This Is How You Lose the Time War

Hardcover, 201 pages

English language

Published July 16, 2019 by Simon and Schuster.

ISBN:
9781534431003

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (126 reviews)

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 …

4 editions

Briefroman? Nicht mein Format

2 stars

Zwei Agenten verfeindeter Fraktionen in einem temporalen Krieg beginnen einen heimlichen Briefwechsel und verlieben sich ineinander. Die Novelle wurde mit Preisen überhäuft, erhält exzellente Bewertungen, eine Verfilmung soll in der Mache sein, allein … ich fand sie sterbenslangweilig.

Zu poetisch ist die Prosa, zu vage sind die Figuren gezeichnet, zu monoton die Abfolge von Brief auf Brief, als dass mich diese Geschichte in irgendeiner Weise mitgenommen hätte. Was schade ist, denn konzeptionell ist das alles ganz hervorragend.

This Is How You Lose The Time War

5 stars

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.

Not for everyone...

5 stars

... 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 know a ton of people loved this but…

2 stars

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.

Review of 'This Is How You Lose the Time War' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This novella follows two agents of rival factions in what is essentially a time traveling, world-interfering war. Unlike the classic rule of time travel, here, interference and changing the narrative is the name of the game. Red and Blue somehow manage to get tangled into each others maneuvers, and though they belong to opposing groups, they manage to start a lengthy correspondence that takes them beyond where either could have imagined. I was excited to read this from the start, with its beautiful cover and raving reviews—and of course, the sci-fi premise of ‘time travel wars’. Yet, this novella is not really about the sci-fi mechanisms of time travel or wars or any of that—it’s about the relationship between the characters, extensive poetry, and meta musings on the nature of letters, time, war, love, etc.

This book was more difficult to get into that I anticipated. For starters, the language …

Review of 'This Is How You Lose the Time War' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The most beautiful niche.

Good:
Letters & their poetic style are the most beautiful thing I've read in a while
High concept sfi-fi vignettes are interesting and imaginative
Red's & Blue's worlds feel distinct, not just from each other but in sfi-fi generally

Bad:
If you prefer ab ovo storytelling, in depth world building or dislike epistolary novels in general this might not be for you

Review of 'This Is How You Lose the Time War' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Romeo and Juliet, only as time traveling super agents. This book has a narrative gimmick that propels the reader from chapter to chapter, eager to see what our protagonists say next in their correspondence via the most unusual mediums. If you've ever written a tender love letter or swooned at having received one, you'll find much to love in this book.

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