This Is How You Lose the Time War

This Is How You Lose the Time War
Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 2019

Premise: Red and Blue are enemies - agents working for opposite sides of a war spanning throughout a complex timeline. Until one of them reaches out, first as a dare, but soon their correspondence changes into something more. 

I understand why this was on so many people's favorites list and won so many awards, but it didn't completely work for me. It was an enjoyable read, but I found it both too long and too short. 

It's part-epistolary: each chapter/section includes a mission that Red or Blue is on and how she finds a message from the other, and then the text of the message follows. The complicated, bizarre pasts and futures that Red and Blue contend with are really cool and interesting to read about, and they were probably my favorite part. I liked learning bits about the organizations they work for, although these are kept somewhat vague throughout. 

The writing is poetic and emotional and lovely, but as the story picked up, the settings got less varied and interesting. That's what I mean by too long - the conceit of the piece (two enemy time agents fall in love) didn't need that long to wend toward the end. Or it possibly needed a lot longer - I also had trouble with the speed of the transition from sassy rival banter to undying passion in the letters, and so I didn't completely connect with the course of the love story or the characters' emotions. I believed what I was told about their feelings, but didn't connect. 

(I also have very high standards for time-travel stories, and I have a lot of side-eye for the way the protagonists' stories intertwine by the end.)

Again, I enjoyed the story and I totally understand that people who did connect more with the characters would adore the story. Although I loved the first section, it was just an enjoyable read for me overall, not anything life-changing. 

4 Stars - A Very Good Book