Thanks to Quercus Books and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Where does one even begin when reviewing a book like this?

In the simplest of terms, this book is about Red and Blue. Two interdimensional agents who fight in an endless war across time and space. That sounds like a really cool premise because it IS.

After a mission, Red finds a letter from Blue and from here an unconventional sapphic love affair blossoms. The rest of the story is told from their letters to one another. It's never quite made clear what form of life Red and Blue are. Certainly they can take the form of humans, but their relationship transcends the bounds of humanity and time so it actually doesn't really matter.

This is a gorgeously written and imaginative novella that is utterly unconventional in its style. It certainly won't be for everyone and some people will undoubtedly find it a tad pretentious. When I was reading this book I was reminded of the writing and narrative style I encountered in Catherynne Valente's "Deathless" so if lyrical and poetic language and ambiguities are not your thing...maybe skip this one.

What I really enjoyed about this book was how ridiculously invested I became in the relationship between Red and Blue, they were just so gosh darn romantic. I'm partial to the enemies to lovers trope as it is, but this story just took it to the next level. It's a short read but I lingered over it more than I would a full length novel just so I could savour the experience. Let's face it, if Madeline Miller says it's good you know it's going to be amazing. Perfection *chef kiss*

Red is a member of the Agency, led by the Commandant, a entity of technology and determined to rewrite the timeline in its own favour. Blue was nurtured by the Garden, a rival agent in a war that spans countless centuries and endless timelines. This is the time war - a fight for dominance between equals and opposites. These two agents fight both the long and the short game - a quick murder here, a change of direction there, or influencing entire cultures in order to gain a brief victory.

Then, after one mission, Red finds a letter marked 'burn before reading' and an unlikely correspondance, written across the stars and entire universes, begins between these two rivals.

What I particularly loved about this novella was the imagination involved on so many levels - creating worlds that were both similar and different to our own, one based in a distant history, the another in the stars - and the myriad of creative ways that Red and Blue used them to communicate.

And beyond that is the lyrical, building romance between Red and Blue. Not only does it make me happy that this is a f/f romance, but on the other hand it makes no difference to the quality of the story whether they were m/m, robot/robot or any other combination - it's about two beings from opposite sides that are so different that they are the same. And finding that connection that you didn't realise your were missing, even though they are off-limits (opposing factions in a war than spans the whole of time), can change from enemies to romance.

More importantly, it's admiration for each other as enemies, turning to romance, but done well.

I also loved that this sci fi romance novella could manage all of that on the barest outline of imagination - so much of TIHYLTTW is based around the reader's imagination too - it almost doesn't matter what the politics are around the Agency and Garden, or how strings and strands and threads and braids work - they add to the fairytale glow and imaginative creativity that is down to the reader to embrace.

Five glorious stars - and an eagerness to read again (although I shouldn't just yet).

"You've whetted me like a stone. I feel almost invincible in our battles' wake: a kind of Achilles, fleet footed and light of touch. Only in this nonexistent place our letters weave do I feel weak."

Amal El-Mohtar wrote that this book is Florence + the Machine’s LUNGS if you assume that all the songs are sung to women, and this is absolutely what got me to read this book.

"I'll be all the poets, I'll kill them all and take each one's place in turn, and every time love's written in the strands it will be to you."

Florence + the Machine, to me, evokes an oil slick of raven feathers, gold and jewels and tarnished crowns, blood on snow, a tearing of the world. Drama, on an epic, transcendent scale, unashamed emotion, and breath and fire and ice and war - and fairy tales.

"What do I want? Understanding. Exchange. Victory. A game - hiding and discovery ... If we're to be at war, we might as well entertain one another. Why else did you taunt me at the start?"

This Is How You Lose the Time War tells the story of two women on the opposite sides of a war: Red,  an extension of the Agency, a dytopian calculating cyberpunk faction; Blue, an agent of the Garden, of green growing things, sacrifice, poisoned beauty. Different bodies, different worlds, different endings to a war spanning endless universes, always pitted against each other, tugging and rearranging timelines to cast one or the other in favour. Playing the long game, taking on personas for entire lifetimes, living out forty years in the wilderness just to snag the smallest thread of the loom of the universe and tally another win.

