Michael Mammay

Michael Mammay is a science fiction writer and a retired army officer. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and is a veteran of Desert Storm, Somalia, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His debut novel, Planetside came out in July, 2018, and was selected as a Library Journal best book of 2018. The audio book, narrated by RC Bray, was nominated for an Audie award. The sequels, Spaceside and Colonyside are available now.

Mammay's new novel is The Misfit Soldier.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Mammay's reply:

It probably won’t come as a surprise that I read a lot of science fiction. I should probably say consume, rather than read, since I always have an audio book going as well as the one I’m reading. I generally try to read stuff in the year that it’s published or right after, but I will work in a few classics that I’ve missed out on each year as well. So far this year, a lot of my reading includes books that aren’t out yet. One of the coolest secrets that nobody tells you about being a published author is that publishers will send you all the books you want before they even publish them.

I just finished reading Braking Day by Adam Oyebanji. I’m a sucker for a generation fleet story, and this one is a good one. The crew is over a century into the mission, and the world-building delves a lot into the internal politics of the ship and how it keeps things under control, and I love that kind of thing. It comes out in April from DAW.

Right before that I read Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings, which is a cool space opera with a lot of found family vibes and a whole cast of characters that I just loved. The basic premise of the story is that two ships meet in space, except they’re from different centuries—one of them has unwittingly travelled through time—and the two crews together have to figure out what’s happening and save the galaxy. I don’t want to say too much more than that, as there would be a lot of spoilers for this one, and I think readers are going to want to experience it for themselves. This one is from Rebellion Publishing, and comes out in May.

And right now I’m reading and almost finished with Wake of War, by Zac Topping. This one is near-future military SF set in the US after a series of events has split the country. This is a fast read, filled with intense combat action and shows the toll that the combat takes on its three point of view characters. Topping is a veteran, and that comes through the page strongly as this book is exceptionally realistic in its depictions. It comes out in July from Tor.

On the audio side, I recently finished listening to Chaos Vector, which is the second book in Megan O’Keefe’s series, and I’m just getting ready to start the third. This is great space opera, and probably the closest thing I’ve found to the vibe of The Expanse series. These are big, chunky books with a ton of inter-galactic politics and action combined with strong mystery elements. There’s even a sentient spaceship, which is another thing I can’t get enough of in SF books.

Visit Michael Mammay's website.

Q&A with Michael Mammay.

--Marshal Zeringue