This Is How You Lose the Time War
* HUGO AWARD WINNER: BEST NOVELLA * NEBULA AND LOCUS AWARDS WINNER: BEST NOVELLA *
“[An] exquisitely crafted tale...Part epistolary romance, part mind-blowing science fiction adventure, this dazzling story unfolds bit by bit, revealing layers of meaning as it plays with cause and effect, wildly imaginative technologies, and increasingly intricate wordplay...This short novel warrants multiple readings to fully unlock its complexities.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
From award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone comes an enthralling, romantic novel spanning time and space about two time-traveling rivals who fall in love and must change the past to ensure their future.
Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandment finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.
Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.
Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win. That’s how war works, right?
Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.
“[An] exquisitely crafted tale...Part epistolary romance, part mind-blowing science fiction adventure, this dazzling story unfolds bit by bit, revealing layers of meaning as it plays with cause and effect, wildly imaginative technologies, and increasingly intricate wordplay...This short novel warrants multiple readings to fully unlock its complexities.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
From award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone comes an enthralling, romantic novel spanning time and space about two time-traveling rivals who fall in love and must change the past to ensure their future.
Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandment finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.
Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.
Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win. That’s how war works, right?
Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.
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Readers say *This Is How You Lose the Time War* features stunning, poetic prose that creates a dreamlike, immersive experience. Many praise its unique...
I adore this book.
I'm not blind to the elements in here that other people dislike.
The way the plot and narrative unfolds is pretty obtuse, and demands a certain amount of patience from the reader as it unspools itself.
The language is florid to the point of borderline purple.
The worldbuilding is a mile wide and an inch deep: you get a lot of vibes but not much in the way of detailed explanation.
And I can see how all of that could be a turn-off, but boy oh boy, it results in something truly special. It's a mishmash of disparate elements that adds up to a beautiful, compellingly unique novella. As an experience, it's truly something else.
If you can surrender to it a little, and trust that it will explain itself by the end (it does!), and let it unfurl around you, I think you may love it too.
This was a re-read. I loved this book completely when I first read it, and on re-read I can still say I love the writing; beautiful prose. But otherwise it was hard to care, the story universe is an aside, an atmosphere for the story, nothing more, so it feels more like reading some love letters between two characters we can’t understand or relate with.
I wish this was a limited series that I could watch. The imagery used in this book would be better understood seen than read. I liked the premise of the story so much but had trouble visualizing it.
This one was just not for me. Had to force myself through it (coming close to DNFing). The conceit is interesting - two agents on opposing sides of a (time) war fall in love, but the love doesn’t really feel earned and we don’t know the characters well enough to be vested. I was able to guess the identity of the seeker quite early. This one just didn’t thrill me.
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