3.8
Commander Gore is unexpectedly pulled from the past into an unknown word, he is living with his bridge, a stranger. He is not alone, there are other time travellers, who need to adjust to this new reality.
Why are they here and are they safe?

The thing I enjoyed more in this book is the intricacies of the relationship between Commander Gore and his bridge, and the time travellers discovering the new world.

The problem with time travel in science fiction novels - or the fun with SF time travel adventures if you like - is that it has unforeseen consequences. Some writers choose to ignore the paradox it creates and just explore the opportunities it offers, others have their own strictly defined rules. Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time takes the consequences part of it all relatively seriously, but has fun with the concept at the same time. But then, if/when we have time travel, you would expect that the matter be taken very seriously, so seriously in fact that, as the title suggests, that the British government has set up a whole department to deal with the ramifications, approaching the matter cautiously, but at the same time not in a particularly ethical manner. That's the fun part. Unfortunately the rest of the novel has mixed ideas about how seriously the author wants to write about science-fiction or indulge in romantic fantasy.

Initially however there is much amusement in a Tom Holt fashion at the curiosities of British manners and the incompetence of its authorities to run anything successfully. When it comes to the discovery of a time portal, the sensible thing to do would be to proceed cautiously, which the top secret Ministry do here by recklessly bringing historical figures from the past into the present day to see what impact it has on the human psyche, although you suspect that they might have other purposes in mind as well. It's going to be quite a jolt for the subjects being brought from the past, or 'expats' as they are called, and as they struggle to adjust it doesn't look like too many of them are going to survive the mental trauma.

Each of the expats have been chosen because they are soon to die in the period they are from. If they are going to die anyway, it's not so much of a loss, and it will cause fewer temporal disturbances. To help them adjust, they are assigned an agent, known as a “bridge”, to monitor and guide them through the progress, hopefully with some of them not entirely losing their minds. 'Samples' are taken from 1646, 1665, 1793, 1847 and 1916. The narrator, a mixed race recruit from Languages, is assigned as bridge to 'forty-seven', First Lieutenant Graham Gore, an explorer on the HMS Erebus that along with the HMS Terror, lost all its crew on a failed expedition in the Arctic in the mid-nineteenth century.

There is some amusement in a Victorian era Royal Navy Officer's attempts to relate to his more liberated female bridge and her modern ways, which doesn't so much make fun of the politically backward racism and imperialist, sexist ways of the past, but serves rather to reflect the absurdity of our modern age back at us by viewing it through the eyes of the past. Confronted with television Gore remarks “You can send dioramas through the ether, and you've used it to show people at their most wretched.” “No one's forcing you to watch EastEnders”, is the comeback.

The first half of the book spends a long time musing and amusing over these cultural differences and use of language, but it comes at the expense of really driving forward what you would think is the more interesting point of the discovery of a time machine and the use it is being put to. There are hints of seemingly minor and inexplicable problems, like the subjects not showing on scanner, the bridge's handler going silent, just enough for you to suspect that things are eventually going to go very wrong. After all, if you have a time machine in the present day to go back to the past, you can be fairly sure that they will have one in the future too.

This kind of speculation remains very much in the background however, while the novel gets bogged down to diminishing returns in social interaction between the expats and the bridge getting hot under the collar sharing living quarters with a handsome heroic figure from the past. Even when serious incidents happen, they seem like just the backdrop to the progression of the novel into bodice ripper erotic fantasies about rugged naval officer shyly being introduced to the sexual inhibitions of the 21st century.

How much you will enjoy The Ministry of Time might then depend on what expectations you might have for it. If you are expecting a science-fiction time-travel adventure or the implications that playing with a time machine can have on future/past events, then this only really comes into play in a hurried reveal close to the conclusion. If you are looking to see some serious exploration of cultural differences between different time periods and their incompatibility, there are intriguing hints about the difficulties of feeling like we don't really fit in with the attitudes and behaviours of our own time period, but even this is somewhat under-developed. If you are happy though with the Romance category taking precedence over the Science-Fiction, then you might enjoy The Ministry of Time rather more than I did.

