This is How You Lose the Time War by: Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

 

This is How You Lose the Time War while published in 2019 to great acclaim has been undergoing a reappraisal and resurgence due to a Twitter account promoting it.  It was because of this Twitter account and some friends’ recommendation that I decided to pick it up and read the novella quite quickly.  As a novella it comes in at just under 200 pages and is remarkably cohesive despite being written separately by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, assisted by two polar opposite writing styles with each author writing one of our protagonists’ perspectives.  This is aided by the novella being mostly an epistolary structure between these two agents for warring groups going up and down several time streams.  A basic premise perhaps, but much of the joy from This is How You Lose the Time War is the exploration of the relationship through these letters.  The Time War itself is an abstract concept, El-Mohtar and Gladstone never being entirely clear on the motivations for each side, whether or not one is justified while the other is slighted, a perfect decision for a novella which can be read as about the injustice and utility of war using a conflict that nobody can remember.  The only other significant character outside of the two agents is one of the agents’ leader who serves as the antagonist and one of the few characters with an actual presence.  The Commandant represents the Agency and there is this real sense of cosmic horror throughout the novel once the purpose of This is How You Lose the Time War as a love story is revealed.

 

This character was largely Gladstone’s contribution to the narrative as he wrote the sequence of Red’s perspective, while mirroring the character with Red herself, far more a taunting character than the other agent from the initial letters and the character more resistant to falling in love.  The romance in the novella is one that almost defines falling in love, the characters finding further clever and curious ideas to communicate.  The love truly feels like a rabbit hole of possibilities and connections between these two enemies.  El-Mohtar’s contribution to the novella is the perspective of Blue and these letters are where some of the fascinating worldbuilding is done.  The Time War is being fought in several universes where the slightest change can have the butterfly effect.  There is a sense of culture being explored and fought with the War itself heavily implied to be a total secret in certain strains and all out war in others.  Strains and personal timelines can be altered and communication through the agents has evolved far beyond the need for traditional language creating an alien disconnect between reader and character, the agents not being human (or at least not just being human).  There is something ethereal to the way the love story actually plays out due to the setting though not falling into the trap of an LGBT love story being othered, it’s very much a normal thing and the love itself is beautiful.  The final line of the book is also something that manages to sit with the reader long after you finish reading.  Perhaps this review has been brief, but I’ve avoided major plot spoilers and even then that’s difficult to describe but This is How You Lose the Time War is in fact a masterpiece.  10/10.