Boy I loved this book. I read it for my sci-fi/fantasy book club, and the title alone should give you a sense of what the story is. But honestly it was completely unlike anything I've read before, and yet deeply reflective, and man. I just loved it.
The story has a consistent structure throughout the book: Each chapter focuses on either Red or Blue, two agents on opposite sides of the time war. We start with Red, who has just triumphed and won her latest mission, but there's a letter she finds in the middle of her battlefield, incongruous among all the death. We watch her read the letter, and react, and then the end of the chapter is the text of the letter she's just received from Blue. The next chapter begins this pattern again, only from Blue's point of view. The two of them circle and chase each other throughout time, following each other's paths on the threads they weave and braid together, each of them attempting to accomplish some unnamed ultimate victory for their side of the time war, and delighting in their competition with one another.
All of this alone would be enough to make for an entertaining novella. But the language in this book is so beautiful, and so captivating, that it shouldn't be so surprising when you realize how much you care about Red and Blue, and how little you care about the ultimate victor in the time war itself. I finished reading it and wanted to start over again immediately, just to see how it had been done. A really wonderful read.
Grade: A
The story has a consistent structure throughout the book: Each chapter focuses on either Red or Blue, two agents on opposite sides of the time war. We start with Red, who has just triumphed and won her latest mission, but there's a letter she finds in the middle of her battlefield, incongruous among all the death. We watch her read the letter, and react, and then the end of the chapter is the text of the letter she's just received from Blue. The next chapter begins this pattern again, only from Blue's point of view. The two of them circle and chase each other throughout time, following each other's paths on the threads they weave and braid together, each of them attempting to accomplish some unnamed ultimate victory for their side of the time war, and delighting in their competition with one another.
All of this alone would be enough to make for an entertaining novella. But the language in this book is so beautiful, and so captivating, that it shouldn't be so surprising when you realize how much you care about Red and Blue, and how little you care about the ultimate victor in the time war itself. I finished reading it and wanted to start over again immediately, just to see how it had been done. A really wonderful read.
Grade: A
No comments:
Post a Comment