Just Finished Reading: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal-El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (FP: 2019) [198pp] 

It started as almost a joke, a tease, a way of snubbing the enemy. At first s/he was annoyed, even amused in a way but also intrigued. They had been at war for countless years across countless worlds and countless realities, but they had never communicated at least not directly. Almost on a whim a response was sent and forgotten. When another letter was discovered s/he experienced something akin to pleasure. She wasn't even sure before that if she could experience such things. The letter itself spoke of admiration for a skilled opponent even if the effort was wasted as they, the other side, would eventually win. Knowing that such a victory was impossible for the other side this caused much amusement. Despite some misgivings the correspondence continued. At first, it was a teasing, but mutual admiration of battles well fought, and strategies well played. But admiration turned, slowly, into something akin to friendship. Could you be friends with an implacable and dangerous adversary? Apparently so... Control, of course, must never discover their conversations. Both 'Red' and 'Blue' would have a hard time explaining themselves without the words loyalty and betrayal being thrown about, especially now that they were both avoiding situations where it might be possible they could come into actual physical conflict. But could they meet? Could they discuss, face to face, what they do next? Could there be a third way or will one side finally lose the Time War? 

I'd been aware of this book for a while (YouTube had gone crazy over it) so snapped it up when I saw it on offer at my nearby Indie shop. Then, as usual, it sat unread for a year or two. When I finally got around to it, I was not disappointed. It was a little confusing at first, but decades of Sci-Fi reading helped me ease into the narrative. From my intro you might assume that the novel takes place as a series of letters between the two protagonists in the story. The letters (in various intriguing formats) are certainly central but there's a lot more going on here. We do spend quite a bit of time in the minds and memories of both 'Blue' and 'Red' throughout as they both progress their own faction's war in time to ultimately bring about their preferred outcome in the far future. So, there are actual battles, assassinations and other violent acts, but there's also people just being delayed so they don't meet someone or a message is delivered to puts a scientist on a different train of thought – subtle manipulation. The reason I used s/he earlier is that it's not always clear exactly what gender either 'Blue' or 'Red' are. Indeed, it's not 100% certain if they're exactly human as we would recognise it. One seems to be more machine than human and is at least a cyborg. The other appears to be more mythical, almost Elvin in nature or maybe even a plant (I kid you not). They both also seem to either swap gender as required and sometimes even appear to be non-human. It's an interesting identity fluidity that, in part, shows them to be more similar (despite their differences) than they first appear. I did feel distinct resonances of Michael Moorcock at times (although I have no idea if that was deliberate) which I found interesting – and it prompted me [again] to re-read some of his work. Overall, I found this to be a delight from beginning to end. I do tend to be rather 'out of the loop' where more modern Sci-Fi is concerned but this has certainly prompted me to focus more on it in future (no pun intended for a change!). Definitely recommended if you're up for something a bit strange and rather haunting or if you're a fan of Time Travel stories without too much actual science to spoil the fun.