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This is How You Lose the Time War

The epic time-travelling love story and Twitter sensation

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This is How You Lose the Time War

Written by: Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell, Emily Woo Zeller
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About this listen

 WINNER OF The 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novella, the Reddit Stabby Award for Best Novella AND The British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novella

Two time-travelling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters - and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.
Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That's how war works. Right?

(P)2019 Simon & Schuster©2019 Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Romance Science Fiction Time Travel

Critic Reviews

This book has it all: treachery and love, lyricism and gritty action, existential crisis and space-opera scope, not to mention time travelling superagents. Gladstone's and El-Mohtar's debut collaboration is a fireworks display from two very talented storytellers
An intimate and lyrical tour of time, myth and history, with a captivating conversation between characters - and authors. Read it
Lyrical and vivid and bittersweet. An absolutely lovely read from two talented writers
This is How You Lose the Time War is rich and strange, a romantic tour through all of time and the multiverse, and you shouldn't miss a moment
An intense, poetic work
Exquisitely crafted . . . Part epistolary romance, part mind-blowing science fiction adventure, this dazzling story unfolds bit by bit . . . Full of fanciful ideas and poignant moments, weaving a tapestry stretching across the millennia and through multiple realities that's anchored with raw emotion and a genuine sense of wonder. This short novel warrants multiple readings to fully unlock its complexities
Spectacular . . . Poetry, disguised as genre fiction. I read several sections out loud - this is prose that wants to be more than read. It wants to be heard and tasted
If Iain M. Banks and Gerard Manley Hopkins had ever been able to collaborate on a science fiction project, well, it wouldn't be half as much fun as this novella by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. There is all the pleasure of a long series, and all the details of an much larger world, presented in miniature here
Fast-paced and intricately plotted
A time travel adventure that has as much humanity, grace, and love as it has temporal shenanigans, rewriting history, and temporal agents fighting to the death. Two days from now, you've already devoured it
Sweet, hopeful, and unashamedly beautiful
A gorgeous love story playfully yet powerfully spanning time and space in a weave of imagery and delight
This is the time-travelling queer epistolary romance I didn't know I needed . . . With precise, cut-glass prose - poetic and pragmatic at once - deeply compelling characters, and a tensely rewarding conclusion, This Is How You Lose the Time War is one of the most striking works of fiction I've read this decade. I'm going to be thinking about it - returning to it - for months, at least. Read it, because I can't recommend it highly enough
A wonderful tapestry of detail
I'm very rarely a reader of romances - but I think now that's only because there is so rarely a romance like How To Lose the Time War. I've lost the day to it, and my only regret is that it's over . . . It's a smart, inventive, lyrical story that dances a pas de deux down the edge of a razor, and I'm very glad to have read it
All stars
Most relevant
Understood nothing but here to stake my claim in a part of history. Confusing, I suppose, as time travel is meant to be. A fun time though.

Understood nothing

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Read this due to the latest Twitter saga of Trigun. It was pretty good. Things make more sense near the end and most of the book is red and blue waxing poetics (in a good way). For anyone on the fence, the bury your gays trope was beaten to death by this book. God, hope this gets posted.

Read due to Bigolas

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it's not enough to listen to this book, I must eat it. Came here on a whim driven by mr b.d.Wolfwood, spurred by a free credit to spend and I had one of the most wonderful literary experiences so far. It is a sensual delight. The narration is wonderful, I loved the reading of the letters.
The story is about two agents from opposite factions weaving through time, changing events and outcomes to suit the needs of their masters. They start exchanging letters, beginning with taunts which slowly (and thrillingly) turn into declarations of truthful love. If you're listening to the audiobook, do it with some peace i'd suggest, the script paired with the narration will lead the mind to conjure up colorful places. They are found out in the end, and the rest i'll leave to be found out later. I don't know how to write reviews for audio books, I will stop here and hope it leads to someone experiencing this little book themselves.

Absolutely delicious

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When I started this book, I expected epic battles between rivals over the span of world's. Fought from the backs of majestic beasts of myth or in starship strewn space or both! What I got was better. How do I explain how this book (this audio book in fact - the performances added something that made the experience almost spiritual) made me feel? I started this book when I was driving to work today morning. I finished it just before I left work to return home. I felt as if I was floating through my day, barely tethered to this reality. I felt suspended in time.

Most importantly this book made me feel so so gay!

Sending letters from everywhen

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The narration and the story is heart felt beauty. And concept alone is award worthy. Love it. Must read.

Poetically Beautiful

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