‘This Is How You LoseThe Time War (2022)’ by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
A personal review for Counter Arts
The above title was No 8 — there were 12 in total and in no particular order— in the list created by Sadie Seroxcat for her Counter Arts Book Club for January 2023.
I have just finished reading it and am writing this literally from just having put the book down. Talk about immediacy. This review is as immediate as you can get. So here we go.
Astonishing.
It is a novella and comes in at 209 pages. Which for me meant 2 days of reading time. 100 pages per day. But you take as long as you want. I highly recommend it.
You might know that I wrote for an online publication that was solely about fictional time travel in books or films or TV shows. This would have featured very prominently in that publication. However, although the book is ostensibly set around a time-traveling mise en scene the main story is about the growing relationship between the two main protagonists who are enemies and assassins for rival hegemonies in space and time.
It is a scientific romance. That was the definition given to the iconic stories of H.G. Wells. By using this phrase I can think of no higher praise for what these two writers have created. Out of a truly epic and bloody time of a Time War comes a beautiful creation of love not dissimilar from the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
There is science in the work but not the hardcore stuff. It is an inclusive part of the poetry at work in the writing. If anything there is more poetry than science. But there is enough science fiction within the novella to keep the sci-fi aficionados happy. Particularly the way each communication/letter is created and transmitted. The sources are clever and highly imaginative as they would need to be to enable these two superlative and highly prized killers to make and maintain contact.
And in keeping with the way of the world at this time the novella is full of the exploration of the beauty of the natural world we seem to be intent on obliterating. It is not added on but is part of the very essence of the story of the War and the development of the relationship between ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’.
There are copious references to aspects of human history and a contemporaneous reference which was brilliant. Yet the mythic and historical references are brief and could have been longer. My only criticism. I am biased because that's the stuff I love. But then this novella might have become too big and its impact does rely upon its brevity, its simplicity, and the swift flow as,
“Time and tide wait for no man” nor enemies in a Time War.
Its shortness stops the story from becoming cloying or repetitive. And it should attract readers who don't want to wade through huge battles in space and time and the stuff of grand space opera.
The novella is refreshing in its shortness which is juxtaposed well with the vastness of time and space. It is a ‘Goldilocks’ book. Just the right amount served up. Enjoy. I certainly did. Looking forward to a sequel?
‘This Is How We Win The Time War’?
