If this is what the Time War feels like, then I volunteer as tribute. This two-hander from Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone burns bright right in the center of your chest and dares you to put it out.
Red and Blue are operatives on either side of a war that has been going on since before time existed and well past the end of the universe. They are fierce and wild warriors; brilliant minds matched with brilliant and sharp teeth. They claw their way through time while clawing their way towards and into each other.
Their chase is exhilarating. They throw themselves headlong into impossible futures.
Red may be mad, but to die for madness is to die for something.
I found myself fumbling throughout; for a breath, for a drink, for a tissue, for the nearest living thing.
Red and Blue grow stronger, stranger, and sweeter throughout; there is as much beauty as there is bone breaking. They run through ruined futures, familiar pasts, burning Atlantis, and Arctic expeditions- but they never slow down. I could not slow down; I ripped through this book in the way that they ripped through enemies- in the way that they ripped wax seals from burning letters. They weave together fates through familiar fragments and through ungodly horrors.
I couldn’t know, then I couldn’t, and nor could you-how thoroughly you were already inside me, shielding me from the future. You’ve always been the hunger at the heart of me, Red-my teeth, my claws, my poisoned apple. Under the spreading chestnut tree, I made you and you made me.
I wanted more, needed more, but would have been furious if this perfect piece had gone on any further. Big thanks to Emmalita and Carriejay for embedding this book into my timeline!