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


Werthead

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A war is raging through all of time and space, spanning an infinite number of universes. Two great powers - the Commandant and the Garden - are clashing, their agents fighting one another in the stone age and a distant future of galaxy-spanning empires. Two agents, Red and Blue, clash again and again without ever exchanging a single word...until the day they decide to start writing letters.

This is How You Lose the Time War is a novella depicting a war fought through time between two implacable forces, each represented by one of their agents. It's a short book, at under 200 pages, and also an interesting one structurally, mixing traditional third-person narratives with the letters the two rival agents exchange on a regular basis. It's not quite an epistolary novella, more of a mix between it and more traditional narration, but the letters form an integral part of the story.

Although short, the novella covers a lot of ground. Multiple settings, from deep space in the far future to a sinking Atlantis to contemporary cities, are used as battlegrounds by the warring sides, and we see both the hard end of their fighting and meet the vast and almost staggering forces leading the wars. That said, there isn't a lot of exposition in the book. The reasons for the war - given that billions, if not trillions, of branching timelines exist for the two factions to coexist in - are never really given and it's unclear who is winning and losing (although both Red and Blue are prone to boasting of their side's achievements, at least early in their relationship). To be honest, it's not really important. More important is how alone and isolated both agents feel, and the only person they can relate to is their opposite number, doing the same thing and feeling the same feelings, just in a different cause.

The writing is poetic, with both agents keen to use creative language in their letters, which start off as verbal fencing matches but later become more flirtatious and intellectually challenging. There is humour in the book but also an air of bitter-sweetness. There's also tension: agents from the two forces are forbidden from communicating with one another out of fear of corruption, and it's not always clear it the agents are genuinely becoming enamoured of one another or each is trying to trap the other in an unexpected reversal. It feels a bit like Spy vs. Spy with added romantic tension, all set in the middle of Doctor Who's Time War.

This is How You Lose the Time War (****½) is short, focused and energetic, playful in tone and compelling in execution. Those who like books packed with exposition with every I dotted and every T crossed will probably be unhappy with the book's unapologetic lack of context; those who enjoy stories for their emotion and wordplay will be very satisfied.

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8 hours ago, Werthead said:

The reasons for the war - given that billions, if not trillions, of branching timelines exist for the two factions to coexist in - are never really given

The impression I got was that the two sides represented alternative possible futures and they were fighting over which one would actually happen, so the parallel timelines were a product of the war rather than a natural state of affairs.

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It feels like it's been a very long time since I read this -- long enough that I was slightly puzzled when I kept seeing it on award lists this year -- but looking at the publiction date I see I can only have read it early last year.  (In my defence it's been a pretty long twenty months.)

I know that I didn't like it quite as much as I was hoping, though it's hard to remember exactly why.  Might simply have been a case of going in with unreasonably high expectations:   I definitely remember reading a lot of very positive reviews for this, including from people who don't normally talk about SF.   I rather like Gladstone's other work (although I think I've probably given up on the Craft sequence at this point), and I definitely like the concept of this book, but for whatever reason something about the execution of it just didn't work for me. 

Actually tempted to reread it now and see if my impression changes the second time around.

20 hours ago, Werthead said:

Two great powers - the Commandant and the Garden - are clashing

The rival power to the Garden is just called the Agency, isn't it?  (I remember that Red reports to a Commandant, but I don't think that's meant to be the name of the power itself, or even of its primary leader, just an indication of the type of the future society the Agency might be.)

 

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14 hours ago, felice said:

The impression I got was that the two sides represented alternative possible futures and they were fighting over which one would actually happen, so the parallel timelines were a product of the war rather than a natural state of affairs.

This.

I loved it, really loved it. And by lucky coincidence I finished it right before the deadline for the close of the Hugo voting.

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5 hours ago, Plessiez said:

The rival power to the Garden is just called the Agency, isn't it?  (I remember that Red reports to a Commandant, but I don't think that's meant to be the name of the power itself, or even of its primary leader, just an indication of the type of the future society the Agency might be.)

That would make more sense, although the book was kind of vague about it (as it was with everything to do with worldbuilding).

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I loved this! And I agree that the love story told through their letters is the heart of it - the minimalist approach to the worldbuilding serves to keep that in focus - this is a story about two people, not a time war.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finished it today while on vacation.  The love story resonated on a level that is quite telling for me on a personal level.

(Not that I’ve ever been a time traveling spy...)

Thought the book was fantastic.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It was good, though the use of time loops aggravated me.

Time loops are the biggest cliche in time travel, and I really think they should largely be avoided.

I think the descriptions and world building were top notch, hints of stuff that makes you hungry to lea[r]n more. I could easily see myself buying a game or even RPG campaign setting based on the book.

The romantic movement between the two characters was also really good.

I think because so much of the book felt so clever, especially given the somewhat experimental nature of how it was produced, I really wanted an ending that didn't involve time loops and felt a little less cliched.

 

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