This is How You Lose the Time War
The epic time-travelling love story and Twitter sensation
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4.3 • 94 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF
Hugo Award for Best Novella
Nebula Award for Best Novella
Reddit Stabby Award for Best Novella
British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novella
SHORTLISTED FOR
2020 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
The Ray Bradbury Prize
Kitschies Red Tentacle Award
Kitschies Inky Tentacle
Brave New Words Award
Co-written by two award-winning writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.
Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant 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, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.
Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That's how war works. Right?
'A fireworks display from two very talented storytellers' Madeline Miller, author of Circe
'An intimate and lyrical tour of time, myth and history' John Scalzi, bestselling author of Old Man's War
'Lyrical and vivid and bittersweet' Ann Leckie, Hugo Award-winning author of Ancillary Justice
'Rich and strange, a romantic tour through all of time and the multiverse' Martha Wells, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of The Murderbot Diaries
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this exquisitely crafted tale, two special agents from competing factions forge an unexpected relationship through messages left behind as they wage a secret war across space and time. Red, who represents a society dominated by technology and artificial intelligences, and Blue, the product of a biological mass consciousness, must never can never meet, even as they work to secure the future for their masters. Instead, they communicate in hundreds of different ways, their words hidden beneath layers of subtlety and deception, in direct defiance of every rule they've ever followed. As taunts and challenges gradually give way to endearments and secrets, the two women must determine their true roles in the unending time war. Part epistolary romance, part mind-blowing science fiction adventure, this dazzling story unfolds bit by bit, revealing layers of meaning as it plays with cause and effect, wildly imaginative technologies, and increasingly intricate wordplay. El-Mohtar (The Honey Month) and Gladstone (the Craft Sequence) pack their narrative full of fanciful ideas and poignant moments, weaving a tapestry stretching across the millennia and through multiple realities that's anchored with raw emotion and a genuine sense of wonder. This short novel warrants multiple readings to fully unlock its complexities.
Customer Reviews
Love letters with teeth
The premise may seem a bit tired - time war and all - but this is a beautiful, affecting read. The writing is outstanding: finely crafted, sensuous, violent, daring and funny. The world building is evocative and poetic, but this is ultimately, and delightfully, a love story.
Pure ecstacy and deeply personal
Describing this novel is surprisingly difficult. It’s a complex, metaphor laced poem, with complex yet vague descriptions that results in a story like no other i’ve read. I think this book will read differently for every person. There is enough openness in the way the story is told to form your own deep connection with the two characters. Now i’ve read “better books” but i’ve never read a book as unique as this. I’ve read books that will leave long lasting impressions, but this book has it’s own unique flavour, like the bits and pieces, the notes the two characters share with one another. Now this likely won’t be a book everyone can enjoy, some people will grow tired of the verbose and flowery language, but to me, it only strengthened the emotions i felt. The characters in the story are surpiringly complex, and nuanced given the fact this is a short novella. I read this while listning to classical music and the atmosphere fit well with the elegance of blue’s writing and the passion of red. The moment i knew this book would live long in my heart was the letter in chapter 10, but you’ll have to read it yourself to find out what im talking about.
A Keeper
Many a year since I couldn’t put a book down.