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The Ministry of Time
A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.
Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.
Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 7, 2024
About the author
Kaliane Bradley
4 books748 followersKaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor based in London. Her short fiction has appeared in Somesuch Stories, The Willowherb Review, Electric Literature, Catapult, and Extra Teeth, among others. She was the winner of the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize and the 2022 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 11,771 reviews
March 6, 2024
Originally posted here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I loved this book. It was funny, charming, sad and clever... but the overwhelming feeling I’m experiencing as I sit down to write this review is anger.
Anger at all the people who rated this book 1 star and screamed "plagiarism" after reading a title and blurb, and anger at all the mindless sheep who rushed to copy them.
I'm trying to stay calm and collected, but I confess I'm furious about what has happened here. Bradley has been hounded on twitter for a baseless accusation and had people spam-rating her not-yet-published book on Goodreads. This is not okay, guys.
I will fight to the death for your right to say if you think a book is crap. I say it all the time. But plagiarism is a serious accusation that can ruin an author’s career. I’d hope someone throwing it around would do the bare minimum… like actually reading the book. It is obvious no one here has done that because this book is so dissimilar to El ministerio del tiempo-- a Spanish TV series about time travel (it's fun, I recommend)-- in plot and overall tone that the accusation is laughable.
Anything more than a cursory glance would make it obvious that the two are not similar at all. This is a funny and charming love story between a biracial British-Cambodian translator and Commander Graham Gore who was part of the failed Franklin expedition to the Arctic. El ministerio del tiempo is a historical adventure series in which the main characters journey back to many different time periods to deal with incidents caused by time travel and ensure no one uses time doors to change history. In The Ministry of Time, we don't see any characters travelling back in time.
I don’t know what the complainers think has been plagiarised here. They fixate on the title (El ministerio del tiempo means The Ministry of Time in Spanish) but titles are not protected by copyright*. Neither is the concept of time travel, which— I gotta tell you —Javier and Pablo Olivares did not invent. They did not even invent the concept of a government agency dealing with time travel.
The TV series Seven Days (1998-2001) follows a secret branch of the NSA which has developed time travelling technology.
The movie Timecop (1994) sees the creation of the Time Enforcement Commission to police the threat of time travel.
The premises of both of these are far more similar to El ministerio del tiempo than this book and they predate it by about twenty years.
Then in 2017, two years after the first airing of El ministerio del tiempo, Neal Stephenson published his The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., in which the Department of Diachronic Operations uses time travel to benefit the US government.
But I guess it’s okay when white men write about time travel.
I've seen some people actually trying to frame the argument against this book as being about Big Bad Britain being their good ol' imperialist selves and stealing from other nations! Guys, this is SO FUCKING IRONIC it's almost funny. Because if those people had actually read this book they would know that it's a book by a British-Cambodian writer in which a British-Cambodian woman explores themes of colonialism/postcolonialism.
*Takes deep calming breaths*
It's annoying that I can't just gush about how much I enjoyed this book. It deserves a review that isn't all me screaming onto my keyboard. I'll try to do that now.
Time travel and government drama are the backdrop here to some truly marvellous characters. Imagine what you would get if you put a near-future British-Cambodian woman and a man who was raised at the height of empire together in a house. It makes for many scenes of hilarity and important conversations about the changes that have taken place. The dynamic between the MC and Graham is just delightful.
It is primarily an introspective novel and slow-burn romance, at least until the last 25% or so, but the scenes are driven by dialogue so the pacing doesn't lag. Bradley explores themes of colonialism, slavery, language, being mixed-race, being white passing, exoticization of other cultures, and inherited trauma. The MC carries the inherited trauma of the Cambodian genocide with her and it sneaks into her everyday life and thoughts in unexpected ways.
I adored the secondary characters, too, especially Margaret.
It is rare to find a book that is equal parts entertaining AND contains so many important messages. I thought I wanted more from the ending but, having sat with my thoughts a while, I think it was a good example of an author finding that sweet spot of wanting more before it tips over into too much. And the last part of the book is written so beautifully I wanted to quote it, but I won't do that to you.
*I love how some are claiming the title is too weirdly specific to be coincidence when it's not specific at all. It’s actually very generic. Countries have used the title “Ministry of…” throughout history, and the UK still uses it for the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice. If someone tasked me with coming up with a name for a government department dealing with time travel, I wouldn’t need to dig into Spanish television to arrive at "The Ministry of Time."
I loved this book. It was funny, charming, sad and clever... but the overwhelming feeling I’m experiencing as I sit down to write this review is anger.
Anger at all the people who rated this book 1 star and screamed "plagiarism" after reading a title and blurb, and anger at all the mindless sheep who rushed to copy them.
I'm trying to stay calm and collected, but I confess I'm furious about what has happened here. Bradley has been hounded on twitter for a baseless accusation and had people spam-rating her not-yet-published book on Goodreads. This is not okay, guys.
I will fight to the death for your right to say if you think a book is crap. I say it all the time. But plagiarism is a serious accusation that can ruin an author’s career. I’d hope someone throwing it around would do the bare minimum… like actually reading the book. It is obvious no one here has done that because this book is so dissimilar to El ministerio del tiempo-- a Spanish TV series about time travel (it's fun, I recommend)-- in plot and overall tone that the accusation is laughable.
Anything more than a cursory glance would make it obvious that the two are not similar at all. This is a funny and charming love story between a biracial British-Cambodian translator and Commander Graham Gore who was part of the failed Franklin expedition to the Arctic. El ministerio del tiempo is a historical adventure series in which the main characters journey back to many different time periods to deal with incidents caused by time travel and ensure no one uses time doors to change history. In The Ministry of Time, we don't see any characters travelling back in time.
I don’t know what the complainers think has been plagiarised here. They fixate on the title (El ministerio del tiempo means The Ministry of Time in Spanish) but titles are not protected by copyright*. Neither is the concept of time travel, which— I gotta tell you —Javier and Pablo Olivares did not invent. They did not even invent the concept of a government agency dealing with time travel.
The TV series Seven Days (1998-2001) follows a secret branch of the NSA which has developed time travelling technology.
The movie Timecop (1994) sees the creation of the Time Enforcement Commission to police the threat of time travel.
The premises of both of these are far more similar to El ministerio del tiempo than this book and they predate it by about twenty years.
Then in 2017, two years after the first airing of El ministerio del tiempo, Neal Stephenson published his The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., in which the Department of Diachronic Operations uses time travel to benefit the US government.
But I guess it’s okay when white men write about time travel.
I've seen some people actually trying to frame the argument against this book as being about Big Bad Britain being their good ol' imperialist selves and stealing from other nations! Guys, this is SO FUCKING IRONIC it's almost funny. Because if those people had actually read this book they would know that it's a book by a British-Cambodian writer in which a British-Cambodian woman explores themes of colonialism/postcolonialism.
So far as I understood the British Empire, other people’s countries were useful or negligible but rarely conceived of as autonomous.
*Takes deep calming breaths*
It's annoying that I can't just gush about how much I enjoyed this book. It deserves a review that isn't all me screaming onto my keyboard. I'll try to do that now.
Time travel and government drama are the backdrop here to some truly marvellous characters. Imagine what you would get if you put a near-future British-Cambodian woman and a man who was raised at the height of empire together in a house. It makes for many scenes of hilarity and important conversations about the changes that have taken place. The dynamic between the MC and Graham is just delightful.
“You’re a musician. How can you have no sense of time-keeping?”
“You are a larger instrument than a flute.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
It is primarily an introspective novel and slow-burn romance, at least until the last 25% or so, but the scenes are driven by dialogue so the pacing doesn't lag. Bradley explores themes of colonialism, slavery, language, being mixed-race, being white passing, exoticization of other cultures, and inherited trauma. The MC carries the inherited trauma of the Cambodian genocide with her and it sneaks into her everyday life and thoughts in unexpected ways.
I adored the secondary characters, too, especially Margaret.
It is rare to find a book that is equal parts entertaining AND contains so many important messages. I thought I wanted more from the ending but, having sat with my thoughts a while, I think it was a good example of an author finding that sweet spot of wanting more before it tips over into too much. And the last part of the book is written so beautifully I wanted to quote it, but I won't do that to you.
*I love how some are claiming the title is too weirdly specific to be coincidence when it's not specific at all. It’s actually very generic. Countries have used the title “Ministry of…” throughout history, and the UK still uses it for the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice. If someone tasked me with coming up with a name for a government department dealing with time travel, I wouldn’t need to dig into Spanish television to arrive at "The Ministry of Time."
May 10, 2024
Billed as 'a time-toying spy romance' by Kirkus, this 'genre-bending' novel reads more like slice of life with speculative elements that, unfortunately, never feel fully developed or satisfying.
Set in the near future and narrated by an unnamed main character, we follow a set of 'time ex-pats' pulled from various points in the past through a time door that the British government has commandeered and is using for...some purpose unbeknownst to us?
Our protagonist serves as a 'bridge' aka a glorified government-employeed babysitter for one of the 5 ex-pats we meet as he adjusts to the present day after having been extracted from a failing Arctic expedition in the mid-1800s. Most of his characterization comes from the classic fish-out-of-water experiences the time travel genre expounds on; his bafflement over bicycles and pop music serve as most of the punchlines.
Told over 10 lengthy chapters, the story, for the most part, follows our MC and Graham (often referred to as '1847' - the year of his extraction to the present) in their day to day lives, adjusting to modern London...really doing nothing? Then in the last 20-30% the story turns into an action spy thriller before abruptly ending.
You can probably tell I had some issues with this book from my review so far. Prior to this book's release, it had a HUGE marketing push (1,000+ Goodreads reviews before publication date), massive author support, and some shining praise from other reviewers. So I was excited for this book pitched as a wild ride and something fun to escape into.
Unfortunately, I think this book was a huge letdown. The saddest part is that it has a ton of potential but lived up to none of it for me! With better editing, I really think this could have been great. But the pacing, as previously mentioned, was so off. Truly very little *happens* in this story, which is fine if you want to explore themes through more mundane, day to day moments.
The contrast of our MC and her ward could have been used to dive into the themes she lightly touches on already: history, colonialism, gender, etc. Or it could've been more focused on the sci-fi speculative nature of the time travel bits which didn't get enough explanation to make much sense. Confoundingly, this also had some romance in it (one surprisingly spicy scene) which I suppose could've been its own story if that is where the author wanted to take it. Instead, the book tries to do all of the above in a short amount of time, and I felt it lacked because of this ambition.
On a sentence-level, I also found the writing to be extremely awkward and clunky. The author LOVES a metaphor, and while occasionally they work, many times they make absolutely no sense if you stop and think about it for one second. ("I was a doll, with no more inner intelligence than a bottle of water." Huh? Or "My knees were jumping like a pair of boxed frogs.") This style of writing is constant, and perhaps simply because I do not enjoy it, it really started to grate on me after a while. I recognize this is one area of the book that others might simply overlook. I, however, could not.
Along with metaphors/similes which abound, there were many strange word choices or phrases that, to me, felt like it was trying really hard to be poetic or profound, when perhaps the simpler word choice would've sufficed. Instead, the prose regularly took me out of the story because of how bizarre it was.
All in all, I wish this book had been a bit more focused on doing 1 or 2 things really well. With better editing this would've been a solid read I'd recommend for those who want something escapist. But instead it really dragged for me and by the end I was ready for it to be over. Ironically, the last 20% or so were the most readable and enjoyable to me.
Set in the near future and narrated by an unnamed main character, we follow a set of 'time ex-pats' pulled from various points in the past through a time door that the British government has commandeered and is using for...some purpose unbeknownst to us?
Our protagonist serves as a 'bridge' aka a glorified government-employeed babysitter for one of the 5 ex-pats we meet as he adjusts to the present day after having been extracted from a failing Arctic expedition in the mid-1800s. Most of his characterization comes from the classic fish-out-of-water experiences the time travel genre expounds on; his bafflement over bicycles and pop music serve as most of the punchlines.
Told over 10 lengthy chapters, the story, for the most part, follows our MC and Graham (often referred to as '1847' - the year of his extraction to the present) in their day to day lives, adjusting to modern London...really doing nothing? Then in the last 20-30% the story turns into an action spy thriller before abruptly ending.
You can probably tell I had some issues with this book from my review so far. Prior to this book's release, it had a HUGE marketing push (1,000+ Goodreads reviews before publication date), massive author support, and some shining praise from other reviewers. So I was excited for this book pitched as a wild ride and something fun to escape into.
Unfortunately, I think this book was a huge letdown. The saddest part is that it has a ton of potential but lived up to none of it for me! With better editing, I really think this could have been great. But the pacing, as previously mentioned, was so off. Truly very little *happens* in this story, which is fine if you want to explore themes through more mundane, day to day moments.
The contrast of our MC and her ward could have been used to dive into the themes she lightly touches on already: history, colonialism, gender, etc. Or it could've been more focused on the sci-fi speculative nature of the time travel bits which didn't get enough explanation to make much sense. Confoundingly, this also had some romance in it (one surprisingly spicy scene) which I suppose could've been its own story if that is where the author wanted to take it. Instead, the book tries to do all of the above in a short amount of time, and I felt it lacked because of this ambition.
On a sentence-level, I also found the writing to be extremely awkward and clunky. The author LOVES a metaphor, and while occasionally they work, many times they make absolutely no sense if you stop and think about it for one second. ("I was a doll, with no more inner intelligence than a bottle of water." Huh? Or "My knees were jumping like a pair of boxed frogs.") This style of writing is constant, and perhaps simply because I do not enjoy it, it really started to grate on me after a while. I recognize this is one area of the book that others might simply overlook. I, however, could not.
Along with metaphors/similes which abound, there were many strange word choices or phrases that, to me, felt like it was trying really hard to be poetic or profound, when perhaps the simpler word choice would've sufficed. Instead, the prose regularly took me out of the story because of how bizarre it was.
All in all, I wish this book had been a bit more focused on doing 1 or 2 things really well. With better editing this would've been a solid read I'd recommend for those who want something escapist. But instead it really dragged for me and by the end I was ready for it to be over. Ironically, the last 20% or so were the most readable and enjoyable to me.
May 6, 2024
No words.
April 6, 2024
My Reviews Can Also Be Found On:
The Book Review Crew Blog
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It was utterly unique mixing a wide range of genres. Normally I don't enjoy books where the author can't make up their mind what category their book falls into but Kaliane Bradley makes it work. The way she mixed time travel, romance and a spy story was so intelligent and extraordinary that I just got lost in the words and the world-building. I also enjoyed how she researched and mixed a real-life character with fictional ones.
Even though there are serious spy vs. spy issues throughout and a budding romance I found the book to be very humorous. I can't count how many times I laughed out loud at the expats. The characters behaved like their timeframe and were very well developed. They had idiosyncrasies and personalities...their needs and wants were realistic. This is a wonderfully well-plotted book. I can imagine the author with lots of Post-it notes all over a storyboard trying to keep everything together in their proper order and timeline. Her world-building style made it so easy to read and imagine. I could picture in my mind's eye the devices, clothing, the ship in the Arctic ice etc.
Overall Bradley is a genius. The twisty ending blew my mind and I did not see it coming. I read all 350+ pages in a few sittings, I was riveted. I can't believe this is a debut, remarkably well done.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
The Book Review Crew Blog
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It was utterly unique mixing a wide range of genres. Normally I don't enjoy books where the author can't make up their mind what category their book falls into but Kaliane Bradley makes it work. The way she mixed time travel, romance and a spy story was so intelligent and extraordinary that I just got lost in the words and the world-building. I also enjoyed how she researched and mixed a real-life character with fictional ones.
Even though there are serious spy vs. spy issues throughout and a budding romance I found the book to be very humorous. I can't count how many times I laughed out loud at the expats. The characters behaved like their timeframe and were very well developed. They had idiosyncrasies and personalities...their needs and wants were realistic. This is a wonderfully well-plotted book. I can imagine the author with lots of Post-it notes all over a storyboard trying to keep everything together in their proper order and timeline. Her world-building style made it so easy to read and imagine. I could picture in my mind's eye the devices, clothing, the ship in the Arctic ice etc.
Overall Bradley is a genius. The twisty ending blew my mind and I did not see it coming. I read all 350+ pages in a few sittings, I was riveted. I can't believe this is a debut, remarkably well done.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
July 9, 2024
"Forgiveness, which takes you back to the person you were and lets you reset them. Hope, which exists in a future in which you are new. Forgiveness and hope are miracles. They let you change your life. They are time-travel."
Well, that was interesting... and boring.
Am not sure what the author was trying to write. Sci-fi? Historical fiction? Fantasy? Contemporary romance? Spy thriller? It was a poor blend of them all and ultimately not making much sense.
The blurb is much more exciting than the actual book. The whole time travel romance marketing also made it sound interesting but the way it's written is so average. Time travel aspects were unclear and although it was giving Loki (tv series) vibes, it did a very clustered and confusing job at that. The author tried to make up for it in the end but by then it was too late. Things happened too late in this book.
The characters, except for Graham are very one dimensional and that's including the fmc, who's name I have already forgotten. Oops. I liked Graham tho, he was a romantic guy and had emotional depth to him. I liked how firm and soft he was in his personality, never afraid to set boundaries. And a man of God? Love that. It was interesting to see him learn about things.
I did like the ending when it came to romance. The whole time travel thing was too weird.
Overall, a very hit or miss book. Imo it came across as a poorly executed story.
~•~•~
Time travel romance? Am in 🤭
Well, that was interesting... and boring.
Am not sure what the author was trying to write. Sci-fi? Historical fiction? Fantasy? Contemporary romance? Spy thriller? It was a poor blend of them all and ultimately not making much sense.
The blurb is much more exciting than the actual book. The whole time travel romance marketing also made it sound interesting but the way it's written is so average. Time travel aspects were unclear and although it was giving Loki (tv series) vibes, it did a very clustered and confusing job at that. The author tried to make up for it in the end but by then it was too late. Things happened too late in this book.
The characters, except for Graham are very one dimensional and that's including the fmc, who's name I have already forgotten. Oops. I liked Graham tho, he was a romantic guy and had emotional depth to him. I liked how firm and soft he was in his personality, never afraid to set boundaries. And a man of God? Love that. It was interesting to see him learn about things.
I did like the ending when it came to romance. The whole time travel thing was too weird.
Overall, a very hit or miss book. Imo it came across as a poorly executed story.
~•~•~
Time travel romance? Am in 🤭
May 28, 2024
it’s only March, but I can confidently say literally no matter what else I’ll be reading this year, this book will firmly sit at the #1 spot of “what the f did I just read” by the end of 2024. 🫡
Simply put, The Ministry of Time (which has NOTHING to do with the Spanish series of the same name and sure as hell didn't plagiarise anything) is a novel set in not so distant future Britain about a compliant civil servant who out of the blue is told that her country has acquired the means to travel through time and who finds herself promptly recruited as a time travel agent who, alongside others, is tasked to live with, assist, and monitor a group of ‘expats’ stolen from across time, shepherding them into the 21st century, all in order to test the limits of time travel.
But I alsoneed want to tell you that one of goodreads’ top liked reviews on this book calling it “the closest thing to OUTLANDER since [they] have read since OUTLANDER” doesn’t even come close to describing what this novel also is:
a self-insert, first person POV fanfiction, not about a fictional character, but about a man who really existed, who even has his own Wikipedia page (read that again), leading to a narrative set-up so incredulous and bizarre, if the author had told me she and her friends came up with this idea during a pub crawl that, after consuming several alcohol containing beverages, led to a wild round of the Wiki Game until one of them stumbled upon Graham Gore’s entry only to read that he was an English naval officer who supposedly died during an Arctic expedition in the 1850s, I would have believed her, no questions asked. 🤠
before you continue reading I need you to be very real about this and take a look at the man in question:
I can't and won't elaborate. 🙂↔️🙂↔️
But maybe I just need to chill out because doesn’t every idea for a story start with a bit of self-indulgent self-insert? Dante did it, Stephanie Meyer did it, surely Kaliane Bradley can do it, too. The latter, however, included a real person turning him into her version of a fictional character. This, too, has been done before (recent examples include The Christie Affair as well as Hamnet), and I’m not looking to jump into an ethics discussion I am wholly unequipped for, but it was bizarre reading about the main character being gone down on (can I even say this??) by a navy officer (who in real life was definitely a racist and misogynistic Imperialist) in first-person narrative. And the sex was actually well-written in a way that was super realistic for a man and a woman born two centuries apart having sex for the first time. 🫣
Another reason why this is not only far from Outlander, but also far from what fans of Outlander might hope to find in here, is that yes, there is a romance story but this novel isn’t ABOUT romance, something that clearly shows in the writing style and the story’s focal point (more on that later). Bradley’s writing is expressive, creative, smashing nouns and adjectives together into similes and metaphors that should make no sense but weirdly do.
The novel is part sci-fi, speculative fiction, action adventure, spy thriller, and romantic comedy and the writing reflects all of these genres more successfully than not, mostly because it changes style more often than not. Sweeping metaphors follow internal monologues, stand-up style commentary is superseded by onomatopoetic neologisms used to convey coughing, sneezing, throwing up, and sounds of pleasure. It’s hard for me to describe but there is something raw and yet precisely wielded about her words that makes me wonder what her literary voice sounds like when it focuses on just one of the themes touched upon in this novel instead of a myriad of them in which it is drowned out by all the things squeezed into it.
It is shared very early on that the British-Cambodian main character has been subjected to racial microaggressions all her life, something she picks up, talks about, and dissects throughout the course of the novel, reflecting her life as a biracial woman working for the government of a former colonial empire in a sometimes bitter, sometimes satirical, sometimes seemingly blassé voice. Those moments of critique that tear down past and current day Britain with its violent racist history as well as its linguistic gymnastics whenever Blackness or racial diversity comes up are the sharpest, the most poignant - Bradley’s language becoming a razor-sharp spear tip piercing the bullsh!t masquerading as equal opportunities for everyone.
Many other topics including manmade climate change, refugees, immigration, violence against women, homophobia, otherness, parent-child relationships, complicity, crimes against humanity etc are also mentioned, but none the above are explored as deeply as I would have liked. Maybe it’s because the novel tried to be or do too many things at once but there wasn’t enough of the stuff I DID enjoy for me to fall in love with this.
Since the BBC snapped up the adaptation rights to this even before the novel has come out, we will not have seen the last of Officer Graham Gore (and this will not even be the first time he is portrayed on screen since he already appeared in AMCs The Terror). Given that A24 is set to produce this six-episode series I admit I’m a little excited for how this aggressively weird, headstrong, unique, absurd novel ends up looking as a serialised adaptation.
Last but not least, write that self-insert fanfiction, speak your truth! ✨👸🏽
🎬 After reading this you should watch that: Kate and Leopold (2001), Lost in Austen (2008), About Time (2013)
As always, thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for granting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Simply put, The Ministry of Time (which has NOTHING to do with the Spanish series of the same name and sure as hell didn't plagiarise anything) is a novel set in not so distant future Britain about a compliant civil servant who out of the blue is told that her country has acquired the means to travel through time and who finds herself promptly recruited as a time travel agent who, alongside others, is tasked to live with, assist, and monitor a group of ‘expats’ stolen from across time, shepherding them into the 21st century, all in order to test the limits of time travel.
