#TBR CHALLENGE – Previously, In Romance…: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is an epistolary novel, with opposing time-traveling rival agents attempting to win a war. Also, they gradually fall in love.

The fun of this book, for me, was in my appreciation of the prose style, and in piecing together the scraps of worldbuilding to differentiate the two sides and the two agents, Red and Blue. the book is also a commentary on correspondence, particularly the type of correspondence that is timely (heh) and fleeting. The authors play with this idea, using some direct references to the sort of formal physical letters with wax seals that most people don’t bother with any more, here on twenty-first century Earth. In comparison, Red and Blue write to each other in ways that are fleeting but phantasmagorical.

I don’t want to spoil the details; this is an original, memorable book that I recommend.

About Victoria Janssen

Victoria Janssen [she, her] currently writes cozy space opera for Kalikoi. The novella series A Place of Refuge begins with Finding Refuge: Telepathic warrior Talia Avi, genius engineer Miki Boudreaux, and augmented soldier Faigin Balfour fought the fascist Federated Colonies for ten years, following the charismatic dissenter Jon Churchill. Then Jon disappeared, Talia was thought dead, and Miki and Faigin struggled to take Jon’s place and stay alive. When the FC is unexpectedly upended, Talia is reunited with her friends and they are given sanctuary on the enigmatic planet Refuge. The trio of former guerillas strive to recover from lifetimes of trauma, build new lives on a planet with endless horizons, and forge tender new connections with each other.
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2 Responses to #TBR CHALLENGE – Previously, In Romance…: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

  1. WhiskeyintheJar says:

    a commentary on correspondence, particularly the type of correspondence that is timely (heh) and fleeting.

    Oooh, I love this idea! I really need to get to this book.

  2. I hope you like it! It’s not long, but it’s a gem.

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