Brilliant premise and completely original - it starts out as a sci-fi time-travel experiment and then morphs into a love story and then into a thriller and is interspersed with flashbacks into Graham Gore’s time in the Artic and thoughtful commentary on race and climate change. A true original that I can definitely see being adapted for the screen.

A civil servant who has struggled and failed to pass the exams for field agent, is offered a mysterious new job at an improbably high salary It transpires that the Ministry has discovered the time door, through which individuals may be plucked from the past, and retrieved into modern life. Her job is as a 'bridge', to mentor an individual for their initiation. Her first ward is commander Gore, an English sailor who disappeared from Franklin's doomed expedition to find the North west Passage in the 1840s. As the Ministry is focussing on how the reclaimed people from the past may be turned into useful assets it becomes clear that someone is trying to take them out. Is there a mole in the Ministry.? Are there foreign agents? Its a classic fast moving spy thriller built on a sci-fi premise. Great fun.

Goodreads describes Kaliane Bradley‘s The Ministry of Time as ‘A time travel romance, a speculative spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingeniously constructed exploration of the nature of truth and power and the potential for love to change it’ and I’m here to tell you if that’s really true.

This book is certainly many of those things, but I think that description fails to highlight some of the key features of the novel, and more importantly (I think), the vibe. I can only describe this story as chaos. We have a slightly unreliable, often out of control narrator, who struggles with her own identity and place in the world, who’s given the responsibility of ‘ex-pat’ Commander Graham Gore (time-travelled by the government from 1847). Her job as a ‘bridge’, is to help him acclimatize to the 21st century. What could go wrong, you ask? Throwing these two together has several consequences, some of which are hilarious (see: chicken bag) and some which are heartbreakingly sad.

Our protagonist, unnamed, seems to make all the wrong choices - she has this unhinged way of justifying everything she does. I found it difficult to like her at times, yet still felt myself rooting for her in the end. She just seems slightly pathetic but still trying her best (aren’t we all)! I definitely understood why she did certain things but I still found myself going ‘oh no…….’ semi-regularly. The story is being told from a future perspective, and Bradley casually drops in several lines such as ‘If only I’d known how it would turn out’ which created a lot of great tension! I want to know how it turned out! (And once I did find out, well… let’s just say the payoff is good!)

The secondary characters are all brilliantly fleshed out - they’re all incredibly well researched, and my absolute fave is Margaret and her extreme conversion to feminism (legend alert). There are several other expats from different eras and their bridges, and she’s thoroughly researched each era with such care that you can very easily differentiate who is from when and how it affects the choices they make.

Bradley has also woven in some very serious topics, like racism, refugee politics, colonialism, slavery and inherited trauma. The expats are a microcosm of how real-life refugees are treated by our government, and our protagonist is modeled on Bradley herself, being British-Cambodian. I thought this was pretty clever, because she did as we were always told in English class - write what you know! And I found it pretty cool getting to know the author and her experiences through this character.

This book has a lot of fab elements: LGBT representation, serious topics, time travel twists and a couple of steamy scenes. However, my ultimate feelings about it are mixed. I thought it was well-written, well-researched, and had some quirky memorable characters. It’s an interesting concept too, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the BBC series turns out.

But I also think there was just too much going on. At times, I didn’t know what the intention was. It felt like it was trying to do too much at once, be the witty complicated romance between a modern woman and a 19th century sailor, but also critique the government’s treatment of refugees and explore subsequent generational trauma, BUT THEN also throw in some wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey time travel stuff? I felt like I didn’t know where I stood half the time. I liked what the book was trying to do, and I’ll definitely watch the series when it comes out, but overall, I give it a solid 3.5 stars out of 5.