"There's a kind of time travel in letters, isn't there? I imagine you laughing at my small joke; I imagine you groaning; I imagine you throwing my words away. Do I have you still? Do I address empty air and the flies that will eat this carcass?"

They write letters to each other, taunting at first, decades between replies, lifetimes to formulate a response, to find a letter written on bones at the bottom of a cave, on the rings inside a dead tree - and then, quicker, and quicker, as they unburden themselves to one another, as taunts become jokes become sincerity and longing. The letters are breadcrumb trail, seeded through the timelines, hidden in smoke, in water, in lava, in a pouch of seeds.

"I love you and I love you and I love you, on battlefields, in shadows, in fading ink, on cold ice splashed with the blood of seals. In the rings of trees. In the wreckage of a planet crumbling into space."

The lush, glorious, passionate correspondence between Red and Blue absolutely blew me away - from rivalry, to curiosity, to tentative friendship, to truth, to love, to resolve. For every step between them, I was there. Their letters were love letters to me, too, every secret unfurled clutched to my chest, every hand outstretched clasped by mine in return. I breathed with them, trembled with them, laughed with them, and raged with them. They held hands against the world, and broke time to make themselves a future.

"I write to you in stings, Red, but this is me, the truth of me, as I do so: broken open by the act, in the palm of your hand, dying."

Fairy tales wove through the book – Bluebeard, Persephone, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White – and called out to that raw, primal part in me – the dark folk horror that bubbles bloodily beneath the veneer of modernity. The war, the callousness, the games and deaths; the love, the anger, passion on the grandest scale - passion to pull down the multiverse.

"You've always been the hunger at the heart of me, Red - my teeth, my claws, my poisoned apple. Under the spreading chestnut tree, I made you and you made me."

I don't know how I'm going to move on past this book - but do I need to? I feel profoundly changed, cracked open and weeping, my heart in my hand, a songbird in my chest.

'All good stories travel from the outside in'.

How to describe this book? It's brilliant. It's evocative. It's heartbreaking. It's tender.

Above all, it's beautiful.

In a multiverse not far from here, we find two agents - referred to simply as Red and as Blue. They act for different factions in a Time War: Red works for The Commandant, Blue is an agent of Garden. Both women are human, and more than human. They have formidable combat abilities, endurance, strength and they are able to move backwards, forwards and sideways through space and time, up and down the different braids, the timelines, that denote victory or defeat in the endless war. They are perhaps not born but created, their role to interfere, tip events one way or another - killing a leader, ensuring a technology develops or a trade route opens, something that will cascade down the braids, changing outcomes and winning their side an advantage in some remote age.

What the war is about, who the factions are and why they exist, isn't clear and doesn't need to be. We don't care who wins. What matters is that Red and Blue are eternal opponents, sworn and committed enemies, true believers in their causes - in the service of which they necessarily cross and recross each other, jostling for advantage. And as skilled and intelligent agents, they begin exchanging messages. They are taunting, scoring points. And, perhaps, one is trying to turn the other.

But hard earned, if grudging, respect leads to mutual understanding - perhaps, across all the timeline s in the multiverse, only Red and Blue can truly understand Blue, and only Blue can truly understand Red. Understanding leads to a sort of friendship (with no loss of commitment: "We will still win!") Friendship deepens and leads to... something like love. No, actually, to love.

Channeling the spirit of every story of star-crossed lovers (yes, there are references to Romeo and Juliet) el-Mohtar and Gladstone have spun here a simple, yet deep and ever so beautiful story of doomed love, often poetic ('Her pen had a heart inside, and the nib was a wound in a vein', 'It feels good to be reciprocal, eat this part of me while I drive reeds into the depth of you, spill out something sweet'), profoundly moving and fundamentally human and true - alongside the weird, eon-spanning SF setting.

And there is more. The authors like nothing more than puncturing their own balloon with a pun or a reference ('no road-met random monster', 'strangling that evil old man in a bathtub in his skyscraper penthouse'). And they won me with the observation that 'Even an immortal can only ride the [London Underground] Circle Line so long' (though it can feel like it sometimes).

