That's how you lose a time war

It's not far from hate to love, especially when time doesn't play a role... Working for the Agency to ensure its future domination is an adventurous but lonely job. That's why the seasoned agent Red takes on - at least figuratively - her equally capable rival Blue, who, in the service of the hostile Garden, travels through time as she does, reshaping the threads of history into the desired pattern. Their correspondence, carefully kept secret from their superiors and initially ironic, eventually develops into something deeper that could affect the past and the future. And so begins a thrilling sequence of battles, chases and encounters amidst the shifting backdrops on the ground of diverse worlds, with their own lives on the line. For the discovery of any relationship between the agents of two irreconcilable powers would mean certain death for both of them. An original science fiction novel in letters that has won numerous genre awards, including the prestigious Nebula, Locus and Hugo awards. "A love story about time travel that never ceases to surprise: El-Mohtar and Gladstone have written the perfect 'enemies-to-lovers' romance." - Booklist "A pair of authors have conjured something truly extraordinary here, and if you're craving sci-fi, which is a love letter, you can't miss this book." - Fortress "A brilliant story, which is part epistolary novel and part mind-blowing sci-fi adventure, unfolds piece by piece, revealing further layers of meaning, because it plays with cause and effect, with wildly imaginative technology and increasingly ingenious language puns." - Publishers Weekly Red likes to feel emotions. It's a fetish. Now he feels fear. And impatience. She was right. He searches the shadows for his huntress, his prey. He hears infrasound, ultrasound. He craves contact, a new, more dignified battle. But she is alone with the corpses, the fragments and the letter left by her enemy. Of course it's a trap. Tendrils curl out through the eye sockets, wrapping around the shattered casings. The rust flakes come off like snow. Metal creaks under load and breaks down. It's a trap. Poison would be the first choice, but she doesn't smell it. Perhaps the message contains a neo-virus - meant to subvert her thoughts, to sow a trigger, or simply to arouse suspicion of Red's party in the eyes of her Commander. Maybe if she reads the letter, they'll set her up, expose her, blackmail her to use her as a double agent. The enemy is tricky. Even if it's just the opening manoeuvre of a longer game, By reading the letter, Red risks the Commander's wrath in the event, that she's gonna be outed, he's taking a risk, that she'll look like a traitor, although it is devotion personified. The smart and prudent move would be for her to leave. But the letter is a thrown glove, and Red must find out what's in it. - excerpt from the book