You Should Read This Is How You Lose the Time War 

Something else that thematically stuck out to me is this book's emphasis on contrasting opposites. The characters are named Red and Blue, one side in the war is technological and the other is botanical, and many of the time-missions that the protagonists find themselves in play on this theme as well. All of this ties brilliantly into the unconventional premise of the novella itself - a story about two enemy agents from the future in a sci-fi war, told largely through the medium of antiquated letter writing. I absolutely love when the actual structure of a story is entangled with its internal themes.

I hope Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood makes a cameo in the book club video. That or the absolute marketing shake-up they made gets mentioned. I also hope that this stays as the top search answer for the book for years to come

These videos feel like a freind going on about a book they just can't get enough of. I miss having those conversations back in school

watching this because of bigolas dickolas wolfwood

Not having to follow the "how is this working, exactly" details of the convoluted letter-writing, and indeed most any mechanical detail, was honestly a relief. At that point, I could just focus on the relationships in the story being told, the feel of the prose (or poetry?) I was reading, and the ideas being discussed. This, for me, is the point of science fiction: not an obligation to describe How It Works, but seeing what kind of interesting stuff the setting enables. (I'm hardly the first to feel this way or say this, and I don't hate "hard" science fiction either, I just balk when people get upset at this sort of book.) The edition I bought included a review that described the novella as "poetry disguised as genre fiction". My initial doubts about this were quickly dismissed. Because that. Really just is what this book is. And I loved that. Meanwhile, I generally despise romance novels, so this was kind of an unexpected win for me. Who knows, maybe my relative lack of experience with romance novels put me in just the right place to love this book.

I love how you structure these “you should read” videos! I’ve seen a lot of folks just gush about the concept of a book or the characters and it’s like, “okay… but why will I like it?” Your videos explain the concept, a bit on the characters, and then dive into what ASPECTS of the novel a reader may or may not enjoy (and you acknowledge that not every book is for every reader!). I feel way more curious about these books after seeing your videos than I would from, say, an online post or generally raving RU-vidr or something. This one I really want to read! Edit: also I have a library card now so like…dang, that’s pretty rad. Thanks!

The reason both organisation can't exist in their own timeline without attacking the other is the same reason diplomacy between planets at opposite ends of the galaxy can't exist: by the time your peace message arrives, you might already be dead from a devastating first strike. So, the mere knowledge that someone else owns the most powerful tool in the multiverse (time travel) constitutes an existencial threat because they could be unravelling your strand of the multiverse at any moment if you don't stop them. And with no real way to communicate without compromising your agents, war is inevitable in this situation. EDIT: Just to develop because I love the high concept sci-fi aspect of this novel so much. Each organisation seeking to gain control of time strands isn't done for the typical "power" gain of a war conquest, but rather to give their existence one more strand to weave to the braid that sustains their reality. It's a battle for existence where the winner wipes the loser from time and space through the collapse of their timelines (by that I mean that all the timelines leading to their future are altered so much that their future ceases to exist)

(Taken from the notes I took for an irl book club) "Hmm, something something, that pilgrim mentioned early in the book was meant to be a tool for Red’s side, but Blue fucked with that. So instead the pilgrim grew old and fell in love in peace - perhaps a metaphor for Blue/Red themselves (I am very tired and my braincells are failing)." Current Note: I assumed the two organisations were basically cults, who aimed to bring all timelines in line (heh) with their respective ideals (weird ecofascism for Blue, dystopian cyberpunk for Red). I do wish we'd got to see more about the organisations - I found the workplace bonding activity set during the Ides of March to be very amusing.

One more book to put on the To-Read list! I had actually heard about this novella from multiple booktubers in the past but always ignored it since I'm not big on romance stories. However, the explanation that it's comprised of the messages each character has left for the other really sparked my interest. I'm a big fan of unique formatting choices in writing and the way this book does it sounds right up my alley. Thanks for another entertaining and informative video/review, they always remind me that I should make time in my day to keep reading!

Yes, I read this after hearing it compared to eeaao. Other than the multiple dimension thing I didn’t really see much in common, but it is one of my favorite stories I’ve read recently.

I'm completely here for the close reading possibility 👀👀❤️

I'm huge on romance so I'll add this to my library request list for later. "Escalating One-Upsmanship" is my kind of flavor.

I just wanna thank you for these videos. It's only due to you that i decided to do something I've been wanting to do forever, renew my library card. I visited the library for the first time in years, and for the first time fully unrestrictedly to either being viewed as Intelligent, reading in a language i don't like, and reading non-fiction. I spent several hours combing through the English part of the library just finding scifi things I'd like. Trashy paperback "shit" that really has no reason to be read. A star wars novel (dark rising) here. Some weird young adult Cyberpunk novel (futuristic violence and fancy suits) there. A weird thriller (annihilation) to close me out. And I've absolutely demolished them. Most of them came from recommendations i found in the comments here. So yeah. Thanks

A truly amazing book, thanks for helping spread the word!

I had an idea for time travel novel about an organization constantly going back in time to ensure an ideal future for them, glad to see that they used a premise like that to make what sounds like a ridiculously fun novel.

