This book won the Hugo Award and the Locus Award for Best Novella in 2020. It is a beautifully written love story that takes place across space and time as a series of romantic letters, rather like a sci-fi sapphic version of Griffin and Sabine.

Red works for the intergalactic Agency, an IT based civilisation fighting against Garden, a nature based civilisation that Blue is part of. The two civilisations are engaged in a battle for supremacy, subtly altering events in different places and eras, to ensure the survival of their own group. The two agents time travel regularly as part of this work. The letters between them take them into risky territory as either of them would be killed as a traitor if discovered. Red’s passages are written by author Max Gladstone, while Blue’s are crafted by Canadian author Amal El-Mohtar in an interesting collaboration.

While I appreciate the quirky nature of this story and the beautiful language of the letters, I’m not entirely sold on a book that I have to turn to google halfway through the audio narration to work out what’s actually going on. The outset of the romance didn’t really make sense to me and the world building felt very pat ( )

Definitely an odd and evocative story, with a lot of quirky ideas and excellent execution. The emotional qualities and writing style really colours the narrative vividly to make for a fun, digestible read. I personally find some of the finer details of the story to be questionable, and I really wish Red and Blue had more distinct voices. However, they didn't hamper the experience enough to make the experience unenjoyable, just less than ideal for me personally. Still a solid read. ( )

I heard many people praise this book previously and always took it with a grain of salt, but they were right. This story is amazing. At times it is very abstract, which I think works with the time travel aspect. The relationship reminds me a little bit of Good Omens, especially the TV series version. This is a blessed queer book, perfect for Pride Month. Someday, I will read it again. ( )

My favorite book from my 2023 reads. The creativity and imagination was captivating. I'm not a romance person but I do love a good enemies to friends possibly to lovers story arch and this was probably the best of those I've ever read. The relationship builds realistically from two folks who are sworn to destroy each other to two folks who begin to realize that their worst enemy is their own loneliness to two folks who know that the one they are suppose to hate has more in common with them than those around them. Perfect book. Not sure I'd beg for a sequel--simply because some sequel do not match up when the original is this good, but I'd definitely read it if there was one. ( )

Brilliant idea for a story, and for how to tell it. ( )