My thoughts on THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR | Science Fiction for the Somewhat Hesitant No.20

[@RaynorReadsStuff]

Really enjoyed your discussion on this Alex. It sounds really intriguing. Another one I may have to pick up 😊

[@alex_unabridged]

Cheers, Debs 😊Definitely worth a look if you come across it in the wild 😉More 'literary fiction' than a lot of the SF I've been reading, and was an interesting change of pace in my big old SF reading project! 👍

[@anthonyprice4862]

Ah, I have this. I bought it from a charity shop just because of the cover ( one of those ‘I’m not going home empty handed’ purchases)I’ll bump it up my TBR and come back to this video👍 ( I did check out your scores, just to make sure it’s worth my time)

[@alex_unabridged]

Oh yeah, I definitely reckon it's worth your time! It's a quick read, and it's got a fantastic concept and some great humour too. Will be interested to hear what you make of it! 😀

[@MargaretPinard]

I liked this one, though it was way out of my wheelhouse--the case of an experiment expanding my creative field of vision. 👌🏼

[@alex_unabridged]

Yep, same for me! Not my usual thing at all, though I do enjoy a bit of a bonkers concept! But the style is definitely outside my comfort zone. Very glad I've read it though, definitely enjoyed reading something completely different, and something that really made me consider the creativity and craft of the authors. I imagine they had a blast writing it together!👍

[@Already-Overbooked]

I have heard so many different views on this book but no one I watched explained it like you did. I really appreciate it Alex! I am definitely going to read it

[@alex_unabridged]

Thanks a lot, buddy - really glad my review helped! Hope you enjoy reading it - will be really interested to hear what you make of it 😀

[@ReadBecca]

That's curious about your feeling on the lack of distinction in character voice, since the authors each wrote a character as far as I recall. It does sound like some of the elements you liked are more toward Gladstones style than Mohtar's, so might be worth giving Craft Sequence or Empress of Forever a try.

[@alex_unabridged]

@@ReadBecca oh that is interesting, I didn’t know whether the characters were split between the authors or whether the split came in the prose vs letters. Ooo, thanks for the recommendations! I’ll check them out. I’d be up for trying more from both authors to be fair - the imagination and creativity evident in the book is really excellent so I’d certainly be interested to see what else has emerged from both of their minds! Many thanks for watching and commenting 😊

[@troytradup]

I feel like I've seen a movie where communications appear in odd places (like inside an animal). I sort of want to use that concept now, although I'm not sure in what.

[@alex_unabridged]

Oh, interesting -- not come across it myself before, but then you are far more well-read (well-watched?) in terms of movies than I am! When you say 'I'm not sure in what', do you mean that you're not sure in what sort of story you could use the concept, or in what sort of weird places the messages would be found? Or both?! One immediately sprang to mind when I thought of you - messages spelled out on the teeth of living sharks. One letter indented on each tooth. Kind of like words spelled out in tattoos across individual knuckles, but you'd have a lot more letters to work with. You'd have to get pretty close to read it... Could pose a challenge - can you decipher the message before getting eaten?! 😂

[@bookssongsandothermagic]

Great review - I found it an interesting read but a long slog because of how it is written....the prose was a bit like wading through treacle I thought....good concept though!

[@alex_unabridged]

Thanks Gareth 😊I'm with you on the treacle-trudging quality of the prose, at least for the first 50 pages or so. Then I managed to click into it a bit more. Took me a while to get past it enough to enjoy the book, but the concept captured me so much that I was compelled to keep going. Definitely an interesting read, not like anything I've read before!