This is How You Lose the Time War
Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked “Burn before reading. Signed, Blue.”
So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space.
Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they’re the best, and they’re alone.
Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it?
A tour de force collaboration from two powerhouse writers that spans the whole of time and space.
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Community Reviews
It wasn't what I was expecting, more poetry than science-fiction. That said, it was an interesting read and had some twists I didn't see coming.
The thing about This is How You Lose The Time War Is that the moment I connected to it, it ended. It was interesting and I liked the almost theoretical way in which the two characters communicated. I was drawn by Sapphic Enemies to Lovers and the world, much like Harrow The Ninth. But also like Harrow, I spent a lot of time lost in the sounds of the words and therefore never grasped their meaning. In the end. I got it. But too late for my gua...read more
The concept of this novella is very intriguing, almost like a Romeo and Juliet tale of 2 foes on opposite sides of a great war falling in love across time and space (like an episode of Doctor Who) and I had some high hopes for it. The authors combined forces to write some beautiful prose, full of tenderness, playfulness, and even a fiery competitive spirit, but at times I found it just as confusing and too metaphor-heavy to understand what was tr...read more
I saw a review for this book that said 'this book made me feel stupid' and I couldn't agree more. But there was an unexplainable pull from the moment that Red reads Blue's letter - I imagine that I felt something akin to what Red must've felt at the same moment.
I delighted in the back and forth narrative, each author's poetic writing complimenting the others to such an extent that I completely forgot this was written by two authors not one.
I wo...read more
I delighted in the back and forth narrative, each author's poetic writing complimenting the others to such an extent that I completely forgot this was written by two authors not one.
I wo...read more
DNF at 57%
- despite all the hype this book got, & despite the fact that i am an avid sci-fi reader/enjoyer, i found this book to be wicked boring
- not a huge romance fan, & the story was too poetic/confusing for my taste
- i just couldn't finish it bc it wasn't within my interests
- despite all the hype this book got, & despite the fact that i am an avid sci-fi reader/enjoyer, i found this book to be wicked boring
- not a huge romance fan, & the story was too poetic/confusing for my taste
- i just couldn't finish it bc it wasn't within my interests
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