Book Club: May/June.

[Cyndi Kingsley]

This was an interesting book, for sure. For the past week, I've been trying to think of exactly what it was that was missing for me to say I loved it but it's tough to say.

Spoiler

It might be the vagueness that Jess mentioned - though I think it made sense in a lot of ways. Knowing the actual details of the war wasn't the point even though I would have loved to hear more about it; or the transitory nature of it like Rowan mentioned though that also made sense to convey how Blue and Red lived their lives; or that the prose while lovely 90% of the time felt like too much the other 10%. I still recommended it to a friend so I know I enjoyed it well enough. I definitely enjoyed the last quarter of the book more than the rest. Everything just seemed to come together for me a bit more, and if the whole book gave me that same rush I'd have loved it. I did read some reviews on Goodreads, and it was interesting how hit or miss it seemed to be for people. I didn't quite get the folks who disliked it altogether because it had a lot of quality aspects to it.

 

[Hugo Stark-West]

So I finished this yesterday. which for a 200 page book a generous month and a half seems like a really long time to be reading. especially as i did the last third yesterday.
I thought the book was okay. though i (obviously) struggled to get into it. i think that was more to do with me having a lot on and not dedicating the time rather than it being the books fault. and i would like to re-read it again in a few months and see if i enjoy it more when i give it the time it deserves.

Spoiler: my goodreads review

I have had this book highly recomended by several friends and was happy when it was chosen to be my book clubs book. I feel bad giving it three stars, as I can tell it is worth more than that.
The premise, plot, and execution was all solid. I probably just picked it up at a bad time and struggled to sit down long enough to get into it, enough to make an emotional connection with it.

It was an interesting book to read, and an interesting concept. I liked the alternating chapters in red and blue with the letters at the end of each one was great. I also loved the multitude of ways those letters came to be.
so while this time around I think i lost the time war, I have a feeling it will be the kind of book that will niggle in my brain, and I am looking forward to picking it up again in the future and giving it another go.

I struggled with the questions as the chapters didn't have numbers. and i wasn't keeping count. so here is my retrospective response to them and there are a couple i didn't have an answer for

Spoiler: qestions

1. Try thinking on a vertical time axis, with memories above and the future below. Does it change how you think about the past or future? Is it fun, icky? Other?
   1. I quite likes the upthread and downthread. it made me think of strands of hair or string woven together in a braid.
2. Red and Blue come from very different futures, clues about which we only just start to learn about in these first chapters. Do you see yourself belonging more in The Agency or Garden. Why?
   1. garden. while obviously it is a war and both sides have agents and are trying to end the other side garden seems so much more organic and goes with the flow. Where as the agency seems a lot more regimented. I am not a fan of things being overly regimented beyond what is necessary. and people constantly micromanaging me always annoys me (even if i need it sometimes)
3. Red and Blue find more and more inventive ways to leave each other messages. If you were in the Time War, and sent to this time, what creative way would you find to leave a message for your frenemy so only they found it?
   1. this is hard to answer as who knows what options there are. i will say i liked the seeds for red to eat, the song of the skeletons and the rings in the tree from the Mongals
4. Red hates poets. Or does she? In Chapter 1, she ponders the ramifications of letting the wrong person live: “A fugitive becomes a queen or a scientist, or worse, a poet.” In Chapter 7, in the midst of hating the infinite Atlantises, she ponders the worlds that have no Atlantis; that “know the place only through dreams and mad poets’ madder whispers.” Is Red’s ridicule of poet’s personal or a function of The Agency? Are poets neutral in the Time War or do they belong to (maybe beget) Garden? Bonus consideration: so far in the book, Red only talks of poets. Blue only talks of poetry.
   1. I hadn't noticed that. but it makes sense poetry seems like more og a garden thing than an agency thing. I don't think Red hates poets. as much as she thinks she does as it seems that deep down she is one. and at the start this deviation from what is expected from her would likely scare her corruption from what she is meant to do.
5. When Red writes to Blue, “I try not to think of you in the same way twice,” this is, on the surface, a safety measure. But it clearly has a secondary effect (intended or un-) of letting Red see Blue everywhere in the worlds around her. Have you ever changed the lens through which you thought about someone or something you care about? What effect did it have? Were you changing the lends to protect yourself or for other reasons?
6. Chapter 12 ends on a doubling, if not tripling, down on a recommendation for the book, Travel Light, by Naomi Mitchison. Never having heard of it, we looked it up to find this engrossing article written by Amal El-Mohtar, co-author of Time War! We think it’s delightful to hide a glowing recommendation within the pages of fiction. If you could hide a book recommendation someplace, where would it be? What would you recommend?
   1. it would actually be one of the other books i put on this club, the once and future witches. part of the remise of that book is spells hidden in plain sight in nursery rhymes/childrens songs. so maybe a book recommendation hidden in a song.
7. By the end of this section, we've met both Garden and Commandant. Were they what you expected? Did either come off as the dominant leader? Did either seem to have an ethical high ground? Did you learn anything more about the Time War by meeting its principal adversaries?
8. We've now seen Red on the go, hopping from mission to mission, strand to strand. In these moments, the writers build a whole world in a sentence, such as, "She races gravcycles through a crystal forest coursing with the brilliant pulse of human beings whose physical bodies have been rendered, like bacon fat, until the fragrance of their minds expands to fill all space." Try it yourself! Build a world in one sentence. Feel free to use Red as a pawn in it if needed. She an handle it.
   1. She steps through worlds as though they were postcards. one where oceans stretch out on all horizons and one where the beings need only starlight to survive causing entire empires to rise and fall in the search for stardust.
9. The character who always follows Red and Blue, invisibly taking souvenirs from their missions, began the book being referred to as "a seeker." In these chapters, the character becomes named, "Seeker." Did you notice the shift? What do you think it means? Is Seeker Red's shadow?
   1. i didn't notice the shift. And now i have finished i know what/who seeker is. But maybe the change was to show that it went from being one of a possible collection of creatures to being clearly the same seeker in all instances.
10. In chapter 19, once Red is finished working with the Experts to craft her poison pen letter for Blue, the lab is destroyed. Even though her orders are to save no one, she saved "what deaths history could spare." Is this a change in Red? Why does she care about those lives when all she cares about is Blue? Why, at a time when she's stopped caring about the Time War, does she still only save a few?
    1. the problem with most time travel stories is too big of a change upthread could lead to hige consequences downthread. and too much change would show the agency and garden that reds aligence has changed. so it is an actor fe rebellian but also self preservation.
11. We get a lot of detail about the specifics of their time travel in these final chapters. For instance, we find out "Threads burn as you enter them" in Chapter 21. What other details did you notice? How did saving these specifics for the end affect your reading experience?
12. The discussion of losing or winning the time war mostly inhabit the beginning and end of the book. But there's a potential double meaning hidden in the title, This Is How You Lose the Time War. By attempting to go off the grid entirely, Red and Blue aren't just winning. They're also losing the Time War, as in leaving it behind. What else will they lose in their new life?