Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another
I interviewed Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone about writing This Is How You Lose the Time War, their Hugo and Nebula-award winning novella.
The story is a mind-expanding, heart-wrenching tale of dastardly intrigue and burgeoning romance that follows two supremely competent secret agents traveling through time to bend the arc of history toward their respective masters’ incompatible political ends—a shining example of the authors’ lovely definition of literature in the acknowledgements: “Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another.”
Among other wonderful things, Max is the bestselling author of the Craft Sequence, and Amal is the New York Times Book Review’s science fiction and fantasy columnist. We discuss their creative process, the power of speculative fiction, and how letters warp time and kindle intimacy.
From our conversation:
Right now we’re in a culture of science fiction. Marketers spin science fictions to sell apps and technologies and political philosophies. I think science fiction, correctly practiced, can help see the water we’re swimming in, understand its weaknesses and failure modes. The rhetorical tools of science fiction (and fantasy) can tease out the implicit metaphors in our lives. If you’ve never had a headache before, you might need one described to you before you realize that’s why you’re miserable this afternoon, and take corrective action.
Eliot Peper is the author of nine novels, including Cumulus, Bandwidth, and, most recently, Veil. He publishes a blog, sends a monthly newsletter, and tweets more than he probably should.
