Why read on Fable?
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Brotherhood
A Goodreads Choice Awards 2019 Semifinalist
One of BookBub’s Best Science Fiction Books of 2019
One of Book Riot’s Best Books of 2019 So Far
One of The Nerd Daily’s Best Debut Novels of 2019
Featured in The Millions “A Year in Reading”
One of Entropy’s Best Fiction Books of 2019
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.
“Heartfelt and thrilling… Chen’s concept is unique, and [his characters’] agony is deeply moving. Quick pacing, complex characters, and a fascinating premise.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
A Goodreads Choice Awards 2019 Semifinalist
One of BookBub’s Best Science Fiction Books of 2019
One of Book Riot’s Best Books of 2019 So Far
One of The Nerd Daily’s Best Debut Novels of 2019
Featured in The Millions “A Year in Reading”
One of Entropy’s Best Fiction Books of 2019
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.
“Heartfelt and thrilling… Chen’s concept is unique, and [his characters’] agony is deeply moving. Quick pacing, complex characters, and a fascinating premise.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
153 Reviews
3.5
astonersbookshelf
Created 2 months agoShare
Report
Multi-layered charactersOriginal writingSuspensefulUnpredictableDarkHeartbreakingThought-provoking
Jada Jackson
Created 2 months agoShare
Report
JenB
Created 3 months agoShare
Report
Karyl
Created 3 months agoShare
Report
“When I was in high school, I read sci-fi almost exclusively. While my family wasn’t into Doctor Who, we did enjoy watching Star Trek: The Next Generation together (and I will agree with Heather that Captain Jean-Luc Picard is the best captain). However, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt the pull of a good sci-fi novel; I seem to be in my romance era.
That said, this book really scratched an itch I didn’t know I had. Kin is an agent of the Temporal Corrections Bureau in 2142, sent on missions to eliminate criminals taking advantage of time travel. On occasion this means he does need to kill the targets he’s sent after. In the midst of a scuffle with one of these targets, he is shot right in the mechanism that allows TCB to track him over time, and he’s stranded in 1996. Stuck in history, his memories of 2142 eventually fades, and he makes a life in the 21st century, marrying his wife Heather and fathering a daughter Miranda. But then he’s finally found by the TCB and brought forward again, setting off a chain of events that eventually threatens Miranda’s life.
I really didn’t want to put this book down. I felt that the characters were all so fleshed out, including the women, which were all side characters to Kin. Often, women tend to be after-thoughts in sci-fi, especially that written by men, but Chen gives each female character such depth and vibrancy that I could imagine them as well as I could Kin. I also appreciated that Kin had a lot of complex emotions. Too often, we don’t let men feel much other than happiness or anger, but Kin had an entire range of feelings. The love he had for Heather and Miranda, and later what he began to feel for Penny, absolutely leapt off the page.
Chen’s pacing of this book is wonderful. I felt compelled to keep turning pages, wondering what was going to happen next. I spent the day rearranging my bedroom after reading this in bed for an hour, and I kept finding myself thinking about Kin and Miranda and Penny, wondering how they were going to save Miranda and fix the timeline.
Time travel is hard to write about, but Chen does a deft job, including some science and tech without being overly stuffy. This story has so much heart, being about second chances and making things right, even when it goes against the rules. It’s just lovely.”
pagesplotsandpints
Created 3 months agoShare
Report
“Read Completed 1/26/21 | This was an enjoyable read! I did wish for a bit more depth, especially from the characters since it was less science-y and more character-focused. The families were there but I really wanted to get a bit more of everyone's personality. I loved the connections and how everything worked up but something about it just felt a bit flat. I did love the ending and how everything wrapped up! It was really a lovely ending.”
About Mike Chen
Mike Chen is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Brotherhood, Here and Now and Then, Light Years From Home, and other novels. He has covered geek culture for sites such as Nerdist, Tor.com, and StarTrek.com, and in a different life, covered the NHL. A member of SFWA, Mike lives in the Bay Area with his wife, daughter, and many rescue animals. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @mikechenwriter
Other books by Mike Chen
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?
Similar Books
Save to a list
0
/30
0
/100
Private List