#tihylttw spoilers

[saaraofthesand]

Final thoughts: this book fucked

[myewie]

"It is difficult – it is very difficult, to befriend where you wish to consume, to find those who, when they ask Do I have you still, when they end a letter with Yours, mean it in any substantive way." what if u just threw me off the cliff how bout that

[kingbelugablep]

The thematic overlap between Good Omens and This Is How You Lose The Time War are so numerous I have to jot them down

✔Immortal beings fighting against eachother in a celestial,time spanning war

✔Enemies to lovers trope

✔ Crossing of paths between said characters through time

✔Deciding to not fight for eachothers original cause and instead find a way to stay together

✔Helping eachother escape said consequences for breaking away from their original cause

✔Gay

✔Written by two authors

Obviously they both have completely different tones and navigate the plot differently but they are more similar than I thought.

Love them both though!

I'm so happy to see the new love for this book that I've been thinking about constantly for like,years now.

[alicelufenia]

Finally wanna give my thoughts on This Is How You Lose the Time War. Non-spoiler impressions: this is the first novel—novella, really—I've read that felt like poetry throughout. Really opened my eyes to what's possible with prose.

From chapter 1 I was immediately sucked in to the character of Red. I love this sort of scarily powerful yet introspective character. Who seems like she would be cold and calculating (and she can be) but can also be very funny when she has a more bubbly personality to bounce off.

Speaking of which, there's Blue. I love her too, for much the same reasons as Red. When I first touched this book I was already making comparisons to other works—not out of derision or to imply anything derivative, just reminding me of themes and characterizations—and one that immediately came to mind was Nier Automata. And I couldn't help but seeing Blue's 9S to Red's 2B. Blue is deceptive and snarky yet willing to take great risks, showing immediate chemistry with Red, who is at once analytical and patient while also capable of incredible direct violence.

I have to say as soon as these two started their exchange I was joking about how this is the most romantic novel I've read (and that's true eventually) but I love how initially their correspondence begins as mutual curiosity. Two bored super beings deciding to see how far they can push the other, and it's only after several volleys back and forth that they stop directly interfering with each other and their words become less taunting and spiky, more understanding and kind. The way they both ease into signing their letters as "Yours, Red/Blue" like it was the most natural thing.

And then Blue lets slip and signs "Love, Blue" and after that they both know it's for real, and a new joy and terror takes over them both, emotions up until now you didn't think either was capable of, AND YET, reading back over after I was finished, you can already see the hints of it; Red keeps up a shell to hide the discomfort she feels with her work, and Blue is terminally lonely. In hindsight it's clear from the beginning that both women have been thirsting for a kind of relationship like this, yet are unable to have it with anyone on "her side", save the one operative on the Enemy's side who thinks like her, who she is willing to risk reaching out to to even learn if she thinks like her.

So yeah, there's some very strong wlw themes here too—as if making the vast majority of characters women wasn't being obvious enough—how being a lesbian can feel so isolating when society forbids your love, lest you be punished, even by other women, for your transgression that starts with just a feeling. An itch. A longing. When they started visiting each other's pasts and leaving memories of meeting from since they were children, I felt that. Love has a way of winding its way into your everything, even if you didn't grow up together it still feels like it, when that love runs deep between you.

Love, like letters, are a kind of time travel.

I knew they were doomed from the start. Either Red, Blue, or both would be destroyed before the end, as far as time-bending goddesses can be unmade. And what's a time travel story without trying to change what happens.

I had my suspicions about the Seeker, but was genuinely surprised when I found out who she was. Though if I had guessed earlier, correctly that it was Red or almost correctly that it was Blue, I think the impact of the ending would have still resonated with me. Seeing the range of actions Red takes to go back through their story, taking in the physical remains of everything they both touched, and through it, becoming Blue more and more until the distinction barely mattered anymore; that was beautiful.

Culminating in the end, Red captured by her former comrades, and Blue, her future rewritten, making good on their joint escape, to carve out a place for them together in spite of both sides.

What a great ending. It doesn't matter here whether they go on to escape, go out with a bang, or disappear quietly without a fight, Blue's final words, her declaration "This is how we win", which started off both of their correspondences as boasts about how they'll win the time war for their respective sides; upon re-reading you realize they always meant what they mean at the end; this is how they win, together.

