B K L Y N B O O K C L U B K I T

2020 BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARYLITERARY PRIZE FINALIST

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSETHE TIME WAR

AMAL EL-MOHTAR & MAX GLADSTONE

Dear Reader,

Though our libraries may not be fully open, we continue to believein the importance of great books and quality library experiences.In this pursuit, we are launching BKLYN Book Club Kits. These kitsare bursting at the seams with virtual swag that complementsindividual books, such as discussion questions, recipes, playlists,and author content. The kits may be used in conjunction with aBrooklyn Public Library book club or on your own. Through thesemeans we hope to foster deeper connections with authors, yourbooks, your community and with you—even when we’re apart!

This title, This Is How You Lose the Time War, was shortlisted forthe 2020 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize in Fiction & Poetry.

We hope you enjoy this book and the accompanying kit!

W E L C O M E L E T T E R

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY LITERARY PRIZE:BKLYNLIBRARY.ORG/SUPPORT/BPL-LITERARY-PRIZE

BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

KEEP READING! BPL 'S BOOK CLUB PAGE HAS DISCUSSION GROUPS,BOOKLISTS , BOOK CLUB KITS AND MORE :BKLYNLIBRARY.ORG/BORROW/BOOK-DISCUSSION-SETS

B O O K S Y N O P S I STwo time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their waythrough the past, begin to exchange letters and fall in love in thisthrilling, romantic book from award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked “Burnbefore reading. Signed, Blue.”

So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents ina war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space.

Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Bluebelongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in allorganic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutuallyexclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they’re thebest, and they’re alone.

Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerousgame, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Becausewinning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it?

A tour de force collaboration from two powerhouse writers thatspans the whole of time and space.

BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

Each year Brooklyn Public Library, in collaboration with theBrooklyn Eagles, recognizes outstanding works of nonfiction andfiction & poetry with a prize given in the fall at the BrooklynClassic, the signature fundraising event of the Brooklyn Eagles.

In 2020, librarians from across the borough submitted 110 titles forconsideration. A volunteer team of nearly two dozen librarians—specializing in fields ranging from adult literature, business andcareer services, and historical collections—served on the selectioncommittee. The committee looked for books that push boundaries,bring light to unheralded stories or give voice to the silenced.

This Is How You Lose the Time War was shortlisted for the 2020BPL Literary Prize for Fiction & Poetry.

BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

T H E B R O O K L Y N P U B L I C L I B R A R YL I T E R A R Y P R I Z E

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY LITERARY PRIZE:BKLYNLIBRARY.ORG/SUPPORT/BPL-LITERARY-PRIZE

Get to know award-winning co-authors Amal El-Mohtar and MaxGladstone through these fun, funny and insightful interviews.Discover which author introduces the other as "a brilliantsuperhuman writer" and which describes the other as a "generalbadass."

I N T E R V I E W S

BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

A FUN SELF- INTERVIEW IN THE SAME EPISTOLARY STYLE AS THEBOOK: WHATEVER.SCALZI .COM/2019/07/16/THE-BIG-IDEA-AMAL-EL-MOHTAR-AND-MAX-GLADSTONE

A QUIRKY , IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW WITH CIVIL IAN READER:CIVILIANREADER.COM/2019/07/18/INTERVIEW-WITH-AMAL-EL-MOHTAR-AND-MAX-GLADSTONE

HOW A PENPALSHIP EVOLVED INTO AN AWARD-WINNING BOOK ONTIME TRAVEL : CBC.CA/BOOKS/HOW-AMAL-EL-MOHTAR-AND-HER-PEN-PAL-WROTE-A-BOOK-ABOUT-PEN-PALS-ON-OPPOSITE-SIDES-OF-A-TIME-WAR-1.5253641

WRITING A BOOK IN A GAZEBO WITH NO INTERNET : VECTOR-BSFA.COM/2020/03/11/THIS-IS-HOW-YOU-PRODUCE-THE-TIME-WAR-PART-1-POWDER-SCOFIELD-INTERVIEWS-AMAL-EL-MOHTAR-AND-MAX-GLADSTONE

WATCH READ IT AGAIN 'S ONLINE AUTHOR SERIES :YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=DPG0L0IJHYM

INGREDIENTS1 ounce vodka1 ounce blue curaçao4 ounces lemonadeLemon wheel and maraschino cherry to garnish

STEPSAdd the vodka, blue curaçao and lemonade to a shaker with iceand shake until well-chilled. Strain into a hurricane glass overcrushed ice. Garnish with a lemon wheel and maraschino cherry.

C O C K T A I L S : T H E B L U E & T H E R E D

F IND THE ORIGINAL BLUE RECIPE : LIQUOR.COM/RECIPES/BLUE-LAGOON

BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

THE BLUE

THE RED

INGREDIENTS3 ounces rum1 ounce red wine1 teaspoon simple syrup1/2 lime (juiced)

STEPSGather the ingredients. Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shakerfilled with ice. Shake well. Strain into a chilled red wine glass.

