Readers of the blog know how much I love Max Gladstone's works (The Craft Sequece and Empress of Forever) and will no doubt recall my strong praise for Amal El-Mohtar's Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon-winning short story Seasons of Iron and Glass, in my Hugo nominations post from 2017. Thus, it's hardly a surprise that one of my most anticipated reads for 2019 has been this novella. But it might seem like a stretch since I'm not usually a fan of co-written works, spy novels, or epistolary novels. The unique structure of this novella (more on that account on the actual blog review post) takes every advantage of the writers differing styles. Anyone who has followed these authors' writing, social media, or games (yes, games- Max Gladstone has written some pretty cool games) will know which character is written by which author.

Time War tells the story of Blue and Red, two agents who are on opposite sides of the titular time war, a temporal battle that finds them traveling on the strands of time through history and place. From the myriad Atlantises that Red despises to the perfect London Blue loves and to which other Londons can only aspire, we travel with these two agents and read letters that begin as taunts but which evolve into the deepest of bonds- love and respect. Red, in all her earnest lethality, is enriched (infiltrated? flipped?) by Blue's appreciation of the niceties of tea, honey, fine writing paper, scented ink, and her philosophical approach to a war that rapidly becomes secondary to their obsessive relationship with one another. Red and Blue are in some ways trapped in the battle between the technotopia known as the Agency, and the vast organic consciousness known as the Garden, having to cover their tracks to obscure their growing bond and their growing questions about what winning the time war would really mean. What if winning a war could cost you everything you care about most? Where do their loyalties lie? Can they find a way to game the system they are entangled in, and change the paradigm of their leaders' respective wars? Is there a way to win?

Full of deft writing, terrible puns, love, heartbreak, and hope, This is How You Lose the Time War is a beautiful novella, unlike anything I've ever read. It's going to receive great acclaim and a slew of award nominations, as it deserves.


I received a Digital Review Copy and a paper review copy from Saga Press in exchange for an honest review.

Really dig the concept for this one. Took till almost halfway before I really understand what was going on, but I think that's the mark of a good time travel book. So many confusing loops and hoops! I love the Spy vs Spy vibe. The writing is very...what I like to call flowery, but still a pretty great read.

Short and evocative, This is How You Lose the Time War tells the story of two agents, Red and Blue, who work for opposite sides of a war that spans different times and dimensions. They send each other letters like working through assignments such as witnessing the fall of Atlantis for the 30th time or hanging out with Caesar.

The letters are so full of character and so deeply romantic. These two have never met, but their connection absolutely leaps off the page. This book's equivalent of "omg just kiss" is to have one of them confess their feelings. It is satisfying and made me cry a lot.

In addition, I really liked how brief the interim between letters was. Each segment was built on the previous one and mentioned in the letters. The interplay of scene structure is mesmerizing and something worth studying upon a reread.

In short, a gorgeous epistolary which transcends time and space.

This is How You Lose the Time War is a stunning tour de force. An epistolary novel, it follows two agents on different sides of a war, who strike up communication, first as taunts, then friendship, then love. This book is going to achieve all kinds of critical acclaim, and I can’t wait to see where it is recognized. I’m going to be recommending this book at my store and ordering in more copies.

Red and Blue are time travelers working with the Agency and Garden respectively. They thread themselves through time, altering or influencing events in order to win the war. But what happens when these two agents begin a rivalry correspondence over space and time that eventually forms itself into something more?

Wow..

Is the first word I have for this book. It's so uniquely eloquent in its execution and so layered with context and subtext.

What really just stands out the most about this story, at its center, is the love story between these beings that are supposed to be enemies. The book uses the she pronoun for both Red and Blue over the course of the story, but I could really feel like they went beyond these labels and I think this comes through so well in the vastness of the many times that are visited and influenced by them in their varying forms.

It's supposed to be a relatively short read, but for me, it starts out pretty slow going. Slowly as readers become acquainted with the setting and the story, the characters and the conflicts facing them. Each chapter alternates between Red and Blue with an end cap to each of a letter cleverly left in some time for the other. As their familiarity with each other grows and their love, you see the balance from the different time threads change to that of the letters dominating the chapters and I loved how you could feel them becoming comfortable, becoming more to one another through letters alone.

