***Very mild spoiler warnings for This Is How You Lose The Time War
So, I just finished reading This Is How You Lose The Time War, and one of the main criticisms of it that I’ve seen (besides the flowery and difficult to follow language) is that readers were immensely interested in the sci-fi, futuristic, time traveling world of the novel, but that these weren’t sufficiently elaborated upon.
Personally, I loved this book and it’s immediately going in my list of favorite books of all time. However, as someone who is usually obsessed with sci-fi and dystopian world-building, I’m surprised that I’m not very disappointed by the lack of world-building in this book. Ordinarily, I would wish that the authors had delved more into how Garden and the Agency came to be, how exactly linear time works, if multiple universes exist in the book, the psyche and background of Garden in particular, and how humans advanced to the point of time travel in the first place. I don’t know if I was just so absorbed by the poetry and star-crossed romance that I didn’t care, or what. It’s especially odd to me because I’ve had many books, TV shows, and movies that have disappointed me for this exact reason.
Now I want to know, if you’re a lover of sci-fi and/or futuristic dystopias, do you generally prefer detailed and in-depth characters, or world-building?
by selcouthredditor