This was a story of how you lose society's war, but win at love.

Thank you to Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone for this amazing book.

[frontlinebicepsoftheninth]

thinking about golden eyed sapphics and snow white metaphors

[cerealandchoccymilk]

im so unwell about them.........

[dragongirldrawings]

working on a new piece from scratch finally, this time some fan art for This Is How You Lose The Time War. It is from a late point in the story 6ut also it's not one that'll make sense unless you already know what it's depicting. I'm still going to put the WIPs under read mores, though the final piece will likely 6e out in the open on my main as normal. Perhaps with an excerpt from the chapter it depicts accompanying it uwu

If you recognise this moment in the WIP do let me know, 6ut do 6e respectful of those who have not potentially read this far yet.

The art is 6arely started 6ut 6y keeping this progress pu6lic it means know someone is waiting to see it progress <3

[aroclan]

I read This Is How You Lose the Time War, because of that post that's like, "go read it without looking anything up about it."

Does this story have an aromantic character?

No.

Was it a good read?

Say, about 3 of 5 stars.

Anything else?

Lots, but it's all spoilers, so here's a cut:

There are no aromantic characters because... this is literally a love story.

I did feel things along the way. The strongest feeling was being angry at the authors for setting up the tropes in the usual way. And then it's one of those books where every end is left hanging loose.

From her sojourn into Garden, we learn that Red does not really know Blue. Does Blue really know Red? Is this love authentic? Do they love their fragile image of the other as illuminated solely through letters? (Because: that's a dangerous failure mode of online dating, for people who don't meet up irl quickly.)

And another thread, almost forgotten: maybe Red started the time war for something to do.

But these things are unanswered. is it Literary?™ or does it make the reader feel cheated, and that the book was a waste of their time?

(i had this problem with The Giver, too.)

[veechyoda]

I hadn't seen this posted anywhere so I thought I'd share one of my fave quotes from the book.

[itsnotthesam]

If you like the intense time travelling love letters Ayda is sending to Fig, I highly recommend This is How You Lose the Time War, a book that is also sapphic and entirely two time travellers finding increasingly insane ways to send each other increasingly romantic letters

[taste-of-marrow]

Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, This is How You Lose the Time War / Tamsyn Muir, Nona the Ninth

[crunchycrystals]

i was about to post about it being a plot hole that aguefort went on vacation the same year he helps the seven get their ged and then he hit me with the quangle so i guess i cant argue lol

[myewie]

— This Is How You Lose The Time War, Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar

[sunshine-zenith]

If your gay time warping future death agents don’t communicate through archaic-by-their-timelines memes, are they really in love?

[jammy-badger]

finished gideon the ninth, was good but not my favourite book of all time

which is why im so mad its touched me so deeply

[booksandwords]

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

Read time: 1 Day Rating: 5/5 Stars

The Quote: You wrote of being in a village upthread together, living as friends and neighbours do, and I could have swallowed this valley whole and still not have sated my hunger for the thought. Instead I wick the longing into thread, pass it through your needle eye, and sew it into hiding somewhere beneath my skin, embroider my next letter to you one stitch at a time. — Blue

This Is How You Lose the Time War (henceforth Time War) was such a stunning read. A surprise to me as well, I picked this up for its cover, animals to fill a prompt, I really didn't expect such a wonderful story and characters. A joyous way to spend several hours. I did read this is a single sitting between about 11 and 3 in the morning (woo disrupted sleeping patterns). Despite the time of night I was reading this easy to follow, something I was slightly concerned about. The only thing I missed until long after I should have caught it was the seeker following both Blue and Red through time and space as they read their letters.

Red and Blue are the book's protagonists, not their real names (we never learn those). Both women are time-travelling agents for opposing factions in a battle to create the ideal timeline. When the story starts they are both aware of each other already, both can sense each other moving upthread and downthread (the terms used for moving in the timeline) Red is an agent for the Agency, getting her orders from the Commandant. Citizens of The Agency are grown in what I see as Matrix-style tanks of liquid. Blue is a player for the Garden, receiving her orders directly from the Garden. Citizens of the Garden are grown in a garden bed. Red is more brutal in her style for making changes to the thread, Blue specialises in subtly. Though as different as they are they do have similarities. Both of them hate Atlantis, both see the beauty in the world and both are more isolationist than their people would like. Their letters to each other are hidden in creative and fun ways. Volcanos, tea, traditional paper and animals among others.

