of the book involves more revelations about the Company, including an encounter between some of the immortals and their mortal masters from 2355. I rate this book a -. One could easily read only the first and third books in the series and not miss much at all.

The third book, Mendoza in Hollywood, shifts focus back to Mendoza. It is set during the Civil War in the area that will one day become Hollywood. Mendoza is stationed with four other cyborgs. Most of the book describes their lives, including their screenings of early movies (they can order almost anything they want from the Company). Mendoza is charged with collecting samples of several soon-to-be-extinct species from the area. The rest of the team is made of up a zoologist, two anthropologists and an ornithologist. The book is uneven. The major plot involves the appearance of a (mortal) British spy, Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax. Edward is the spitting image of Mendoza's lover from the first book. However, Edward doesn't even show up until page 250. Up to that point, the story wanders and is tedious at points. I was particularly annoyed by the description of their viewing of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance. It takes up an entire chapter and contributes nothing to the story. In any case, once Edward shows up, the story heats up and more revelations about the Company emerge. I like the historical/political intrigue that Baker has created, I simply wish that she focused on it more fully. The Company really isn't involved in the story until page 299, and very little of what came before is related to the revelations that follow (the book is only 329 pages total). The book is written as a record of Mendoza's testimony before some sort of Company committee that is meeting to punish her (although the reader doesn't learn what she did wrong until the end of the book). In addition, Baker introduces some major flaws into her understanding of how the Company functions.

I give the book a o. It is better than Sky Coyote, but not as good as In the Garden of Iden. To be specific about it, I would give the first half of the book a "-" and the second half a ."

All of the details discussed so far are from the first chapter, prologue or back of the books, so they aren't really spoilers. However, extensive spoilers follow. I try to avoid spoilers, but this time I couldn't help myself: