This is How You Lose the Time War

Two time-traveling 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.

In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked “Burn before reading. Signed, Blue.”

So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space.

Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast …

In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked “Burn before reading. Signed, Blue.”

So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space.

Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they’re the best, and they’re alone.

Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it?

A tour de force collaboration from two powerhouse writers that spans the whole of time and space.

14 Auflagen

paperback, 198 Seiten

Am 18. Juli 2019 von Jo Fletcher Books veröffentlicht.

ISBN:: 978-1-5294-0523-1
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lesepflaster aka schokopflaster 📖 hat This Is How You Lose the Time War von Amal El-Mohtar besprochen

Erstaunlich dicht und poetisch

4 Sterne

Das Buch ist klein, groß geschrieben, hat viel Whitespace und nicht mal 200 Seiten. Trotzdem habe ich bald zwei Wochen gebraucht, es zu lesen, weil es so dicht gewebt ist.

Red und Blue, die Protagonistinnen sind quasi Spion und Spion aus den alten Mad Heften. Auch sie haben ausgeklügelte Fallen und Fähigkeiten um die verschiedenen Zeig-Strände für ihre Faktion zu gewinnen/zerstören. Und irgendwann verlieben sie sich.

Dabei lernen wir immer mehr über die Art, wie die jeweilige Seite funktioniert: kurz gesagt elaborierte Maschinenwesen VS Blumenwesen. Die Details sind unterhaltsam und fühlen sich rund an — solange man nicht zu genau hinschaut. Der Aufbau ist handwerklich gut, wenn auch nicht überraschend.

Sehr empfehlenswert.

Mr.F hat This Is How You Lose the Time War von Amal El-Mohtar besprochen

Cute romance with a disappointing sci-fi setting.

3 Sterne

Amal El-Mothar and Max Gladsonte's "This is How You Lose the Time War" follows two agents, Red and Blue, on opposite sides of a war that spans all of time and (some of?) space across multiple universes.

Each chapter starts with a snapshot of what each agent is doing to advance their side's cause, whether that's taking part in major historical events or planting the seeds for 'coincidences' in the future, and ends with the discovery of a letter from their counterpart. What begins as acknowledgements of respect, nods across the battlefield, gradually grow into something more.

Fans of science fiction may be disappointed by the lack of focus on the time-traveling, universe-hopping backdrop to this story of star-crossing lovers. Details are sparse, and little is disclosed about the factions or why they are at war other than hints and impressions throughout the book.

The gradual, tip-toeing …

The gradual, tip-toeing romance between Red and Blue via their elegantly composed letters is the strength of this book. There is a sweetness as the characters, hovering just beyond what one might call "human", discover that they are capable of such love, and for who should be their mortal enemy, no less. Readers who never tire of "Romeo and Juliette" will find much to love in "This is How You Lose the Time War".

Hirvox hat This Is How You Lose the Time War von Amal El-Mohtar besprochen

A meeting of minds

4 Sterne

How do you have a love story between two beings separated by war, time and dimensions? With covert letters. They may be written in seeds or lava flows, but letters nevertheless.

moving to outside.ofa.dog hat This Is How You Lose the Time War von Amal El-Mohtar besprochen

Weird and beautiful but not always up to its own ambition

4 Sterne

The letters that make up about half of this book are gorgeously written, and I love the story they tell. The basic idea of the time war is clever, and the descriptions of placetimes the characters find themselves in evocative, sometimes reminiscent of Calvino's Invisible Cities. I devoured this book in a few days.

And yet... something about it felt a little thin or hollow behind its fireworks. I think it was a good artistic choice to leave all technical details out, but I couldn't help but get hung up on the time paradoxes. Not that it's the authors' responsibility to necessarily avoid or solve them, but for me personally they intruded on the suspension of disbelief.

Merovius hat This Is How You Lose the Time War von Amal El-Mohtar besprochen

Review of 'This Is How You Lose the Time War' on 'Goodreads'

5 Sterne

Hauntingly beautiful. A love-letter to the written word.

bookafnd hat This Is How You Lose the Time War von Amal El-Mohtar besprochen

probably not for everyone, but it's very good

5 Sterne

it's a magical realist (?) romance in a science fiction Time War setting, an unusual choice, but one that works well, given how strange the consequences of warping causality would be. If you can get ahold of the audio book, it's pretty good, has different readers for Blue and Red.