This is How You Lose the Time War

This is one of those books that's tough to describe but impossible to forget. It’s a sci-fi, time-traveling, spy-vs-spy love story told in a way that feels more like a narrative poem than a straightforward novel. Let me be clear: this isn't a book for a drifting mind. You have to pay close attention, but the payoff is a story that really sticks with you.

The story follows two rival agents, Red and Blue, who are on opposite sides of a vast temporal war. Red is part of a tech-heavy, machine-like society, while Blue serves a nature-based, garden-like consciousness. They weave through history to alter events and secure victory for their respective futures. But one day, on a bloody battlefield, Red finds a letter from Blue, and so begins a correspondence that spans millennia. The amorphous, shape-shifting nature of these two characters is fascinating; one moment they're human, the next they're part of a hive mind, or even living water. They leave messages for each other in the rings of a tree, the ingredients of a tea, or the seeds of a fruit, risking everything for a connection with their sworn enemy.

What starts as professional taunting and clever barbs slowly, beautifully, blossoms into something much deeper. You get to watch as these two powerful beings, who have only known war and duty, begin to admire and then truly fall for one another through their letters. It’s a classic Romeo and Juliet tale, but instead of feuding families in Verona, you have god-like entities battling across all of space and time. The risk they take with every exchanged word is immense, and you can feel the tension build as their secret connection becomes the most dangerous game of all.

While I loved this book, I won't pretend it was an easy read. The language is dense and packed with figurative language, so you have to work for the story. But that’s also its greatest strength. It’s a book that forces you to slow down, to think, and to appreciate the artistry of every single sentence. It’s not the kind of story you like in the same way you like a fast-paced thriller; it's one you admire for its cleverness and its heart. For making me think and forcing me to pay attention, this one is a solid four stars.

Amal El-Mothar and Max Gladsonte's "This is How You Lose the Time War" follows two agents, Red and Blue, on opposite sides of a war that spans all of time and (some of?) space across multiple universes.

Each chapter starts with a snapshot of what each agent is doing to advance their side's cause, whether that's taking part in major historical events or planting the seeds for 'coincidences' in the future, and ends with the discovery of a letter from their counterpart. What begins as acknowledgements of respect, nods across the battlefield, gradually grow into something more.

Fans of science fiction may be disappointed by the lack of focus on the time-traveling, universe-hopping backdrop to this story of star-crossing lovers. Details are sparse, and little is disclosed about the factions or why they are at war other than hints and impressions throughout the book.

The gradual, tip-toeing romance between Red and Blue via their elegantly composed letters is the strength of this book. There is a sweetness as the characters, hovering just beyond what one might call "human", discover that they are capable of such love, and for who should be their mortal enemy, no less. Readers who never tire of "Romeo and Juliette" will find much to love in "This is How You Lose the Time War".

I can't decide if this would have worked better (for me) as a short story, or a full length book. If it was longer, it could have expanded on it's ideas. If it had been shorter, it wouldn't have felt so repetetive.

There is some good ideas here, but they deserve better than being hand waved away. How do Red and Blue target their letters to each other across strands of time? If there are certain contested junctures in time, shouldn't they be swarmed with agents, and multiple aspects of the same agents? If the protagonists are just cogs in two massive opposing machines battling for supremacy over all time - why does it seems like they are the only two operators in the field?

I'm not saying this is a bad book, there is a lot good writing here. But it didn't work for me. Two highly subjective stars. (I'm going to hold of actually rating as there are so few reviews here yet)

"This is How You Lose the Time War" asks the reader to perch on the shoulders of two operatives on opposing sides of a time-traveling war.

Each chapter follows "Red" or "Blue" as they scurry up and down timelines and across dimensions. The book is both sweepingly broad and extremely contained and personal.

The settings flit by, dizzying: a temple for mechanized humans, an ancient holy cave, the assassination of Caesar - each sketched with broad, emotional strokes to give the setting an aesthetic. One gets the sense that a great web of cause and effect is being constantly constructed, altered, and destroyed, without ever seeing the full picture.

Against these backdrops, the characters "Red" and "Blue" write to each other - as nemeses, then as friends, ever deeper entangled even as they demolish each other's plans and forces. The letters make up an enormous part of the experience, and they are comic, intimate... poignant. I didn't give a damn about the war - I just wanted these two characters to be alright.

I loved it. I stayed up past midnight every day I was reading, which wasn't long because I had to see what came next and kept reading.