The Ministry of Time will be published on 14th May at all your favourite retailers. Thanks to Netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Sceptre for the early review copy!

I was really looking forward to this book as I usually enjoy anything time travel related. Unfortunately this book was just a little too complex at times and I struggled to recall all the characters. Would make a fascinating mini series though!

This isn’t a genre of book I’d usually read however it was totally captivating from the first page. Reminded me of a Dr Who storyline, once again, not something I’m deeply into! It’s futuristic, romantic, scary in places and thought provoking, I did get a tad bored half way through but am pleased I pushed on through to what was a sweet ending. There were a few unexpected twists and turns throughout and I could see this being successfully adapted for tv or film.

Thank you to Netgalley the author and publishers for an arc in exchange for an honest review

I adored this book, a blend of so many of my favourite things: historical fiction and thriller, romance and time travel. It has some of the best dialogue of any book I’ve ever read and I have joined the leagues of readers to fall for the charms of Commander Graham Gore.

It’s funny and clever, thrilling and sad. Bradley is smart with her treatment of colonialism and the juxtaposition of a British-Cambodian woman with an officer serving at the height of the British Empire. She doesn’t shy away from writing about the devastating effects climate change will have.

Around the halfway point I started wondering if I “enjoyed” this read rather than “loved” it, mainly down to the main character’s (whose name we never learn) wobble in the story she’s telling. But it all gets so exciting in the last 25% and then wraps up so beautifully that I had to give it 5 stars.

Above all: it’s a book to read for three of the characters and the vividness with which they appear on the page. Their observations on the near-future modern love are absolutely wonderful: Commander Graham Gore (removed from the Franklin Expedition in the arctic where he would have died), Arthur (removed from the World War I battle he would have died in) and Margaret (who would have died of the Plague in the 17th century).

The Ministry of Time follows a civil servant who works for the Ministry. The ministry collects expats from different historical time periods to see how the time travels affects them. The expats died in their time period so bringing them to a new time period doesn’t damage time. She is in charge of 1847 aka Commander Graham Gore (who was a real man in history). Gore died on a doomed expedition to the arctic so its hard for him to adapt to the modern day with things like a flushing toilet and Spotify. He soon adjusts to his new reality but romance could be developing between Gore and his bridge.

This was fun, and I liked how different this felt to other time travel novels. However, I did start to lose interest after 25% because I just struggled to care about the relationship between the bridge and Gore. Overall, I am giving it 4 stars for its uniqueness. There has been some allegations of plagiarism but it’s my understanding that they are false claims by people who have not read the book so I definitely recommend giving this a try.

I loved this story that mixes romance, humour, time travel and made me think of a more chaotic and futuristic version of Jody Taylor's St Mary Chronicles.
Well plotted, entertaining, excellent world building and character development.
Loved it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I really wanted to love this given the hype I've seen about it online. I really enjoyed the premise, but as with most time-travel narratives, it ended up being both woolly and overly complicated as it tried to come to a dramatic conclusion. I liked the first two thirds, but felt the final third left me feeling flat.

Found this a little slow paced but persevered and Found it to be a really good story. I enjoy books about time travel and this one is a little different to the norm. Glad I kept on reading.

People are being transported back from an earlier time to the near current day.
Each person brought back has a handler responsible for explaining changes and modern innovations to those transported back. They have to observe their partners for signs of mental instability and problems trying to cope.
What is the purpose of the experiment and what is the Ministry trying to achieve.
Who is the mysterious Brigadier and what is he trying to do in the program. Commander Gore is brought back from the doomed Shackleton expedition and seems to cope better than the others and his handler, a mixed race (English/Cambodean) woman finds herself emotionally entangled and tries to understand what her real purpose is and why the project selected Commander Gore.
Interesting take on time travel and how people from different eras react to changes in the modern world.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the chance to read this ARC, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed this, I’m a huge time travel fan and this just ticks all the boxes for me, great characters, plot, historical world building. It’s perfect for adventurers.