F IND THE ORIGINAL RED RECIPE : THESPRUCEEATS.COM/BISHOP-COCKTAIL-RECIPE-760497

IN THE MOOD FOR SOMETHING ELSE? GET CUSTOMIZED READINGRECOMMENDATIONS FROM BROOKLYN PUBLIC L IBRARY 'S FREE BKLYNBOOKMATCH SERVICE : BKLYNLIBRARY.ORG/BOOKMATCH

YOU CAN ACCESS THE L IST AND PLACE HOLDS ON THESE T ITLES INMULTIPLE FORMATS THROUGH THE BPL CATALOG:BORROW.BKLYNLIBRARY.ORG/BOOKLIST/7G5Y4

Did you enjoy This Is How You Lose the Time War? Want to readsomething similar? Check out these readalike titles below.

B K L Y N B O O K M A T C H R E A D A L I K E S

BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

Amal El-Mohtar is an award-winningwriter of fiction, poetry and criticism.Her stories and poems have appearedin magazines including Tor.com,Fireside Fiction, Lightspeed,Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Apex,Stone Telling, and Mythic Delirium;anthologies including The Djinn Fallsin Love and Other Stories (2017), TheStarlit Wood: New Fairy Tales (2016),Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA ScienceFiction and Fantasy Stories (2014),and The Thackery T. LambsheadCabinet of Curiosities (2011); and inher own collection, The Honey Month

(2010). Her articles and reviews have appeared in the New YorkTimes, NPR Books and on Tor.com. She became the Otherworldlycolumnist at the New York Times in February 2018, and isrepresented by DongWon Song of HMLA.

Amal has written stories about maps, bird women, book women,the Arabic alphabet, singing fish, Damascene dream-crafters,sentient diamond oceans and pockets that are bigger on theinside. Her story “Seasons of Glass and Iron” won the Nebula,Locus and Hugo awards in 2017, while her stories “The GreenBook” and “Madeleine” were finalists for the Nebula Award in 2011and 2015 respectively, and “The Truth About Owls” won the LocusAward in 2015. Her poems “Song for an Ancient City,” “Peach-Creamed Honey,” and “Turning the Leaves” won the RhyslingAward for Best Short Poem in 2009, 2011 and 2014 respectively, andin 2012 she received the Richard Jefferies Poetry Prize for “PhaseShifting.” In her (few) hours of rest she drinks tea, lifts weights,plays harp, and writes letters to her friends by hand.

Amal frequents Twitter, where she is often very silly.

A U T H O R B I O : A M A L E L - M O H T A R

LEARN MORE ABOUT AMAL AT AMALELMOHTAR.COM

BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

Gladstone studied Chinese literature at Yale, and lived and taughtfor two years in the rural Anhui province. He is a martial artist,fencer and fiddler. Before writing full-time, he also worked as aresearcher for the Berkman Center for Internet and Policy Law, aSwiss Embassy tour guide, a go-between for a Chinese automagazine, a translator, a philosophy TA, a tech industry analystand an editor. He has wrecked a bicycle in Angkor Wat, sung atCarnegie Hall and been thrown from a horse in Mongolia.

Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award-winning author Max Gladstone’sworks include Empress of Forever,the Craft Sequence of fantasy novelsand games, and, with Amal El-Mohtar, the internationallybestselling This Is How You Lose theTime War. His interactive projectsinclude the XYZZY-nominatedChoice of the Deathless andDeathless: The City’s Thirst, whichtake place in the world of the CraftSequence. Gladstone created theSerial Box series Bookburners, andthe interactive television series Wizard School Dropout.

A U T H O R B I O : M A X G L A D S T O N E

LEARN MORE ABOUT MAX AT MAXGLADSTONE.COM

BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

As Red and Blue are executing their respective orders, they havetheir first exchange. Describe the warriors introduced in these firstfew opening challenges. Is one more dedicated to their cause thanthe other?

Blue writes a lot about Atlantis in one of her early letters. Discusswhy this is a myth the authors choose to highlight, and why Atlantis,of all places, recurs with the same result in every strand.

There are many subtle pop-culture references made as Red and Bluemove through time. Which references did you pick up on? Whichwere your favorites?

The seeker appears at the end of every chapter, chasing letters andcollecting evidence. Who is the seeker? What is their purpose? Whatis their role in this time war?

Discuss how Red and Blue each come to realize they are in love.What made it apparent to you? Does it happen more easily for onethan the other?

Red and Blue each interact with their leaders once throughout thebook. What are the notable differences between the Commandantand the Garden? Who would you rather work for?

Red’s final letter to Blue is extremely complex. Discuss its manylayers and her decision to write a letter within the poison. Whatwould you write if you were in her position?

Red makes a very risky move that will have dire consequences ifthings don’t align perfectly. How many ways could her plan gowrong? Discuss Red’s mindset before, during and after the end ofthis impossible mission.

WARNING: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS INCLUDE SPOILERS!

BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1

2

3

4

5

6

THESE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS WERE CREATED BY THE PUBLISHER SAGA PRESS AND ARENOT AFFILIATED WITH BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY.

BKLYN BOOK CLUB KIT: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

7

8