Review – This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 224 pages
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Release Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1534430990
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandment finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.
Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.
Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win. That’s how war works, right?”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I borrowed from the library.
Story (4/5): This is an odd book. It’s about two people/machines (whatever they are…it’s not completely human anymore) named Red and Blue who are at war with each other but leave each other creative notes about their admiration for each other. This admiration slowly grows into something more. The story is a bit ambiguous. We are plunged briefly into each characters’ life as they participate in events in different parallel realities across time and work to arrange things to benefit their side of the war. At the end of each character’s section they get a note from the other character.
I loved the glimpses into all these different worlds and the creative ways the two passed notes to each other. The whole thing is a bit ambiguous though and you never really find out the purpose of the war, although you can make some guesses. To be honest the middle section of this started to feel repetitive and I was surprised at how long it took me to read because I kept losing interest.
Characters (4/5): There are really only two characters in this story. The first is Red who works for the Commandment and seems to be part of the more war-like side of the war. The second is Blue who works for Garden and seems to be the more normal/peaceful…yet insidious character. At times the lines between them blur and at points I would get midway through a chapter struggling to figure out who I was reading about because their voices weren’t as distinct as they should have been.
Setting (4/5): I loved the many worlds and times we travel to, although at times the way this is written in makes them very hard to picture. We also just get tiny glimpses into all these different timelines which doesn’t make for a very cohesive picture.
Writing Style (4/5): I enjoy the theme about how each side of the war really isn’t that different. I also enjoyed the methods by which Red and Blue give each other notes. There is some incredible creativity in here and the story is strangely haunting. However, this story has some issues as well. Red and Blue kind of blur together and at times I struggled to figure out whose POV I was reading from. The story is also not very cohesive but kind of jumps around a lot and is very ambiguous. In addition to that it gets somewhat repetitive mid-book which made this feel longer than it actually is.
This is not an easy book to read; the writing style coupled with the constant scenery changes and POV changes mean you really have to concentrate to read this and understand it all. This was not a book I could read with my family running around doing other things around me, I had to read this in complete silence and really concentrate on it and it took me a couple days to get through this even under those conditions (which is a long time for me).
My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this and am glad I read it. It’s a very unique book with some excellent scenery and a well done underlying premise. I like the themes here and the way we get to see two sides of this war. I did think there were some issues with the tone of Red and Blue being too similar and with the repetitiveness the story takes on mid book. This is a challenging and ambiguous read that I enjoyed the uniqueness of. However, in the end it’s not one I would re-read because it was a lot of effort to get through this and the emotional and creative payback wasn’t enough to offset that.
