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This Is How You Lose the Time War

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This Is How You Lose the Time War

By: Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell, Emily Woo Zeller
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About this listen

Winner of the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novella, the Reddit Stabby Award for Best Novella AND The British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novella

Two time-travelling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters - and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

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?

©2019 Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Time Travel Heartfelt War
All stars
Most relevant
The narrators bring new life to the characters, I've listened to this audiobook more times than I've ever read the book, because it's amazing

Incredible story read by incredible actors

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Superbly written. The literary fiction end of sci fi.
Poetic. Luscious emotional tones. Yet sitting squarely in the genre.
Deserved winner of awards.
I will read anything i now find by them.

Writing to die for

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I have listened to this book at least three times and am now into my fourth! It is beautiful, brutal, abstract and delicious.

I keep going back for more...

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Beautiful love story told in correspondence between two people from future societies. Not what I expected at all. listen in one sitting for best results.

Unexpected, beautiful, engrossing

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What a great story told through a different medium style. That's the catch of this book and it's a welcome one. The narrators are perfect and I can imagine audiobook is the best option for consumption.

Great story

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I nearly stopped listening early on. The first half was beautiful poetry but kind of nonsensical. It improved and I finished it but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless they were the art sort.

Weird but beautiful prose

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Incredible world building, imaginative and beautiful
Prose. Emotionally evocative. Great performances brought and already brilliant story to life. The words so special that I feel drawn to purchase the text to consume it in another way, have the words live within me

worlds within worlds spoken into existence with excellent performance

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Anything I choose to say about this will possibly ruin the story, so be wary.

At first I was both confused and felt the prose was too flowery, but others rated it highly, so I persevered. I'm glad I did. others also said that the words must be read, not listened to in audio format. This instruction I'm glad I ignored as I found the beauty of the prose to be like music in my ears. It was very well narrated, in my opinion.

I have to admit there were a few times, especially early on, that I considered giving up as it felt too "literary" for my tastes, but as the love grew, so did my fascination, wondering how it works all end. There was even a moment (date I say "the All-is-Lost" moment when my eyes prickled. But the author weaved a beautiful ending that felt perfect for the tale.

However, despite all the positives, I've only fated the story 4 stars as I believe the language and concepts might be too much for some readers/ listeners. The effective audience I would recommend it to would be quite small, sadly. But that's in my little world where most of whom I know do not like reading literary works.

If you do enjoy such stories, then consider this a five star book.

A literary triumph; A story of love

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Compelling, poetic and exciting. A great concept executed beautifully. Also, not overly long. Not just for scifi fans either.

Fantastic

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The writing, the story, the interaction. I can't wait to relisten. One of my favourite audio books!

Truly Divine

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