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This is How You Lose the Time War: An epic time-travelling love story, winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella by [Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone]

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Amal El-Mohtar

Max Gladstone

This is How You Lose the Time War: An epic time-travelling love story, winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella Kindle Edition

by Amal El-Mohtar (Author), Max Gladstone (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 9,773 ratings

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WINNER OF The Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella, the Reddit Stabby Award for Best Novella AND The 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

'A fireworks display from two very talented storytellers' Madeline Miller, author of Circe

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?

'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

Print length

209 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Jo Fletcher Books
Publication date

16 July 2019
File size

1093 KB
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Product description

Review

This book has it all: treachery and love, lyricism and gritty action, existential crisis and space-opera scope, not to mention time travelling superagents. Gladstone's and El-Mohtar's debut collaboration is a fireworks display from two very talented storytellers ― Madeline Miller, internationally bestselling author of Circe and Song of Achilles

An intimate and lyrical tour of time, myth and history, with a captivating conversation between characters - and authors. Read it ― John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of The Collapsing Empire

Lyrical and vivid and bittersweet. An absolutely lovely read from two talented writers ― Ann Leckie, Hugo Award-winning author of Ancillary Justice

This is How You Lose the Time War is rich and strange, a romantic tour through all of time and the multiverse, and you shouldn't miss a moment ― Martha Wells, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of The Murderbot Diaries

An intense, poetic work ― The Times Literary Supplement

Exquisitely crafted . . . Part epistolary romance, part mind-blowing science fiction adventure, this dazzling story unfolds bit by bit . . . 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 ― Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Spectacular . . . Poetry, disguised as genre fiction. I read several sections out loud - this is prose that wants to be more than read. It wants to be heard and tasted ― Kelly Sue DeConnick, creator of Captain Marvel

If Iain M. Banks and Gerard Manley Hopkins had ever been able to collaborate on a science fiction project, well, it wouldn't be half as much fun as this novella by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. There is all the pleasure of a long series, and all the details of an much larger world, presented in miniature here ― Kelly Link, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and Pulitzer Prize finalist for Get in Trouble

Fast-paced and intricately plotted ― Temi Oh, author Do You Dream of Terra-Two?

A time travel adventure that has as much humanity, grace, and love as it has temporal shenanigans, rewriting history, and temporal agents fighting to the death. Two days from now, you've already devoured it ― Ryan North, New York Times Bestselling and Eisner Award winning author of How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler

Sweet, hopeful, and unashamedly beautiful ― SciFiNow

A gorgeous love story playfully yet powerfully spanning time and space in a weave of imagery and delight ― Claire North, author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

This is the time-travelling queer epistolary romance I didn't know I needed . . . With precise, cut-glass prose - poetic and pragmatic at once - deeply compelling characters, and a tensely rewarding conclusion, This Is How You Lose the Time War is one of the most striking works of fiction I've read this decade. I'm going to be thinking about it - returning to it - for months, at least. Read it, because I can't recommend it highly enough ― Locus

A wonderful tapestry of detail ― Starburst

I'm very rarely a reader of romances - but I think now that's only because there is so rarely a romance like How To Lose the Time War. I've lost the day to it, and my only regret is that it's over . . . It's a smart, inventive, lyrical story that dances a pas de deux down the edge of a razor, and I'm very glad to have read it ― Stephanie Saulter, author of Gemsigns

Intimately operates within an immersive space opera ― Entertainment Weekly

The intergalactic and historic sweep . . . services rather than overwhelms what is in essence a story about falling in love under a repressive dictatorship ― The Big Issue

Soars and succeeds in its vivid detail, and in its vast imaginative sweep . . . Vivid, savage, tender, cruel, it is worthy of many readings ― Stephen Cox, author of Our Child of the Stars

An epistolary masterpiece, a masterclass in allusion, a deep dive into character, a perfect manipulation of form and syntax and tone, a bending of the genre to create something that is intrinsically science-fiction and yet absolutely, gorgeously unique . . . This book stunned me ― Old Firehouse Books

Lush, glorious, passionate . . . I don't know how I'm going to move on past this book - but do I need to? I feel profoundly changed, cracked open and weeping, my heart in my hand, a songbird in my chest ― For Every Helen of Troy

A message that the world needs to hear ― Cheryl's Mewsings

If you took that sappy story of unrequited love, Keanu Reeves and a time-traveling mailbox, strapped it up in body armor, covered it with razors, dipped it in poison and set it loose to murder and burn its way across worlds and centuries, what you'd end up with is This Is How You Lose The Time War, the experimental, collaborative, time-travelling love-and-genocide novel by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone ― NPR

Compulsively readable . . . this book was one of my most anticipated reads this year since I found out about it, and it really did not disappoint one bit ― Reads Rainbow