It's a short book, one to read in a sitting, growing into the love between the two women, despairing at the fate that has made them what they are, the more so for the conflict being so shrouded and seemingly pointless.

A profound and glorious story, wonderfully written, uplifting even while sad.

VERY strongly recommended.

What a glorious book: everything it promises to be, whilst being completely different to anything I expected.

This Is How You Lose The Time War is a glorious exercise in unbridled imagination, a song of love and resistance in the face of despair. It’s beautifully told, more poetry than prose, capturing searing moments in time as they are imprinted on our combative lovers.

It had me at hello, and while I occasionally felt I could put it down and come back to it later I never quite could (and I'm glad I didn't; I enjoyed the emotional rollercoaster enormously).

I suspect it won’t be for everyone: those who come seeking harder science fiction, more technical time travel, will be left at a loss (at best). Those who come for the politics of a time war may be just as non-plussed. Even the world-building – of every world – is sketchy: a few poignant details, enough to hint at a bigger picture that your imagination must supply.

But this is assured storytelling from two master craftspeople working in perfect harmony. It entices. It charms. It cheats (of course it cheats, it’s time travel). It evokes. It inspires. It delivers. It charmed the socks off me and I'll be raving about it all summer.

So… no set battles. No gripping accounts of being adrift in unfamiliar time threads with climactic chases between adversaries. This is an essentially epistolary novel where the two protagonists communicate by letters they hide for each other. Expert assassin Blue, for vague reasons she isn’t wholly aware of – reaches out to her opposite number, Red, whose work she knows well and admires. Slightly burnt out with all the violence of her assignments, she wants something… more. And that is how the correspondence starts. I don’t think I’m providing any major spoilers if I disclose the Red doesn’t ignore the letter – or report it to her superiors.

What makes this book an extraordinary read is the poetical beauty of the prose, juxtaposed with some of grim, bloody tasks both Blue and Red are tasked with. And while both are slightly alienated by aspects of their work – there’s no getting away from the fact that they do both revel in their skills, too.

The sheer delicacy of their communication, sharply contrasted by the gory reality of their daily round made this a constantly surprising read – it isn’t often these days that I get absolutely no sense where a book is going. Although, there were a couple of clues – I still wasn’t sure if the authors had seeded a couple of false trails and there would be a different sort of ending. And no… I’m not disclosing anything more – this is one where I think it’s important that the reader fully experiences the story without any spoilery expectations. So kudos to the blurb-writer who respected that imperative – I was pleasantly surprised to be able to include the whole backcover copy without having to edit it.

So did I enjoy it? Oh yes – this is a triumph. Splendidly ambitious and quirky, only exceptionally talented writers could pull this off. This savage, sublimely beautiful book will stay with me for a long, long time as I ponder what it says about our need for connection with someone who can understand. Highly recommended for science fiction fans who enjoy lush poetical prose and flawed desperation. The ebook arc copy of This is How You Lose the Time War was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest opinion of the book.
10/10

Leider ist mein Englisch dann doch nicht gut genug, um dieses Buch wirklich verstehen und rezensieren zu können. Das ist mir bislang noch nicht passiert. Es ist sicher ein ganz besonderes poetisches und sprachlich wertvolles Buch, dass mit den zeiten spielt und andere Konzepte ersinnt.

I read this book courtesy of the Publisher and NetGalley. Thank you! My opinions are my own.

A beautiful book, a beautiful cover, a beautiful title and a beautiful story: this is a book whose beauty is undeniable, and its own reward. It is truly exquisitely beautifully written, and its imagery is striking. It is a kaleidoscope of beauty and horror, but mostly beauty, and emotions are rendered on the page with attention to detail. There are numerous passages I could see quoted, embroidered, tattooed, read aloud; I sometimes gasped at a particularly well-crafted sentence. It brought to mind some of Jeanette Winterson’s earlier poetic prose, in fact.

At the same time, however, I just couldn’t immerse in it fully. This might be because the falling in love didn’t quite persuade me, and the final plot twist, which relied on a time travel trope I particularly dislike, soured that element of the novel a little. But that doesn’t reflect on the book; it was just a matter of preference.

