This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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.

Was not expecting such a beautiful love story. I really enjoyed this listen especially enjoyed the two narrators made it easier to understand what was going on though not gonna lie felt lost the first half hour or so. I loved the story but it also left me wanting more to know more about this world they live in .

This is how you lose the Time War is not what you would call my usual kind of book. It's so far out of my comfort zone that it shouldn't have even been on my radar. But I read Max Gladstone's debut Three Parts Dead recently and completely fell in love with how unique a world it was. So, when I saw this latest novella collaboration by him and kept reading rave reviews about it, I just wanted to give it a try. I'm also trying to expand my reading into sci-fi, so I thought a shorter book would be the way to go. And wow did I make a great choice.

On first glance, I should hate this book. This is pure 100% purple prose. It's actually poetry masquerading as prose. I can't even say I understood all the sentences that were on the page. But even when I didn't exactly get the literal meaning, I could totally feel the emotion behind it all. This is probably what beautiful writing looks like - I was sitting in a bookstore reading this book and as it went on, I struggled so hard to choke back my tears. It's sublime and poignant and lyrical and utterly romantic. This is also not the kind of book you can race through - it requires patience and effort and really needs to be savored very slowly.

As you can glean from the title, the main part of the world building is time travel. The two main characters travel through strands of time, make changes that alter the courses of past and future, and leave each other letters through these strands. The epistolary format works perfectly to show us development of the relationship between the two MCs and as a huge fan of love letters in novels, I was totally charmed by them. The only world building we can be sure of is that there are two factions fighting a time war and our MCs are on opposite sides of the conflict - everything else is left vague and while that would usually put me off in any other book, I didn't mind it here at all. There was just enough for me to feel it, a sprinkling of foreshadowing to keep me going and an ending that comes together so perfectly that it made my heart soar.

To wrap it up, I just want to say that this book is unlike anything I've ever read. This is genre bending at its finest - it's a literary fiction novel with a time travel backdrop featuring a romance for the ages. If you like books that are unique and won't fit into any boxes, you should definitely give this one a try. This may be a little novella but it demands attention, and I implore you to give it its due and savor it. Don't try to understand it, just feel it. It just might surprise and capture your heart.

3.5/5 stars

I said it in an update, but I'll say it again. I am too stupid for this book. It did start to click eventually and the words and story were absolutely beautiful, but I never felt like I got more that a superficial understanding of anything.

I feel like there aren't words I could use to describe my feelings towards this book, so I will list my favorite quotes, the ones that hooked me, that broke me, that build me back up, and the ones I hope will stay with me.

“Red likes to feel, it's a fetish. Now, she feels fear”
“You invigored your Shift's war effort and, in so doing, invigorated me”
“Tell me something true, or tell me nothing at all”
“I wanted to be seen. The need dug into the heart of me”
“Ask the pilgrims how the labyrinth came to be, and they offer answers varied as their sins”
“And this letter is a knife at my neck, if cutting's what you want”
“You are yourself, and so remain, as I remain”
“I could have swallowed this valley whole and still not have sated my hunger for the thought”
“But I am a songbird running out of air, and I must breathe”
“Maybe I've over-read the simple word with which you close your letter (but I can never over-read you, and the word you chose is not simple)”
“Wha will I do sky? Bluebird, iris, ultramarine, how can there be more when this is done”