Picked it up cause I saw your video I read Blue's parts and my wife read Red's. What a wonderful experience we had and the characters are so *cute* She dislikes SF/Fantasy and I dislike Romance but we loved this together

Immediately recommended this book to all of my friends! Though that was hard to do without sounding like I'm trying to sell them a paperback AO3 fanfic. I've really appreciated this and The City And The City's way that they strip down all the unnecessary bits of sci-fi so they can simply focus on exploring the unique scenario the author made. This is especially true with this book, since we don't know what the rival groups want and why, we don't know how they use or obtained time travel, and I could barely get an image of Red or Blue besides the one time Blue becomes a wolf! Moving onto the romance part of Sci-Fi Romance, The slow build romance despite barely seeing eachother was a unique start. The start as a hilariously pretentious "poetry battle" only made the shift towards sincere longing of lonely lovers more savory. I had been somewhat worried about whether I would enjoy this book's romance as a Cis Het male, but the book seems to serve every audience by keeping almost purely to emotional romance, not paying attention to whether the reader would be attracted to the protagonists. Also now this book has gotten me to read Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison. Never thought i would be reading a book recommended by a fictional character.

god, I love this book so fucking much. thanks for recommending it to people, more people should read it, it's phenomenal. I actually met up with my ex who recommended it to me just today, for the first time in a while, and we talked about it a little, and god that just reminded me again how much I love this goddamn book. if you're reading this, and you somehow haven't taken his recommendation and read it, go, read it, now.

Love the thumnail

Man I hope u get more views. Ur quality is top tier. And yes I too came here after that bigolas dickolas tweet

Thanks for the video and recommendation!

Thanks for making this videos! You got me into reading, finished reading house of leaves, and reading bats of the republic right now!

I watched your channel for years when I was a teen and have been looking for your content again for likely the last two years at least. Just when I give up hope, your newest video suddenly gets dropped onto my homepage. The algorithm works in mysterious ways...

This vid got recommended after i saw bigolas dickolas got the book as a best seller ❤❤❤

This book is great I definitely should reread it.

"Playful and lyrical" You have my attention. Not that you needed help getting it. Sounds like a fun read I will have to check out!

i've owned a copy of this book for several years now, but this motivated me to move it from the shelf to my "up next" pile! can't wait to dive in.

I literally finished this book last week, it's stunning

I'm thrilled to read this in book form, I read the audiobook a few years ago and the voice actors for Red and Blue were fantastic

You’re videos have always been such an inspiration to me. I’ve wanted to be a writer my whole life, and your videos have given me a lot of great insight and ideas. It’s great to hear you talk about one of my favorite books. If you’re interested in reading something similar, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Under the Whispering Door.

I wish I had found you early enough to actually do the book club for this, sounds awesome. Will be looking forward for the book club episode though

Who knew SPY vs. SPY are 2 lovers who love out-witting each other 😊

oh heck yeah this book is at my library. It sounds awesome

the book was indeed awesome

This is my favourite novella ever, it's so fun

Great video! I'd be very interested in your thoughts on how visual novels are as literature. Most visual novel reviews come from people who are gamers first, so it'd be fascinating to see your perspective. I know you talked about them a bit in your Ergodic literature video, but if you have anything more in-depth to say about a specific visual novel I'd love to hear it.

This book looks like exactly what I’m into

here i thought it was going to be a dr who book. i was bamboozled

I like birds. This book has birds on the cover. You are a bird. I watched your video. I will read this book.

I really want to give this a try but I usually can't stand either romance or books that don't take their rules seriously so I may have to pass on it. It seems very interesting though

Nice thumbnail.

Ah, yes. “Geomantic Steganography,” pronounced “TheRuleOfCool”

I forget about the book and i was thinking "Ohhh... How do i lose this time war?"

LOW STAKES?! I don't want to spoil the book, but uh, NO

Hey, love the series, but I was wondering if you have any recommendations for someone who you would describe this book as a 'miss' for (i.e. fans of harder sci-fi)?

well thats a miss for me

Team Fortress 2

any similar books you would recommend?

Well here's the deal, I'll read it if you put the dragoncharm and halo streams back up because they were really funny.

I did not like this book at all 😢

I will never cease to be amazed by the praise this book gets because it's one of the worst things I've ever read. The prose reads like a 14 year old bad fanfiction writer's idea of fancy writing. Everything is absurdly over written (including at least every other page having three words in sequence of adjectives to describe the same thing, exactly the thing this channel has previously been very critical of) and there are multiple examples which showcase that the authors don't actually properly understand the words they're using. The claim that this is a deliberate technique indicative of the characters' efforts to outdo one another doesn't work, as there is a very distinct separation between what is in the letters and what is just the author describing the setting and the style doesn't change between the two. It's just as over the top when it isn't meant to represent the characters' writing. For an example of this, at some point the book describes some fine china and describes it as having 'sinuous veins'. Now I'm sure some people will claim that this was an intentional oxymoron but considering the other descriptions throughout the book that are usually either completely flat and uninspired or seem to not understand the actual word they're using as if they've been scraping the bottom of the barrel in the thesaurus (perhaps if they'd used a thesaurus they might at least have used the words in more accurate context). I also just generally don't think much of anyone who gives the many worlds interpretation serious consideration. It's not very respected within physics communities for a reason.

You read it because of birds on the cover? Awful joke ikr

Your title is confusing

Great content but why the gay anime bird?