But I also
a self-insert, first person POV fanfiction, not about a fictional character, but about a man who really existed, who even has his own Wikipedia page (read that again), leading to a narrative set-up so incredulous and bizarre, if the author had told me she and her friends came up with this idea during a pub crawl that, after consuming several alcohol containing beverages, led to a wild round of the Wiki Game until one of them stumbled upon Graham Gore’s entry only to read that he was an English naval officer who supposedly died during an Arctic expedition in the 1850s, I would have believed her, no questions asked. 🤠
before you continue reading I need you to be very real about this and take a look at the man in question:
I can't and won't elaborate. 🙂↔️🙂↔️
But maybe I just need to chill out because doesn’t every idea for a story start with a bit of self-indulgent self-insert? Dante did it, Stephanie Meyer did it, surely Kaliane Bradley can do it, too. The latter, however, included a real person turning him into her version of a fictional character. This, too, has been done before (recent examples include The Christie Affair as well as Hamnet), and I’m not looking to jump into an ethics discussion I am wholly unequipped for, but it was bizarre reading about the main character being gone down on (can I even say this??) by a navy officer (who in real life was definitely a racist and misogynistic Imperialist) in first-person narrative. And the sex was actually well-written in a way that was super realistic for a man and a woman born two centuries apart having sex for the first time. 🫣
He bit me sharply on the shoulder and some other animal noise escaped me. He started to dig his thumbs into tender places while he moved in me. I bucked insistently into the pressure. A certain thrilling pain, which lived in my body like another body, woke and opened its long series of tributaries through my ribs.
Another reason why this is not only far from Outlander, but also far from what fans of Outlander might hope to find in here, is that yes, there is a romance story but this novel isn’t ABOUT romance, something that clearly shows in the writing style and the story’s focal point (more on that later). Bradley’s writing is expressive, creative, smashing nouns and adjectives together into similes and metaphors that should make no sense but weirdly do.
We entered the season of rains. A great graphite pencil inscribed the diagonal journey of water on the air.
March came in, mellow and pastel. The air felt washed. The scrubbed newness of the spring gave the rooftops and the street furniture a friendly polish.
The novel is part sci-fi, speculative fiction, action adventure, spy thriller, and romantic comedy and the writing reflects all of these genres more successfully than not, mostly because it changes style more often than not. Sweeping metaphors follow internal monologues, stand-up style commentary is superseded by onomatopoetic neologisms used to convey coughing, sneezing, throwing up, and sounds of pleasure. It’s hard for me to describe but there is something raw and yet precisely wielded about her words that makes me wonder what her literary voice sounds like when it focuses on just one of the themes touched upon in this novel instead of a myriad of them in which it is drowned out by all the things squeezed into it.
It is shared very early on that the British-Cambodian main character has been subjected to racial microaggressions all her life, something she picks up, talks about, and dissects throughout the course of the novel, reflecting her life as a biracial woman working for the government of a former colonial empire in a sometimes bitter, sometimes satirical, sometimes seemingly blassé voice. Those moments of critique that tear down past and current day Britain with its violent racist history as well as its linguistic gymnastics whenever Blackness or racial diversity comes up are the sharpest, the most poignant - Bradley’s language becoming a razor-sharp spear tip piercing the bullsh!t masquerading as equal opportunities for everyone.
Many other topics including manmade climate change, refugees, immigration, violence against women, homophobia, otherness, parent-child relationships, complicity, crimes against humanity etc are also mentioned, but none the above are explored as deeply as I would have liked. Maybe it’s because the novel tried to be or do too many things at once but there wasn’t enough of the stuff I DID enjoy for me to fall in love with this.
Since the BBC snapped up the adaptation rights to this even before the novel has come out, we will not have seen the last of Officer Graham Gore (and this will not even be the first time he is portrayed on screen since he already appeared in AMCs The Terror). Given that A24 is set to produce this six-episode series I admit I’m a little excited for how this aggressively weird, headstrong, unique, absurd novel ends up looking as a serialised adaptation.
Last but not least, write that self-insert fanfiction, speak your truth! ✨👸🏽
🎬 After reading this you should watch that: Kate and Leopold (2001), Lost in Austen (2008), About Time (2013)
As always, thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for granting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
May 27, 2024DNF'd at 20%
Read
August 15, 2024DNF at 42%. I don't get the hype at all. Couldn't be more boring.
May 24, 2024
Time travel fiction usually sends my brain into overdrive, grappling with grandfather paradoxes, multiverses, and plot holes (possibly thanks to Rick & Morty + Blake Crouch!).
But, post-holiday me managed to switch off and just enjoy The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It was a refreshing, fun, and free-flowing read—Clearly, I need more vacations.
Interestingly, this story intertwines with real historical events. In 1845, the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus set off from England to find the Northwest Passage, only to face the worst disaster in British polar exploration history.
This history forms the backbone of this romantic, speculative, comedy, historical fiction, spy thriller—a mouthful of genres that blend ingeniously and creatively. Despite the ambitious mix, it worked somehow, for me, anyway.
The characters and historical accuracy, spanning past, present, and future, were convincingly portrayed, and I grew quite fond of them, especially our nameless British-Cambodian FMC who I related to on many levels (and is undoubtedly a self-insert, but it's done well), Commander Graham Gore, Margaret Kemble and Arthur.
The humour in this hit all the right notes for me. It’s self-aware, self-deprecating and dry, cleverly addressing the time travel tropes and paradoxes mentioned above with imagination, as well as containing witty, non-preachy, plot-relevant commentary and themes on colonialism, inherited trauma, slavery, racism, racial identity/passing as a biracial person, the climate emergency, gender and LGBTIQ+ sexuality.
I also picked up some delightful archaic phrases and insults. Here are three of my favourites and I'll leave the rest of the wide range of eclectic gems for you to discover:
🔹 Pizzle-headed doorknob!
🔹 Heron-faced fool!
🔹 His face is as soiled linens!
If you’re intrigued by this all-inclusive genre mish-mash, I highly recommend adding this one to your reading list. Congrats to Kaliane Bradley on a brilliant debut, that has been picked up for adaptation into a BBC TV series.
My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton | Sceptre for the advanced e-reading copy in exchange for an honest review. This was published on the 16th of May 2024, and is available to read and listen to right now! 🎊
___
Back from holidays and hoping the cure for the post-holidays blues is escaping reality with a time travel spy thriller romance, surely.
My heartfelt thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the advanced reading copy (although this gets published tomorrow!)
But, post-holiday me managed to switch off and just enjoy The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It was a refreshing, fun, and free-flowing read—Clearly, I need more vacations.
Interestingly, this story intertwines with real historical events. In 1845, the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus set off from England to find the Northwest Passage, only to face the worst disaster in British polar exploration history.
This history forms the backbone of this romantic, speculative, comedy, historical fiction, spy thriller—a mouthful of genres that blend ingeniously and creatively. Despite the ambitious mix, it worked somehow, for me, anyway.
The characters and historical accuracy, spanning past, present, and future, were convincingly portrayed, and I grew quite fond of them, especially our nameless British-Cambodian FMC who I related to on many levels (and is undoubtedly a self-insert, but it's done well), Commander Graham Gore, Margaret Kemble and Arthur.
The humour in this hit all the right notes for me. It’s self-aware, self-deprecating and dry, cleverly addressing the time travel tropes and paradoxes mentioned above with imagination, as well as containing witty, non-preachy, plot-relevant commentary and themes on colonialism, inherited trauma, slavery, racism, racial identity/passing as a biracial person, the climate emergency, gender and LGBTIQ+ sexuality.
I also picked up some delightful archaic phrases and insults. Here are three of my favourites and I'll leave the rest of the wide range of eclectic gems for you to discover:
🔹 Pizzle-headed doorknob!
🔹 Heron-faced fool!
🔹 His face is as soiled linens!
If you’re intrigued by this all-inclusive genre mish-mash, I highly recommend adding this one to your reading list. Congrats to Kaliane Bradley on a brilliant debut, that has been picked up for adaptation into a BBC TV series.
My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton | Sceptre for the advanced e-reading copy in exchange for an honest review. This was published on the 16th of May 2024, and is available to read and listen to right now! 🎊
___
Back from holidays and hoping the cure for the post-holidays blues is escaping reality with a time travel spy thriller romance, surely.
My heartfelt thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the advanced reading copy (although this gets published tomorrow!)
December 14, 2023
QUICK TAKE: the closest thing to OUTLANDER I've read since...OUTLANDER. Romantic, twisty, very entertaining.
June 21, 2024
“The most radical thing I ever did was love him”
Okay so he’s a commander of an 1845 expedition to the arctic plucked out of time before his death to the present day, and she’s the person tasked with monitoring his transition to the 21st century….of course i was going to fall in love with this one!!
Commander Graham Gore the man that you are
Follow me on Instagram
Okay so he’s a commander of an 1845 expedition to the arctic plucked out of time before his death to the present day, and she’s the person tasked with monitoring his transition to the 21st century….of course i was going to fall in love with this one!!
Commander Graham Gore the man that you are
Follow me on Instagram
May 14, 2024
I want to thank this book for providing me with some much needed perspective on what a really bad book is like. It made me feel a lot more kindly for those not-perfect but not-this-bad books I am reading around this time. Seriously.
It made me feel like a snoop, as if I were intentionally peeking into somebody's teenage secret diary, drippy, sentimental, wish fulfilment private fantasies with this oh so hot fictional-historical crush. But the problem is not just that, because authors can use that fantasy and still spin good stories and good worldbuilding out of it, the problem is deeper at all levels (my personal opinion and all that. If you loved it, great for you!)
This is very much self-insert fanfic - the narrator and FMC matches the author in age and ethnic background and is coily nameless throughout the book. According to this interview the author got obsessed with a tv series and was writing fanfic (not that she calls it that but reading between the lines) but when writing this she mixed it with a bit of other writing " the bridge would become this very particular relationship to the British state, and the ways that power and control are grasped. So I basically lifted her wholesale out of one novel and put her in another". That part, the feeling of being "outsider", the family bits, the multiracial reflection feeling bits were IMO the deepest in the novel, and that part felt honest and I can respect. The part where she acknowledges getting obsessed with polar exploration (not that it matches the bio of the character up to then, but who is keeping track anyway?) that was good.
So, our nameless female main character is just hired to babysit a real life tragic heroic historical character who for some reason was picked by a time travelling team (because whatever reasons) and he is just going to be perfect boyfriend material (he learns how to cook modern asian food!) and fall in love with her (because whatever reasons). It said it the most fanfic traditionally published book I have read since at least In Memoriam but that is unfair to In Memoriam, this is even worse. And like with In Memoriam, I do feel it's not appropriate, for lack of a better word, to so cheaply use tragic real life events (the Franklin expedition here, or world war I) for extra pathos and cheap thrills.
And it does not even make any sense. History is filled with millions, billions of recorded deaths, why pick these 5? Why go pick one in France and another in the Arctic over a huge expanse? I mean what was the budget for that and why? The comparison to them to foreign refugees was also totally stupid, consider them "expats" or "refugees" or like they were any other nationality (surely they still were british, since they did not die?) or wait, they are supposed to get a job in a year, but the "ministry" is worried about them talking to outsiders? What year is this, how old is our heroine, her mother is a refugee from the Cambodjan genocide, this is set some years after a pandemic, tech is close to ours, but the climate change and rules about carbon emission already seem in the future?
The nameless narrator and FMC was one of the stupidest and most passive main characters I remember reading about. She has no curiosity, no agenda, no sense of internal politics, is slow in the intake about everything (how would you interpret "not the past?") and just is thrown passively around whichever way (""Go home.”So I did."). There is no deeper curiosity or point to the , nobody thinks hard of time travel or ethics or large policy choices, they just react. It's all veneer thin, just to serve the boinking the hot historical character story. Incidentally, the sex scenes were purple and, to me, ridiculous.
Some trigger warnings - a lot of tobacco and smoking, a lot. (72 mentions of the word cigarette), the FMC stopped smoking a while ago and just retakes it because her crush smokes (whatever). Readers who do not want to smoke might find all of that triggering or at least tempting. And a trope about gay characters that made me roll my eyes because of course.
