Certainly clever and imaginative, but the jury is still out on whether this ultimately was a satisfying read. I like the unique premise, and it is beneficial to receive the story from both Red and Blue as well as being privy to their correspondence that displays the development and deepening of their relationship. I wish that I had been able to stay within the characters' headspaces a little longer in order to fully grasp their experiences and the state of their world; getting this in mere slivers was often frustrating. Although I thought about throwing in the towel early on, I chose to stick with the book mainly due to its brief length. Perhaps someone smarter than I am can enlighten me on the true meaning of all that occurred on these pages.

Whoa. Just…whoa. Another candidate for “best of 2019” for me. It’s like someone distilled almost everything I like into one book – exquisite prose, a high dose of weirdness, a queer relationship, a more literary feel, experimental structure – and the end result is breathtaking. Brilliant in a way I’m not sure a review can illustrate. It has to be read to be believed.

(Footnote for fans of the romance genre: for the sake of proper expectations, this is a love story but is not romance genre-wise – if anyone rec’d it as such…🤦)

The plot is so simple it’s almost not worth describing: two rival agents from the opposite sides of the time war start exchanging letters in secret. A tale as old as time (heh). You can probably guess the broad strokes of where it goes from there and you’d probably be correct, too. But I don’t think reducing it like this does it justice. Not even close. It’s two lives circling around each other but never quite touching. It’s loneliness and longing and finding solace in each other, the war be damned. Technology and nature. It’s heady and strange, a book to be savoured rather than devoured.

The prose is ridiculously good. Absolutely on the stained glass side – poetic, reminiscent of Samatar’s The Winged Histories, and practically begging to be read out loud. I could drown in it; I don’t know how to give it higher praise than that. Another thing that reminds me of The Winged Histories is that the war itself, which would be front and centre in most books, is merely a background detail, context for the characters and their interactions (the true main focus) but largely glossed over. The alternation between letters and chapters describing where they find them adds to the disconnect. To be clear, it’s nowhere near a bad thing – just different. Unconventional.

And it’s weird in terms of setting, too. Profoundly, gloriously weird. It’s a world where poetry is the answer to math riddles, where letters are written in seeds and water and poison and hidden behind eyes, where everything including time is fluid and seemingly anything goes. After all, all is fair in love and war. And that’s the beauty of it. Relax, enjoy the wild ride.

I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, as it’s highly experimental fare, but those of us who fall for the stuff will fall hard. It’s absolutely my catnip and I can already see it winning all the awards.

Recommended to literary fantasy fans, prose fans, those looking for f/f representation, anyone who enjoyed The Gray House / The Winged Histories / The Only Harmless Great Thing / City of Saints and Madmen

I love the concept of this book, and some bits are super creative and interesting, but the style just didn't really work for me. The constant switches between epistolary and regular prose sections -- not to mention the fact that the two protagonists, known as Red and Blue, sound exactly the same -- made it quite difficult to follow which POV was being expressed at any given time. And throughout, the writing was just extremely poetical. I am glad that poetical sci-fi queer romance exists, but I guess it's just not my favorite subgenre!

I enjoyed the last third, in which some relevant world building and context are finally (FINALLY!) revealed, including some much needed dialogue from additional characters. All of this brought life and narrative tension where before there had been precious little of either.

Ultimately, this is an "Emperor's New Clothes" kind of book. That is, the kind that makes many readers afraid to admit that they didn't like it, or didn't get it, for fear of everyone else thinking they are dumb or uncool. To all such readers: it's not just you.

“I keep turning away from speaking of your letter. I feel – to speak of it would be to contain what it did to me, to make it small. I don’t want to do that. I suppose in some ways, I’m more Garden’s child than she knows.

Even poetry, which breaks language into meaning – poetry ossifies, in time, the way trees do. What’s supple, whipping, soft, and fresh grows hard, grows armo. If I could touch you, put my finger to your temple and sink you into me the way Garden does – perhaps then. But I would never.

So this letter instead.

I ramble, it seems, when writing to the darkness by hand. How embarrassing. I’m quite certain I’ve never rambled a day in my life before this. Another thing to give to you: this first, for me.

Yours,

-Blue”

This book is poetic, romantic, strange, and violent – a whirlwind of emotion, fear, and firsts. Two soldiers fighting on opposite sides of a war up and down through the strands of time find that their greatest joy lies in each other, and thus begin a correspondence. They are two parallel lines that never meet despite having shaped one another through each of their interactions.