Strange and lovely . . . unique ― I Should Read That

A story told through lyrical writing you very rarely see in fantasy these days . . . A genuine tour de force from a pair of writers at the top of their games ― Streetlamp Halo

Well deserves every second you dedicate to it ― Calles de Tinta

The worldbuilding is superb . . . This Is How You Lose the Time War wonderfully delivers on its premise ― Den of Geek

Beautifully conceived and written in shifting tones with clockwork precision underpinning its Möbius convolutions, one of the most fascinating books of the year so far ― Geek Chocolate

A short, but punchy book that was highly emotional. I loved it a lot. The whole idea behind it is brilliantly ironic. I loved the writing, and I wished it was longer ― Umut Reviews

Breathtaking. Brilliant in a way I'm not sure a review can illustrate. It has to be read to be believed ― To Other Worlds

Exquisitely pitched . . . I don't remember the last time I cried rereading a book, but this one manages it ― Strange Horizons

It's more than good. It's astonishing. You should read it. ― Espresso Coco

Two hundred and one pages of can't-put-down goodness ― Emily Holyoak

We might call it an "epistolary time-travel spy love story", but that doesn't really convey the book's poetic quality - it's one of a kind ― The Guardian, 'Best of the Year’

An intellectually rewarding read with prose of a high standard. And it's a must-read for time travel tragics like moi

― Dark Matter Zine

Poetic and lovely

― Lucy’s Novel Purpose

A brilliant reading experience. For something different and beautiful this is exactly the kind of story you've been waiting for ― A Run Along the Shelves

An epistolary novel about two time travellers battling one another for control of the future who fall in love -- Adrian McKinty ― Daily Express --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Book Description

WINNER OF THE HUGO AND NEBULA AWARDS: Two time-travelling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters - and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07RTYNHRM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jo Fletcher Books; 1st edition (16 July 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1093 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 209 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 82 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 1 in Lesbian Romance (Kindle Store)
- 1 in Time Travel Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 1 in Erotic Bisexual Fiction

Customer reviews:
4.2 9,773 ratings

About the authors

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Amal El-Mohtar
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Amal El-Mohtar is an award-winning author and critic: her short fiction has won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, while her poetry has won the Rhysling award three times. She is the author of THE HONEY MONTH, a collection of poetry and prose written to the taste of twenty-eight different kinds of honey, and writes the OTHERWORLDLY column for the New York Times Book Review. She's the co-author, with Max Gladstone, of THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR, an epistolary time-travelling spy vs spy novella. Find her online at amalelmohtar.com, or on Twitter @tithenai.
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Max Gladstone
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MAX GLADSTONE is a fencer, a fiddler, and Hugo Award Finalist. He has taught English in China, wrecked a bicycle in Angkor Wat, and been thrown from a horse in Mongolia. Max lives and writes in Somerville, Massachusetts, near Boston. He is the author of the Craft Sequence (Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five, Last First Snow, Four Roads Cross, and Ruin of Angels).
See more on the author's page

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

9,773 global ratings

5 star		51%
4 star		26%
3 star		15%
2 star		6%
1 star		2%

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Sansa

4.5 stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 30 December 2022

Verified Purchase

I loved the use of language in this book, you can tell one of the writers is used to writing poetry as it reads like poetry often. Loved the ambiguity of the plot, characters and direction of the war. I highlighted a few passages in this book as I felt them speak to me like poetry would. Liked that the two main characters were women but really they felt agender. I read it in about 6 hours and I'll probably reread it and find something new next time. I knocked half a star off because this book definitely isn't for everyone, if you don't like poetry or ambiguity then you wouldn't like this book.

One person found this helpful

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Spy vs. Spy meets Doctor Who

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 12 September 2020

Verified Purchase

A war is raging through all of time and space, spanning an infinite number of universes. Two great powers - the Commandant and the Garden - are clashing, their agents fighting one another in the stone age and a distant future of galaxy-spanning empires. Two agents, Red and Blue, clash again and again without ever exchanging a single word...until the day they decide to start writing letters.

This is How You Lose the Time War is a novella depicting a war fought through time between two implacable forces, each represented by one of their agents. It's a short book, at under 200 pages, and also an interesting one structurally, mixing traditional third-person narratives with the letters the two rival agents exchange on a regular basis. It's not quite an epistolary novella, more of a mix between it and more traditional narration, but the letters form an integral part of the story.

