geek websites (The Mary Sue, The Portalist, Tor) and covered the NHL for mainstream media outlets. A member of SFWA and Codex Writers, Chen lives in the Bay Area, where he can be found playing video games and watching Doctor Who with his wife, daughter, and rescue animals.Chen's new novel is Here and Now and Then.
Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Chen's reply:
I am currently reading Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller and A Cathedral of Myth and Bone by Kat Howard. For Blackfish, I've actually restarted it because I got about 1/3 through itVisit Mike Chen's website.before having to pause for 6 weeks of editing. Blackfish is a multi-POV story with brilliant world building and its own mythos about the political undercurrent driving a post-climate island city-state. The prose really sings but the world is pretty intricate -- this is a good thing, the creativity on display is astonishing -- but because of that I found it easier to restart after a long break.
For Cathedral, this is anthology of modern myth retellings, anchored by Once, Future which is a novella that twists the Arthur myth in beautiful and unexpected ways. This book was originally scheduled for last fall but got delayed, and I've been awaiting it eagerly for several reasons. First, Kat is a friend and a colleague who happens to be a wonderful humanbeing. Second, Kat's previous novels, Roses and Rot and An Unkindness of Magicians, are both fantastic. Unkindness is one of my favorite books ever and I've recommended it to so many people. Third, I loved Arthur mythology for a long time, I obsessed over it in high school and college and years after. So this was pretty much tailor made for me, and while I haven't finished the anthology, I did read Once, Future twice in two days (about 100 pages) because I enjoyed it so much.
My Book, The Movie: Here and Now and Then.
--Marshal Zeringue
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