Rating: 3/5
This is one of the more unique books I’ve ever read. I listened to it on audio, and I’m glad I did. It follows the correspondences between two rivals as they turn from rivals to friends, and then from friends to something more. Bound together by these letters they send each other, they begin by boasting about their superior skills and taunt one another in a strange competition. Because these two are not merely rivals as we know them. They are agents travelling through time and space, trying to secure the best future for their group. When they begin to develop their bond with one another, through these letters secreted in the strangest of places, such as a blade of grass, or the tea leaves in the bottom of a teacup, they run the risk of losing their lives, either at the hands of their own leaders or the others’ leaders; it is a war after all, and traitors/spies run the risk of losing their lives.
The characters themselves are vague, and we learn about them only through bits and pieces here and there. Likewise, I didn’t find I learned much about their factions, more so about their loyalties to them and their punishments from them. What I did learn, is that their war is so big that their relationship is a very intricate game of evasion from all directions, taboo on so many fronts, yet their emotional bond becomes so strong over time through the writing of these letters.
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