Staff Pick: This Is How You Lose the Time War

The war between Commandant and Garden has been raging… Forever? The warring factions send their agents across space and time to seed revolution, shut down opportunities, knock key players off the board. 

After a final battle on a dying planet Red finds an unlikely, impossible sheet of paper. “Burn before reading” it says, and when she does she finds a letter from an agent of the other side, Blue. The two rivals strike up a correspondence across the strands of the past and future. At first it’s taunting, and undoing each other’s work. But it grows into comradery, and more, a relationship that could change the trajectory of the war.

Despite often dark backdrops and themes, the joy of this book is found in the spirit of conversation between Red and Blue, their relationship blooms through the letters in an almost delightful way. 

Written by two authors, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, the book feels like a delicate and natural conversation between the two voices. The chapters and letters drop into places we would find familiar, such as a London tea house, before switching to Atlantis on the verge of sinking. The logistics of the war, time travel and the two factions are explored exactly as much as they need to be, without over-explanation. This is a book that trusts the reader to come along for the ride, and is easy to get swept away in the rhythm of. 

Read also:

Do you want another book that features enemy agents developing a closer relationship through necessity? Why not try another collaborative novel written by two authors, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

This is not a love story, but it is a book about love. For more relatable form of time-travel, try Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Following the tight-knit relationship of two kids who love videos games through their lives, together and apart.

Prefer your books more fantastical? Try The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstein, which follows two young magicians as their mentors pit them against each other in a battle of power. Similarly lush descriptions of setting, but with a fantasy tilt.

Submitted by Esme Lloyd-Baldwin, Drumcondra Library