This is How You Lose the Time War

by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1529405238
• Release Date: July 2019
• Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.7" x 0.8" x 4.9"

Customer Reviews

Great sci-fi story melded with love

A confusing start was soon rewarded with one of the most epic futuristic science fiction stories I’ve ever read. Great read for lovers of time travel, dystopian and cyber punk genres.

One of the best books I’ve ever read!!!!

The writing flowed a bit different compared to most books. It took a minute to get used to but once I did I loved it! Red and Blue are amazing, beautiful characters.

Instructions unclear, time war won.

While I understand the desire to make an instructional guide easier to read through story, I found it completely impractical. The examples are way too specific for that story and I wasn't able to effectively apply them to the time war I'm currently trying to lose. I say, keep the story, but follow each chapter with an overview of what methods were used and how they contribute to the overall loss of the war. The story was great, I really enjoyed it. But as a guide, it's barely half finished.

Entertaining Story!

This was an entertaining story and more like what I look for when I am reading about time travel. There are two opposing forces, that of the Agency ( that is very technology based) and the other of the Garden ( which obviously is more ecology based). Each of those forces has agents, working to unbraid and rebraid strands to make the future more to their liking. This story is about two of those agents, on opposite sides, but in contact with each other through letters. I really enjoyed reading the letters between a Red and Blue. The deliveries of the letters were so cool, from bubbling water in an MRI, to goose feathers and owl pellets. It was fun to read their relationship as it developed, all while they were working to further their side’s goals. The little bits of history and alternative history and outright fantasy that were being manipulated by the agents were pretty interesting too. This was a well written book and even if it wasn’t very long, it was very complete and satisfying. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is looking for a bit of escape from the real world for a time.

Different Take on Time Travel

A time travel novel that is about a war, but not really; nor is it really about the opposing forces and their reasons for fighting. It's about an agent of each side Red from the Agency and Blue from the Garden. Each faction believes it's version of a healthy future is the only way to survive, and the way humanity must persevere. Agency is very tech focused and the Garden is nature focused. Both groups fight by sending their operatives to different Strands (think of a multiverse) to make small adjustments to bring about slightly different outcomes that will have a butterfly effect on the timeline. Red and Blue are overlapping, haunting each other's missions and slightly sabotaging each other, and have been for awhile. When they start communicating with each other through over the top coded messages (i.e. burn a message before reading!) their dynamic changes. A sci-fi book not about war, not actually about the future, but about two sides caught in opposition to each other that journey towards something different.

Lovely- ashley lovestoread

This story is not like my usual reads, it is unlike anything I have read before. A whole new way of world than the one I know that made for quite an enjoyable read. The story flowed well and had me guessing at times what could happen next. A slow building romance that is mainly communicated through messages at various points of time. These messages are hidden that only either red or blue can find that have been left for each other even though they are on the opposites sides of the war. One is on the side of technology while the other is on the side of environment. This is a science fiction time travel masterpiece. I would recommend this book to others to read and while this is the first book I have read from this author I hope it will not be the last.