A novel(la) well-worth a read for the beauty of language, and I’m sure others will love the romance aspects of the book much more than I did.

Team Blue, by the way. (Even though I am always Red.)

https://lynns-books.com/2019/07/18/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war-by-amal-el-mohtar-max-gladstone-timewar/
4.5 of 5 stars
TIHYLTTW is such an unusual book, quite extraordinary really. Thought provoking, clever and the type of read that will appeal on multiple levels. I loved it.

Here we have a most unlikely love story, told primarily in epistolary format, this is a tale that spans the ages and cunningly side steps some of the issues that can sometimes accompany time travel and science fiction.

On the face of it this is a story of two agents, both jumping back and forth through time in order to manipulate the timeline. Both pitched against each other and yet eventually, through loneliness, finding a place in each other’s affection that could prove deadly should that affection become known to their commanders.

I’m not going to enter into details of the plot to be honest. I think each reader will have a different experience when reading this and so to try and sum it up in a nutshell is not something I’m keen to do – plus at just over 200 pages I really believe this will be best discovered with no prior knowledge going into the read.

So, what else can I tell you.

This works quite simply as a story of two people, adversaries to begin with, who slowly become enamoured with each other. The writing is beautiful, flowery maybe but also with so many unique concepts that it is simply fascinating.

This brings me to the sci-fi elements. This is the type of science fiction that doesn’t over elaborate – which means I love it. It also means that it doesn’t become convoluted with over ambitious explanations. The time travel element simply ‘is’. I don’t know how it works, I don’t really know what missions both of these agents are undertaking, I don’t know what the objectives are – I just know that things happen and taken on face value like this there’s a sort of easy acceptance to it all. Time travel can be another very complicated thread with all the paradoxes and getting turned around in circles but the simplicity here means no headaches for me – and no doubt no headaches for you too. Now you might be thinking that you want all those explanations and details – and maybe I would have liked some hints – but, at the same time I found I really didn’t miss them. It’s incredibly odd – they simply weren’t necessary to the story. In fact, given that the two characters are so firmly rooted in this future world why would they need to explain anything to each other. They wouldn’t – and so any such detail would only end up feeling forced.

The writing is really rather lovely. There’s a sparsity to it where nothing at all is wasted, everything has a meaning here and it’s the sort of writing that makes you want to stop and reflect. Don’t be too keen to gobble up these pages in a rush, you will be missing out if you do.

I may have mentioned that I love letter writing in my stories and this is no exception. The letters here are sprinkled in the most unlikely places, scattered amongst seeds and other unexpected items. I loved reading them. The thoughts and desires but more than that the way the letters change over the course of time becoming something that both correspondents are desperately waiting for and have in fact become dependent upon. On top of this there is the almost poetic style which when coupled with the unlikely romance between the two main characters gives it an uptodate Shakespearean feel.

I loved all the references, the ones I picked up on anyway, I’m sure I missed a good few or they were simply above my head as this is a clever little nugget. And this brings me to my final thoughts, which I’m still dwelling on. This is a story that I felt had a subtle underlying message. The two central characters are fundamentally opposed in the first instance purely as a result of their own make-up. This is set in a far future that has seen advances not only in technology but also in nature and yet the two don’t sit well together – in fact they’re at war with each other – right up until they discover they can get along.

Anyway, this book is very different, very unusual in fact, and, very good, it might not be for everyone but I would say give it a try..

I received a copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

This book just wasn't for me. I wanted to understand the ins and outs of the time war and they were never explained. Instead the story focuses on two opposing agents as they write letters to each other. The language was clearly replicating that of love letters but just felt too flowery and I found it rather boring.

This was quite a challenging read, however worth it for the beautiful relationship between two women that develops. It is written in a lyrical style and although I felt it disjointing at first, I let myself not overthink about what I was reading and instead allow the story to wash over me and be transported to the times, places and feelings. This novella was well worth the read and such a beautiful love story.

My thanks to Quercus/Jo Fletcher Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘This is How You Lose the Time War’ by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone in exchange for an honest review.

