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 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.

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208 pages

Average rating: 7.7

27 RATINGS

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7 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

kev
Apr 26, 2024
8/10 stars
It wasn't what I was expecting, more poetry than science-fiction. That said, it was an interesting read and had some twists I didn't see coming.
huynd
Apr 26, 2024
8/10 stars
It wasn't what I was expecting, more poetry than science-fiction. That said, it was an interesting read and had some twists I didn't see coming.
Lanie Bookshelf
Nov 10, 2023
10/10 stars
This is my new favorite book. It has some of the best characters and worldbuilding as well as some of my favorite quotes from any book.

Update: Found a new favorite book this one's still great though.
AlexGJ
Aug 16, 2023
10/10 stars
Absolutely beautiful. Also, the audiobook production is incredible, the voice actors really brought this story to life.
E Clou
May 10, 2023
6/10 stars
The Time War appears to be beyond what the author could actually write so the details of the war and how the sides battle in the war is hazy. It's less like Dr. Who affecting actual changes in the timeline and more like the mythological fates just doing things to fates threads. Instead, the romance is the thing central to the story, but is conducted entirely through letters, and left me feeling unconvinced. Probably more like 2.5 rounded up for me.

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