This is How You Lose the Time War is a relatively light, quick read but it will wow you with its intricate, poetic writing and incredible range of sci-fi worldbuilding. Red and Blue are agents for rival factions in a time war who begin a dangerous correspondence. The book takes readers through a series of their missions to imaginative new worlds as well as more familiar times and places from our own lives and history. In between the missions are Red and Blue's letters, which form the real meat of the book.

There were a couple of points where I felt the writing was a bit too showy and the imagining of different sci-fi settings lacked meaningful connection to the characters' stories and their relationships. In that way the book is the perfect length; pretty nice and tight, without dragging too much. I read it in a day and was particularly impressed at the authors' ability to craft a narrative with so much jumping around in time and space without it getting confusing for readers.