So this is one of the first books suggested to me while I was still battling the brain rot that came from reading Gideon the Ninth. I had already feverishly googled “Lesbian Science Fiction” to… interesting results, and had seen This is How You Lose the Time War on several comparison lists.
I’ll be honest, I hated this book. And that’s not really a mark against this book at all, seriously. Beautifully written, clever, unique… Just, whoever kept suggesting it to me seriously has a fundamental misunderstanding of who I am as a person. Sure, I’m glad I read it, so I could know that I didn’t like it, and I’ve enjoyed the mental exercise of dissecting exactly why I don’t like it. Which is why I’m writing about it, here.
I think the first part of why I didn’t like this book was its length. I’ve realized over the years that I am just not great with novellas. I’m not sure if this qualifies as one, but it felt paced like it. To be clear, I am not great with 750K epics either (no I have not read The Priory of the Orange Tree, sorry). And I love Stephen King’s short horror stories, so who knows. I’m sure glad I didn’t go into anything literary for a career where I can get judged on this sorta thing. But, yeah, at the crux of it, the pacing on this story was not for me. The format was fun, but also not what I was looking for coming off the absolute vein-injected high that was the Locked Tomb.
Then I didn’t particularly care for how vague it all was. Like this book was scared to outright say what was going on lest someone hear and make an accusation of witchcraft. So, sure there was a budding romance, but it was swept under a rug of flowery language and insinuations that I had to sift through. In total, it is about two souls intertwined and coming together. But, again: short story. If I had been told that before-hand I would have had the exact same summary of the book afterward. There aren’t a lot of other words in there to paint a different picture. And again, this is entirely a personal preference. It is entirely me, as a reader saying “don’t hit me over the head with the obvious, but don’t make me read all the poetry to figure out if you love each other or not” (Author’s note: Wife married me for the puns, even if she denies it. No poetry here.) But, it means if I was writing anything, it was going to be a little more textual, rather than subtextual.
Okay, but there’s good stuff in here. I can’t say I am a massive science fiction fan and not spend some time reviewing the science fiction in hand. The concept of time travel and the futuristic methods of communication are pretty fascinating. I like the back and forth and the idea that you can fall in love with the person you are locked in battle with. It’s a trope I have enjoyed several times. I would have probably loved this whole concept in an entirely different format. If it spent time in each thread of world, and dug into how the changes made impacts, and how it grew their relationship, then I might have had an entirely different take on it. Or maybe I would just be here saying “it needed more puns.” I’m a rube, its okay. But that just comes back to the pacing.
I suppose the last part of my thoughts on this book was the relationship itself, which is probably going to get me in some hot water in some way shape or form. But, for every moment I enjoyed not having to read explicit explanations of exactly how gay Gideon was; that I could just absorb that reality from her emphatic review of busty women in military uniforms, I did not enjoy how– again, vague– this book was about it. To add to it, I also realized I just don’t like my gay characters to be in relationships with men partway through, or pretty much ever. And that is really a personal preference. Like, not gunning for bi-erasure here, and not saying that I wouldn’t read stories about bisexual or pansexual or gay male characters (Winters Orbit was great). Just, I don’t like stories that are vague about this, make you guess, and just as you think “hey, I think we have a gay over here!” they are in some weird time-bubble marriage to a man for a hot second. I dunno, it just reminds me too much about trying to find a date in high school. Up to and including the weird time-bubbles.
I can’t say I read this while ever having the intention of calling it a comp. I was still just trying to catch up on what the state of lesbian-themed science fiction was after having my rude, Gideon-shaped awakening. But that said, it isn’t even close. I wasn’t even at risk of contributing to a beautifully crafted, interwoven poetic tale of enemies to lovers in space-time. I was only slightly debating with myself in the shower about how to write a dime store trash novel about misanthropic lesbian space engineers with unhealthy caffeine dependencies. Anyway, this book was beautiful, and I hated it.
AZ ROZKILLIS 