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A review by videotape
This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
3.0
'I love you. I love you. I love you. I'll write it in waves. In skies. In my heart. You'll never see, but you will know. I'll be all the poets, I'll kill them all and take each ones place in turn, and every time loves written in all the strands it will be to you'.
This is how you lose the time war is an intriguing novella in which the universe is controlled by two factions - Red, representing a heavily industrialised dystopia, and Blue, representing a beautifully cruel naturistic environment.
Atleast thats how I imagined the two sides - as I'm not sure how much of that was included in the book due to the massive lack of world building in this novella. While I suppose this is understandable as the setting flicks through time - there seem to be a few constant places and periods in time that could be fleshed out much better to make the story more whole.
This would do a service to the actual plot, as its massively lacking due to a focus on a few characters instead of the seemingly absorbing world in which this is set.
Also, I'm not a hopeless romantic. I don't 'love, love'. So the fact this incredibly intriguing idea, of two members of opposite factions being able to interact with each other for the first time, while chasing each other through time so they could keep sending these letters, was obscured by a Romeo and Juliet esque plot of two forbidden lovers was disappointing.
The love story does allow for some amazing metaphors through the letters that the two anonymous lovers share, but it also leads to some incredibly confusing wordplay which is not made easier by the often confusing jumps in time. Much of the plaudits that this novella is given is because of its poetic story telling - but it hits the mark just as often as it doesn't.
This is how you lose the time war is 3 stars as, quite plainly, it doesn't fit any of my ideals for a fun read. While intriguing - it can be very confusing and I didn't particularly feel for the characters. The book isn't bad by any means; it just doesn't fill my criteria of what makes a book interesting, and so it is not for me.
This is how you lose the time war is an intriguing novella in which the universe is controlled by two factions - Red, representing a heavily industrialised dystopia, and Blue, representing a beautifully cruel naturistic environment.
Atleast thats how I imagined the two sides - as I'm not sure how much of that was included in the book due to the massive lack of world building in this novella. While I suppose this is understandable as the setting flicks through time - there seem to be a few constant places and periods in time that could be fleshed out much better to make the story more whole.
This would do a service to the actual plot, as its massively lacking due to a focus on a few characters instead of the seemingly absorbing world in which this is set.
Also, I'm not a hopeless romantic. I don't 'love, love'. So the fact this incredibly intriguing idea, of two members of opposite factions being able to interact with each other for the first time, while chasing each other through time so they could keep sending these letters, was obscured by a Romeo and Juliet esque plot of two forbidden lovers was disappointing.
The love story does allow for some amazing metaphors through the letters that the two anonymous lovers share, but it also leads to some incredibly confusing wordplay which is not made easier by the often confusing jumps in time. Much of the plaudits that this novella is given is because of its poetic story telling - but it hits the mark just as often as it doesn't.
This is how you lose the time war is 3 stars as, quite plainly, it doesn't fit any of my ideals for a fun read. While intriguing - it can be very confusing and I didn't particularly feel for the characters. The book isn't bad by any means; it just doesn't fill my criteria of what makes a book interesting, and so it is not for me.