This Is How You Lose the Time War

Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood famously rocketed this book to the top of the bestseller list four years after its publication. Whatever you’ve heard about this inventive epistolary time travel romance, I promise you that it lives up to that hype. It won me over immediately with its lyrical prose, clever sci-fi conceit, and charged romantic tension between dueling protagonists.

I love dystopian fiction, but there’s something even more impressive about well-written utopian fiction. I’m even more impressed when authors remember that our various visions of utopia can be in conflict with one another and with our own individual connections and desires.… show more.

This book is best read over the course of one rainy weekend if you’re feeling in a rut. I got into a bath with this book, and by the time I came out, it was nearly finished, and the water was stone cold.

Two deadly women for the price of one! And they’re in love! This is more of a novella than a novel, and it consists of a series of letters written between two agents on either side of a complicated looping and multi-threaded war.

I love epistolary novels, and I love interesting framing devices; as a writer, it… show more.

A love story written across time itself. 

This book contains a staggering scope in a few pages. There’s an element of poetry in the back-and-forth battle between the two agents working to alter the history of the world to aid their faction. Their taunts turn to admiration to affection and then something deeper as they jump through millennia to bring about a reality that both agents pursue but, perhaps, neither wants.

The book is relatively short, but be prepared to spend extra time savoring the language, mood, and richness of the story. This is one of those rare books that… show more.

Though I love many types of fiction and nonfiction, my favorite stories involve time travel. The combination of exciting action and emotional drama puts these stories at the top of my list, year in and year out.

When I read This Is How You Lose the Time War, I was instantly sucked in. A sci-fi romance about two combatants in a never-ending war who strike up an unlikely correspondence, this book revolves around themes of suffering, redemption, and the power of love to heal the deepest of wounds.

Not only that, but it’s also written in gorgeous, lyrical language,… show more.

What “Time Travel” book list would be complete without This is How You Lost the Time War?

This book is beautifully written, unique, romantic, and employs just enough time travel to be tricky but not confusing. Two agents on the opposite sides of the time war find comfort in their secret correspondences with one another, but of course, love, time travel, and war can never be so simple.

Queer, star-crossed, heart-wrenching, and, of course, oh-so-human. This one is great for anyone who likes short and sweet sci-fi with a big emotional impact. 

Okay, this recently blew up on Twitter thanks to someone called Bigolas Dickolas Wolfward.

He recommended it and it shot to number #1! I read this book somewhat stupefied. It’s a novella, written through back-and-forth letters between Red and Blue, two rivals in warring factions determined to secure their best possible futures.

Battlefield taunts turn into something more, but if they’re caught in this romance, it could mean death.

This novella is lyrical and fascinating, and very, very hard to describe, as I’m figuring out. But it’s incredibly romantic, and about defying all the odds. 

I’ve read this book many times—most recently, I read it out loud to my wife. It’s lyrical, swoony, full of queer yearning, and oh so very charming.

The story is primarily told in letters between two rivals in a “time war,” in which two sides basically travel up and down the timeline of the world trying to sabotage each other’s efforts. To me, the details of this war matter very little, because we know how brutal and senseless wars can be, how both sides often lose sight of what they’re even fighting over in the first place. But what matters… show more.

Just knowing this book has not one, but two amazing authors should tell you it isn’t your usual fiction novel. But just in case you need more convincing, think C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters but without all the religiosity. The story is told not from anyone’s point of view, but from missives left behind by time agents working for rival factions trying to control the future. The reader must piece together the world the agents live in just from the glimpses in letters they leave behind. And how better to tell a love story that spans the test of time… show more.

Almost defying description, this novella is both historical and science fiction. Written as a series of back-and-forth letters between two people falling in love from afar, it explores the themes of conflict, control, and hopeful defiance. It never explains itself, but invites the reader to realize that love is more powerful than war. It is beautifully written and surprisingly unique.

I am loathed to say, I had to put this book down at first. The writing was there, but it was a confusing mash-up of–I don’t even know how to describe it: post-apocalyptic, post-gender, romance-spy thriller, time-warping science fantasy? Usually too convoluted for me. But that writing…it was so poetic and eloquent that I gave it another go and was rewarded for it. Told from dual perspectives, two spies out to destroy one another in rotating dimensions, taunt, tease then fall in love with one another by leaving the most undiscoverable letters, letters so deep in wanting and loneliness that… show more.