It's heartrending in the idea of Red and Blue's separation not only often by time, but because they are on different sides of a war. There's a lot that can be interpreted in this book, and in various ways based upon the reader, but I felt like Blue represented nature and Red technology. And when taken in that context in this day and age that we will, the warring between continuing to develop technology, but understanding that in doing so oftentimes we sacrifice this planet we live on. You can really see the perspective of the war they have going on. I absolutely loved the subtly of it all. But please note, this is only one, my, interpretation of it all, there are so many possibilities that one could reach.

At the center is, can Red and Blue ever get to a place where they can be together cohesively?

So despite being a short read, it packs quite the punch and has some real beauty to it, yet it's not so philosophical that anyone should feel alienated from its overarching message / story. A really wonderful read.

The description of this book is super promising, but it's overwritten and complex. It reads very slowly, so it's a mercy that it's so short. I absolutely love the concept, though.

I finished this story yesterday, but took awhile to think about it before reviewing. I liked the story, the creativity was an excursion, in a good way... I just enjoyed it.

The overall plot is time-traveling spies start leaving messages for each other in different times... so one agent goes back to start a religion so a certain dynasty comes to power in a few hundred years, while the other agent cuts down some trees so a certain city never gets built, that sort of thing. Inventive, good job.

But I don't know if I liked the ending... I like the open-endedness (I just hope there is NEVER a sequel, just give me this), I like the way the story closes all the loose ends, but I don't know yet what I think about it. I recommended reading the book though, just, I'm so confused about the feelings in my soul. I'll figure it out after a drink and more sleep.

The only real criticism I have is the similarity between the two voices. I know the voices weren't identical, but I would have liked two different voices instead of two similar writing styles.

Read this book though, just for having something you've never experienced before.

This book is like a magic trick, and the authors are surely the greatest magicians of our time.

I'm honestly not sure how else to write this review, what else to say. Time War is the latest of several truly spectacular genre pieces with a literary flare I've been blessed enough to read this year, and all of them have had endings that surprised me into grateful, happy tears. In this world, I've begun to feel like every time I pick up a book and care about its characters, I'm gambling with more than just some idle entertainment. Perhaps it's the books I've read before this, or perhaps it's my increasingly difficult struggles with feelings of anxiety and depression, but good endings don't just feel like winning the lottery. They feel like winning the future back, a little bit at a time.

I hope defiantly happy ending tropes continues to develop in 2019, and beyond. We could all sure use them.

I love epistolary novels. From “Sorcery & Cecilia” to “84 Charing Cross Road”, I love seeing characters reveal themselves through the details they share in their letters, hearing their hopes, fears and frustrations.

In Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar’s “This is How You Lose the Time War”, two opposing agents enter into a correspondence. Professional mocking one upsmanship yields to intense personal curiosity, sharing lush details of existences in different timelines. Red only knows life under the Commandant, Blue only knows Garden. The two know they’re being watched, so they must be careful what information they share. With each letter, they fall a little more in love, but also skirt closer to danger. They are faced with the ultimate decision that is tragic and sad. But it is a time travel book. Earlier clues and stories in the book suddenly become important to the conclusion.

I can’t overstate how much I LOVED this book. I loved the different set pieces, from cursed Atlantis to the Mongol hordes. I loved the authors’ use of the language, how Red and Blue each sounded different. Red talks of her machines, while Blue talks of the burgeoning garden. And yet I couldn’t choose which side I would pick. What would I sacrifice? What does it mean to “win”? This is a book I can’t wait to reread again and again.

Do you have a minute for me to tell you about my favorite read of this year so far? You do? Wonderful. Get cozy and let me pour you a cup of tea and let’s chat.

I have been telling EVERYONE about this book. My Facebook friends, my Bookstagram friends, my cat. I you like time travel, read this book. If you like cute and not explicit Sapphic stories, read this book. If you are nostalgic for the days you didn’t live where people wrote actual letters, read this book.

Let me set the scene. The world is dying and the opposing sides of the Time War (easter eggs throughout for you Whovians) bring very different strengths and weaknesses to the table. Red’s side is all technology. Red is human but she has so many technological advancements inside of her, some may argue she is much more than human. Blue’s side is more about the natural elements, and they have what some would call magic. So basically machines vs. magic. The two are pretty well matched. Red and Blue have been hutning each other across centuries for a long time, but one day, one of them finds a letter that reads, “Burn before reading.” Thus sparks a tentative friendship that leads to love, and our two heroes are faced with some tough decisions.

