This was quite an extraordinary distillation of all the elements that make Ian McDonald such a great genre writer: pushing the boundaries of hard SF, in this case quantum mechanics; a masterful sense of place, which makes his take on the historical novel such a natural and seamless fit; pitch-perfect prose that makes you want to read entire chunks out loud to savour his rhythms; and then that unique combination of grandiloquence, langour, and searing, overblown passion that, paradoxically, turns...

The actual story is quite different from the publisher's description, which is odd. I happened to really enjoy what it turned out to be though, which is roughly a modern-day book dealer stumbling across an anonymous book of poetry with a letter inside between two WWII soldiers in love. After some digging, the book dealer realizes he's come across correspondence between time travelers who are unmoored in time, looking for each other and communicating with letters in copies of the poetry book. Can...

A story of two men in love with each other who are lost during World War II. Moving around time, searching for each other, they leave messages in books for the other. A bookseller finds a message and becomes obsessed with the two men. A little confusing at times, but beautiful and poetic.

What I thought I was getting: gay time travelers!What I got: a story vaguely about gay time travelers, told almost entirely from the point of view of a deeply obnoxious heterosexual narrator who flirts by mansplaining; some slut shaming; Bury Your Gays.Ugh. At least it was short.

Review also on my blog • Twitter • BookstagramRep: m/m romanceContent warnings: warArc sent to me by publisher in exchange for a free and honest reviewThis was is... complicated, that's one way to put it. Here's my main problem with the book, it somehow made this incredibly gay premise far less gay. If the premise is a perfect 10, then this was a 3 at best. If you've read The Great Gatsby you'd know one of the worst parts of it was that it was told from the pov of some random dude who didn't exp...

This beautifully poetic novella wasn't quite what I was expecting but it certainly resonates and it most definitely haunts. I also thought it ended perfectly. Review to follow shortly on For Winter Nights.

When I was sent an ARC of this novella by the publisher, I had never heard of the book (or author) before, but was incredibly eager to check it out once I learned it was being marketed as a hist-fic/sci-fi mashup with a sweet m/m romance! I honestly had no doubts that I would enjoy this novella, and if I were to base it just upon the writing itself - which is rather lovely - this rating would certainly be higher!Unfortunately, I had two major problems with this novella:1) I felt so incredibly lo...

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.During World War II, Tom and Ben were brought together by a secret project designed to hide British targets from German radar. The two had to kept their growing love for one another secret. When the project they were assigned to went wrong, Tom and Ben vanished and were never seen again, presumed to be dead. Now they are lost in time, searching for one another by leaving clues in books - hoping to make their timelines overlap in o...

Beautiful and poetic. Even though if won the British SF Award recently, it does not have lots of SF in it. Yet, it does not really matter. I actually wanted more romance and less research story since it gave me that The English Patient and Atonement vibes, you know. I would have rated it higher if I was not able to guess the ending. *shrugs*

2 1/2 stars. This book… is not its blurb, and I am disappointed by that.A love story stitched across time and war, shaped by the power of books, and ultimately destroyed by it. In the heart of World War II, Tom and Ben became lovers. Brought together by a secret project designed to hide British targets from German radar, the two founded a love that could not be revealed. When the project went wrong, Tom and Ben vanished into nothingness, presumed dead. Their bodies were never found. Now the two

Finally! A book where I have tears in my eyes after finishing it. Beautiful, poetic, quiet. I was longing for something like this to get swept away. It was the first I read from this author, I will have to read more!Note: since I don't look at blurbs before reading (they are often too spoilery for my taste), I didn't go into the novella with wrong expectations. The blurb definitely does not fit the story. The main arc is about the librarian, not about a gay relationship. The relationship is back...

!!!THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE!!! This is not about a gay couple. The book description IS A LIE. Whichever asshole at TOR wrote the cover copy should be fired. They should be on trial for crimes against Story. They may have sold a few extra copies, but they have done a huge disservice to this book, which is a damn fine book in its own right, by ensuring a huge chunk of readers who do pick it up will be very disappointed with the book they actually got.This is like the canadian bacon of fiction. Ham is...

I would have liked this book more if it had actually been the book described in the blurb, and also if it had been rather queerer, in all meanings of the word.The prose is beautiful, if occasionally a bit overdone, and unlike other reviewers I had no problem following the narrative; it’s a time travel story, I expect it to feel disjointed and disorienting. And the idea of the story is great. My problem is that McDonald approaches it from what is, to me, the least interesting possible angle.I wan...

3.5 starsBeautifully written with many poetic phrases that caught my eye. This is an example of someone who is very comfortable as a writer. I loved the various ideas and threads interwoven into the story. My own taste would have liked the story to be just slightly less convoluted and a bit more straightforward in parts.

Time Was is a quick little novella. I feel that the blurb is really misleading though, and the actual blurb on GoodReads contains a spoiler, so avoid it if you can. While this is in part Tom and Ben’s story, it’s actually more about a bookseller, Emmett, who stumbles onto their secret and becomes obsessed with finding them.Much less exciting right? The buddies I was reading this with all agreed- we wanted more about Tom and Ben! The romance was lovely, but it was maybe 25% of the whole book.The

Wonderfully crafted novella, pulling together real historical events and spinning a tale. McDonald is definitely one of my favourite authors at this point.

3ish stars.Sweet and subtly romantic. Languidly paced, but ends satisfyingly.There's a lot I liked about this. I think one of the reasons I haven't rated it higher is because it wasn't what I was expecting. I'd hoped the romance would be a greater focus than it is; I thought it was too subtle, while other parts were a little too busy. Even the time travel aspect gets a little bogged down in its own convolution. Overall I felt it was much more about tone and atmosphere than plot, which is the sou...

Time to manage our expectations here.I'm a fan of Ian's work and I'm generally amazed by the amount of research he puts into his novels, twisting strange stories into very creative manifestos, and there's a bit of that coming through the pages here, too, but it begs the question:What is this?It is a love story only if you see it through the lens of a mystery fan first, a time-paradox sleuth second, and if you like a REALLY slow burn through a deep focus on poetry and old personal notebooks from

I've left one highlight not visible because it's too much of a spoiler.I liked this story quite a lot. More anon.***ANON***Listen to the dissatisfied bleats from MM-romance readers! This is NOT that book!It is a fun time-travel tale, and the MM couple whose life together is really more of a life-apart treasure hunt for each other after being unhitched from Time's Arrow during a WWII experiment in quantum superposition is the animating spirit. The young straight bookhunter whose obsession with th...