As a child, Mendoza was saved from the Inquisition by The Company, a group of far future time travellers who mine the past for precious objects and extinct species. Granted immortality and other powers, she is trained as a botanist, to save rare plants for future generations. Her first posting is to Tudor England, to a famous garden full of endangered species. It seems a simple task, although she is horrified that she will have to interact with the mortal and violent "monkeys". But things go awry when she falls for the mortal Harpole, who has strong religious beliefs at a time when the wrong religious beliefs can be fatal.
This is an intriguing tale. The time travelling and immortality background, with the snappy, sarky dialogue, mesh surprisingly well with the Elizabethan setting and manners. And the setting is well enough drawn to make me very glad I didn't live then. I'm looking forward to how Mendoza's tale progresses as she moves forward in time (at one day per day), and begins to come to terms with her immortality.
