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.

This novel is another chapter in the disastrous life of the cyborg botanist Mendoza, recruited by the Company in 16th century Spain, and exiled to the far past.

Somehow all of this manages to stay intact for the unknown amount of time, perhaps 3000 years, that Mendoza spends in exile on Santa Catalina.

Next we learn about "Smart Alec", precocious scion of rich privileged 24th century Londoners, who leave him in the care of their housekeepers so they can get on with their lives away from dismal, puritanical England.

Given a highly controlled moral teaching unit at a young age, he is able to re-program it by instinct to become his personal assistant and, eventually, partner in crime.

Warned by his Artificial Intelligence companion, "The Captain", that a person he is talking to is a cyborg, he makes an exit from the Company offices, and begins to work on finding out the truth, while living off the proceeds of smuggling alcohol, chocolate, coffee, meat and other illegal commodities.

Alec Checkerfield, Nicholas Harpole, and Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax are one and the same, or at least different versions of the same man, created for the Adonai project.

The "New Inklings" are idle geniuses who have, at least in their own minds, designed and deployed, from their lofty perches in the 24th century, all the Enforcers, Facilitators, Preservers and other cyborgs working for the Company throughout history.

In previous episodes, Santa Catalina Island off California seems to be a focus of Company attention and the key to its history.

In this episode one learns more of what is there, and how Mendoza's lovers, and indirectly the "New Inklings," played a part in its initial discovery, which gave rise to the Company itself.