What a rollercoaster! I loved the characters by the end of this and was simultaneously grateful my heart rate was no longer taking a beating and bitterly disappointed I wasn’t able to spend more time with the characters. The characterisation of each person through the eyes of the main character was good, and I liked the refreshing take on time travel in this book, if not in plot then definitely through characterisation. My only drawback would be the pacing which I’m struggling to place, I wish things had changed faster but I also feel that we needed the background we got. Things didn’t really start changing from the status quo until about 25% of the way through. Once it got there though I couldn’t stop reading. I’ve read quite a few time travel novels but few have caused me to pause and write out thoughts quite like this one.

This is one of those books that I will probably keep thinking about for quite some time. The Ministry of Time is fun, funny, mad, sexy, heartwrenching, fast-paced, gripping, utopian, dystopian, ridiculous and ridiculously human. It reminded me a lot of Brave New World and 1984, but without the everpresent sense or foreboding. I wild ride that had me wondering where it might lead and at the same time not caring about the destination at all because the trip itself was so fun. There was so much depth to the story and the characters, and I imagine it will take me quite some time to digest it all. Would definitely recommend!

I am afraid that I failed to connect with this book.it was too far out for me I think ,and it is my fault for requesting it .I can see that other readers enjoyed it more ,and I am glad. I would suggest that other readers give it a go ,it just wasn't for me.

I have read a lot of time travel books, but this approached it from a new perspective, which I found refreshing and interesting.
The story was well thought out, and with some great twists. The central character's twist was particularly good. No spoilers from me - you'll have to read it!
The book was obviously very well researched, which I always like, as well as well written and with some great characters. Who can fail to be moved by Arthur?

An incredible novel spanning genres including sci fi, romance and espionage to name but a few. Wonderfully unique - I can say with certainty I have never read anything like this before. Definitely recommend.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Speculative with much wit, thriller page turning impetus and twisty surprise

So. I was gripped from the off by our central character, a young British woman of South East Asian background, making her way as a civil servant, and inherently understanding a sense of some displacement between cultures, There has been a new, secretive Ministry set up in the very close-to-now future. A method of time-travel is in place. All very hush hush, of course, both bureaucratic and mysterious. A method of ‘capturing’ people from the past, and bringing them through time, alive, into this time. An interesting and complex experiment to see how these people from other cultural times can acclimatise to the 2020s

Each time ‘expatriate’ has their own ‘bridge’ – a civil servant who will guide, mentor, and report back to the Ministry on their expats progress.

Our never named narrator has been paired with Lieutenant Graham Gore, ‘1847’, a real historical individual who was part of the doomed Sir John Franklin expedition to discover the North West Passage, on the Royal Navy expedition of the ships Erebus and Terror, at that time. Gore is/was charismatic, amusing, and well liked. Other ‘expats’ with other ‘bridges’ are ‘1916’, a shell-shocked army captain who died in the First World War. ‘1665’ a glorious young woman who died from the plague, ‘1645’ a pompous and brutal lieutenant who died in the Battle of Naseby, and ‘1793’ who met her demise in Robespierre’s Paris.

Bradley has both glorious fun and much serious matter around the views such ‘outsiders’ might have of us and our mores in this time.

And there’s even more going on which is a kind of Secret Service series of missions with a time rather than place focus. Enemies without and within not from different geopolitical foci, but….

And there is romance.

This is a rollicking good read, with Bradley juggling many many balls in the air at once, mostly with assured ease.

The only reason I have withheld that final star is a feeling that the vibrant joyous clever energy of the first half off the book somewhere dropped off, and a more prosaic derring-do series of bam-bam-bam action sequences entered territory which felt a little formulaic.

Still, I absolutely recommend this, even if I felt there could have been midway editing which would have helped stop whatever-it-was which dropped the intensity, and some philosophical debates which were perhaps trying to tick too many valid boxes