Dreamy Science Fiction Adventure
As I was reading this book, I kept pausing and trying to explain to my partner what was happening in it, and failing spectacularly. The internal logic of this book is consistent and beautiful, but also very hard to summarize.
There are two things going on here. There are the scenes featuring the two characters (Red and Blue) as they travel through timelines in alternate universes. I really enjoyed the dreamy, unlikely prose in these passages, and exploring all the different ways a time war could be waged.
The letters between Red and Blue had a very different voice. Is this because one of the coauthors was writing the letters while the other wrote the scenes? Maybe. I'm not sure if that's how they worked together. But the letters were sometimes annoying, because they were self-referential and pop-culture-y in a way that the prose was not.
If you were to read the climax of this book without the context of the rest of the novel, it would be like stepping into a fever dream. By the time I got there, however, I'd internalized the logic of the story and the time travel, and I found it lovely. I sometimes struggle with high concept science fiction, but I think TIME WAR did a good job of balancing the concept with plot and character development. Personally, I feel like a novella was the perfect length for what they're exploring here.
I don't know what I was expecting, but I couldn't have expected this, and overall I enjoyed the ride.
There are two things going on here. There are the scenes featuring the two characters (Red and Blue) as they travel through timelines in alternate universes. I really enjoyed the dreamy, unlikely prose in these passages, and exploring all the different ways a time war could be waged.
The letters between Red and Blue had a very different voice. Is this because one of the coauthors was writing the letters while the other wrote the scenes? Maybe. I'm not sure if that's how they worked together. But the letters were sometimes annoying, because they were self-referential and pop-culture-y in a way that the prose was not.
If you were to read the climax of this book without the context of the rest of the novel, it would be like stepping into a fever dream. By the time I got there, however, I'd internalized the logic of the story and the time travel, and I found it lovely. I sometimes struggle with high concept science fiction, but I think TIME WAR did a good job of balancing the concept with plot and character development. Personally, I feel like a novella was the perfect length for what they're exploring here.
I don't know what I was expecting, but I couldn't have expected this, and overall I enjoyed the ride.