Book #167 of 2019:
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
A quick novella about two women on opposite sides of a reality-spanning conflict, who use time-travel to counter one another’s moves (and counter-moves, and counter-counter-moves, and so on). Each field operative has more in common with her opposite than with her shadowy superiors, and as they start leaving subtle messages in their work, they gradually grow closer and fall in love against a variety of imaginative backdrops. I quite like this story and its spy-versus-spy feel; the only real drawbacks are its short length and the fact that the rules to its universe are so loosely-defined that anything seems possible and the plot stakes aren’t particularly grounded. It’s great on a character level, though.
★★★★☆
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