i am preemptively giving this book 5 stars.

“why,” you ask, “did you mark it as ‘read’, then?”

i have read it. i have finished it. but this—this gem, this marvel, this onion—is the kind of book you need to read two, three, four times, before you get it all.

on the surface, the plot is simple. there are two women, who are referred to as colours. they are time-travellers. as the postscript succinctly say, “Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter”. their employers are at war to decide who gets to control time. Red and Blue are enemies. Blue sends a letter to Red. Red replies.

and so on.

but this book packs an epic sci-fi love story in less than 200 pages—which, in turn, are written in flowery writing that more often than not read like poetry masquerading as prose. it is the nature of the novella format, and the nature of the authors’ writing styles, that nothing is said outright—not the letters, not the scenes, not the way the characters think, absolutely nothing. remember my weird onion metaphor?

so many layers. so many references. i feel like i could write a master’s dissertation about this book.

so. five stars. preemptively. because i did not get 10% of the message, and i will return until i understand it all.

when i do, i know it will be marvellous.