I really enjoyed the style. Time War is written in a combination of letters and third-person narrative following each protagonist in turn. This is a joint write between Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar, as I guessed while reading each author wrote a character. Max Gladstone wrote Red's letters and her reactions, Amal El-Mohtar wrote the same for Blue. They had agreed on a broad outline of the plot structure before starting but the emotional responses to the letters are organic (source: Strange Horizons). This is key to why the writing works so well. Gladstone and El-Mohtar give Red and Blue different voices befitting their different backgrounds. At least at first, I found that Blue had a beautiful mind and Red had a beautiful language. Eventually, their presentations are evened out as their trust develops and their relationship depends. Their letters are so sweetly flirty sometimes seemingly knowingly, sometimes not. The nicknames Red and Blue use to address each other range from funny to cute. There is a practical purpose to them but they are still really cute references. Some are more easily recognisable than others.

I usually ignore endorsements/testimonials/'puff-quotes' on books but I noticed one on Time War after I'd finished reading, it's from Madeline Miller, author of Cirice (more importantly I would say the legendary The Song of Achilles).

This book has it all: treachery and love, lyricism and gritty action, existential crisis and space-opera scope, not to mention time travelling super-agents. Gladstone and El-Mohtar's debut collaboration is a fireworks display from two very talented storytellers.

I like this quote because for once it does a halfway decent job of summarising the story and my feeling about it. I really do recommend this if the blurb appeals to you. It does a brilliant job of creating a world and really likable characters.

I could add so, so many quotes to the review here. I will try to refrain from going overboard. • "And then we'd be at each other's throats even more." Oh, petal. You say that like it's a bad thing. — It's just the way Blue writes this because both of them know this competition is part of them. (Blue, p.36) • Atlantis sinks. Serves it right. Red hates the place. For one thing, there are so many Altantises, always sinking, in so many strands. — The whole Atlantis thing makes me smile so many time travel books venerate Atlantis, and have it as a point in time to go back to a save. This book is very much is just it fails in every strand, why do we bother? (Red, 47) • We make so much of lettercraft literal, don't we? Whacked seals aside. Letters as time travel, time-travelling letters. Hidden meanings. — Should I explain the whacked seals bit? Red's last letter was concealed in a seal Blue had to kill to access it. (Blue, p.53) • I like writing to you. I like reading you. When I finish your letters, I spend frantic hours in secret composing my replies, pondering ways to send them. — This is intended to be reassuring to Blue and it is. There is also something so romantic about this. (Red, p.82) • There is a small hill from which can watch the sun set over the Outaouais River; every evening I see a red sky bleed over blue water and think of us. Have you ever watched this kind of sunset? The colours don't blend: the redder the sky the bluer the water, as we tilt away from the sun. — This is just such a visual description. It is in a letter from Blue while she an embedded operation, as she is for probably 1/3 of the book. This is what she does to remind herself of Red. (Blue, p.88) • I want to say, now, before you can beat me to it—Red, when I think of the seed in your mouth I imagine having placed it there myself, my fingers on your lips. — I'm not going to spoil this one. It is just a beautifully intimate quote. The longing is so plain to see. (Blue, p.125) • I'll be sent, no doubt, to undo the damage you've caused. And we'll run again, the two of us, upthread and down, firefighter and fire starter, two predators only sated by each other's words. — Does this just feel like a mix of want and content to anyone else? Red knows what she wants to be on the treads facing off against red, and she would be content with that... if she couldn't have more. I also really like the names she uses. (Red, p.128) • "You root in the air, my epiphyte. It's no hard thing to trace the new growth to you, singly." — I had to look up epiphyte, I should have guessed it was a botany term. "epiphyte: a plant that grows on another plant, especially one that is not parasitic, such as the numerous ferns, bromeliads, air plants, and orchids growing on tree trunks in tropical rainforests." It does kinda suit Blue. (Garden, p.145)