Sci-fi. Two agents on opposing sides of a time war, skipping up and down different versions of history and covertly intervening, trying to ensure that their side wins the future. Except, this is not the sort of massive, ponderous tome that would result from trying (and inevitably failing) to capture that whole massive story in a way that frail time-bound humanity could read, but rather a short and bittersweet book focused very much on the increasingly intense illicit correspondence between the two individual agents. Distinctive, because almost all of the detail in the book – which is skillfully chosen and delivered – is there not to drive forward external events, which are assumed to be happening in a tapestry beyond the reader’s capacity to understand, but to illustrate a mood, a tone, a feel, a sensibility, and to drive one single relationship forward. And the writing, particularly in the letters between the two, is just enough over the top (and beautifully so) to capture the world historic, or perhaps more accurately worlds historic, character of their growing connection. Really, really liked it.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.