This Is How You Lose the Time War
by Amal El-Mohtar
★ Top 25 book of 2019 · #20 on Best Books of 2019
Red and Blue, rival agents fighting a war across time, begin trading letters that grow from boasts into something deeper. Their worlds could not be more opposed, yet the correspondence turns into a dangerous game and a romance.
Best for: Fans of inventive, romantic science fiction told through letters between rivals
This Is How You Lose the Time War is #20 on BookWard's Best Books of 2019, out of 84 2019 books that cleared our data bar.
What This Is How You Lose the Time War is about
Red and Blue are agents for two rival powers, each trying to tilt history in its own favor by slipping through time. Red serves the Agency, a cold, technological future. Blue belongs to Garden, a single living mind spread through all organic matter. Their empires cannot both exist, yet one day Red finds a letter from Blue, marked to be burned after reading. What follows is a secret correspondence that starts as mockery, turns to flirtation and slowly becomes something deeper.
The book is told almost entirely through those letters, in rich, poetic language. Their growing closeness is risky. Written by two authors, it won the 2019 BSFA Award for Best Shorter Fiction, 2019 Nebula Award for Best Novella, 2020 Locus Award for Best Novella, 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novella, and 2020 Ignyte Award for Best Novella, and tells of two time-traveling agents from warring futures who begin exchanging letters and fall in love.
This Is How You Lose the Time War on the Best Books of 2019
This Is How You Lose the Time War came out in 2019. Of the 84 books first published in 2019 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #20 on our Best Books of 2019 list.
Why it made the list: 482 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (29 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2019 list
- The Tyrant's Tomb Rick Riordan, #18
- Everything Is F*cked Mark Manson, #19
- The House in the Cerulean Sea T. J. Klune, #21
- Invisible Women Caroline Criado Perez, #22
See all Best Books of 2019 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2018 Best Books of 2020.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 409 want to read it, 12 are reading it now and 61 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.1 out of 5 from 29 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 79 | 55% |
| Reader love | 57 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 62 | 20% |
Questions about This Is How You Lose the Time War
When was This Is How You Lose the Time War published?
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar was first published in 2019.
Was This Is How You Lose the Time War one of the best books of 2019?
This Is How You Lose the Time War is #20 on BookWard's Best Books of 2019, out of 84 2019 books that cleared our data bar. 482 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (29 ratings).
Why is This Is How You Lose the Time War on the Best Books of 2019 list?
482 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (29 ratings).
More of the best books of 2019
- Red, White & Royal Blue Casey McQuiston, #1
- A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Holly Jackson, #2
- Heartstopper, Volume 2 Alice Oseman, #3
- Guts Raina Telgemeier, #4
- The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides, #5
- The Wicked King Holly Black, #6
See the full Best Books of 2019, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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