A review by hazeleyeddreamer
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

adventurous challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I will say I read the last 50 pages on the couch at midnight because I needed to know what happened and the ending was not satisfying. I usually don't mind an ambiguous ending but this did not work for me. They haven't even really met by the end of the book. If you're going to give me enemies to lovers, we're betraying our government and everything we've ever known for each other you need to show me the future they create together. This book is all about two organizations battling over the outcome of the future and obviously both are massively flawed. You can't write a book all about the future and then not show me the future. Show me them holed out in a little pocket of time of their own making, the Garden and the Agency still battling each other and still looking for Red and Blue, but it doesn't matter because they have each other. Show me them dismantling the Agency and the Garden and building a new better future that acknowledges the flaws and benefits of both societies because who better than their own agents to know their defects, who better to know how to win a time war than those who know how to lose a time war.

Obviously this is not to say that this isn't a good book or it's not worth reading. It's an amazing book. Very plentiful with topics for literary or academic discussion and just generally an insightful and well done book, the kind of book that makes me say "damn I'm never going to write something as good as this. How do you write like that?"
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