Whatever I can say about this novella will not do it justice. This book is utterly, wholly, an experience in and of itself. It’s the act of reading the prose. It’s the empathy you feel at the characters’ want for one another. Honestly, if you want to know whether you’ll like this book… read an excerpt on Amazon, because the first few pages will definitely tell you whether or not this is for you.

Red is an agent of the Commandant – she is violence and destruction, tearing worlds and civilisations down across time to force history upon a new path.

“She holds a corpse that was one a man, her hands gloved in its guts, her fingers clutching its alloy spine. She lets go, and the exoskeleton clatters against the rock. Crude technology. Ancient. Bronze to depleted uranium. He never had a chance. That is the point of Red."

Blue is an agent of Garden – she cultures timelines by pruning and training the strands far in advance, setting up a new avenue for the future to grow into.

“When Blue wins – which is always – she moves on to the next thing. She savors her victories in retrospect, between missions, recalls them only while travelling (upthread into the stable past or downthread into the fraying future) as one recalls beloved lines of poetry. She combs or snarls the strands of time’s braid with the finesse or brutality required of her, and leaves.”

Each follows one another across the various strands of time, intersecting with one another, undoing each other, delighting in the cleverness of their counterpart. What Blue sets in motion, Red endeavors to destroy; what Red destroys, Blue has planned for and planted a pyrophytic seed ready to sprout in the smoldering flames left behind. Through it all, they write letters in lava, in poison, and in the very fibers of the universe itself.

“The shifting colors form words that last mere moments, in handwriting now familiar. As the lava flows, those words change. She reads.”

. . .

“. . . Hunger, Red – to sate a hunger or to stoke it, to feel hunger as a furnace, to trace its edges like teeth – is this a thing you, singly, know? Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened it so keen and bright that it might split you open, break a new thing out?

Sometimes I think that’s what I have instead of friends.

I hope it isn’t too hard to read this. Best I could do on short notice – hope it reaches you before the island breaks around you.

Write to me in London next.

-Blue”

In one another, they find the connection they’ve been lacking. They have no true peers, for they are each the best of the best, and no friends within their ranks who they can relate to. They are solitary, alone, and hungry for the empathy of one who can understand. Yet, what they crave destroys them, piece by piece, as their warring civilizations clash and churn, forcing them to tear themselves down to protect the other.

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone are a team that we neither deserved nor expected. This is a small masterpiece.

My process reading this book went like this
30% - I don't like this, I think I'm going to put it down (I did not)
50% - Holy crap, this is fascinating. I'm not invested but I am interested
75% - I'm so freaking invested in this I can't stop reading
100% - Holy shit that was good.

Told in epistolary format and alternating chapters that provide a glimpse into the lives of Blue and Red, This is How You Lose the Time War is unlike anything else I've read. This is a weird book, and I don't think it will be for everyone. It's poetic and sharp, no one feeds you the world building on a spoon and it takes some time to put together the pieces. In short, it's a romance between enemies on opposite sides of a war. But it's nothing so simple.

I'm not sure what I just read. This book is totally unique. I kept trying to find symbolism or perhaps a parallel to another work of art. I felt like I wanted to take a class to study it. And I'll probably spend an inordinate amount of time in book forums trying to figure it out. Poetic, so poetic, yet sci-fi. I wanted to know more about the Agency and the Garden. What do they really represent? The management of time and time travel in this book was also unique to any other time slippage novels I've read. Strands of time were braided and our protagonists could travel up and down them to different points in time. However the concepts were kept very abstract. The story is actually told in letters back and forth between the two protagonists, though not necessarily the type of letter you write or type. This is where the author shines. The creativity is outstanding. Communicating through mediums perhaps like plants or animals? Now I'll have to research this! This book is not for everyone but it is not one I'll soon forget.

This book is everything. THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING.

This is the best thing I've read since Circe ripped my heart out last year. 

It's one of those precious, rare books that somehow managed to leave me in great, gasping, sobs, but also feeling full to bursting. The kind that feels like it's carved itself into the squishy meat of my heart.

That was just........... So perfect. SO PERFECT.

In this book, the story is told of two agents of competing agencies who are competing to win a war over time and what the world will look like. I found the story engaging and easy to read. However, I would have liked to see more world building, as it often felt confusing to keep track of what was happening in the story. I also thought that the character development could have been improved, as there were often vague descriptions of the motivations of the characters.