Yes, this is an enemies to lovers story, but it’s so much more than that. It’s only 200 pages, so you can finish it in one or two sittings. I tore through it in less than a day. The true testament to how much I loved it was that I ordered the hardcover as soon as I finished the eGalley. I haven’t bought a new release in hardcover in three years? Maybe? It’s been a while.

I love the creativity of the letters! The slow build from enemies to friends to loves. My only compliant is that I wanted more. I want to continue this story, and I have, many times, inside my head. I can’t wait to read it again, and it sounds like it’s up your alley, guess what? It’s out today and you can read it, too!

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, and I hope you’ll pick this one up and enjoy it as much as I did.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is a highly recommended epistolary science fiction story.

Red and Blue are rival time traveling special agents from two vastly different cultures/races that are at war. Red is part of the Agency, working for the Commandant, and represents a technological-based manufactured race of AI, while Blue is part of the Garden and represents a biological/organic race of intertwined mass consciousness. They both travel up, down, and along different of time strands to make sure their culture succeeds and flourishes in the future, winning the war.

When Blue leaves a letter for Red on a bloody battlefield of a dying world, what began as a taunt evolves into a friendship and later a romance through letters. The letter read: Burn before reading. Red reads the letter and writes one of her own, leaving it where Blue will find it on one of her assignments. The two proceed to exchange letters in hidden, inventive, creative, unique and unexpected ways across timelines in the future and past. Any discovery of their exchange would mean death for both women.

The narrative alternates between following Red and Blue on their missions and with the letters sent to each other in-between descriptions of their current objective. The two travel across history and the future, both with multiple realities of each time period. This abbreviated novel is composed of expertly crafted exchanges using poetic language. Their romance is one of ideas, thoughts, and emotions, not physical, because they are from such different species.

The strength and the challenge of this novel is in the language because the prose is so poetic, full of metaphors and similes. The world building is there, but vague enough that it might be irksome to many science fiction fans. The focus is not the worlds they are from or how the war between the different future races evolved. Instead the prose covers basically the missions they are on, with the heart of the novel focusing on the burgeoning relationship between these two very different special agents.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Gallery/Saga Press.

http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/07/this-is-how-you-lose-time-war.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2896965294
https://www.librarything.com/work/21713349/book/170912873
https://twitter.com/SheTreadsSoftly/status/1150807266158940167

This is a weirdly beautiful book. It took me by surprise and at first I wasn’t sure about it; so a warning to let you know if this is for you.

1. You walk into a world that is not fully explained. If you’re a person that needs a fully formed and explained world, drop those expectations and know it will be okay. It will be okay!

In simple terms this is a story about two enemies, each fighting on opposite sides of a long running war who fall in love. Now know there is nothing simple about this story. Intriguing stories of soldiers running up and down threads of time to change moments in time for a better outcome for their side that hopefully one day be created in a story in itself. I loved the concept of braiding threads and moving up and down them in time.

Red and Blue each work for opposing sides. They are opposites in many ways and yet very similar in using their soldiers to the detriment of their selves. Both sides choose community over individual. Blue and Red are very skilled at what they do and in the beginning there is admiration in each other’s skill. As they communicate through letters they begin to move past admiration and taunting to sharing moments of their lives and building a knowing of themselves as individuals. This in itself is a revolutionary act. As time passes they share more of themselves with each other and fall in love. Will their commanders learn the truth? Will they arrested, tortured, killed for their acts?

The letters themselves are passed in creative ways to avoid detection. The words are poetry. Filled with ideas and words of the past,some I recognized and others that just sent vibrations through my brain. The weaving of words and ideas that will come back at the end to become part of a plan is brilliant. I will return to this world many times and still not catch all the nuances and wet will remain forever enchanted.

ARC provided in exchange for honest review. 👩‍🔬 (less)

This is a book that’s as impossible to describe as it is to fully understand – and I mean both of those in the best way possible. Still, I’ll try my best.

So. There’s a time war. It’s only ever implied, not explained, who the two sides are, what they’re fighting about, and how the war works. This bothered me at first, but eventually I didn’t mind it. (I feel like that’s what a lot of this review is going to be saying – things that I didn’t like at first but later got used to or came to appreciate. Bear with me.)