A lot of plagiarism accusations (with review bombing) of this book were flying around before its publication. It actually made me aware of it to try a sample now that it was out, so maybe it worked out great for the author (though not for me). The accusation is that it has many points in common with a spanish tv series called The Ministry of Time (but in spanish), I have absolutely no idea if true or not because I do not know that tv series. But ideas or concepts usually are fair use (see how real life tragic polar expedition is so shamelessly used here) and this book has far more obvious issues (for my taste and so on...) than that for me to criticize..
So, TLDR: this book and me it's a nope all the way at all levels. We are not friends and I am sorry I read it.
It made me feel like a snoop, as if I were intentionally peeking into somebody's teenage secret diary, drippy, sentimental, wish fulfilment private fantasies with this oh so hot fictional-historical crush. But the problem is not just that, because authors can use that fantasy and still spin good stories and good worldbuilding out of it, the problem is deeper at all levels (my personal opinion and all that. If you loved it, great for you!)
This is very much self-insert fanfic - the narrator and FMC matches the author in age and ethnic background and is coily nameless throughout the book. According to this interview the author got obsessed with a tv series and was writing fanfic (not that she calls it that but reading between the lines) but when writing this she mixed it with a bit of other writing " the bridge would become this very particular relationship to the British state, and the ways that power and control are grasped. So I basically lifted her wholesale out of one novel and put her in another". That part, the feeling of being "outsider", the family bits, the multiracial reflection feeling bits were IMO the deepest in the novel, and that part felt honest and I can respect. The part where she acknowledges getting obsessed with polar exploration (not that it matches the bio of the character up to then, but who is keeping track anyway?) that was good.
So, our nameless female main character is just hired to babysit a real life tragic heroic historical character who for some reason was picked by a time travelling team (because whatever reasons) and he is just going to be perfect boyfriend material (he learns how to cook modern asian food!) and fall in love with her (because whatever reasons). It said it the most fanfic traditionally published book I have read since at least In Memoriam but that is unfair to In Memoriam, this is even worse. And like with In Memoriam, I do feel it's not appropriate, for lack of a better word, to so cheaply use tragic real life events (the Franklin expedition here, or world war I) for extra pathos and cheap thrills.
And it does not even make any sense. History is filled with millions, billions of recorded deaths, why pick these 5? Why go pick one in France and another in the Arctic over a huge expanse? I mean what was the budget for that and why? The comparison to them to foreign refugees was also totally stupid, consider them "expats" or "refugees" or like they were any other nationality (surely they still were british, since they did not die?) or wait, they are supposed to get a job in a year, but the "ministry" is worried about them talking to outsiders? What year is this, how old is our heroine, her mother is a refugee from the Cambodjan genocide, this is set some years after a pandemic, tech is close to ours, but the climate change and rules about carbon emission already seem in the future?
The nameless narrator and FMC was one of the stupidest and most passive main characters I remember reading about. She has no curiosity, no agenda, no sense of internal politics, is slow in the intake about everything (how would you interpret "not the past?") and just is thrown passively around whichever way (""Go home.”So I did."). There is no deeper curiosity or point to the , nobody thinks hard of time travel or ethics or large policy choices, they just react. It's all veneer thin, just to serve the boinking the hot historical character story. Incidentally, the sex scenes were purple and, to me, ridiculous.
Some trigger warnings - a lot of tobacco and smoking, a lot. (72 mentions of the word cigarette), the FMC stopped smoking a while ago and just retakes it because her crush smokes (whatever). Readers who do not want to smoke might find all of that triggering or at least tempting. And a trope about gay characters that made me roll my eyes because of course.
A lot of plagiarism accusations (with review bombing) of this book were flying around before its publication. It actually made me aware of it to try a sample now that it was out, so maybe it worked out great for the author (though not for me). The accusation is that it has many points in common with a spanish tv series called The Ministry of Time (but in spanish), I have absolutely no idea if true or not because I do not know that tv series. But ideas or concepts usually are fair use (see how real life tragic polar expedition is so shamelessly used here) and this book has far more obvious issues (for my taste and so on...) than that for me to criticize..
So, TLDR: this book and me it's a nope all the way at all levels. We are not friends and I am sorry I read it.
May 22, 2024
4.5 ⭐️
lesson learned: emily henry is never wrong! i saw her recommend this in an interview and although it didn’t seem like my cup of tea, i decided to give it the benefit of the doubt…
…and i am *so* grateful i did 🥲 time travel. spies. psychological thriller. this ATE and the tropes were handled phenomenally. i love how every detail was meticulously thought out and subsequently executed in a way that i always want (like the many plot holes that occur with these books, for example).
the romance most of all is what kept me invested. i KNEW it was gonna be a banger when 22 pages in i was giggling out loud and kicking my feet in front of my mom who i then had to give the entire plot to- spoiler, she didn’t care but hopefully you guys are inspired to read it!! it was super emotional and ended with me crying and staring out into the abyss, something i in my wildest dreams didn’t expect from a “lighthearted” book?!
lesson learned: emily henry is never wrong! i saw her recommend this in an interview and although it didn’t seem like my cup of tea, i decided to give it the benefit of the doubt…
…and i am *so* grateful i did 🥲 time travel. spies. psychological thriller. this ATE and the tropes were handled phenomenally. i love how every detail was meticulously thought out and subsequently executed in a way that i always want (like the many plot holes that occur with these books, for example).
the romance most of all is what kept me invested. i KNEW it was gonna be a banger when 22 pages in i was giggling out loud and kicking my feet in front of my mom who i then had to give the entire plot to- spoiler, she didn’t care but hopefully you guys are inspired to read it!! it was super emotional and ended with me crying and staring out into the abyss, something i in my wildest dreams didn’t expect from a “lighthearted” book?!
May 30, 2024
There was a wound in me that kept unknotting its own sutures.
This story begins with a young woman receiving a stroke of good luck: she’s hired for a plum job as a handler for one of several individuals plucked from various points in history so that the effects of time travel can be studied. Her assignment is “1847,” a Victorian polar explorer named Graham Gore who died on an Arctic expedition...in 1847.
Unlike so many synopses, this one describing the novel as “a time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy,” is pretty accurate. Readers who are more interested in the mechanics of science and hows and whys probably won't enjoy this as much; this is a literary sci fi novel along the lines of Never Let Me Go where the focus is on the characters, ethical dilemmas, and emotion. It gently, stoically explores imperialism and the refugee/immigrant/person of color experience in a white culture, as well as ethics and personal responsibility. The writing is provocative and lovely, with piquant observations, moments of wry humor, an appreciation for history, and clear-eyed candor on the marvels and trappings of our modern world.
A couple hours before the end, the narrator referenced entering the “final weeks,” and I thought a slightly despairing oh no because I didn’t want it to end. This begins as an enormously entertaining book (especially if you’re prone to, ahem, romances with Victorian gentlemen), but towards the end, it shakes off its restraints and also provokes genuine anxiety, tenderness, and empathy. This story surprised me in the best of ways and left me both yearning and hopeful.
4.5 stars for an astonishingly assured debut.
Audio Notes: I LOVED Katie Leung’s narration. Her voice, accent, and subtly nuanced delivery were absolutely perfect from beginning to end. Please hire Cho Chang to read more books! And not just those with Asian characters. (The male narrator does a nice job, too.)
This story begins with a young woman receiving a stroke of good luck: she’s hired for a plum job as a handler for one of several individuals plucked from various points in history so that the effects of time travel can be studied. Her assignment is “1847,” a Victorian polar explorer named Graham Gore who died on an Arctic expedition...in 1847.
Unlike so many synopses, this one describing the novel as “a time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy,” is pretty accurate. Readers who are more interested in the mechanics of science and hows and whys probably won't enjoy this as much; this is a literary sci fi novel along the lines of Never Let Me Go where the focus is on the characters, ethical dilemmas, and emotion. It gently, stoically explores imperialism and the refugee/immigrant/person of color experience in a white culture, as well as ethics and personal responsibility. The writing is provocative and lovely, with piquant observations, moments of wry humor, an appreciation for history, and clear-eyed candor on the marvels and trappings of our modern world.
A couple hours before the end, the narrator referenced entering the “final weeks,” and I thought a slightly despairing oh no because I didn’t want it to end. This begins as an enormously entertaining book (especially if you’re prone to, ahem, romances with Victorian gentlemen), but towards the end, it shakes off its restraints and also provokes genuine anxiety, tenderness, and empathy. This story surprised me in the best of ways and left me both yearning and hopeful.
4.5 stars for an astonishingly assured debut.
Audio Notes: I LOVED Katie Leung’s narration. Her voice, accent, and subtly nuanced delivery were absolutely perfect from beginning to end. Please hire Cho Chang to read more books! And not just those with Asian characters. (The male narrator does a nice job, too.)
June 5, 2024
Great. Now I have a violent crush on someone who has been dead for more than 180 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_...
This was riveting. I sped through it in a few days, and I spent a good amount of time thinking about it when I wasn't reading. This novel is really fun and pretty sexy, too.
The main character works for the U.K.'s version of, I think, the State Department. She'd been working as a translator, but her new job is to be a "bridge". The government has acquired a time machine, and has successfully abducted/saved 5 people from the past. They've chosen people who they know, from historical records, were soon to die, figuring that removing them from their own time is unlikely to have changed the future, as they would have been dead anyway. The job of someone in the bridge position is to live with these time travelers and help them acclimate to the 21st century, and also to report on them to the government. Our narrator- who is never named- is the bridge for Commander Graham Gore, who died serving in the Franklin expedition to the Arctic, something I was already fascinated by before I read this book. We also spend a lot of time in this book with Arthur, who was removed from the World War I battle he was to die in, and Margaret, a lively 17th century lass who I believe was to die of the Plague.
Graham is such an interesting and beguiling character- and of course his bridge falls in love with him, as I kind of did, too. So a lot of this is a very slowly unfolding romance, and it also turns into a thriller, because the motives of the government are shadowy and not exactly benign. It was the perfect antidote to the artsy, bloodless book I read just before this one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_...
This was riveting. I sped through it in a few days, and I spent a good amount of time thinking about it when I wasn't reading. This novel is really fun and pretty sexy, too.
The main character works for the U.K.'s version of, I think, the State Department. She'd been working as a translator, but her new job is to be a "bridge". The government has acquired a time machine, and has successfully abducted/saved 5 people from the past. They've chosen people who they know, from historical records, were soon to die, figuring that removing them from their own time is unlikely to have changed the future, as they would have been dead anyway. The job of someone in the bridge position is to live with these time travelers and help them acclimate to the 21st century, and also to report on them to the government. Our narrator- who is never named- is the bridge for Commander Graham Gore, who died serving in the Franklin expedition to the Arctic, something I was already fascinated by before I read this book. We also spend a lot of time in this book with Arthur, who was removed from the World War I battle he was to die in, and Margaret, a lively 17th century lass who I believe was to die of the Plague.
Graham is such an interesting and beguiling character- and of course his bridge falls in love with him, as I kind of did, too. So a lot of this is a very slowly unfolding romance, and it also turns into a thriller, because the motives of the government are shadowy and not exactly benign. It was the perfect antidote to the artsy, bloodless book I read just before this one.
August 15, 2024
This was so perfectly written! Devastatingly beautiful and the characters were SOOOO funny, likable, and odd in the best way. I loved how the author handled topics of colonialism/post-colonialism and used time travel as a way to make us come face-to-face with consequences of the past and our roles in them. Would recommend to literally anyone and everyone!!!