Among the ashes of a dying world Red, an Agent of the Commandant, finds a letter that reads: ‘Burn before reading’. This heralds the beginning of an unusual correspondence between two rival time agents each committed to ensuring the best possible future for their factions through manipulation of the past.

Blue, who works for the Garden, describes the difference in their missions “My viny-hivey elfworld, as you say, versus your techy-mechy dystopia. We both know it’s nothing so simple, any more than a letter’s reply is its opposite.”

Over time their relationship grows into something epic and eventually romantic; though they are aware that if their bond is discovered it would mean death for them both.

I was blown away by this short novel and found myself so impressed by its lyrical style and surrealist dreamlike imagery. When I realised about halfway through that its audiobook edition was available, I bought it and returned to the beginning to immerse myself in a read/listen experience.

In short, this was perfection. The kind of book that will likely be winning awards in the SF/F community and quickly be heralded as a modern classic.

In the Acknowledgments and in various interviews the authors reveal the unusual way in which they wrote it. This is ranking very highly in my best books of 2019. Very highly recommended.

On the day of its paperback publication I purchased a hard copy as well as I know that I will want to revisit it time and again.

So most of this went over my head, but somehow I still enjoyed it. Especially the letters Red and Blue exchange. I really enjoyed seeing their romance develop through them.

This novel was not what I thought it would be.

I was expecting a historical time travel concept. This it wasn't.

Sci-Fi idea that just did not engage me. I was glad it was short as I did read it. Just sorry that I did not engage with it.

I find hard to express how much I loved this ARC. It's full of emotions and it's a sci-fi at the same time.
There's love, war, different emotions and an amazing style of writing.
I can only say that I hope that a lot of people will read it and enjoy its beauty.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36516585-this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war

I love collections of queer correspondences; relationships between women in love with each other, carried on through letters over decades. And I love cold war stories, where opposing agents find they have more in common with each other than their faraway masters. And I love time travel stories, complex games of "Oh, no you didn't! / Oh, yes I did!" played over changing histories. This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is all of those, and poetry as well.

Red and Blue are agents for factions with opposing views of how humanity should live, who are fighting for control of the future by changing the past. They begin by leaving letters taunting one another. As their correspondence continues they each gain regard for the other, and become friends, and fall in love. This is a long-distance relationship and then some; the story is one of intimacy through communication - one of the turning points is when Blue writes to Red, "Tell me something true or tell me nothing at all."

This is a human story; the opposing factions, the Agency and the Garden, are absolutist models of post-human existence with no room for individuals, or really for love. The one seems Matrix-like while the other, although it's biological, is just as authoritarian and possibly hive-like. It's about vulnerability as well - the intimacy of a confidence shared, a risk taken. At several points in the story Red and Blue take risks with their own lives and then later with the other's as they share deeper truths.

The story is beautifully written. The authors in interviews say that they each took one of the characters to write, and this comes across clearly in their voices in the letters and their point so view as they find each other's messages. There's an interesting dynamic of opposites being played in the voices of the characters as well - Red, from the Agency and written by Amal, has a very lyrical, poetic voice. Blue on the other hand, written by Max, has a more direct, incisive voice which belies the dreamy-seeming outlook of her faction.

And finally, this is a gorgeous queer love story between two women. Red and Blue may take different genders as they occupy bodies up and down the time stream but they think of themselves and of each other as 'she'. I was drawn completely into the way that the relationship between Red and Blue deepens through their letters and challenges to one another until the ending, which is quite unexpected and also inevitable.

https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2019/7/16/this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war-by-amal-el-mohtar-and-max-gladstone

To you, my favourite

I suspect dear reader that you and I both think the written word is the finest way to communicate. Body language is too basic; verbal is often careless but a beautifully crafted page of prose – well now you’re really talking to me. A love of words, themes and motifs is the bond we share and as reader and writer that unusual osmosis of turning written words in ink coming from one brain turn into pictures within your brain the bond deepens – now that’s my kind of language. Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone have used the idea of a duet of written correspondence set within a unique science fiction universe of multiple timelines, changing histories a to create an absolutely stunning work of beauty and forbidden love.

