This Is How You Lose The Time War

By: Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone

Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell, Emily Woo Zeller

* HUGO AWARD WINNER: BEST NOVELLA * NEBULA AND LOCUS AWARDS WINNER: BEST NOVELLA *

“[An] exquisitely crafted tale...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...This short novel warrants multiple readings to fully unlock its complexities.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone comes an enthralling, romantic novel spanning time and space about two time-traveling rivals who fall in love and must change the past to ensure their future.

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?

Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.

Not for me

It took me a long time to get into the story, by the time I was getting hooked it was over. The first half I didn't know what was going on other than the time war. The whos and whys are vague until the end, but by then I was just listening to get through it. I preferred the parts that weren't letters to Blue or Red, that's why I found the second half more appealing. It ends with another letter and that was it for me. The story is far more romantic than I anticipated, but I couldn't figure out why they were in love. I was distracted when I listened to this, but it seemed like they were enemy penpals who decide they love each other. I think I missed something, but their love is apparent in the end. This book wasn't for me - I needed something more from it, but it was never offered. I like the idea of the premise.

I wanted to enjoy this story...

Let me start by saying that I <i>wanted</i> to like this book. I went into it <i>expecting</i> to like this book, especially with all the rave reviews I kept seeing from other readers who have reading tastes similar to mine. So, when I actually got into the book and found it wasn't this amazing thing that everyone kept calling it, I thought it was me. Maybe I had just missed some crucial part? I backed up repeated sections. Nope, I hadn't missed anything.

I was listening to the audiobook, narrated by Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller. So, maybe it was because of the narrators? Perhaps I would enjoy it if I was reading it myself? Borrowed the book via KU and started reading from where I was at that point. Nope, didn't make it better. Was it maybe because it was a dual narration? I can answer, definitively, NO, as I had recently finished listening to another dual narration of a book that I absolutely LOVED and could rave about - but I won't because it was NOT this book.

I can't even really tell you what the book was about beyond two women writing back and forth to each other from opposite sides of some war as they travel through time and space. And that description? Yeah, you can get that from the book's own blurb.

When I think about why, specifically, I had trouble with this book, part of it was the overly-flowery language that seemed to be trying too hard to indicate a growing love connection and didn't try hard enough to actually DEVELOP said love connection. Another part is that, while the story is set in a war that is fought through time and space, I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what the two sides of the war were fighting for. Why should I care if one side or the other wins or loses? Why is there a war at all? The only real reason for its existence is to set Red and Blue on opposite sides, to set them up as combatants, and then bring them together - to choose each other over the war they are fighting - because they LURVE each other. Sorry, I didn't buy it.

I didn't buy it so much that I didn't even care at the end. I don't want to say what, specifically, I didn't care about because - spoilers - but suffice it to say that I <i>should</i> have cared about it. If I had been in any way invested in the book, I would have cared about it. But, I wasn't. So, I didn't.

As far as the narration went, one of the narrators - Farrell - was a first for me, while the other - Zeller - I have listened to with several other books. Both narrators did well, though I couldn't tell you at this point, just a few hours after finishing, who had been reading which character. Having listened to other books by Zeller, I know that she is an engaging narrator. I don't know with Farrell, but I suspect she is as well, and the fault of the non-engagement lies solely with the manuscript they were reading.

So, in closing, I wish I could tell you this was a good book, and I highly recommend you read it. But, I can't. That said, I'm not completely writing this book off. It wasn't <i>bad</i>. It just did not hit right for me. I may return for another try at some point in the future - it's certainly short enough that I could warrant giving up a couple of hours to see if a second reading/listening hits differently for me. But, I'm not going to be in any hurry to do that.

It's gonna come down to taste

The narration is top notch. Beautifully read with excellent characterization.

The story itself is almost non existent. You could absolutely get rid of about 80% of the text and have the exact same plot. It's poetry. It's vague and moody and basically nothing the characters do and none of the places and times they visit matter at all as far as story goes. The "time war" is a backdrop that is never explained or explored. It just is. There are two sides but the goal of either side is just to beat the other side. The two main characters claim to keep foiling the other but how is never clear. There are sci-fi or maybe magic things happening but it is so general and inconsequential it doesn't matter which. Ultimately the two characters start to fall in love through letters (that are sometimes seeds and sometimes bones and sometimes blah blah blah for reasons) but why they do seems to be "because the author needs it to be so" and it is very unsatisfying.

It all boils down to an exploration of love being the only thing that can end war. So if philosophically you'd like to dive into a prose heavy think piece about that, this is you're book and you'll love it. If you want a story about a Time War, look elsewhere.

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Holy mother loving shyt! This book was so good. And the performance was phenomenal. I didn’t know how much I needed this book until I read it!

it was gay ans great

it was a little slow to start for me but I really couldnt put it down