This Is How You Lose the Time War

A series of letters charting a developing relationship between two beings across time and space, This Is How You Lose The Time War is modern day Romeo and Juliet story of two lovers on the opposite sides of a conflict. The conflict in question here is a time war, between ‘The Agency' and ‘The Garden'. Red and Blue, the two agents in question work for the opposing sides and come to recognize each others work and develop a correspondence.

Whilst nominally a scifi story, this book is much more about the relationship between Red and Blue than anything else. The way the story is told through a series of letters gives it some interesting literary stylings that are quite different to any other scifi story I have read. There is some vivid imagery in the descriptions of how the letters are sent - through all sorts of unusual mediums such as taste, patterns in lava flows etc. The creativity in retelling what is essentially an old story (star-crossed lovers) is impressive.

That said, these literary stylings do add some detachment from the story. The grandiose prose and stylistic flourishes, whilst pretty, are somewhat distracting. It is a shorter novel, so it doesn't outstay its welcome, but its stylistic impulses do make it a somewhat heavy read for its genre.