This Is How You Lose the Time War

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 198 pages

Red and Blue are agents fighting on opposite sides of a never-ending war that spans all of time and the multiverse. They're equally cunning, and when Blue leaves a letter for Red at a site that they've both touched, she means it as a good-natured prod at a talented adversary. But as this letter turns into dozens sent between the two agents, their mutual respect turns to friendship and eventually love, despite the danger of being found out by their superiors.

This epistolary novel is under 200 pages, but demands a slower pace to savor the poetic writing of the authors and the creative delivery of the letters. It's a lovely book, and one that begs to be read aloud — I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn of a stage adaptation. Well worth the read.