This book was not at all what I expected, and I have rarely been more pleasantly surprised.
This novella is more romance than science fiction, and not in the cheesy “loins on fire” way found in most romantasy. El-Mohtar and Gladstone craft a true intimate relationship from its standoffish inception, through its burgeoning attraction, through its reality-changing acceptance, and to its heart-wrenching end.
An epistolary story told through uniquely-delivered letters between two adversaries-come-beloved, the book is an easy read—and difficult to put down.
Spoilers from this point forward.
Red and Blue are direct opposites. Each the best at what they do from diametrically opposed viewpoints. Red represents an advanced technotopia that believes in order and structure. Blue is from an organic Garden of beings that support growth and life. And each can travel the tapestry of cosmic time and space to make adjustments and direct history toward their way of thinking.
As adversaries, they are each awed by the skill of the other, avoiding traps and foiling efforts of the other oftentimes to a standstill. Then, one reaches out to the other and leaves a letter that only the other can receive. And thus starts a correspondence of the ages where they overcome their mistrusts of each other to truly learn about the other side, and in doing so, learn about their own.
Red and Blue quickly understand how critical the other is to their own development. Their skills and beliefs have been honed by the actions and responses of the other. They have shaped each other, and through that they find connection and understanding. Over time, they reshape their efforts away from stopping each other and more to safeguarding their relationship and meaning they have for one another.
Time travel is more than a critical to the plot as circular travels through events advance both the plot and the character development. There are several twists at the end that call earlier, unexplained elements of the story, tying the relationship of Red and Blue into an intricate bow.
It is a beautiful story told in a unique way. The book is short, and pages fly by, but the tale of Red and Blue feels deep, intricate, and intimate. An easy read, the prose flows, tension builds, and the story races toward the end where the reader is saddened that the book has come to the end.
I highly recommend.
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