Red and Blue are agents from opposite sides of an eons-long war between two factions, continuously sent back in time to change the past (Terminator-style) with the intent of altering the future. Their first communication is through letters - an exchange in which each takes pleasure in thwarting the other. Over time, the connection turns into something more, a connection that could cost them their lives if discovered. The story is told via alternating viewpoints, with Amal El-Mohtar writing one protagonist's perspective and Max Gladstone writing the other. The narrative starts out slowly, with the first 20% of the book providing snippets of world-building interspersed by letters, and only after the connection between Red and Blue deepen does additional knowledge about the overarching world emerge. I liked the concept of the book but my personal preference is for a richer and more complex story. The ending was a bit rushed, and a little bit too convenient, but overall still an enjoyable read.

This is a really special book. I had read a description of it online before this ARC became available and was immediately intrigued; I was happy to discover the execution did not disappoint. I plan on reading it again, because I'm sure I missed details and subtleties the first time around, but I loved the vivid language, the bond between Red and Blue, and the portrayal of love as the ultimate revolutionary act. I'll definitely be recommending this to people.

I very much enjoyed the character-building, the dance between Red and Blue throughout time and space, and the world(s) they live in. Nothing was overdone or heavy-handed, but everything was aching with meaning and left me wanting more. The writing was beautiful, and the world-building was grand. A lovely read.

This is interesting and different. There seems to be mostly love for this book with a few un-lovers and I understand why. With an unusual writing style it was not a book to skim. But I like sci-fi and this was uniquely entertaining. Not great for me, but very good. I probably need to read it again. Nonetheless, I recommend this, particularly if you're not looking for a quick read.

I really appreciate the complimentary copy for review!!

A beautifully rendered love story, which may or may not end happily, but tha't what time travel is for. Lyrical prose, as deft as poetry. Highly recommended.

This book is absolutely beautifully written, for starters. It’s also often indescribably weird… but not in a bad way. Not at all.

This book basically follows two agents from rival sides in a war across time as they communicate with each other, becoming closer with each letter.

Most of the letters are very uniquely presented, whether in tea leaves, or lava from an erupting volcano about to engulf Atlantis, and so on and so forth. They are in different periods of time, or places on Earth, some of which only happened in some times, and some of which did actually occur in our own timeline, and Red, an agent of The Agency, and Blue, an agent of Garden, always just miss each other, or are observed from afar by the other.

Red and Blue are both strange and interesting people. They are human, or, at least humanoid (most of the time. At least one of them is a shapeshifter, you see). Both female, and both either genetically modified and grown, decanted, and heavily modified with cybernetic implants.

So, it is obviously super unique, and it was, in fact, unlike anything I’ve ever read in my life. Seeing these two women get closer and closer, and their letters get more and more intimate as the book goes on was really, really enthralling. The letters were absolutely stunningly written (but then, so were the parts between them), and I was clamoring for the next one and the next one as the book went on.

There were times that I would have literally no idea what was going on, but, and this is going to sound odd, but stay with me here… it was all part of the experience.

Example:
-

“What is the value of pi to sixty-two decimals?”

“‘The sedge is withered from the lake, / And no birds sing.'”

A fistful of snow skitters across Siri’s face. “If train A leaves Toronto at six p.m. travelling east at one hundred kilometers an hour, and train B leaves Ottawa at seven p.m. travelling west at one hundred twenty kilometers per hour, when will they cross?”

“‘Lo! the spell now works around thee, / And the clankless chain hath bound thee; / O’er thy heart and brain together / Hath the word been pass’d—now wither!'”

-

This is only part of the scene, but what is basically happening here, is that Blue is responding to mathematical problems by quoting famous poems (Keats and Lord Byron in this case).

But I have no idea why! There is no explanation to why poetry is the solution to math problems in these riddles, only that they are, and that’s just how it is. And at first, I will admit that I stumbled on it, haaard. “What the fffuu-” said I, at first. But I shrugged it off as a weird book being weird and continued on reading. When I finished, and started writing this review, I looked up that quote on my kindle again and was like ‘Heh… awesome.” like it wasn’t the most random event ever. It was just… part of the whole.

So this book isn’t going to be for everyone, but it was certainly for me, in the end, even if I had to take a bit of time in the beginning to really get my bearings on what exactly was happening. I really enjoyed this book, but like I have no idea why poetry solves math, I have no idea what it was about it (other than the beautiful writing, good gods) that captured me and wouldn’t let me go. But that’s what happened.

Thanks to the authors, as well as Saga Press via NetGalley for the review copy.

This book is made of words.