Shelved as 'dnf'
May 22, 2024dnf
i am baffled by the hype surrounding this book; not only has been blurbed by several 'big' authors, but apparently it's also slated for adaptation into a BBC drama. i have questions...
to use an overused term, this book is mid. inoffensive, if you will. it's doing nothing new, and it is written in the kind of witty (usually) British voice that seems rather derivative of authors like Diana Wynne Jones, possibly even Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. but the wit here is missing their spark. nor does the book have the same delightfully satirical tone Zen Cho's historical fantasies. the storytelling here feels lacklustre & vanilla.
right from the outset, the book's attempts at self-awareness about the tropes of its genre ("anyone who has ever watched a film with time-travel, or read a book with time-travel […] will know that the moment you start to think about the physics of it, you are in a crock of shit. How does it work? How can it work?") backfire, as we are offered a generic explanation of time-travel along the lines of "[D]on't worry about it. All you need to know is that in your near future, the British government developed the means to travel through time".
what made absolutely 0 sense to me was not so much the time-travelling and the lack of explanation around it, but the identity of these 'expats' (would they really 'rescue' someone who was in the midst of a war? surely they would consider them unsuitable, or too much of a risk, given that they are bound to have some form of ptsd and might believe that they have been captured by the 'enemy), and their 'bridges'.
we're led to believe that their bridges undergo careful selection and multiple interviews, yet our protagonist seems entirely ill-suited for the task at hand. it would have been more logical for someone with an understanding of the expat's era to care for them. moreover, the notion that these time expats wouldn't be institutionalized but instead released to live with their bridges seems implausible.
and would they really place them in London? surely it would have made more sense to find safehouses in the countryside, as opposed to smackbam in the middle of modernity.
despite the considerable resources invested in extracting them, they're entrusted to a single individual who promptly forgets their surveillance duties, allowing them to wander the city alone?
it's nonsensical. while i'm willing to suspend disbelief regarding time travel, if i'm to buy into this 'ministry', it should feel less slapdash.
i skimmed ahead and saw how the romance subplot would unfold...if anything the romance made the story all the banal. why can't we have significant non-romantic relationships between male and female main characters? must it inevitably result in a romance, even here? the optics were dubious, akin to a therapist and their patient embarking on a romantic relationship.
given all the buzz around this novel, i recognise that i am an outlier and chances are that it will be a hit for most readers (i just happen not be one of them). i recommend giving this novel a shot and forming your own opinion. YMMV and all that jazz.
i am baffled by the hype surrounding this book; not only has been blurbed by several 'big' authors, but apparently it's also slated for adaptation into a BBC drama. i have questions...
to use an overused term, this book is mid. inoffensive, if you will. it's doing nothing new, and it is written in the kind of witty (usually) British voice that seems rather derivative of authors like Diana Wynne Jones, possibly even Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. but the wit here is missing their spark. nor does the book have the same delightfully satirical tone Zen Cho's historical fantasies. the storytelling here feels lacklustre & vanilla.
right from the outset, the book's attempts at self-awareness about the tropes of its genre ("anyone who has ever watched a film with time-travel, or read a book with time-travel […] will know that the moment you start to think about the physics of it, you are in a crock of shit. How does it work? How can it work?") backfire, as we are offered a generic explanation of time-travel along the lines of "[D]on't worry about it. All you need to know is that in your near future, the British government developed the means to travel through time".
what made absolutely 0 sense to me was not so much the time-travelling and the lack of explanation around it, but the identity of these 'expats' (would they really 'rescue' someone who was in the midst of a war? surely they would consider them unsuitable, or too much of a risk, given that they are bound to have some form of ptsd and might believe that they have been captured by the 'enemy), and their 'bridges'.
we're led to believe that their bridges undergo careful selection and multiple interviews, yet our protagonist seems entirely ill-suited for the task at hand. it would have been more logical for someone with an understanding of the expat's era to care for them. moreover, the notion that these time expats wouldn't be institutionalized but instead released to live with their bridges seems implausible.
and would they really place them in London? surely it would have made more sense to find safehouses in the countryside, as opposed to smackbam in the middle of modernity.
despite the considerable resources invested in extracting them, they're entrusted to a single individual who promptly forgets their surveillance duties, allowing them to wander the city alone?
it's nonsensical. while i'm willing to suspend disbelief regarding time travel, if i'm to buy into this 'ministry', it should feel less slapdash.
i skimmed ahead and saw how the romance subplot would unfold...if anything the romance made the story all the banal. why can't we have significant non-romantic relationships between male and female main characters? must it inevitably result in a romance, even here? the optics were dubious, akin to a therapist and their patient embarking on a romantic relationship.
given all the buzz around this novel, i recognise that i am an outlier and chances are that it will be a hit for most readers (i just happen not be one of them). i recommend giving this novel a shot and forming your own opinion. YMMV and all that jazz.
May 12, 2024
We’ll never know exactly what happened, but the hoary remains are terrifying enough:
In 1845, more than 120 men under the command of Sir John Franklin set out on two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, in search of the Northwest Passage. They reached the Canadian Arctic, but then their vessels got caught in crushing ice for almost two years. Weakened by scurvy, tuberculosis and lead poisoning, the survivors began walking back to the mainland, hundreds of miles away. They froze, starved, raved. Marks on a few scattered bones suggest some resorted to cannibalism. In the blinding white at the end of the world, all were lost.
Until now.
A secret program developed by the British government has managed to extract one of the missing officers, 1st Lt. Graham Gore, and return him to life in the modern age.
Some of what you’ve just read is historical fact, some is archaeological speculation, and a bit is wacky fantasy. I won’t tell you which is which, but I promise all those elements are blended deliciously in Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel, “The Ministry of Time.” From a little DNA scraped off the footnotes of polar exploration, she’s re-engineered a courageous, irresistible man who vanished almost 200 years ago.
You’re skeptical; I don’t blame you. So far as we know, time travel is more written about than embarked upon. And too many of those stories get tangled up in causal loops, timeline dilemmas and grandfather paradoxes. In fact, if I could travel back in time, one of the things I’d do, after strangling baby Hitler and buying Apple stock, would be to tell younger me not to waste time reading so many novels about time travel.
But Bradley has got me rethinking that prejudice. Her utterly winning book is a result of violating not so much the laws of physics as the boundaries of genre. Imagine if “The Time Traveler’s Wife” had an affair with “A Gentleman in Moscow.” No wonder the manuscript for “The Ministry of Time” sold in dozens of markets around the world faster than the speed of light. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
In 1845, more than 120 men under the command of Sir John Franklin set out on two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, in search of the Northwest Passage. They reached the Canadian Arctic, but then their vessels got caught in crushing ice for almost two years. Weakened by scurvy, tuberculosis and lead poisoning, the survivors began walking back to the mainland, hundreds of miles away. They froze, starved, raved. Marks on a few scattered bones suggest some resorted to cannibalism. In the blinding white at the end of the world, all were lost.
Until now.
A secret program developed by the British government has managed to extract one of the missing officers, 1st Lt. Graham Gore, and return him to life in the modern age.
Some of what you’ve just read is historical fact, some is archaeological speculation, and a bit is wacky fantasy. I won’t tell you which is which, but I promise all those elements are blended deliciously in Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel, “The Ministry of Time.” From a little DNA scraped off the footnotes of polar exploration, she’s re-engineered a courageous, irresistible man who vanished almost 200 years ago.
You’re skeptical; I don’t blame you. So far as we know, time travel is more written about than embarked upon. And too many of those stories get tangled up in causal loops, timeline dilemmas and grandfather paradoxes. In fact, if I could travel back in time, one of the things I’d do, after strangling baby Hitler and buying Apple stock, would be to tell younger me not to waste time reading so many novels about time travel.
But Bradley has got me rethinking that prejudice. Her utterly winning book is a result of violating not so much the laws of physics as the boundaries of genre. Imagine if “The Time Traveler’s Wife” had an affair with “A Gentleman in Moscow.” No wonder the manuscript for “The Ministry of Time” sold in dozens of markets around the world faster than the speed of light. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
May 31, 2024
I really had high expectations on this book, however, it didn't work out for me.
At first, I felt timing hadn't been right and that I had been under so much on my plate that I found this book hard to enjoy, but after having read some reviews I have to agree that it was somehow overachieving, which left me with a rather sour aftertaste.
Some of the chapters felt rather lengthy and having wanted to cover the different topics mentioned in the synopsis the plot felt forced and perhaps a bit incomplete or even confusing at times.
I have no recollection of my early history lessons of the expedition of the Erebus and the Terror into the Arctic and which led to the ultimate death of the crew after being stranded in the Arctic, however, this is perhaps the most interesting part, along with the last three chapters of the book.
I wish I were more upbeat with my review, but it simply didn't work out for me. I can only hope it'll do wonders for you in case you decide to give it a go.
At first, I felt timing hadn't been right and that I had been under so much on my plate that I found this book hard to enjoy, but after having read some reviews I have to agree that it was somehow overachieving, which left me with a rather sour aftertaste.
Some of the chapters felt rather lengthy and having wanted to cover the different topics mentioned in the synopsis the plot felt forced and perhaps a bit incomplete or even confusing at times.
I have no recollection of my early history lessons of the expedition of the Erebus and the Terror into the Arctic and which led to the ultimate death of the crew after being stranded in the Arctic, however, this is perhaps the most interesting part, along with the last three chapters of the book.
I wish I were more upbeat with my review, but it simply didn't work out for me. I can only hope it'll do wonders for you in case you decide to give it a go.
April 27, 2024
RTC
But tldr this was a mess
--------
The romance was banal and the sci-fi was a mess. Most characters were underdeveloped, killing any pay-off for some of the ending. This wanted to be too much and delivered too little.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
ARC gifted by Avid Reader Press
Look, I don't want to be the Debby Downer of the group. I want to love things! BUT when I'm told I will be reading a hilarious, ingenious romp, a thrill ride even!, and all the blurbs gush over it…my expectations are sky high. There are many people who have loved this, so please read their reviews. But for me this had one too many uses of the word ‘lugubriously’ for my tastes - and that's just the tip of the iceberg if you will.
As much as I can describe this, the government has a ‘time door’ and creates a secret department to study what happens to ‘expats' - people from the past. I can't really explain a lot of the why’s of this book, a lot of the time travel stuff is lampshaded early on and most of the rules are thrown out the window in the first few pages.
There are five people from the past, the most important being Graham Gore -a Lieutenant aboard the HMS Erebus during the Franklin Expedition and who this whole fanfic is based around. Our nameless MC is his ‘bridge’, or handler, to the present and, of course, falls in love with him. It's a slow burn romance, taking over 200 pages to get there and I can honestly say I felt nothing for these characters or the relationship. For most of the book I thought everyone was gay. I'd rather read a book about Martha, the 1600s lesbian who's into movies and Tinder.
Our MC is British-Cambodian and this is used in a lot of awkward moments about race and attempted discussions on post-colonialism politics. I get that she's supposed to be carrying family trauma and trying to be a model minority, but she never seems to develop beyond this (girl! You're in love with a Victorian white man! You work for the government!!). I thought this was tied to the story in a flimsy way and just name checking Frantz Fanon isn't enough. That first line says so much, so I really wished we had gone deeper and connected it to the plot in a more substantial way.
The writing in this book is that breezy banter that can get grating after a while, can someone just please have a real conversation? The fish out of water aspect was squeezed to death. What bothered me most was how many strained metaphors and SAT WOrds were used. The mc never seemed like a person that would try to impress with her vocabulary, she's supposed to be a translator/writer so someone who would think about word choices? Some of the metaphors were funny, just hope they were meant to be.
How about that time travel though? Without spoiling anything, and don't think could since can't explain it!, the last bit is where the slice of life (or nothing happens) novel turns into an action, spy-thriller, sci-fi story. Everything was thrown in here, but nothing could fill in those plot holes. I've chatted with quite a few readers about this and none of us can make sense of it. I'm assuming this was tacked on to the original fanfic.