Two agents on opposite sides of the war strike up a correspondence, which starts out as taunts as they cleverly foil each other’s plans, then gradually turns into an incomparable, unforgettable love story through time and space.

Have I convinced you to read this yet? No? Let’s keep going.

This is the kind of book that you have to work for in order to understand, but if you put that effort in, the reward is extraordinary. It requires patience. I’ll admit that I often struggle with complex worldbuilding, which is a major facet of this novel, so I spent the first quarter or so being extremely confused. (Luckily this is a short book – only 200 pages! – so that quarter didn’t last too long.) However, once I’d gotten used to it – or more accurately: accepted that I wasn’t going to get answers to every question – I found myself in love.

The story is told through both prose and the letters that Red and Blue, the two agents, leave for each other. I actually enjoyed the letter portions more, and there were moments when I wished the entire book had been told through letters – though eventually I appreciated both sections and saw why each was needed.

The writing is lush and poetic – sometimes a little too poetic for my taste – but undeniably beautiful. This is where rating books gets tricky, because so much of the reason I’m rating this book four stars comes down to personal preference (my struggle to understand the worldbuilding, my preference in writing style, etc.), even though this book is clearly a masterpiece. Despite my near-constant confusion, it made my heart do a lot of things, so make of that what you will.

This is a book about war and its inherent destruction, about the complexities of time travel and each person’s impact on the universe, about two women unlearning what they’ve been taught their entire lives and fighting for a future together – but most of all, it’s a love story. It’s the kind of sweeping, epic love story that makes you want to lie on the floor for an hour listening to “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri on repeat with tears streaming down your face. (Not that I did this…obviously.)

“Love is what we have, against time and death, against all the powers ranged to crush us down.”

Even though there were things about this book that I would have changed if I wanted it to be perfect for me, I know that this is truly an incredible book that a lot of people are going to love. I read it weeks ago and I’m still thinking about it constantly. (Even now, reading through quotes I noted while deciding which ones to include in this review is making my heart ache.) Honestly, it’s one of those books that I wish I could study in a class so I could analyze each word and attempt to uncover every hidden secret that this book holds.

So if you’re willing to put a little effort in, this book will undoubtedly reward you with a beautiful, emotional sci-fi love story that defies every expectation!

“Dearest, deepest Blue– At the end as at the start, and through all the in-betweens, I love you.”

ALL THE STARS!!

I'm not sure if I'm reeling from that ending or how the entire book wove and threaded and braided its way into my heart and soul, and how I fell hard for Red and Blue and their long games.

It all begins with ruthless agent of the Agency Red finds a letter that reads, "Burn before reading." In it, she finds a taunt, a challenge—her greatest foe has revealed herself. And off she goes in a cat and cat game of win-lose-win, sneaky subterfuge and long and short games of chance and espionage with her enemy, Blue, agent of the Garden.

But slowly, throughout the years and strands of time and different worlds, their relationship turns into something else. Is it love? Or are they both playing each other to get their side to win? But their time together is running out. Something is following them.

Fuck I loved this. It kept twisting and turning so deliciously, with little seeds planted and grown throughout until the grand reveal at the end.

And their letters! They started with so much humor and taunting and that competition blossomed into something more—or is it??—and even their relationship was filled with so many twisty-turny ahas that you never really quite know if their feelings are sincere or just another play to get their side to win.

The letters were definitely my favorite part, and this is my absolute favorite quote of the entire book because it captures their initial feelings so well.
Ha-a Blueser. Your mission objective's in another castle.
Hugs and kisses,
Red
PS The keyboard's coated in slow-acting contact poison. You'll be dead in an hour."

So think of this as Spy Vs Spy meets Romeo and Juliet, with two time-crossed spies meeting on a battlefield and engaging in a secret correspondence romance despite being diametrically opposed foes. Also, maybe it's just me but I felt heavy allusions to Red vs Blue, which is hilarious and should be watched by everyone who played video games in the early 2000s (specifically old Halo). Or maybe it's the plot of The Lake House, but with science fiction, Advanced Robotics vs Advanced Gardening, and spies, and without the bad haircuts and Keanu Reeves.

