More of Wot I Have Read…

This How You Lose the Time War by Amal-El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This book has an unusual format to it, alternating between the two main characters and the letters they exchange the narrative slowly reveals elements of them both, their worlds and the conflict between their respective groups. Much is left to the reader’s imagination, which I think is good as it is a complex setting that would only get in the way of the building relationship between the two foes.

‘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?’