But tldr this was a mess
--------
The romance was banal and the sci-fi was a mess. Most characters were underdeveloped, killing any pay-off for some of the ending. This wanted to be too much and delivered too little.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
ARC gifted by Avid Reader Press
Look, I don't want to be the Debby Downer of the group. I want to love things! BUT when I'm told I will be reading a hilarious, ingenious romp, a thrill ride even!, and all the blurbs gush over it…my expectations are sky high. There are many people who have loved this, so please read their reviews. But for me this had one too many uses of the word ‘lugubriously’ for my tastes - and that's just the tip of the iceberg if you will.
As much as I can describe this, the government has a ‘time door’ and creates a secret department to study what happens to ‘expats' - people from the past. I can't really explain a lot of the why’s of this book, a lot of the time travel stuff is lampshaded early on and most of the rules are thrown out the window in the first few pages.
There are five people from the past, the most important being Graham Gore -a Lieutenant aboard the HMS Erebus during the Franklin Expedition and who this whole fanfic is based around. Our nameless MC is his ‘bridge’, or handler, to the present and, of course, falls in love with him. It's a slow burn romance, taking over 200 pages to get there and I can honestly say I felt nothing for these characters or the relationship. For most of the book I thought everyone was gay. I'd rather read a book about Martha, the 1600s lesbian who's into movies and Tinder.
Our MC is British-Cambodian and this is used in a lot of awkward moments about race and attempted discussions on post-colonialism politics. I get that she's supposed to be carrying family trauma and trying to be a model minority, but she never seems to develop beyond this (girl! You're in love with a Victorian white man! You work for the government!!). I thought this was tied to the story in a flimsy way and just name checking Frantz Fanon isn't enough. That first line says so much, so I really wished we had gone deeper and connected it to the plot in a more substantial way.
The writing in this book is that breezy banter that can get grating after a while, can someone just please have a real conversation? The fish out of water aspect was squeezed to death. What bothered me most was how many strained metaphors and SAT WOrds were used. The mc never seemed like a person that would try to impress with her vocabulary, she's supposed to be a translator/writer so someone who would think about word choices? Some of the metaphors were funny, just hope they were meant to be.
How about that time travel though? Without spoiling anything, and don't think could since can't explain it!, the last bit is where the slice of life (or nothing happens) novel turns into an action, spy-thriller, sci-fi story. Everything was thrown in here, but nothing could fill in those plot holes. I've chatted with quite a few readers about this and none of us can make sense of it. I'm assuming this was tacked on to the original fanfic.
March 26, 2024
For the first quarter of The Ministry of Time, I thought it was the greatest book I'd read all year. The premise was fantastic: steal some dead people from history, bring them into the twenty-first century, and see how they adjust. I did pause for a minute, as I often do with time travel, to see if it made internal sense. There were some issues, as there often are, but I decided to put them aside and just enjoy the story.
The writing is really, really good ("As the Arctic wind bites at his hands and feet, his thoughts slop against his skull", "Most friendship quartets don't function in squares but in lines"). The semantic discussion of expats vs. refugees, in the context of time vs. space, was right up my alley. I really enjoyed getting a nineteenth century perspective on our own era, especially since most of the focus was on societal changes, rather than obvious "big deals" like the invention of the internet or the cellphone ("There's no space here. How can you breathe? Is all of England like this? The entire world?"). I also loved the flashback bits describing some of Gore's experiences on the Arctic expedition. I find historical fiction the easiest way for me to learn about history and then also retain what I've learned, and even though Bradley filled in the gaps, the difficulties and dilemmas Arctic expeditions of the time faced, described in those passages, were both true and fascinating. I never realized ships could be literally trapped in frozen seas.
At some point, however, I began to feel like there was something I should be getting but wasn't. I think this feeling was intentional, since the book often hints at future events, and is written as a retrospection on something that has already happened, but rather than feeling like an unraveling mystery, I just stopped understanding what was going on.
The subtle discussions around race and power were so subtle they were actually too vague to follow, while simultaneously trying to function as major plot motives, so I lost the "why" of the plot, which made the "what" significantly less interesting.
The main conflict in the story came from a seemingly random direction, so much so that I almost considered going back and re-reading half of the book to understand how I'd missed it. That's when I lost the "how" as well.
Overall, while the writing continued to shine, the story progressively made less and less sense, and according to the end there was supposed to be some important statement about fascism, power and oppression somewhere along the way, but I have no idea when we were supposed to realize that.
I do see a future in which I re-read The Ministry of Time and see if hindsight changes the picture, and I'll definitely follow Bradley's future work, but I'm also thoroughly confused.
The writing is really, really good ("As the Arctic wind bites at his hands and feet, his thoughts slop against his skull", "Most friendship quartets don't function in squares but in lines"). The semantic discussion of expats vs. refugees, in the context of time vs. space, was right up my alley. I really enjoyed getting a nineteenth century perspective on our own era, especially since most of the focus was on societal changes, rather than obvious "big deals" like the invention of the internet or the cellphone ("There's no space here. How can you breathe? Is all of England like this? The entire world?"). I also loved the flashback bits describing some of Gore's experiences on the Arctic expedition. I find historical fiction the easiest way for me to learn about history and then also retain what I've learned, and even though Bradley filled in the gaps, the difficulties and dilemmas Arctic expeditions of the time faced, described in those passages, were both true and fascinating. I never realized ships could be literally trapped in frozen seas.
At some point, however, I began to feel like there was something I should be getting but wasn't. I think this feeling was intentional, since the book often hints at future events, and is written as a retrospection on something that has already happened, but rather than feeling like an unraveling mystery, I just stopped understanding what was going on.
The subtle discussions around race and power were so subtle they were actually too vague to follow, while simultaneously trying to function as major plot motives, so I lost the "why" of the plot, which made the "what" significantly less interesting.
The main conflict in the story came from a seemingly random direction, so much so that I almost considered going back and re-reading half of the book to understand how I'd missed it. That's when I lost the "how" as well.
Overall, while the writing continued to shine, the story progressively made less and less sense, and according to the end there was supposed to be some important statement about fascism, power and oppression somewhere along the way, but I have no idea when we were supposed to realize that.
I do see a future in which I re-read The Ministry of Time and see if hindsight changes the picture, and I'll definitely follow Bradley's future work, but I'm also thoroughly confused.
March 12, 2024
Reposting because good reads took down this review (and many others).
DNF at 54%
The premise of this book sounded amazing and I was very excited to read it but I quickly realized it isn’t for me. The writing style is very strange. It’s a mix of classic literature and modern syntax with a lot of millennial type humor that was so difficult to get though. The characterizations and the plot didn’t progress they just happened. Like we only got a day of something and then the next chapter is just “it’s now the next month.” And even then nothing happened. If is mostly interactions between the two main characters or between them and the other time travelers. And it’s so incredibly boring. To me. I truly had no idea what was going on most of the time. I was hoping for this to be more spy heavy but we only got some foreshadowing at 30% and 40% and between that nothing happened. I can tell from other reviews things pick up at the end of the book but that’s not what I like. Just so difficult to get though because of the writing style and because not enough plot progression was happening.
I would be interested in reading another book with this premise but I did not enjoy this particular book. If you enjoy wacky stories that have unique characters just vibing for at least 50% of the book you may like this.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this book.
DNF at 54%
The premise of this book sounded amazing and I was very excited to read it but I quickly realized it isn’t for me. The writing style is very strange. It’s a mix of classic literature and modern syntax with a lot of millennial type humor that was so difficult to get though. The characterizations and the plot didn’t progress they just happened. Like we only got a day of something and then the next chapter is just “it’s now the next month.” And even then nothing happened. If is mostly interactions between the two main characters or between them and the other time travelers. And it’s so incredibly boring. To me. I truly had no idea what was going on most of the time. I was hoping for this to be more spy heavy but we only got some foreshadowing at 30% and 40% and between that nothing happened. I can tell from other reviews things pick up at the end of the book but that’s not what I like. Just so difficult to get though because of the writing style and because not enough plot progression was happening.
I would be interested in reading another book with this premise but I did not enjoy this particular book. If you enjoy wacky stories that have unique characters just vibing for at least 50% of the book you may like this.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this book.
June 6, 2024
Once more I have fallen behind in my reviews. I mention that because if you look at the dates I started and finished this spectacularly fine debut novel, you'd think it took me a while to finish it. Nope. I inhaled it. Imagine a brilliant sci-fi story about time travel; a beautiful romance between a forward-thinking 21st-century executive and an eighteenth-century arctic explorer; and a riveting tale about spy craft and sage houses. This novel is all that in one perfect mash-up. I loved it. (PS: While you'll be fascinated by the eighteenth-century-explorer, you'll really devour the tart who survived the seventeenth-century plague.)
May 15, 2024
This was so strange and I don't know how to feel about it
Update: Okay, I've thought about it.
The Ministry of Time should have been right up my alley. I love the 'man out of time' trope and the drama of a time travel romance. Give me a 19th-century man trying to figure out a microwave and modern gender politics, I eat that up! But this book, unfortunately, was a bit of a mess for me.
First off, whoever decided to market this as a romance should be fired. Or at least given a VERY in-depth PowerPoint presentation on the hallmarks of the genre. While there is a romance subplot, the context is so weird and off-putting that I can't actually believe it was ever meant to make the reader swoon. The inherent power imbalance between the couple and weirdly racist background that's implied to be at least a small fraction of the love interest's attraction towards the main character is frankly bizarre and cringe-inducing in the extreme. Everything about their relationship just felt so inappropriate.
I also tend to have a hard time with the mechanics of time travel, and this book pointedly tells the reader to just not think about it. This is a very lazy approach, in my opinion, and did not endear me to the sci-fi elements or weird spy thriller events that eventually played out.
Overall, I think The Ministry of Time tried to tackle too much in its 350 pages. There were some interesting ideas, but they were just bogged down by muddled metaphors and disorganized trains of thought.
Update: Okay, I've thought about it.
The Ministry of Time should have been right up my alley. I love the 'man out of time' trope and the drama of a time travel romance. Give me a 19th-century man trying to figure out a microwave and modern gender politics, I eat that up! But this book, unfortunately, was a bit of a mess for me.
First off, whoever decided to market this as a romance should be fired. Or at least given a VERY in-depth PowerPoint presentation on the hallmarks of the genre. While there is a romance subplot, the context is so weird and off-putting that I can't actually believe it was ever meant to make the reader swoon. The inherent power imbalance between the couple and weirdly racist background that's implied to be at least a small fraction of the love interest's attraction towards the main character is frankly bizarre and cringe-inducing in the extreme. Everything about their relationship just felt so inappropriate.
I also tend to have a hard time with the mechanics of time travel, and this book pointedly tells the reader to just not think about it. This is a very lazy approach, in my opinion, and did not endear me to the sci-fi elements or weird spy thriller events that eventually played out.
Overall, I think The Ministry of Time tried to tackle too much in its 350 pages. There were some interesting ideas, but they were just bogged down by muddled metaphors and disorganized trains of thought.
March 26, 2024
This is huge fun! Bradley has taken a rather tired concept of time travel and given it a fresh shake-up: a shady government ministry is bringing people from various pasts into the present where they are allocated a 'bridge' to help them orient themselves and the main narrator is one of these 'bridges' - a biracial young woman whose Cambodian mother still carries the scars of trauma and who suffers microaggressions her 'passing' daughter is aware of but doesn't usually experience herself.
For most of the first half though these political concerns are shelved: the best part of the book is the character-driven subtle comedy of the narrator's relationships with Commander Graham Gore, a real Royal Navy officer who disappeared on the ill-fated Franklin polar expedition (yes, the one detailed in The Terror!), Margaret, a hilarious and brash woman from the seventeenth century allowed to own her lesbian sexuality for the first time, and the more melancholy WW1 officer who is in love with Graham. The everyday details of these cross-pollinated historical friendships are both deliciously funny and moving. I could have read a whole book centred on these characters navigating the twenty-first century with delight.