Anywho, if you enjoy time travel, sapphic romance, spy shit, lyrical writing, slow burn romance and madcap capers throughout time, this is a must read.

Also, I must get a copy of the comedy-version of Romeo and Juliet. Anyone wanna hook me up?

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

4.5 stars

This Is How You Lose the Time War: Great blend of style, structure, and imagination
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

To: Reviewer
Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone are coming out with a new book — This Is How You Lose the Time War — and I was wondering when you would finally get around to reviewing it.

Reader


To: Reader
Contrary to what you apparently think, we reviewers don’t get the pages as the writers compose them. Plus, we do have lives. That said, I’d already requested an early copy because Gladstone’s CRAFT sequence is so damn good, and I’ve read nothing but praise about El-Mohtar’s work. So it’s in my TBR pile. Review to come.

Busily,
Reviewer


Reviewer:
“Review to come”? Gee, can you vague that up for me? It’s a novella; how long can it take to read?

Impatiently,
Reader


Reader:
Turns out not that long at all. In fact, I read it twice it was so good. Writing the review now.

Reviewer

P.S. Nice Buffy reference


Reviewer:
Here’s hoping it’s not one of those self-indulgent “in the style of the book” reviews. I hate those.

Fearfully,
Reader

Reader:
Sucks to be you then.

Self-indulgently,
Reviewer


Reviewer:
If only your reviews aimed for the brevity of your last reply.

Resignedly,
Reader


Dear Reader:
OK, I confess, your last response made me laugh so loudly I scared my cat. You’re not the first to comment on my tendency to wordiness, but few have done it so smartly. By the way, did you know This is How You Lose the Time War was an epistolary novella? Kind of funny if you think about it. Anyway, here’s a, ahem, “brief” summary to tide you over.

The war is between the Garden (ecological, organic, bio-engineered group mind society) and the Agency (technologically based, cybernetic enhanced, disembodied, networked society), or as one character puts it: “My viney-hivey elfworld versus your techy-mechy dystopia.” Each sends agents through alternate time “threads” to manipulate events so as to dominate the future across all threads. The best Agency agent is “Red,” the best Garden one “Blue.” The two begin as adversaries, but through a series of viney-hivey, techy-mechy, and timey-wimey communiques (via wildly creative media such as tree rings, lava flows, tea leaves, and even more ingenious ones), they at first taunt each other, then learn more about each other, then eventually fall in love.

Concisely,
Reviewer


Dear Reviewer,
Thanks for the summary. So it’s basically Romeo and Juliet if Romeo were a cyborg and Juliet a grown-in-a-vat eco-clone? Huh. So is it poetically tragic? Or tragically poetic?

Even more intrigued,
Reviewer

P.S. I saw what you did with the Dr. Who allusion


Dear Reader,
There’s actually a winking reference to Romeo and Juliet in the book, so not a bad comparison. And it is in fact quite poetic. These are clearly two authors in love with words, with language and all it can do. For such a short text, it’s dense with allusion, puns, imagery, metaphor and simile. Here is Blue, for instance, writing to Red: “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.” And here is Red writing back: “Do you laugh, sea foam? Do you smile, ice, and observe your triumph with an angel’s remove? Sapphire-flamed phoenix, risen, do you command me once again to look upon your works and despair?” Nice, huh?

As for whether or not it’s tragic, well, no spoilers here. I will say it’s sharply poignant and moving in places, particularly in its latter sections.

P.S. Nice catch on the timey-wimey reference. Dr. Who. Buffy. We appear to be working from the same fan backlog.

Best,
Reviewer


Dear Reviewer,
Now you’ve got me nervous about the whole “tragic” thing, though of course I appreciate the no spoilers. Sigh. “I am to wait, though waiting so be hell.” I’m jealous of your early access to books! I did like those examples (“wick the longing” is especially good), but I confess I’m also a little anxious. Is the entire novella like that? I like an elevated style as much as the next person, but I need a story too. Or characters to care about.

