This is How You Lose the Time War

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019) 209 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Libby narrated by Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller. Amal answers a reader's question on Goodreads about how the two authors divided the writing with "In brief, Max wrote all of Red and I wrote all of Blue." I struggled to follow the story and understand what was really happening in the early chapters of the book. It is a very abstract book with lots of poetic language and mind-bending multi-verse time jumps. The two main characters named Red and Blue are female time agents from two warring factions. If you are a fan of espionage stories, I wouldn't recommend this because the spy work of these two time agents is left pretty vague, or, at least, it is difficult to follow the thread of the consequences of their actions forward and backward through time. There are letters that Blue and Red send to each other in this short book, which start as taunts between competitors and turn into proclamations of love. Red's world includes many more references to human civilizations throughout history and has a sci-fi bent. Blue's world has many references to plants and animals and has a fantasy angle. Ultimately, I think this is really talking about the competition between humanity and nature through the millennia, and a star-crossed couple representing these two things begins to see value in each other.

 

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.

Forever and a day

Forever and a day: a James Bond novel / Anthony Horowitz, read by Matthew Goode, 288 pgs.

007 is dead.  This is the start of the book.  The 00 program is new, in fact, just 3 agents and now one is dead.  This introduces a new agent, just promoted.  His name is James Bond.  He wants to keep the 007 designation because the man who was killed was his friend.  His first assignment is get to the bottom of that murder.  We meet James Bond.  He is debonair but young.  He has confidence but is still figuring things out.  He doesn't have a lot of experience.  This book is a prequel "Casino Royale." Ian Fleming's first Bond book.  Horowitz grabs the mantle and does a good job.  Sure, there are a few things that make no sense for the time...at least twice there are comments about smoking being a dirty habit.  Did anyone say that in the 50's?  In the end, Bond solves the mystery, gets the woman, and kills a few people.  I doubt that can be dubbed a spoiler.  The narration is well done by Matthew Goode.  Great for Bond fans.