12 Novels #9: This Is How You Lose The Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

[grayestofghosts]

So, I've finally done it, probably too late, but I have finally done it, I've read This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I remember this book having this huge flash-in-the-pan popularity during the pandemic (?) and I bought it on Audible and didn't get around to reading it until now. And it's good! I did enjoy it. It's a rare book that does a time travel plot and really sticks the landing. I can however see why maybe it doesn't seem to have a lot of staying power in our current fan-dominated communities -- it is maybe too tightly plotted, there are few pockets for the imagination. Sometimes things can be too good to be added to. But it is worth reading, and I did like the audiobook performances by Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller.

As it is I have Audible tokens I need to use soon and a new mp3 player that can handle audiobooks well, so I will take any recommendations on how to spend them quickly.

Comments

[axolotls]

The title caught my eye, good to hear it's worth reading!

And oh, I so get that with some things. Some of my favourite media really is just so good that there isn't much to add as you say, or so tightly plotted that there isn't room for the imagination to slot scenes into. It's an interesting conundrum from a fannish perspective!

[grayestofghosts]

Yeah I don't want to give too many spoilers but when it comes to things fans latch onto to expand upon (Downtime and timeskips, AUs, male side characters everyone decides are gay, etc) it's really notable that this book is absolutely barren of conventional footholds that it almost seems intentional. Not that people wouldn't try -- there are 143 stories in Ao3 with it as the fandom -- but also there are only 143 stories on Ao3 which is kind of shocking.