Book Review: A Time-bending, Lyrical Love Story Between Enemies
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
“Adventure works in any strand. It calls to those who care more for living than their lives.”
Things to know:
It’s a short, sci-fi novella
Time travel is a key component
It’s an enemies-to-lovers story
Written in part epistolary format
There is no doubt that this novella is beautifully written. It was as if The Time Traveler’s Wife and the Ship of Theseus novel from “S” had a baby. Imagine chasing a love through time and all obstacles. I really wish this was longer. I could have used some more world building, as I was so curious, and wanted more context.
The novella follows two main characters, known only as Red and Blue. They are two assassins on opposite sides of a time war, where they travel to different strands of time writing to each other. One is from a collective organic consciousness called the Garden, and the other, an advanced technology known as The Agency.
“Letters are structures, not events. Yours give me a place to live inside.”
Lyrical, and part epistolary, the letters themselves weave a gorgeous love story. However, why did they fall in love? It wasn’t super clear how that actually happened. It went from taunts to I LOVE YOU super fast and I was definitely confused. I also wasn’t super clear why the time war was happening in the first place. How did these factions come to be? Did I miss this somehow? Again, I needed a little bit more world building, and plot. Some of the strands were hard to follow. Granted this was a short novella, but I feel like it could have been a full blown novel and flushed some things out for the reader that would have made it more digestible for people who don’t always love that super vague, atmospheric, philosophizing writing. You know, the kind where you go…”ok, that was really pretty, but what the heck does it mean?” like I’ve seen some other reviewers mention. It can come off as pretentious, when it’s not meaning to be. Or is it?
I honestly didn’t love the first half of the book, and other than the beautiful writing, didn’t get the hype, but then a little over 50% of the way in it grabs you, and doesn’t let go. The ending is the ultimate chef’s kiss of a twist. Four stars.
UPDATE 4/28/23:
Finished a reread of this novella after recommending it to a friend, and wow, I loved it more the second time around. Perhaps because I knew the ending, it made me relish the journey so much more. I noticed all the little hidden references, and this quote just about broke me:
“I love you. I love you. I love you. I’ll write it in waves. In skies. In my heart. You’ll never see, but you will know. 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 all the strands it will be to you.”
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