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This Is How You Lose the Time War

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"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.

Characters:

Red and Blue are complex characters whose relationship evolves from rivalry to deep emotional connection through their correspondence.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style is poetic and lyrical, rich in imagery and metaphor, creating a dreamlike and emotionally charged narrative.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot revolves around two rival agents in a time war who start corresponding through letters, leading to an evolving relationship and significant personal stakes in their conflict.

Setting:

The setting consists of various timelines and realities, portrayed in a dreamlike manner that complements the story's themes.

Pacing:

The pacing is slower, focusing on character development and emotional depth through letters, culminating in a more urgent connection.
That was fun, she thinks, but the thought sours in the framing. It was clean, at least. Climb up time’s threads into the past and make sure no one survives this battle to muddle the futures her Agency...

Notes:

The book is a blend of science fiction and romance, focusing on two time-traveling agents named Red and Blue.
It is written in a poetic style, featuring both prose and a series of letters between the two main characters.
The story is half epistolary and half prose, revealing the characters' lives as well as their correspondence.
The novel explores themes of rivalry, obsession, and ultimately, love, as the agents learn more about each other over time.
The two protagonists represent opposing factions in a time war: the technologically advanced Agency and the organic Garden.
The time travel elements are more about character emotions than mechanics, as there is little explanation of how the time travel functions.
The correspondence becomes increasingly elaborate, showcasing creativity as they use unconventional methods to send messages.
The writing is rich in imagery and metaphor, creating a unique and immersive experience for the reader.
Despite its sci-fi elements, the core of the story revolves around the romantic relationship between Red and Blue, making it accessible to readers who may not typically enjoy sci-fi.
The novella won multiple prestigious awards, including the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novella.

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 (169)

Incredible (51)
Loved It (49)
Liked It (26)
It Was OK (20)
Did Not Like (17)
Hated It (6)

Reader Stats (434):

Read It (174)
Currently Reading (6)
Want To Read (211)
Did Not Finish (11)
Not Interested (32)

8 comment(s)

Loved It
1 week

Found this to be beautiful and lyrically told. Really enjoyed this

 
Loved It
1 week

“You wrote of being in a village upthread together, living as friends and neighbours do, and I could have swallowed this valley whole and still not have sated my hunger for the thought. Instead I wick the longing into thread, pass it through your needle eye, and sew it into hiding somewhere beneath my skin, embroider my next letter to you one stitch at a time.”

Swooooon! Incredible love story that gave me vivid dreams in the best kind of way that only a well written world-building book can do!

 
Liked It
1 month

I understand why people like this book, but I also understand why someone might hate it. The story is very confusing at first, but does clear up some. I feel like by the end, I still didn’t have a grasp on anything other than the main point.

 
Hated It
2 months

This reads like it was written as a joke to be as purple-prosed and cringey as possible, but people fell for it so hard that the authors will be taking their secret to the grave.

 
Incredible
6 months

Beautiful. I read it, then immediately re-read it, to go down the rabbit holes of literary reference and enjoy the snippets of worldbuilding, and the unfolding rapport between the two characters

 
Liked It
6 months

epistolary science fiction book, but really it's like reading someone's role play story, but more cohesive HAHA. i had a good time with it even though there was some reaaaaally purple prose sections, which is weird for a sci-fi

 
Incredible
7 months

The voyeuristic delight of peering into Red and Blue's correspondence - rich with allusion, slow burn seduction, and verbal sparring turned tender curiosity and confession. Interdependence rendered dually via the Agency's austere artificial intelligence and the Garden's lush, mycelium and mycorrhiza-esque organic intelligence. This larger interdependence contrasted with the small scale sort found in interpersonal love. Temporal loops. A taste of the agent gone rogue against handler/governing body flavor of spy thriller. Like if Killing Eve was a science fiction story with a little influence from A Literate Passion.

Basically everything I was wanting out of a story, including things I didn't know I was wanting. This is How You Lose the Time War is a such a potent and impactful read, it's sort of hard to believe it's only a novella. It reads like a much longer story, in the best possible way and begs for revisiting.

 
Incredible
2 years

Fabulous sapphic game of cat and mouse through time.

 

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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