Hoping for two out of three,
Reader


Dear Reader,
Let me immediately assuage your fears. This is not one of those gorgeously written works that you can admire but maybe not enjoy. First, the entire novella isn’t written in that same poetic style I quoted; instead, the language starts out “prose-y” and becomes more lyrical as the story progresses in a nice mirror of the emotional progression. Secondly, there is absolutely a story arc here; meticulously, cleverly plotted and marked by several twists, though one I thought was telegraphed surprisingly early and directly (honestly, so much so I’m not sure it was meant to be a big twist). That said, those looking for a war story (not unreasonable given the title) or space opera should look elsewhere. The war is always present, but it’s more impressionistic backdrop than narrative focus (though the attacks and counter-attacks, brief as the descriptions are of them, are wonderfully evocative). As for the characters, they both change and open up throughout the story — to each other and to the reader — such that you’ll care about them singly and with regard to their relationship to each other. So no fears, you get all three — style, story, and character.
Patience, tame to sufferance.

Your vassal,
Reviewer

P.S.
The review is should be up in a few days. But since you prefer brevity, the least I can do for a fellow Buffy-Doctor Who-Shakespeare fan is offer up a short version: This is How You Lose the Time War is a precisely plotted, densely lyrical and wonderfully imaginative science fiction romance whose riches are both stylistic and emotional. You should read it.


Dear Reviewer,
Thanks for the minimalist review (I know how hard that must have been for you), but I admit — though I will deny ever saying this — comparing that to what you wrote in your emails, I think I’ll actually prefer the wordy version. So write away my friend. Write away . . .

Eagerly awaiting,
Reader

P.S. Nice volley back on the Shakespeare.


Dear Reader,
The review is up. I’m curious as to what you think. Also, I’ve realized that the “minimalist review” is not in fact the “least I could do.” Do you know anyone, cough cough, who might be interested in a slightly-used, read-only-once advance copy of This is How You Lose the Time War two weeks before it’s released to the public? Because I know someone who has a copy they’re willing to send out . . .

Your friend,
Reviewer


Dear Reviewer,
I think I love you!

Beautiful and surreal story of two enemies on opposing sides of a time travel cold war whose correspondence bonds them together in unexpected ways. Phenomenally good.

"Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere."

When I first started reading this novel, I was wildly confused. I didn't understand the characters, the world building, or even what was going on. Had I not read about the time travel in the blurb, I am not sure I would have picked up on that at first either.

As I started pondering what I had gotten myself into with this novel, I slowly found myself falling in love. After a few chapters, I didn't even care a bit about any of those things. I wasn't trying to figure out the plot or the world anymore. Not even the characters all that much.

"Blue sees her chosen name reflected everywhere around her: moon-slicked floes, ocean thick with drift ice, glass churned to liquid"

I completely fell in love with the writing of this story. With the imagery, the colors, the incredible choices of words. It was like reading poetry in prose format. It was like reading a painting. I can't even describe how beautiful this story felt to read.

"...every evening I see a red sky bleed over blue water and think of us."

I fell in love with the characters and how they fall for each other. I fell in love with the ways they expressed their love and the creativity in the way they shared their letters with each other. The creativity in the way they solve the conundrums they find themselves in. The juxtaposition of the beauty of the world they create for each other vs the violent one they actually live in.

"But when I think of you, I want to be alone together. I want to strive agains and for. I want to live in contact. I want to be a context for you, and you for me."

I can tell you that this story is weird and confusing and I am not sure I understood many of the things that happened in it. The world building was still blurry for me by the end. The plot, outside of their love for each other, had too many parts that left me unclear, too. But, alas, none of that mattered for me. The way this book made me feel surpassed anything else that mattered about the book.

I fell in love with it hook, line and sinker.

My feelings about THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR are most succinctly put as: it's not you, it's me. The concept and format of the novel is ingenuitive and deftly handled, but the voices unfortunately didn't capture me like I was hoping they would. I had some issues with pacing as well. I can think of half a dozen people I know who'll love this book, and the same number who'll want to chuck it across the room. I think this is going to be a very polarizing title come awards season.

This book wasn't the book for me, but I was very appreciative to have a review copy, as it will be a great fit for our store. This is a unique, lighthearted, story, and I would certainly recommend this to sci fi and space opera fans, especially for those looking for something fun for the summer.

2.5 stars. This was hard for me to read, like maybe it was too cerebral or trying to be that, but either way, I felt like I didn’t really ever understand the war or the time travel system, or really the characters very much. I did like the last few scenes and thought they were interesting. I struggled to convince myself to pick it up, and for such a short book it took me a whole month to get through.