Depending on your preferred flavor of literalism, I imagine you are now protesting either, "But so is every book," or, "Strictly speaking, this book is made of 1s and 0s encoded in the circuits of your phone." I mean something specific by my claim, though: certain sound-focused writers, especially science fiction poets (Amal El-Mohtar, Sonya Taaffe, Yoon Ha Lee sometimes) pile word on coruscating word, glistering. If you're an image-focused reader like me, the effect can be almost too much: each word is its own picture, layered, overbalancing. I worried about that effect, approaching This Is How You Lose the Time War: would I be overwhelmed? Certainly this is a book focused on individual words and associated separate images--agents braid time and dance through it, and you never quite learn how or wherefore, the process is the point--but I had underestimated the sheer exuberant fun of it. This Is How You Lose the Time War is an accurate title: it's a dare, from one agent to another.

It took me a little while to settle into reading, in large part because I was trying to sort out the differences between the two characters: one is named Red and one Blue, and about half the book is letters from Red to Blue about what Blue might be doing or vice versa, so it's easy to coast along in ambiguity. I eventually--more slowly than might seem warranted--arrived at the mnemonic that blue is like green and Blue is from the Garden future, where everything is more or less a growing plant. Meanwhile, Red is from a future of machines and artificially enhanced intelligences.

Red's first letters to Blue are aggressively silly (timey-wimey something something). The book's first shift in tone involves a ridiculous, over-the-top, embodied pun. I was hooked in around that point, the moment that Red and Blue shift from writing to each other as enemies to writing as rivals who might understand one another. The story shifts again after Red's superior, the Commandant, realizes that an agent from the other faction has taken an interest in her, and shifts once more as Red reacts to Blue's reaction. Somewhere in there I started sending my friends messages consisting entirely of exclamation marks.

The ending is complete unto itself: the promise of a love story and the promise of a universes-spanning, time-spanning rivalry, woven in together.

3.5 stars

I'll admit, I was confused by much of This Is How You Lose the Time War; it's set during a war, one that's throughout time, so there's a lot of jumping around and whatnot. I found myself skimming the chapters, and this is a novella so there's not much to skim.

However, it's in the letters where this book shines. Red and Blue are soldiers on opposite sides of the war, and they play a cat and mouse game across time, slowly falling in love. Their letters portray an ache that only gay literature can capture, honestly. I highlighted so many lines in both of their letters because it was hard not to feel their yearning and hunger for more, for a better life together. This book was truly peak gay literature.

This is a story told in vignettes and letters between Red and blue, agents on opposite sides of the time war. The book was an interesting idea, but it read more as a thought experiment that a novel. I did not care much for either character because they stayed as a sketch and not a fully realized personality. There are no side characters and the different threads are only lightly described so it begins to feel repetitive in parts. The ending was nice but a long time coming and while there was a nice reveal, the ultimate ending was no surprise.

I’m gonna be honest: I had no idea what was going on for a lot of this book. The fact that I’m still giving it 4 stars is a testament to the beautiful writing of the authors. The writing is VERY poetic and, while this book can be classified as sci-fi because of the time travel aspect, I can see a lot of sci-fi fans disliking this. This is because it focuses primarily on the love story between the two main characters, Red and Blue and not the time travel. In fact, while we know a war is going on (one that involves time travel), I couldn’t actually tell you what the war was over and who exactly the two sides fighting it were. This was a little disheartening. However, while I do wish that the plot and the secondary characters had been fleshed out more, I can’t deny that I really enjoyed this book. I was mesmerized by it. I downed it in a day and a half, which is becoming increasingly rare for me to do.

I LOVED this book. This is How You Lose the Time War is about two rivals on opposite sides of a war between two time travelling societies - Garden, where the agents are entwined with nature, and Agency, where the agents are cyborgs. As they wind their way backwards and forward through history, one side will light a fire and the other will try to put it out, on and on. Blue and Red, the two rivals, begin as antagonists taunting each other through letters, but those letters change in nature over time. This is a very difficult book to describe, but it was wonderful. Partially told through their letters, and partially through narrative, we see glimpses of their missions, and each one could be a saga on its own. This book was so unique and I'm so glad to have read it. Highly recommended.

Put simply, a fantastic book. A work of art disguised as a story. This is as close as modern literature has gotten to mythology in a long while. The characters and their world are faintly drawn but by the end of the book, they're both so clearly seen you could reach out and touch them. There are so many gorgeous turns of phrase that I wanted to quote them all (but I won't quote any; they deserve to be read in their proper context). I'm running the risk of being too effusive in my praise, but I think a book like this deserves it. It's a story that can easily (and should) be read over and over again.