The bifurcation of time and love. The ache of the longing to help a child. Mike Chen’s Here and Now and Then is an excellent time-travel novel that is a contemplation of memory disguised as a page-turner.
Kin is a Tempural Crimes agent whose job is to weed out corruption in the timeline. But a broken piece of hardware leaves him stranded in the early 90s. He waits for a retrieval agent to bring him home. But no one comes… for 18 years. Breaking the rules, he finds love, weds Hannah, and together they have a daughter, Miranda. What will Kin do when he spies a familiar face… is it someone from the future, here to take him back to his future life?
This is an ultimate weekend week. A fast-paced, light scifi novel with an avalanche of emotions, especially for a parent. Kin ultimately returns home to 2172 and his wife, Penny. It is a hard transition. The trauma of a life lost and a quick new family gained.
There are a couple easy coincidences to keep the momentum, but they in no way take from the overall experience of this book. I enjoyed the Bay Area setting. It was tight but not constrictive.
Highly recommended!
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