Two enemy agents rewrite history, only to fall in love across warring timelines.
In short: In the 2019 novel This Is How You Lose the Time War, Red and Blue are rival agents traversing time to alter history for their mutually exclusive empires. What begins as a series of taunting messages between adversaries slowly evolves into a clandestine romance that defies their brutal, unending conflict.
Written by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, the epistolary novel relies on a unique collaborative process. Gladstone penned all of Red's letters, while El-Mohtar wrote Blue's. The authors maintained a general outline but allowed the characters' emotional responses to dictate the narrative, ensuring that each letter's reaction contained a genuine element of surprise. This approach helped the book win numerous accolades, including the 2019 Nebula and 2020 Hugo awards for Best Novella.
The story centers on the personal connection between the two agents, treating the sprawling, often incomprehensible time war as a backdrop for their resistance. Critics have noted that the novel avoids the typical complexities of hard science fiction, focusing instead on the emotional stakes of the characters. By performing gender in various ways, Red and Blue transcend traditional heteronormative molds, making their identity fluid as they shift through different forms across centuries.
The book's legacy includes a surprising surge in popularity in May 2023, when a viral recommendation from a fan account on X—then Twitter—propelled it to number three on Amazon's overall bestseller list. This cultural moment was so significant that the fan, known as 'bigolas dickolas wolfwood,' received a 2024 Hugo Award nomination. While the war itself is depicted as a reason-less conflict consuming generations, the narrative ultimately argues that soldiers on opposing sides often share more with each other than with the distant authorities issuing their orders.
Opens the Intellect+ feed with this card first. Swipe up for the next one.
Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: This Is How You Lose the Time War
To cite this card, link to https://intellectplus.co.uk/app/places-this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war.
How we source, check and correct cards: Editorial standards.
General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.
Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?
Related
More in Cities · More in Countries & Cities · Latest · A–Z · All topics
