208 pages
English language
Published Aug. 8, 2019 by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers.
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 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.
This book deserved to be an overnight twitter sensation holy fuck. Splendid, vibrant, everything I could ever dream of all rolled into a beautiful bite-sized package.
Didn't understand a word of this book. Way too pedantic for me. But hey, if you gots more smarts than me, then give it a read! I caught glimpses of beauty and fantastic character development.
Took me a bit to come around to this. The early chapters are saddled with a lot of overcomplicated scifi world building and inexplicable pop-culture references, but once it shifts into being an earnest villains-to-lovers romance I was all in. I do not read enough violent and vulnerable love poetry so perhaps I am just starved for intimacy, but the way Red and Blue's brovado gets shelled as they realize they are falling for each other made me yearn for a similar connection the way all great romances do.
I am not particularly interested in picking apart the time travel for inconsistencies as the emotional impact works regardless of if I can make sense of the strands and ripples. The impression I get from talking with others is the stylistic moves and flowery ambiguity are fully love/hate, but I'm glad to fall in the former. Irrelevant in some ways, but …
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.
Once you start grasping some of the bigger picture, "This is how you lose the time war" is actually quite a ride.
The prose sure is beautiful but overly complex at some points, if you asked me.
The Sci-fi world which lies beneath is fascinating. This just wasn't the story to expand on it.
Glorified game of geocaching!
The first quarter reminded me of Doomsday Book and One Day All This Will Be Yours, and the last quarter reminded me of that Iain M. Banks book (I won't say which one because it would spoil either this or that if you haven't read both, but go read Culture (except for Consider Phlebas)).
The prose was everything I've come to expect from Max Gladstone, and now I'll have to try something else by El-Mohtar.
Hauntingly beautiful. A love-letter to the written word.
Really loved this book. Its beautifully written. At times it felt like the writing was a bit heady and I struggled to actually understand what was happening, but thats my only complaint.
... or to be honest most people, but I really liked it. I took it SLOW though, finishing it in about twice my average pace, i believe... which allowed me to really enjoy the beautiful poetic nature of the book and really rather incredible writing. And then i read it again... and possibly enjoyed it more? that's not happened before ._.
I rarely love a book with prose that's more acrobatic than lucid, but I loved this one. The time travel mechanics are peripheral: it's at least as much romance as SF. Funny and brainy and overstuffed with allusions and wordplay and yes, thrillingly romantic.
I think I came across this recommended on a list of "enemies to friends" novels and since my library had the audiobook, figured I'd check it out. It's written in the form of letters, back and forth between two agents of opposing factions (The Agency and The Garden) in a sweeping time war across both history and the galaxy.
The two agents, Red and Blue, have crossed paths from time to time but an exchange of correspondence begins when Red finds a letter left by Blue. Both will lose the trust of their respective factions if their correspondence is ever discovered, so there emerges a series of elaborately hidden letters left across the decades and continents.
I liked the unusual setting and the elaborate ways they hid correspondence. I liked the fact neither faction was presented as better than the other, just both different. The writing is complex and sometimes …
I think I came across this recommended on a list of "enemies to friends" novels and since my library had the audiobook, figured I'd check it out. It's written in the form of letters, back and forth between two agents of opposing factions (The Agency and The Garden) in a sweeping time war across both history and the galaxy.
The two agents, Red and Blue, have crossed paths from time to time but an exchange of correspondence begins when Red finds a letter left by Blue. Both will lose the trust of their respective factions if their correspondence is ever discovered, so there emerges a series of elaborately hidden letters left across the decades and continents.
I liked the unusual setting and the elaborate ways they hid correspondence. I liked the fact neither faction was presented as better than the other, just both different. The writing is complex and sometimes beautiful. Also a little overly complicated, and full of 80s references, which seemed perhaps a little overdone considering they have all of time and history to pull from.
However, I also found it hard to follow in parts - I had to re-listen to the ending chapters a couple of times in order to figure out what exactly had happened. I also found it rather unbelievable how rapidly they moved from completely untrusting enemies to apparently trusting each other completely; as a reader, even up to the end I wasn't sure if they really trusted each other or if it was all an extremely long con. It was just a little unbelievable that it would happen SO fast and just through a letter every few hundred years.
I liked many things about it; not sure if I overall liked it enough that I would reread it though.
I found it pretty frustrating going. I like the idea that they're hiding secret letters for each other as they fight the "time war" but the war itself was so abstract and ridiculously coated in poetic license that I often was just annoyed at how the authors were trying to push forward on a rush of emotion instead of backing things up with a little stronger consensual reality. Maybe I rushed it? I dunno. Not my up of tea on the end at any rate.
it's a magical realist (?) romance in a science fiction Time War setting, an unusual choice, but one that works well, given how strange the consequences of warping causality would be. If you can get ahold of the audio book, it's pretty good, has different readers for Blue and Red.
A wild ride. I struggled at first, persisted thanks to prior recommendations from two dear friends, and it started paying off past the one-third mark. I feel rewarded... but YMMV. What helped me was getting into a different headspace: switching off the physics-and-math parts of my brain, shushing the occasional snarky thought. And—this was harder—distancing myself from the authors’ casual attitude toward violence: it’s a war, I get it, but there is no hint that all those dying in it are anything but pawns. (There are many chess and Go references throughout the book. It is traditional, though, and in my opinion good form, to temper those with empathy when the pieces are human.)
Once in the right mindset, I really loved most of it. Part of that is, admittedly, a personal soft spot I have for well-penned billets-doux. These may have been over the top in their burning and …
A wild ride. I struggled at first, persisted thanks to prior recommendations from two dear friends, and it started paying off past the one-third mark. I feel rewarded... but YMMV. What helped me was getting into a different headspace: switching off the physics-and-math parts of my brain, shushing the occasional snarky thought. And—this was harder—distancing myself from the authors’ casual attitude toward violence: it’s a war, I get it, but there is no hint that all those dying in it are anything but pawns. (There are many chess and Go references throughout the book. It is traditional, though, and in my opinion good form, to temper those with empathy when the pieces are human.)
Once in the right mindset, I really loved most of it. Part of that is, admittedly, a personal soft spot I have for well-penned billets-doux. These may have been over the top in their burning and yearning, and omg their floridness, but they worked for me. (Again, YMMV). I liked the professionalism: the admiration of two lonely craftspersons for each others’ skill and selves — also the authors’ and editors’ respect for the reader, recognizing that this is a difficult book, and not dumbing it down. I loved the female-centeredness, not only the main protagonists but all throughout the book, the recognition of women as major influences across worlds and timelines. The language... I two-thirds loved? It could soar gracefully, it also bogged down at times. The pervasive metaphors — weaving, gardening, seeds, chess/Go, Romeo and Juliet — were at first promising but never actually developed anywhere... or, perhaps more likely, I’m not smart enough to see how/if they did.
I can easily imagine timelines in which I rate this book five stars; perhaps because the book is different, perhaps because I am. It’s mildly entertaining to ponder those; also to look out the window and see a scrub jay and wonder; and to mull Chaos Theory and fantasize about being able to predict consequences of ripple effects. Those were fun side effects from reading — but my real take-home was a reminder of the preciousness of connection and the need to preserve it; to swap words with those I love.
Very neat book, beautiful writing
