I am always self-critiquing. I am always seeking to write better things. When considering how to write better reviews, one of the things that I'm trying to do is to spend less time in writerly dissection and concentrate more on just how reading the book was and will probably be for other people.
Unfortunate then is the day I read This Is How You Lose The Time War because it is so very much a writer's book. It is dense with allusion and cleverly crafted, the sort of book where it is easy to sit back and just feel jealous. The worldbuilding in particular impresses me because in a tiny, tiny book they have managed to construct a world, a conflict, in which it feels like thousands of stories could be happening. It floors me that having constructed this world, this idea that could fuel other writers' entire careers with a massive space opera, they didn't get distracted from what they wanted to do by it at all. I deeply envy that sort of focus and crystal clear vision.
What they wanted to do is write a lesbian love story about two incredibly competent covert operatives, communicating by forbidden letters as they travel through time to ensure their faction's destiny comes to fruition, each mission a little alteration of history in their favour. The messages start as playful rivalry, the acknowledgement of finding a worthy opponent in their grand work, and build predictably.
The pacing of this relationship is one of the two great joys of this book. Each letter shifts them gradually towards each other as they share more and more, both as a display of daring and for want of anyone else to give these thoughts to. The growing weight of emotion convinced me utterly and dragged me along with it, thrilling in their ever bolder admissions of intimacy.
The other great joy is watching the two operatives, Red and Blue, going about their missions. These scenes are just sheer wonder. They're just gem after gem, sparkling vignettes that blend surrealistic moments with very real human emotions. The writing is at once poetic, descriptive, and yet straight to the point and incisive. Some of the scenes are things I'll remember for a long time.
Others, admittedly, aren't. To a certain extent, this book runs together. Not every scene feels delineated from the next, despite the obvious breaks provided by the action scene-letter sequence. I couldn't tell you what the differences between Red's and Blue's personality are either, or at least, not right now. And it doesn't really matter to me because it was such a joy to read in the moment, but it maybe robs the book of a little of after the fact impact.
However, my real criticism of the story would be that once the love story has happened, once they've admitted their love for each other, what follows feels almost anti-climatic. That was the main emotional drive of the story. I said afterwards that the book was a hair's breadth away from perfection but I didn't know what. Now I know. This was the distance. I finished the book however many thousand words after the real climax of the book to me, which meant I finished it on a downer.
Now I say it out loud it feels like a pretty big distance. Make no mistake though. This Is How You Lose The Time War was such a good read. It was like watching fireworks suddenly merge and dance like a phoenix, like music lifting you in the arms of euphoria, like watching two very eloquent people lay their heart bare. Wait. It was the last one. It was power. One of those experiences that remind you why you read.
I don't know who's going to dislike this book. I guess people who want to explore the technology rather than the characters, people who want more straight-forward action... that's about it. I can't imagine readers who want character-driven love stories with speculative backgrounds not enjoying this. I know they'll exist, but my mind does not comprehend them. It cannot imagine them.
So, please read this book, and please try not to prove me wrong.
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