Although short, the novella covers a lot of ground. Multiple settings, from deep space in the far future to a sinking Atlantis to contemporary cities, are used as battlegrounds by the warring sides, and we see both the hard end of their fighting and meet the vast and almost staggering forces leading the wars. That said, there isn't a lot of exposition in the book. The reasons for the war - given that billions, if not trillions, of branching timelines exist for the two factions to coexist in - are never really given and it's unclear who is winning and losing (although both Red and Blue are prone to boasting of their side's achievements, at least early in their relationship). To be honest, it's not really important. More important is how alone and isolated both agents feel, and the only person they can relate to is their opposite number, doing the same thing and feeling the same feelings, just in a different cause.

The writing is poetic, with both agents keen to use creative language in their letters, which start off as verbal fencing matches but later become more flirtatious and intellectually challenging. There is humour in the book but also an air of bitter-sweetness. There's also tension: agents from the two forces are forbidden from communicating with one another out of fear of corruption, and it's not always clear it the agents are genuinely becoming enamoured of one another or each is trying to trap the other in an unexpected reversal. It feels a bit like Spy vs. Spy with added romantic tension, all set in the middle of Doctor Who's Time War.

This is How You Lose the Time War (****½) is short, focused and energetic, playful in tone and compelling in execution. Those who like books packed with exposition with every I dotted and every T crossed will probably be unhappy with the book's unapologetic lack of context; those who enjoy stories for their emotion and wordplay will be very satisfied.

One person found this helpful

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Alex

Beautiful prose, lack of substance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 January 2020

Verified Purchase

I had a real mixed experience with this book. What I want to make clear from the outset is that there are a lot of people who will absolutely love this 200 page novella. There were parts I loved, and there were parts I really couldn’t get to grips with or I felt let it down as a whole, which only gave me average overall enjoyment. I was in fact going to stop reading at 50% but am glad I continued as it improved past the halfway mark.

The main positive I found was the stunning prose. I have never read a more beautifully written book. It reads like poetry, like Shakespeare. The words ooze from the page like a meandering river of molten gold. For that alone I can recommend this book to at least experience this! The descriptions just make you feel good, the effect the same as looking at a beautiful painting or a sunset over the ocean.

The problem is, the abundance of flowery language can border on whimsical and pretentious, especially when prioritised at the expense of the plot. Eventually it becomes exhausting and overbearing. I found myself becoming frustrated with the lack of focus on the story and subsequently not appreciating the beauty of the prose.

On the plot, for the first half of the book at least, it feels pretty vague. Where in most stories the plot is at least in part a driving force, it feels more of an afterthought here, more of a “how can we fit a story around the interactions of these two characters and base it on time travel?” It is a backdrop for the story of the two characters’ developing relationship, which is the only thing looked at in detail.

The time travelling aspect for example, which was one of the main marketing sells, wasn’t explored in any depth. There was even a point where an Apatosaurus (a genus of Sauropod – not one of the dinosaur groups theorised to have feathers) was described as “ruffling its feathers” which suggests that the time travel wasn’t taken all that seriously. There was no real explanation into how it worked, what the agents were doing exactly or what the characters of Red and Blue were really trying to achieve (other than playing their part in the minimally described war between the Garden and the Agency in influencing and guiding their preferred version of history.) These historical and future events could have been explored to add more substance to the book, especially given in the synopsis the characters are apparently “hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions.” Within the space of about 5 letters they seem to have disregarded the importance of this war and their role within it, consumed by their blossoming romance. Despite this, the romance is a plus point in many ways and it is enjoyable to witness a mutual intelligence and appreciation for the nuances of life drive two opposing agents towards one another. It is at times heartwarming, and heart wrenching, and you do definitely feel a strong desire to see Red and Blue find happiness and a solution to their situation.

The series of letters, which is what most of the book consists of, is a novel technique and certainly has its merits. It does stop it reading like a traditional novel/novella though which may affect the feeling of immersion for some readers. As mentioned above this also limits the worldbuilding or overall depth of the story and world this is taking place in. It’s certainly possible that the authors never intended to do much worldbuilding or give much information about the world, clearly choosing to focus on the characters. For me personally, I just couldn’t fully enjoy it due to an enticing and intriguing time travel war only being a backdrop to the story. If you don’t care about the events or the Time War so much as this character relationship told within it, this could be a 5 star read for you. And for those who don’t mind a divergence from the story but are looking for a page turner, after the 50% mark, it does get more exciting and more things do actually happen in the story. Just don’t expect a great deal of focus on anything past the love of the two characters or for their thoughts to be on anything but the other one of them.

For readers looking for the ‘fast paced’ ‘tour through time,’ ‘science fiction adventure’ described in this book’s description, you’d probably be better looking elsewhere.

11 people found this helpful

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Delgado

Love story, not sci-fi

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 2 April 2023

Verified Purchase

Decent read, but not much focus on the time war. The whole time war is just a vague background for the love story.

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This is How You Lose the Time War: An epic time-travelling love story, winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella Kindle Edition

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Amal El-Mohtar

Max Gladstone

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