Across space and time within the multiverse two all-powerful sides are vying for control of history. The technology originated Agency and the more diffuse organic hive mind of the Garden find themselves in strands of time manipulating events to make the history meet their future needs at the expense of the other side. To achieve this each side has agents working hard to undermine the other manipulating key or sometimes fairly innocuous events in history. Into this comes two particularly notorious agents Red of the Agency and Blue of the Garden who have been thorns in each other’s side for many many occasions. Known for their dedication and unusual grasp of tactics to unsettle the other the two women have been circling each other in various guises, periods and forms ranging from alternate Mongol empires to becoming alien creatures that aren’t even human anymore.

But Red at the scene of one her hardest won triumphs receives a note from Blue, gently pointing out that Blue herself has taken some measures to instead win this battle for a strand of time from beneath her nose. There follows an escalation between the two who in alternating sequences find their schemes thwarted by the other and each time a note to explain themselves is found. Both Red and Blue are intelligent professional women focused on their goals with a sense of humour and yet probably never quite feel comfortable in their own headquarters hence that desire to travel and explore the universe on missions. Red and Blue start to realise that across all of time and space they finally have someone who understands them.

While two people writing letters to each other can sound fairly simple this is an absolute triumph of writing. I think key to this are three elements. Firstly, the letter format. Slowly the letters reveal each has a mutual respect for the other (neither of the agents are viewed by their own side as typical of their species); they start sharing life experiences; their thoughts and the letters evolve into something deeper and more personal Hence the letters are sparky, sarcastic and then allow the agents to finally express themselves (including their secret inner thoughts). They capture that feeling when you start talking to someone and after the initial jokes and sharing of a few views swapping recipes and locations to visit that you realise you’ve found someone who finally understands you at such a deeper level than you thought possible. The letters are flirting, sorrowful, full of subtext and creative themes often based around the particular battle the agents are in; ultimately, they are love letters by two people who circle around each other but cannot meet. Each builds upon the other and the back and forth interplay is just beautiful to read. Two smaller parts to each letter I also loved – how each found another colour based term of affection for the other and that as each agent are highly trained and see and hear in so many different ways that the letters take different forms such as knots in string to even words appearing in a cup of tea – each becomes a unique gift to the other – who needs a bunch of flowers when you have this level of thoughtfulness in a letter to you!

The framing device for each letter being read is also full of inventive ideas. These aren’t two warriors stuck in a ship or on one planet. These are time agents who roam the universe and alternate histories so we have scenes on dying worlds, one of the many doomed Atlantises that can be found, 19th century coffee shops and beaches. Watching each Agent play a long game against the other itself is just impressively in a novella allowing you a huge sense of the scale of this conflict. At the same time, you realise the Garden and the Agency don’t seem to have any major plus points for allowing the other to win – a form of ultra-organic life and technology focused life suggest they would both be as bad as the other in victory. That allows for the final element the growing dread that Red and Blue are increasingly running the risk of discovery and when your army is nearly omnipotent that can have fatal consequences. There is a growing feeling of joy at the love these two can finally express to the other but also fear that someone has certainly realised what is going on and is now on their trail.

This has been a brilliant reading experience. This is for the science fiction fan that wants a tale of language and emotion. It mixes the epic with the personal to a level that just sings with a lot of joy and more than a tinge of sadness. I really cannot stress how much hard work in what seems a wonderful easy flowing dialogue between two characters is so technically well done and that back and forth of ideas, emotions and expressions really builds up character and a sense of an epic battle for the universe. For something different and beautiful this is exactly the kind of story you’ve been waiting for. I suspect this is easily going on 2019’s best of lists so go and pick this up now

Yours sincerely

A book tempter

This is a scifi. It's about two rival agents who write letters to each other across time and multiple alternate worlds (Atlantis always falls). They taunt each other. They fall in love. It's f/f. The writing is so lyrical it's unreal (and I don't normally like purple prose but wow I fell in love with this book so hard). It's not like anything I've ever read before. The timewar and world building is interesting and imaginative but takes a backseat to the two characters. The letters they write. The slow fall into feelings. The way they struggle to describe things they've never felt in words the other will understand.

