Review: This Is How You Lose the Time War

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Readers of the blog know how much I love Max Gladstone's works (The Craft Sequece and Empress of Forever) and will no doubt recall my strong praise for Amal El-Mohtar's Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon-winning short story Seasons of Iron and Glass, in my Hugo nominations post from 2017. Thus, it's hardly a surprise that one of my most anticipated reads for 2019 has been this novella. But it might seem like a stretch since I'm not usually a fan of co-written works, spy novels, or epistolary novels. The unique structure of this novella (more on that account on the actual blog review post) takes every advantage of the writers differing styles. Anyone who has followed these authors' writing, social media, or games (yes, games- Max Gladstone has written some pretty cool games) will know which character is written by which author.

Time War tells the story of Blue and Red, two agents who are on opposite sides of the titular time war, a temporal battle that finds them traveling on the strands of time through history and place. From the myriad Atlantises that Red despises to the perfect London that Blue loves and to which other Londons can only aspire, we travel with these two agents and read letters that begin as taunts but which evolve into the deepest of bonds- love and respect. Red, in all her earnest lethality, is enriched (infiltrated? flipped?) by Blue's appreciation of the niceties of tea, honey, fine writing paper, scented ink, and her philosophical approach to a war that rapidly becomes secondary to their obsessive relationship with one another. Red and Blue are in some ways trapped in the battle between the technotopia known as the Agency, and the vast organic consciousness known as the Garden, having to cover their tracks to obscure their growing bond and their growing questions about what winning the time war would really mean. What if winning a war could cost you everything you care about most? Where do their loyalties lie? Can they find a way to game the system they are entangled in, and change the paradigm of their leaders' respective wars? Is there a way to win?

Full of deft writing, terrible puns, love, heartbreak, and hope, This is How You Lose the Time War is a beautiful novella, unlike anything I've ever read. It's going to receive great acclaim and a slew of award nominations, as it deserves.

I received a Digital Review Copy and a paper review copy from Saga Press in exchange for an honest review.

The audiobook narrated by Cynthia Farrell and the awesome Emily Woo Zeller is just marvelous.

______________________________________

I was fortunate to have the chance to attend Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's effervescent Readercon30 panel in which they discussed how this book came to be. They had long wanted to write something together and the idea for the novella initially took shape over a dinner in 2017. Describing the situation in which Red and Blue meet as a sort of temporal Cold War, the authors sought a framework that would build on their differing styles and strengths for their respective characters. The authors wrote their sections (El-Mohtar as Blue, Gladstone as Red) in tandem, while spending time together on a writing retreat and on two other occasions. (They actually found they struggled to write when not together.) Since each wrote their character and their character's letters, polishing the novella with recommendations from their agent, DongWon Song, and their editor at Saga Press, Navah Wolfe, was easily accomplished, as neither had to touch the other's passages.

The novella has been optioned for TV, though the authors are unable to discuss any details, as yet. It did sound as if some structural changes might take place, though.

I'm taking bets on award nominations. A trifecta of Hugo, Nebula and Locus noms, anyone?



View all my reviews