But, of course, things are not all sunny: what is the ministry really up to? What is the mysterious weapon? Why is another bridge assassinated? And then the standard tropes of time travel narratives kick in: ray guns (or something) and people on the run from mysterious enemies are not really my thing and I sort of lost the head-spinning plot.
Nevertheless, there is so much that I enjoyed about this book despite the genre trappings that took over: Bradley's writing is engaging (though I was a bit bored by the short interspersed chapters from Gore's perspective of the Franklin expedition), genuinely funny and sharp, though never overstated, on a kind of adopted naivety that our narrator uses to fit in. There is light commentary on issues around refugees and assimilation, on how ideas have evolved across history, and the almost necessary diatribe on power differentials and who controls the narrative.
In the end my adoration for the characters is what I'll take from this book: Bradley has real empathy here and an imaginative ability to make these people 'real'. The time-travel plot? I loved the premise to get these characters together and as the basis of much of the humour, but as a driver it sort of left me cold, something I had to go with in order to enjoy the stellar characterization.
I listened to the audio book which is nicely done: the only thing I'd say is that Gore's voice sounds a bit old for a thirty something, even a Victorian one, which was a bit awkward when things got sexy! All the same, this is an audio - and world - I was eager to get back to even if, at times, the drive for plot slightly overwhelms Bradley's strengths at creating characters I adored.
Many thanks to Hodder and Stoughton for an audiobook via NetGalley
For most of the first half though these political concerns are shelved: the best part of the book is the character-driven subtle comedy of the narrator's relationships with Commander Graham Gore, a real Royal Navy officer who disappeared on the ill-fated Franklin polar expedition (yes, the one detailed in The Terror!), Margaret, a hilarious and brash woman from the seventeenth century allowed to own her lesbian sexuality for the first time, and the more melancholy WW1 officer who is in love with Graham. The everyday details of these cross-pollinated historical friendships are both deliciously funny and moving. I could have read a whole book centred on these characters navigating the twenty-first century with delight.
But, of course, things are not all sunny: what is the ministry really up to? What is the mysterious weapon? Why is another bridge assassinated? And then the standard tropes of time travel narratives kick in: ray guns (or something) and people on the run from mysterious enemies are not really my thing and I sort of lost the head-spinning plot.
Nevertheless, there is so much that I enjoyed about this book despite the genre trappings that took over: Bradley's writing is engaging (though I was a bit bored by the short interspersed chapters from Gore's perspective of the Franklin expedition), genuinely funny and sharp, though never overstated, on a kind of adopted naivety that our narrator uses to fit in. There is light commentary on issues around refugees and assimilation, on how ideas have evolved across history, and the almost necessary diatribe on power differentials and who controls the narrative.
In the end my adoration for the characters is what I'll take from this book: Bradley has real empathy here and an imaginative ability to make these people 'real'. The time-travel plot? I loved the premise to get these characters together and as the basis of much of the humour, but as a driver it sort of left me cold, something I had to go with in order to enjoy the stellar characterization.
I listened to the audio book which is nicely done: the only thing I'd say is that Gore's voice sounds a bit old for a thirty something, even a Victorian one, which was a bit awkward when things got sexy! All the same, this is an audio - and world - I was eager to get back to even if, at times, the drive for plot slightly overwhelms Bradley's strengths at creating characters I adored.
Many thanks to Hodder and Stoughton for an audiobook via NetGalley
May 13, 2024
Writer and editor Kaliane Bradley’s entertaining debut novel’s partly inspired by Dan Simmons’s The Terror his take on the doomed Franklin expedition to the Arctic in the mid-nineteenth century. Bradley’s story imagines a not-so-distant future where Britain has top secret access to time travel technology. This portal between past, present and future is central to a hush-hush government project. The Ministry of Time heads up this mission in which a disparate group of people are grabbed from the past and thrown into the present, each carefully pre-selected because their disappearances seem unlikely to disrupt the current timeline. One of these is Lieutenant Graham Gore, member of the ill-fated Franklin party. Each of the time travellers is assigned a handler or “bridge” ostensibly to guide them but also to keep them in check.
Bradley’s narrative’s a retrospective account by Gore’s bridge of how the project played out and her part in its outcome. The narrator’s British-Cambodian, like Bradley herself, and part of her job is to tackle Gore’s outdated values particularly his Victorian colonialist assumptions. But their uncertain interactions slowly morph into a full-blown, love affair that’s then threatened by treacherous individuals operating behind the scenes at the Ministry. All of their lives take a more sinister turn when two mysterious agents try to hunt the time travellers down and assassinate them. But who’s behind this deadly pursuit and why?
Bradley’s novel criss-crosses genre boundaries from speculative fiction to steamy romance, ending up in decidedly murky territory – think Orwell spliced with Graham Greene. Bradley’s narrator’s formative experiences and Gore’s assumption that empire was simply the ‘natural order of things’ opens up a space to tackle issues around race, Britain’s unsavoury past and less-than-stable present. At the same time Gore’s struggles with the aftermath of abrupt temporal displacement enables an oblique exploration of wider experiences of displacement - what it is to be torn from one cultural context and thrust into another. Questions that are linked to Britain’s possible futures especially its likely response to devastating climate change and the mass migrations that will inevitably follow.
I thought Bradley’s story was an inventive vehicle for tackling well-worn topics, often managing to render them fresh and intriguing. Her opening sections were particularly fluid, well-paced, frequently hilarious, as Bradley richly detailed the time travellers’ immersion in this strange new world: from sixteenth-century Maggie finally able to embrace a lesbian identity to Arthur snatched from the battlefields of WW1 who slowly comes out as queer. But, at least for me, this didn’t entirely fulfil its initial promise. Towards the end I was bogged down in a morass of fast-moving plot developments and awkward reveals, and I felt Bradley was trying to cover far too much, far too quickly. And, although their purpose becomes clearer towards the end, I found the sections featuring Gore in the Arctic a little distracting. That said this is a more-than-decent, escapist-but-thoughtful read, a great candidate for a travel or beach companion. I can see why it’s already being adapted for television and I’ll definitely be watching.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Sphere for an ARC
Rating: 3 to 3.5
Bradley’s narrative’s a retrospective account by Gore’s bridge of how the project played out and her part in its outcome. The narrator’s British-Cambodian, like Bradley herself, and part of her job is to tackle Gore’s outdated values particularly his Victorian colonialist assumptions. But their uncertain interactions slowly morph into a full-blown, love affair that’s then threatened by treacherous individuals operating behind the scenes at the Ministry. All of their lives take a more sinister turn when two mysterious agents try to hunt the time travellers down and assassinate them. But who’s behind this deadly pursuit and why?
Bradley’s novel criss-crosses genre boundaries from speculative fiction to steamy romance, ending up in decidedly murky territory – think Orwell spliced with Graham Greene. Bradley’s narrator’s formative experiences and Gore’s assumption that empire was simply the ‘natural order of things’ opens up a space to tackle issues around race, Britain’s unsavoury past and less-than-stable present. At the same time Gore’s struggles with the aftermath of abrupt temporal displacement enables an oblique exploration of wider experiences of displacement - what it is to be torn from one cultural context and thrust into another. Questions that are linked to Britain’s possible futures especially its likely response to devastating climate change and the mass migrations that will inevitably follow.
I thought Bradley’s story was an inventive vehicle for tackling well-worn topics, often managing to render them fresh and intriguing. Her opening sections were particularly fluid, well-paced, frequently hilarious, as Bradley richly detailed the time travellers’ immersion in this strange new world: from sixteenth-century Maggie finally able to embrace a lesbian identity to Arthur snatched from the battlefields of WW1 who slowly comes out as queer. But, at least for me, this didn’t entirely fulfil its initial promise. Towards the end I was bogged down in a morass of fast-moving plot developments and awkward reveals, and I felt Bradley was trying to cover far too much, far too quickly. And, although their purpose becomes clearer towards the end, I found the sections featuring Gore in the Arctic a little distracting. That said this is a more-than-decent, escapist-but-thoughtful read, a great candidate for a travel or beach companion. I can see why it’s already being adapted for television and I’ll definitely be watching.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Sphere for an ARC
Rating: 3 to 3.5
September 24, 2024
With nipples being nibbled after 7 (out of 10 total) chapters and events finally starting to happen in chapter 9, this was a much slower read than I expected.
Everything that ever been could have been prevented.
The Ministry of Time has a fascinating premise: the UK gets access to a time door, enabling a secretive department to “rescue” people from timelines to our current day and age.
Why the UK would do this is unclear, but our main character is assigned as a bridge to a dashing commander Graham Gore, who supposedly died in a an arctic expedition in the 19th century. This exponent of British imperialism is strangely attractive to our Cambodian modern day translator and protagonist. The mundaneness of the story for the first half is rather surprising, with the narrative in the modern time almost entirely told in dialogue.
I feel this book is a bit like a tame version of Babel by R.F. Kuang, with the commentary on colonialism and order versus morals becoming more explicit near the end of the book. Little is explained on the whole time traveling, and in general the potential of the premise is not utilized fully in my opinion. Also the main character just kind of sleep walks into events and is not very engaging nor observant enough to carry the narrative.
Her complicity is interesting but overall this was too light to satisfy.
Quotes:
We mustn’t adjust for them, they are here to adjust to the world, one person at a time
Funny men are bad for the health
Ideas had to cause problems before they cause solutions
Progress is not achieved by colouring inside of the lines.
You will approve. You have no choice.
I was just doing my job. I had orders.
You’re evil.
I am happy you have the luxury to think that.
Everything that ever been could have been prevented.
The Ministry of Time has a fascinating premise: the UK gets access to a time door, enabling a secretive department to “rescue” people from timelines to our current day and age.
Why the UK would do this is unclear, but our main character is assigned as a bridge to a dashing commander Graham Gore, who supposedly died in a an arctic expedition in the 19th century. This exponent of British imperialism is strangely attractive to our Cambodian modern day translator and protagonist. The mundaneness of the story for the first half is rather surprising, with the narrative in the modern time almost entirely told in dialogue.
I feel this book is a bit like a tame version of Babel by R.F. Kuang, with the commentary on colonialism and order versus morals becoming more explicit near the end of the book. Little is explained on the whole time traveling, and in general the potential of the premise is not utilized fully in my opinion. Also the main character just kind of sleep walks into events and is not very engaging nor observant enough to carry the narrative.
Her complicity is interesting but overall this was too light to satisfy.
Quotes:
We mustn’t adjust for them, they are here to adjust to the world, one person at a time
Funny men are bad for the health
Ideas had to cause problems before they cause solutions
Progress is not achieved by colouring inside of the lines.
You will approve. You have no choice.
I was just doing my job. I had orders.
You’re evil.
I am happy you have the luxury to think that.
May 13, 2024
teetering between 4-4.4 stars! finished this on audio this weekend and honestly really loved it 🖤 since finishing i find myself missing these characters!
it was a bit heavier on the sci-fi and confusing at times (think RECURSION or Blake Crouch books) but very much worth the read. heavy on time travel which i looooove and so creative. a good genre blend too—romance, historical fiction, fantasy/sci-fi and even some thriller aspects.
audio is the way to go on this—dual POVs and the narrators are British👌🏼 i think people might get bored reading the physical copy and the audio does a GREAT job of capturing the banter and personalities of the characters and honestly i laughed soooo many times. imagine someone from 2024 talking to someone from 1847 😆 lots of language/talking barriers lol!
