Who Would Like This Book:
This novella is a hypnotic, poetic love story wrapped in a sci-fi shell. Told through clever, inventive letters exchanged between enemy time-traveling agents (Red and Blue), the book wastes no time on heavy worldbuilding, instead focusing on wordplay, lush imagery, and a romance that blooms through witty, passionate correspondence. If you love lyrical writing, unconventional structure, rivals-to-lovers dynamics, and stories where the journey is more important than the mechanics, you'll likely fall in love with this one - especially if you enjoy books like "Good Omens," literary sci-fi, or queer romance.
Who May Not Like This Book:
Readers who crave straightforward plots, detailed worldbuilding, or clear explanations of how everything works might find this book frustrating or confusing. The poetic, sometimes abstract prose can feel overwhelming or opaque, and the ambiguity around the time war and the characters' backgrounds may leave you wanting more concrete answers. If you prefer action-driven stories or need to feel grounded in the setting, this probably won't be your cup of tea.
About:
"This Is How You Lose the Time War" is a beautiful and unique story of two women, Red and Blue, who are elite operatives on opposing sides of a time war. Through secret letters hidden in various ways, they develop a forbidden love while manipulating events across time and alternate realities. The writing style is poetic, with lush language and detailed world-building, creating a complex and evocative narrative that explores themes of love, loyalty, and the consequences of war.
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Has Romance?
The romance between the two main characters, Red and Blue, is central to the narrative and evolves from rivalry to deep emotional connection.
From The Publisher:
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.
Ratings (332)
Incredible (100) | |
Loved It (82) | |
Liked It (60) | |
It Was OK (42) | |
Did Not Like (37) | |
Hated It (11) |
Reader Stats (849):
Read It (343) | |
Currently Reading (11) | |
Want To Read (375) | |
Did Not Finish (32) | |
Not Interested (88) |
17 comment(s)
lesbian time travel book all prose no function :( me make sad
This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a true work of art and has an understanding of how the enemies-to-lovers troupe should be handled. This is a beautiful book that had me on edge all of the last half.
Admittedly I almost didn’t finish this book. It wasn’t until I was half way through the book that I really connected. The letters between Red and Blue are truly what saved it for me.
There was a significant amount of world building, which at the start took away from the dynamic of the book. Once it was over and the story started moving along I found a greater appreciate for the world that was crafted.
The last 40-ish pages were stunningly crafted. I assumed someone or something would put an end to the back and forth, but I did not expect what came after.
3.75
Beautiful Cover!
Gorgeous Writing!
Confusing To Understand…
and that last one is it’s downfall for me. i had little to no clue what kind of world we were in. it took me almost 100 pages to realize that (maybe, i still honestly can’t tell) that this book is set on earth and not some made up galaxy. the letters are the saving point of this novel. THE WRITING IS STUNNING! on every page of these letters is something that can be quoted. absolutely beautiful!
so the mixture of me not understanding the plot and the beautifully written letters, this book gets a 3.75
Wow, this was boring. Considering all the rave reviews and glowing recommendations, I was not expecting to find such a tedious and pretentious story. For a novella, this book read like it would go on for eons and I just couldn't wait for it to end. If I wasn't using this book as part of my library reading challenge, this would have been a dnf for sure. Yeah, I would not recommend this.
The main thing you need to know is that it’s in verse. And it will take you sometime to figure out what is happening but once we get a handle on the story and get used to the verse style it’s a lovely and complicated story.
Overly flowery prose. It was fun for a while but got tedious and the writing style took an already intricate concept and graduated it to nigh incomprehensible.
I'm sure that this has value, but I really don't like the way it is written.
Hot garbage. Read about 160-pages and couldn’t take it anymore. It felt like reading the same thing over and over… and over and over… and over and over… and annoying, just like that. I skipped to the last 2-pages, read them, rolled my eyes, and was so glad I finally stopped when I did. The only positive is many argue you should read bad books to become a better writer and to inspire you to write a better book, so it definitely accomplished that! If you start to read this and hate it after the first chapter, I assure you the rest of the book is the same and yes, you should stop.
Found this to be beautiful and lyrically told. Really enjoyed this
What can you read after
This Is How You Lose the Time War?
About the Author:
Amal El-Mohtar is an award-winning author, editor, and critic. Her short story "Seasons of Glass and Iron" won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards and was a finalist for the World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Aurora, and Eugie Foster awards. She is the author of The Honey Month, a collection of poetry and prose written to the taste of twenty-eight different kinds of honey, and contributes criticism to NPR Books and The New York Times. Her fiction has most recently appeared on Tor and Uncanny Magazine, and in anthologies such as The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories and The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales. She is presently pursuing a PhD at Carleton University and teaches creative writing at the University of Ottawa. She can be found online at @Tithenai.
Max Gladstone is the author of the Hugo-nominated Craft Sequence, which Patrick Rothfuss called "stupefyingly good." The sixth book, Ruin of Angels, was released September 2017. Max's interactive mobile game Choice of the Deathless was nominated for the XYZZY Award, and his critically acclaimed short fiction has appeared on Tor and in Uncanny Magazine, and in anthologies such as XO Orpheus: Fifty New Myths and The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales. John Crowley described Max as "a true star of 21st-century fantasy." Max has sung in Carnegie Hall and was once thrown from a horse in Mongolia.
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