It's clever. It's beauty in the middle of destruction. And nothing I can say about it will ever do it justice. I have nothing to compare it to which also doesn't help! I loved the way it merged technology with nature and the way time is described as vines that have to be clipped to enact the right future for their factions. I love the relationship and how the chemistry built. How we end up in such an inevitable place with these star crossed lovers and how much they are willing to risk. But they aren't two children falling in love. They're time agents and are as clever and cunning as anyone they're up against.

This book IS very different. And I can see it not being to everyone's taste but I am in love with it and I would recommend everyone give it a chance. Don't think too hard about trying to piece the world's together. Just revel in the amazing f/f relationship.

This novella comes in the form of letters written from two opposing forces, that run through time and space. Each has an agency behind them, each is out in the field, operating what needs operated, adjusting timelines and trying to win the time war. And then there is the moment when a letter is written and sent, then read and answered, and in the end you, as reader, have this book in hand. It is dedicated to you, the reader. And I think, it is worthwhile to pick this book up. Not just because it has a beautiful cover, but also because of its content.

This book holds an intricately woven, intense, at moments very poetic text. At moments it felt like it was on the breaking point of over doing, but, in the end it did not. It kept to its form as novella and told an amazing story, full of twists and turns, stories within stories within stories. At moments I wished, the authors would have even dared more, with regards to the places they took me as reader, but all in all the story in itself is very neatly told.

The ending? It left me with a smile and light heart.

I loved the change in metaphors through the book, the change of pace and intensity, the references to the human timeline in books, historic events and fairy tales to name only but a few. And it leaves me to explore further, if I so wish, as I am sure there are layers to this book, that I have not yet discovered.

I already look forward to read it now in printed form, as I received an eARC from the publisher, Jo Fletcher Books here in the UK, in return for an honest review.

I don't know about the time war, but this is how you win a bunch of awards, or it ought to be.

Red and Blue are time agents, on opposite sides of a war to manipulate events towards their respective futures. That's not an original premise, but what these two authors do with it is.

I'm not familiar with much of Amar El-Mohtar's work, but I've read enough Max Gladstone to know that for me, he can be hit and miss. "A Kiss, With Teeth" is one of the best stories I've ever read; parts of his Craft Sequence, the series with the lawyer/sorcerers, are excellent, but parts, for me, were deeply disappointing (not least because the other parts were so good). I also knew he didn't shy away from the dark and gruesome, so I went into this book with trepidation.

There is dark, and there is gruesome; there is a lot of death, and the cotagonists are usually its instigators, which doesn't help me to identify with them. But the only slight disappointment in terms of writing craft, for me, was perhaps an inevitable one: even though these agents range across multiple timelines and planets in the course of the book, all of the references they use are to our particular timeline (just as, in Gladstone's Craft Sequence, he occasionally drops an undigested piece of this world into his very different setting, and it jars me).

Apart from that, it's frankly amazing. I stopped about halfway through and went and read some other things, mainly because I was afraid it had got as good as it was going to, and the last half was going to just fall apart. But no. It got better.

Red and Blue begin as enemies, but they become first rivals, then friends, of a sort, and then.... it just keeps getting more intense. They write to each other secretly, using their considerable powers and ingenuity to encode messages in everyday objects that fall into the other's hands. If either of their factions finds out, they're both dead. But their lives are inextricably entangled, and perhaps nobody else in all of time and space can understand them except each other.

The prose is beautiful, and well edited; it's powerfully poetic, full of heavily weighted imagery. The plot is complex (as time travel plots tend to be) and compelling. The characters themselves - I wouldn't want to meet them; I wouldn't want to be them; but their intensity and passion drew me in regardless.

This is, in short, a very fine book that richly deserves the many accolades that will be heaped upon it. It's something quite unusual in the realm of speculative fiction, something that very few authors could pull off anything like this well. As a reviewer, I read a lot of mediocre or by-the-numbers books; this is not, by any stretch, one of them. It's excellent.

I received a review copy via Netgalley.