GMA did it right, this would be a great book club pick! *PRO TIP—i actually highly recommend buddy reading this with someone if you don’t have a bookclub. the subject matter gets a little confusing and i think it would be great to chat with someone about this as you go!
if you’ve finished this, would love to know what you thought!!
i’m going to do a full review in feed on my IG but wanted to share since it’s a buzzy book right now :) thanks to Avid Reader Press for the early gifted copy and Libro FM for the audio copy.
it was a bit heavier on the sci-fi and confusing at times (think RECURSION or Blake Crouch books) but very much worth the read. heavy on time travel which i looooove and so creative. a good genre blend too—romance, historical fiction, fantasy/sci-fi and even some thriller aspects.
audio is the way to go on this—dual POVs and the narrators are British👌🏼 i think people might get bored reading the physical copy and the audio does a GREAT job of capturing the banter and personalities of the characters and honestly i laughed soooo many times. imagine someone from 2024 talking to someone from 1847 😆 lots of language/talking barriers lol!
GMA did it right, this would be a great book club pick! *PRO TIP—i actually highly recommend buddy reading this with someone if you don’t have a bookclub. the subject matter gets a little confusing and i think it would be great to chat with someone about this as you go!
if you’ve finished this, would love to know what you thought!!
i’m going to do a full review in feed on my IG but wanted to share since it’s a buzzy book right now :) thanks to Avid Reader Press for the early gifted copy and Libro FM for the audio copy.
July 10, 2024
— 1.5 stars ⚓️🚪
buckle up because i dive straight in to this angry rant review 😭😳
when i picked up the ministry of time, i had high hopes for an intriguing journey through time, filled with well-developed characters and an engaging plot. unfortunately, my experience with this book was anything but that. despite the potential for a fascinating story, this book fell short in numerous ways, leaving me frustrated and disappointed.
the premise of the ministry of time seemed promising: a tale of time travel with an interesting setup and the potential for intricate storytelling. however, the execution was lacking from the get-go. about 30% through the book, i found myself constantly distracted, bored, and tempted to check my phone every few minutes—a rarity for me, especially with a book i was supposed to be interested in. this book has so much potential, but it gave me nothing.
the primary issue with this book is its excruciatingly slow pace. reviews i read before starting this book warned of its sluggishness, and they were right. the overly elaborate prose didn’t help. while i appreciate lyrical writing in fantasy, i prefer authors who get to the point in pretty much every other genre. unfortunately, bradley’s writing is overly nuanced and drawn out, making it difficult to stay engaged. for me, almost everything i read went in one ear and out the other.
the writing style was incredibly confusing. i was unsure if we were in third-person omniscient or limited, and sometimes it felt like reading a diary with how the main character directly addressed the readers. the chapters were excessively long, with some reaching 50 pages, making it difficult to maintain focus. additionally, the prose was filled with clunky word choices that constantly pulled me out of the story. i found myself having to think about a word or phrase and question why it was there, which disrupted the reading experience.
the characters in this book lack depth and personality, making it impossible to connect with them. names are thrown around with no real entity to attach them to, and the characters’ actions and motivations are often unclear. the only character who showed a modicum of personality was graham, the supposed love interest, but even that was muddled by confusing writing. the main character is particularly frustrating, and i didn’t even know her first name.
“every time i told graham something about myself, about my family, about my experience of the world we shared—i was trying to occupy space in his head. i had ideas for the shape i should take in his imagination. i told him only what i wanted him to know and believe about me.”
the supposed romance was also poorly developed. i found myself questioning if certain interactions were romantic or just my interpretation as a romance reader. a reader shouldn’t have to ask that question. the romance was poorly executed, making it feel like readbait rather than a genuine element of the story.
the plot, as it stands, is almost non-existent. the synopsis covers everything that happens in the first 100 pages, leaving little to discover. the time travel mechanics are glossed over with a dismissive “don’t worry about it,” which is incredibly frustrating for a science fiction novel. if you’re going to write about time travel, at least give readers a glimpse of how it works in your world; commit to your fucking book.
the world-building is similarly lacking. important plot points are often interrupted by unnecessary tangents about the main character’s background or random musings, which adds to the disjointed feel of the narrative. one moment we’re talking about a significant plot point, and the next, we’re diving into the main character’s cambodian background with no clear goal in sight. it’s clear that this is based on the author’s personal experiences and i feel deep sympathy for her and her mother’s stories, but projecting these poignant tales into a horrible book like this just doesn’t work.
another significant issue with this book is its problematic content. the sexualization of historical figures and the odd fascination with the characters’ sexualities felt forced and uncomfortable. the use of real historical figures, like commander graham gore, in a fictional narrative is questionable, especially when they are sexualized in ways that don’t add to the story.
the author’s portrayal of homosexuality felt like it was used for diversity points rather than genuine character development. characters defined by their sexuality lacked depth and personality, which was incredibly frustrating. homosexuality shouldn’t be used as a character device, especially without substance behind it.
there were also some unsettling descriptions that didn’t sit right with me. for example, the main character’s overly detailed description of the lesbian character, margaret’s, breasts felt unnecessary and uncomfortable.
“there was a gap as large as a spread hand between her scarf and her lapels, which showed her décolletage. margaret had large breasts, which i mention because she had not yet grown used to dressing them without stays, and they tended to draw the gaze. they had a lively upward swell—they seemed to want to have a conversation—and buried deep in the cleavage were a couple of raised acne dots, resembling (charm-ingly) pink wafer crumbs. her skin was very fair and bright, like an expensive moisturizer. i note all this because i think male writers are often mocked for their lengthy descriptions of women’s breasts, but i do think some breasts provoke them, even from me.”
despite my hopes that the ministry of time would improve as i continued reading, it did not. the last 20 pages offered some mild improvement, but it was too little, too late. this book requires unwavering patience to get through, and even then, it’s not worth the effort. the disjointed narrative, lack of character depth, and problematic content make it a frustrating read.
₊⊹⁀➴ in conclusion, the ministry of time was a disappointment. while the concept had potential, the execution was severely lacking. unless you have the patience of a saint and a high tolerance for slow, overly nuanced writing, i would recommend skipping this one. there are far better time travel stories out there that respect the reader’s time and intelligence.
buckle up because i dive straight in to this angry rant review 😭😳
when i picked up the ministry of time, i had high hopes for an intriguing journey through time, filled with well-developed characters and an engaging plot. unfortunately, my experience with this book was anything but that. despite the potential for a fascinating story, this book fell short in numerous ways, leaving me frustrated and disappointed.
the premise of the ministry of time seemed promising: a tale of time travel with an interesting setup and the potential for intricate storytelling. however, the execution was lacking from the get-go. about 30% through the book, i found myself constantly distracted, bored, and tempted to check my phone every few minutes—a rarity for me, especially with a book i was supposed to be interested in. this book has so much potential, but it gave me nothing.
the primary issue with this book is its excruciatingly slow pace. reviews i read before starting this book warned of its sluggishness, and they were right. the overly elaborate prose didn’t help. while i appreciate lyrical writing in fantasy, i prefer authors who get to the point in pretty much every other genre. unfortunately, bradley’s writing is overly nuanced and drawn out, making it difficult to stay engaged. for me, almost everything i read went in one ear and out the other.
the writing style was incredibly confusing. i was unsure if we were in third-person omniscient or limited, and sometimes it felt like reading a diary with how the main character directly addressed the readers. the chapters were excessively long, with some reaching 50 pages, making it difficult to maintain focus. additionally, the prose was filled with clunky word choices that constantly pulled me out of the story. i found myself having to think about a word or phrase and question why it was there, which disrupted the reading experience.
the characters in this book lack depth and personality, making it impossible to connect with them. names are thrown around with no real entity to attach them to, and the characters’ actions and motivations are often unclear. the only character who showed a modicum of personality was graham, the supposed love interest, but even that was muddled by confusing writing. the main character is particularly frustrating, and i didn’t even know her first name.
“every time i told graham something about myself, about my family, about my experience of the world we shared—i was trying to occupy space in his head. i had ideas for the shape i should take in his imagination. i told him only what i wanted him to know and believe about me.”
the supposed romance was also poorly developed. i found myself questioning if certain interactions were romantic or just my interpretation as a romance reader. a reader shouldn’t have to ask that question. the romance was poorly executed, making it feel like readbait rather than a genuine element of the story.
the plot, as it stands, is almost non-existent. the synopsis covers everything that happens in the first 100 pages, leaving little to discover. the time travel mechanics are glossed over with a dismissive “don’t worry about it,” which is incredibly frustrating for a science fiction novel. if you’re going to write about time travel, at least give readers a glimpse of how it works in your world; commit to your fucking book.
the world-building is similarly lacking. important plot points are often interrupted by unnecessary tangents about the main character’s background or random musings, which adds to the disjointed feel of the narrative. one moment we’re talking about a significant plot point, and the next, we’re diving into the main character’s cambodian background with no clear goal in sight. it’s clear that this is based on the author’s personal experiences and i feel deep sympathy for her and her mother’s stories, but projecting these poignant tales into a horrible book like this just doesn’t work.
another significant issue with this book is its problematic content. the sexualization of historical figures and the odd fascination with the characters’ sexualities felt forced and uncomfortable. the use of real historical figures, like commander graham gore, in a fictional narrative is questionable, especially when they are sexualized in ways that don’t add to the story.
the author’s portrayal of homosexuality felt like it was used for diversity points rather than genuine character development. characters defined by their sexuality lacked depth and personality, which was incredibly frustrating. homosexuality shouldn’t be used as a character device, especially without substance behind it.
there were also some unsettling descriptions that didn’t sit right with me. for example, the main character’s overly detailed description of the lesbian character, margaret’s, breasts felt unnecessary and uncomfortable.
“there was a gap as large as a spread hand between her scarf and her lapels, which showed her décolletage. margaret had large breasts, which i mention because she had not yet grown used to dressing them without stays, and they tended to draw the gaze. they had a lively upward swell—they seemed to want to have a conversation—and buried deep in the cleavage were a couple of raised acne dots, resembling (charm-ingly) pink wafer crumbs. her skin was very fair and bright, like an expensive moisturizer. i note all this because i think male writers are often mocked for their lengthy descriptions of women’s breasts, but i do think some breasts provoke them, even from me.”
despite my hopes that the ministry of time would improve as i continued reading, it did not. the last 20 pages offered some mild improvement, but it was too little, too late. this book requires unwavering patience to get through, and even then, it’s not worth the effort. the disjointed narrative, lack of character depth, and problematic content make it a frustrating read.
₊⊹⁀➴ in conclusion, the ministry of time was a disappointment. while the concept had potential, the execution was severely lacking. unless you have the patience of a saint and a high tolerance for slow, overly nuanced writing, i would recommend skipping this one. there are far better time travel stories out there that respect the reader’s time and intelligence.
June 11, 2024
When I read the blurb for The Ministry of Time I was immediately curious and it become one of my most anticipated releases of the year.
I was not disappointed! The ministry of time brings a new (at least to me) twist on the time travel books, as it focuses on the adaptation, assimilation of culture by people brought from the past. This is an absolutely wonderful set up to explore some very important issues - racism, colonization, feminism, gender equality, religion, climate crises etc - while also giving plenty of opportunities to do it with humor.
The writing was beautiful, engaging, and full of British humor that made me laugh out loud several times. The characters are interesting and sweet, and written in a way that made me absolutely invested in their successful adaptation and hapiness.
And Gore? I fell hard for this gentleman, and I’m not embarrassed about it.
This was a brilliant debut, and I’ll be looking forward for more books by Kate.
I would like to thank Hodder & Stoughton | Sceptre and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I was not disappointed! The ministry of time brings a new (at least to me) twist on the time travel books, as it focuses on the adaptation, assimilation of culture by people brought from the past. This is an absolutely wonderful set up to explore some very important issues - racism, colonization, feminism, gender equality, religion, climate crises etc - while also giving plenty of opportunities to do it with humor.
The writing was beautiful, engaging, and full of British humor that made me laugh out loud several times. The characters are interesting and sweet, and written in a way that made me absolutely invested in their successful adaptation and hapiness.
And Gore? I fell hard for this gentleman, and I’m not embarrassed about it.
This was a brilliant debut, and I’ll be looking forward for more books by Kate.
I would like to thank Hodder & Stoughton | Sceptre and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
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