This Is How You Lose the Time War Paperback – March 17, 2020

I actually bought this book a few months ago on the recommendation of a reading list, but I never got around to seriously digging into the book. But after getting through another few stories, and after reading about a certain Twitter user whose endorsement went viral, I was intrigued. So I picked it up and almost immediately, I was enthralled.I will say, for a relatively short 200 page novella, this book is remarkably dense and intense. It is a back-and-forth between two warriors of warring factions in a time war. The time war itself is both rather obvious in nature (they travel to different times and places and influence events) and incredibly dense, with interweaving timelines that form and melt based on the actions of the protagonists. I would say that if you are looking for a book that deep dives into finer details of the worldbuilding and time travel system, this isn't the kind of book for you.Instead, the worldbuilding serves as a fascinating tapestry upon which the narrative unfolds. The authors, in my opinion, leave wide room for interpretation, and I found that to be so refreshing for a sci-fi book. I suppose that was a necessity, based on the length of the novella, but it was an excellent one, because it allows so much of the story to revolve around the romance between the characters.And the romance! I can't overstate how great it feels. It's playful, it's teasing, it's as rich as a triple chocolate cookie, and it's thrilling. It felt so lively, I could have seriously guessed that the authors were dating each other (which was not the case, as the afterword mentions, both are married to other people). And the fact that it was a Sapphic romance was perhaps the most delightful part. I'm so used to Sapphic romance being rather plain, or falling into several tropes, but the setting really forced the authors to expand beyond those tropes. And what a delight that was! I would not only recommend this book to lovers of LGBT romances, but to anyone who loves a great romantic tale. It's too good to pass up!

Context: I’d suggested this for book club and it was selected. I finished it in just a few days.Review: I think the length was perfect for this story. It felt slow at the beginning because it has a pretty steep learning curve - there’s a lot to adjust to with the world building and the writing style - but it really picks up speed at the end. Once I got used to it, it was beautiful and at a couple of points pricked tears in my eyes. The tone is more ponderous, romantic, and melodramatic than I expected a war story to be, and I ate it up. The sappy and over-the-top love confessions played my heartstrings like soulful harp, and felt very fitting for our characters because they would have to be so insanely in love with each other to betray their respective sides, and because everything in their life is extreme - from the bodies they live in, to the leaders they serve, to the jobs they carry out (how much more extreme can you get than to literally manipulate time to win). It was impressive that the focal point of the story was on Red and Blue’s relationship, yet it didn’t pull any punches with the scifi elements. Most of the book is their letters and them thinking about each other, with the scifi elements coming into play with how they travel through time and space, how they leave the letters for each other, how their bodies have been made into hyper efficient weapons, their different sides’ cultures, and how their leaders kept tabs on them. It packed so much into barely 200 pages and I’m glad it did. I was really satisfied with how everything wrapped up and where Blue and Red left off. This was a challenging read, and so I wasn’t quite able to enjoy the story to its full potential - yet! I think this will have incredible reread value when I reread it, and it’s a safe bet I’ll love it even more.- Sofia

Let me start by saying this book was a breath of fresh air.I've noticed a decline in written works over the past few years. I blame the decline in the American education system, and the rise of self-publishing. The last fantasy romance book I read was frustrating to say the least.But this, this beautiful book, this carefully crafted, wonderfully written work -- this was an outstanding read.You simultaneously learn so much and yet nothing at all about the characters, Red and Blue. You get little hints about how each side of the war works, what their societies are like. Descriptions of how Red's body is at least partially mechanical, with no real explanation of how. No explanation on how they can time-travel, nor any real world-building.And yet -- I'm not sure those things were really needed. Because the writing itself is just so good. Reading their letters, back and forth, how Red and Blue get closer and closer and fall in love, is just so good.I think I'll buy the physical book and put it on the shelf.Please just read it already. If nothing else, read it for the fact that it is well written, grammatically and linguistically. This is how books should be written.