Reading: This Is How You Lose the Time War

[asakiyume]

I really wondered how I would feel about this: there was so much to love--that it was an epistolary novel, that it was enemy agents who fall in love, that it was a time war! But I had also heard that the language was very flowery, and I have a complicated relationship with flowery language. I'm not against it by any means! I love the possibilities that the manipulation of language offer; I love metaphor, poetry, associations forged through language, all of that. But I also really crave story and purpose, and I get wearied easily if gorgeous language isn't wedded to one of those two.

Fortunately for me, This Is How You Love [*ahem* I mean Lose] the Time War, while it has only a very basic story, has a very strong purpose, which I finally managed to articulate to my satisfaction: it as an ode to seduction, challenge, love, & sacrifice. I feel like Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone said, "What if we were to write a towering love, without reservation or stinting, without nice little constraints, a love so big it encompasses all of time and space?" And then did that. Because that's what the conceit of a time war makes possible: love through the ages. The agents' love is both predestined and self-determined. They get to know each other so carefully and so passionately--but a passion that's all in words and thought and all the excesses that words and thoughts allow.

I know your solitude and poise, the clenched fist of you, the blade: a glass shard in Garden's green glowing world .... Love is what we have, against time and death, against all the powers ranged to crush us down.

I mean! That first part reminds me of Psalm 139:

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

So yeah, it's a story to read for the power of the emotion and the language that captures it.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I love this.

- csecooney

[asakiyume]

It's totally not what I went in thinking it might be, but I love it for what it IS. Truly a tour de force.

[minoanmiss]

*makes a note*

[asakiyume]

If you give it a try, I'll be interested in your thoughts!

[sonia]

Is that an intentional change to the title in the second paragraph? I like the thought!

[asakiyume]

LOL, nope, purely my typo! Hilarious :D

[rachelmanija]

I love that psalm, thank you for reminding me of it.

I haven't read the book as all the excerpts made me feel like I'd overdose on the language in much shorter space than the actual book is.

[asakiyume]

And to be honest, you might find the language too much. It is A Lot. It happened that for me it ended up feeling not just all right but positively good, but that wasn't a forgone conclusion; I had severe doubts after my first few pages.

That psalm is my favorite, especially the part about taking up the wings of the morning and dwelling in the uttermost parts of the sea.

[amaebi]

From what you say, I share your initial ambivalence. But I also trust you, so while I'm not buying it just now, I'll likely Rea it eventually.

[asakiyume]

... I mean, we can value each other's opinions and have overlapping tastes and still disagree on particular books---I'll be interested in your thoughts and feelings if and when you do try it, but no pressure!

[amaebi]

Of course! :D

I am reading books only very slowly, unless they're on time-pressure hold from the library (which of course not now). I am hoping for political change in January, and that it will result in my spending a lot less time on news and activism, and more on literature. *sigh*

[sovay]

Love is what we have, against time and death, against all the powers ranged to crush us down.

That is good.

[asakiyume]

It really is. Some things just hit you with their truth, like this:

Love spreads back through time. It claims our earliest association, our battles and losses

[athenais]

I read it awhile ago and while I was certainly interested in how things turn out I don't think I was in love with the words. I often wonder if I'm working with a different tone scale than others. I don't remember the book's language, I remember the astonishing ways they found to leave note of their visits. I also loved the epistolary format; that is one of my favorite styles. I think it's worth a reread and I do own it. Maybe when my brain is functioning properly again. Good review!

[asakiyume]

Yes, I loved how they passed on the letters as well! The unrestrained imagination of that.

And yeah, I so hear you on brain functioning. I was complaining about practicing Spanish, and my husband said practicing reading would expose me to more forms, and I was like, "Reading requires me to sit with a dictionary and make notes, whereas with Duolingo I just press buttons--the cognitive load is WAY LESS."

[athenais]

Yessssss, DuoLingo makes me feel so much more like my normal smart self. Reading in Swedish is...well. I'm not reading any of my Swedish books right now! DL is more like flash cards. I can do that.