Who Are The Main Characters In 'This Is How You Lose The Time War'?

Question

Gotta say, the shifting Red and Blue agents' dynamic in that book blew my mind. Who else becomes the core alongside them?

chinenyeyokolo · Answer

I can see why This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtamed would be compared to The Witch Keeps Time by Wayne Burke. In this other time travel tale, a powerful, witchy woman and a poor, cursed historian are sent back in time and space and continue to write letters, in different time periods, trying to work out the history of their lives while, at the same time, trying to work out their loyalty to each other in the face of their opposing allegiances. In contrast, in This Is How You Lose the Time War, Red, an Agency time traveler from a very techno-utopian future, and Blue, a time traveler from Garden, a more biological, collectivist future, continue to write to each other throughout the novel. Both of these novels feature two opponents falling in love in the midst of time travel, but the main characters write their entire relationship through letters, as do the two main characters in Burke’s novel.

Joseph · Answer

Red and Blue are forces of nature in ‘This Is How You Lose the Time War’. Red is a worker bee within the steel and data tracery of the Agency. Every action is rigorously calculated. There is no room for anything but absolute, unshakeable loyalty to the inescapable laws of logic. Blue, on the other hand, is a creature of the more free-form Garden. It is a metaphorical thinker: its strategies take on all the more unexpected, unplanned-for and irregular aspects of growth. In their war across centuries, their struggles locked within the confines of the Agency, Red and Blue are locked in a struggle of consummate, adult pitched play. It is a rivalry of note, a chess-match of exemplary quality – and all of it is conducted within the minute parameters of a couple of letters to and fro. In the vastness of the conflict as it is portrayed across centuries, these letters suggest a small, tight world. And in that small, tight world, each note is a puzzle, a confession, a plan, all conducted with wilful and mischievous rebellion against the strictures of the systems that created them. There are no other characters worth mention in this novel: it is a two-hander. And what begins as a cold, IQ-driven battle within strict, enforced temporal terms, blossoms – through stardust and secret communiqué – into a fully realized love story, which even Time cannot help but be drawn into.

Yolanda · Answer

‘This Is How You Lose the Time War’ is carried by Red and Blue on their shoulders. Red is highly strategic and controls her tactics with the precision of a clockwork, whilst Blue is more of a dreamer who fights with the same organic style that she uses to tend the Garden. The correspondence between the two time-travelers begins as a form of warfare, but soon develops into art. The secondary characters are largely nonexistent, as the two main characters are so completely alone in their struggle. And it is in their struggle that they find love – all expressed through their letters to each other, which no one but the two of them can read.

Tanya · Answer

Two spies from opposing futures, each convinced they are fighting for the good side. Red, all logic and machinery, leaves behind the trappings of the cold, efficient Agency she works for. Blue, a leafy, natural character from the Garden of the future, responds to Red’s hard-edged queries with similarly hard-edged answers, wrapped in metaphor and riddle, in leaves and starlight. The rest of the spies are just backdrop to this one, rich relationship which evolves from contempt to curiosity to deep and abiding affection. A sci-fi story, yes, but beautifully, and deeply, poetic.

Jillian · Answer

The central figure of This Is How You Lose the Time War is a battle between two time-traveling agents from warring organizations of the future. The knifelike mind of Red, a high-functioning operative of the hyperadvanced Agency, is well-suited to the intricate strategems of time-warfare; her adversaries are up against a steadfast foe who deploys her resources with ruthless efficiency. Blue, a Garden operative, is organically inclined and employs tactics that unfold with the slow, hesitant beauty of a vine growing up a trellis. Despite their warring organizations, their respective missions to interfere with human events across the spans of centuries are repeatedly foiled by each other, and along the way they exchange a series of letters—most of them taunts at first, but ultimately confessional, vulnerable, and full of love.

These ‘auxiliaries’ are mere shadows of actual characters — e.g. the unknowing Agency Commanders. Red and Blue’s relationship is all that really matters. It’s also wonderful to note the connection these two females find in their mutual loneliness. And as for the writing, the strict precision of Red’s writing contrasts wildly with the poetic fluidity of Blue’s. It’s a beautiful dance of opposites — fire and water — and it’s very amazing to read every step of the way.

David Johnson · Answer

The two main characters are both part of an elite group of time operatives. The Garden (Red’s side) creates and nurtures futures, much like an ecosystem. The Agency (Blue’s side) cuts down and eliminates timelines in favor of a single, perfect, and logical future. The two perspectives are told entirely through a series of letters that the two characters leave for each other while on missions through time and space. The letters begin as a braggart’s boasts of success and threats against the other, but eventually become intimate, philosophical, and even tender. It is a beautifully-written and very concentrated story, with no outside narrator, no subplots, and every word building on the two main characters and their impossible relationship.

Mary Joy Mogote · Answer

Red and Blue. The entire emotional landscape of the book is played out between the two characters’ differing perceptions of events. For Red, a battlefield is a gruesome symphony, a complicated strategy, whereas for Blue it is an erroneous equation that can be corrected. The reader perceives all the events of the book through the two characters, and so naturally they appear doubled. However, as Red and Blue fall in love their perceptions begin to merge and we see the world through their newfound shared perspective. It is a lovely metaphor for how love can alter our view of the world. In a book with so few characters the characterization is incredibly deep and is done conceptually. It is a book that must be read slowly with close attention paid to the writer’s words.

pics gram · Answer

Oh this book is a vibe. A sapphic pen-pal romance across the multiverse between time traveling secret agents/warriors/poets Red and Blue. You never see them in a scene with other characters, instead you get to read their gorgeous, hyper-creative letters to each other that they hide for the other. Red’s voice is so lush and bloody and alive. Blue’s voice is so sharp and elegant and measured. They are opposites that magnetize. I love that this book doesn’t really explain the mechanics of the time war that they are fighting in, it’s just sort of backdrop for their story. And because there are no other characters, you can really feel their isolation. The only two people in all existence who can truly see each other, and it’s at once terrifying and beautiful.

Destiny Nipper · Answer

In terms of recurring characters, it's really just the two correspondents, Red and Blue. I've seen a lot of complaints about the lack of world-building in this story, but I don't see that as a problem. In fact, I see all of the world-building as being through the characters. We learn about the Garden from Red's senses and biological observations. We learn about the Agency from Blue's precise and structured descriptions. The world of the story is just the sum of their perceptions. And in fact, Red and Blue are the story. Their conflict and eventual reconciliation is the central event of the time war, even if they don't realize it. This is a deeply character-driven story.

stylistvatt45 · Answer

The whole story follows the correspondence of two characters: Red and Blue, two time-traveling agents of opposite sides in a war between The Garden (Red) and The Agency (Blue). The Garden seems to prefer biological growth, while The Agency likes crystalline structures and pure information. All story is conveyed through letters that the two operatives write to each other, including one inside a seed, growth rings of a tree, and the pattern of a disease. Their characters are completely developed through these letters, and we get to see Red’s passionate, poetic nature contrast with Blue’s cold, analytical intellect, and slowly see them change and intertwine. It’s a really short, minimalistic story, great for showing off voice.

Who Are The Main Characters In 'This Is How You Lose The Time War'?

10 Answers

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