One of the Greatest Sci-Fi Books of the 21st Century Is Under 200 Pages

The science fiction genre is thriving right now, but it can feel like a huge commitment to pick up a new book knowing you might be reading for months — or even years. Many of the most influential sci-fi titles are dense tomes or shelf-hogging series, but some of the best stories are short, sweet, and to the point. The greatest recent example is This Is How You Lose the Time War, co-authored by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone and published in 2019. The book can be read in just one afternoon, yet it conveys an epic story spanning centuries and worlds.

This is How You Lose the Time War is an epistolary novel, meaning it is written in the form of letters sent back and forth between two characters. Its protagonists are known only as Agent Red and Agent Blue, and both are time-traveling warriors on opposite sides of a war so grand in scale we can’t really comprehend it. Even in this context, the two fall in love against all odds, yet they are trapped in a conflict that seems endless. It would be a heartwarming story at any length, but the fact that it’s packed into one short novel is all the more impressive.

‘This Is How You Lose the Time War’ is Grand in Scale

Image via Saga Press

Sci-fi fans often measure their favorite media on celestial scales. Space operas span galaxies and millennia, cyberpunk stories pack planets with dense cities, and Lovecraftian horrors introduce us to monsters so great we can’t even perceive them with human eyes. This Is How You Lose the Time War matches this scale in a single volume, not wasting a single word. There are no exposition dumps or technical jargon, yet it’s easy to understand that we’re reading about advanced non-human beings traveling through time and fighting a war of interdimensional territory.

The two agents in this story work for warring empires who exist in separate timelines, yet both want to eradicate the other before they can pose a threat. To do this, they need to hop through history tweaking events to suit their needs, and in the process they inevitably run into each other. Rather than fighting, they begin passing discrete messages back and forth, starting a bond that evolves into real love by the end of the book.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with sci-fi books that span thousands of pages — many of my personal favorites do — but there’s something impressive about fitting such a grand story into a short book. This Is How You Lose the Time War is around 200 pages long depending on which edition you pick up. The audiobook is four hours and 16 minutes long at regular speed, narrated by Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo. Whether you’re a veteran of the Dune Saga or you’re intimidated by massive sci-fi books, this is one that all fans of the genre should check out.

The Viral Success of ‘This Is How You Lose the Time War’

If you’re familiar with This Is How You Lose the Time War, chances are have one anonymous Twitter user to thank. Back in 2023, the book shot up many bestseller lists thanks to the user @maskofbun, who at the time was using the display name “bigolas dickolas wolfwood.” They wrote: “Read this. DO NOT look up anything about it. just read it. It’s only like 200 pages u can download it on Audible it’s only like four hours. Do it right now I’m very extremely serious.”

Something about the emphatic recommendation paired with the user’s display name made this a viral tweet. It’s notable that this account wasn’t often used to recommend books — it was primarily a fan account for the manga and anime franchise Trigun. The user chose to remain anonymous after the tweet took off, and even declined a nomination for the Hugo Award for Best Related Work the following year. Their post inspired thousands to read the book and recommend it to others, so whether you’ve heard about it from a friend or are hearing about it for the first time in this article, you have Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood to thank.

This Is How You Lose the Time War is available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats. It has been optioned for a TV adaptation, but there has been no news on that front for several years.