Title: Here and Now and Then
Author: Mike Chen
Publisher: MIRA
Publication Date: January 29, 2019
Genre: Science Fiction
He’ll go anywhere and any when to save his daughter
Kin Stewart is an everyday family man: working in IT, trying to keep the spark in his marriage, struggling to connect with his teenage daughter.
But his current life is a far cry from his previous career…as a time-traveling secret agent from over a century in the future.
Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, until one afternoon, his “rescue” team arrives—eighteen years too late.
Their mission: return Kin to 2142, where he’s been gone only weeks, not years, and where another family is waiting for him. A family he can’t remember.
Torn between two lives, Kin’s desperate efforts to stay connected to both will threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself. With his daughter’s very existence at risk, he will have to take one final trip to save her—even if it means breaking all the rules of time travel in the process.
Why This Book
This is the one instance where I’m not grateful for the book, but, instead, the author. Here and Now and Then sounded just interesting enough for me to want to read and participate in the book blog tour for it. But I was hooked. I’m not a huge fan of science fiction, so I went in with a bit of hesitation. As I’ve quickly learned with Chen’s books, it’s completely unnecessary. His books are a soft kind of science fiction with a great deal of heart and minimal romance. Exactly my cup of tea. As I’ve read more of his books, I’ve become convinced he’s one of my favorite authors and could literally write about anything and I’ll love it. Super heroes? Yes. Aliens? Yup. Vampires? We’ll see, but I’m leaning towards a hard yes. So I’m thankful to Mike Chen for broadening my horizons and giving me a good dose of much needed heart. I’ll be even more grateful if Mike Chen never ever stops writing and publishing.
Reviews
My review: “Overall, it was just a really sweet story about a family man who wants to do right by the people he loves and to make amends for mistakes he hadn’t even realized he had made”
Snark & Squee DNF’ed this one, saying “I’ve never been so bored in my life. It was so mundane. There was a lot about the science of the time travel that was happening and not a whole lot of plot or adventure”
Book By Book said “This novel has everything that I love about time travel plots: it’s twisty, thoughtful and thought-provoking, suspenseful, and even heartwarming (and heartbreaking), combining the warmth of family drama with the action of a thriller.”
Drink. Read. Repeat. gave this 5 out of 5 cocktails, saying “As annoyingly cliché as it is, reading this novel was like riding a roller coaster — a weird, emotional, time-travel-y roller coaster.”
Sister Shelf gave this a 7.5 out of 10, saying “Here and Now and Then is heartfelt, fun, and suspenseful, and Chen does a masterful job at playing out the reality of the situations each character is in, making the reader feel sympathetic towards just about everyone in the story. And while the pacing did feel a little off, with some things happening too quickly, this could be connected to the main obstacle that Kin faces throughout the book whenever he attempts fix everything before anyone gets hurt”
Realms of My Mind gave this 3 stars, saying “despite feeling at a distance, I did have a good time overall and don’t regret picking up the book. Its creative premise alone made it worth the read. It’s a fun standalone that’s a great light summer book, but not perhaps one that will stay with you for long afterwards”
Purchase Links
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Check out all the other books featured this month on The Curated Bookshelf.
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