I very much enjoyed the array of characters and their situation - there are hints of the BBC comedy ‘Ghosts’ as the cast is made up of people from different times. The time travellers bafflement or total enthusiasm for present day living made for good reading.
5e plot got a little shaky at the end but on the whole this a riot of a read.

"You know, when you are out of my sight, I fear I've imagined you."

In The Ministry of Time we follow an unnamed British-Cambodian woman who is assigned to work as a "bridge" - helping people who have been extracted from their timelines because they were supposed to die, adjust to life in the 21st century.

There are 5 expats and they are all real historical figures. Our bridge's assigned expat is Commander Graham Gore, a member of the Franklin's lost Arctic expedition who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The story takes a turn once we discover not everything is as it seems, and the time travel mission has some hidden goals, as well as spies from the future.

Graham is such a charming character! You can't help but fall for him at the same time as the main character does, and you really can't blame her or yourself for it. He is indubitably confused by the situation he has found himself in, but he grabs life by its horns and makes the most of it. He explores the wonders of the 21st century & modern technology while still remembering his fellow expeditioners and feeling guilty for their disappearance and eventual death.
He is hilarious, gentle, loving and kind and the relationships he forms with the other expats (particularly Maggie and Arthur) show how much he cares for those around him.

Once the relationship between Graham and his bridge becomes romantic, we see how much he has longed for her during the year they were working and living together. He is an incredibly well written character, and I could imagine him as a real person during the entire time that I was reading the book, which doesn't happen often.

I loved the side characters, particularly Maggie who was at times even funnier than Graham himself, especially once she discovers social media and Tinder. Arthur is a shy but loving soul and I wish he had a better ending. I could honestly read separate books just about them.

I haven't been this invested in a book since I read Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow in 2022, and I forgot what a beautiful feeling it is to get so lost in a book. I'm so happy I had the chance to read this before release and add it to my favorites list.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an e-galley in exchange for an honest review !

A struggle at first, but then I really enjoyed reading this book. Thank you to the writer, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read it

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'The Ministry of Time'by Kaliane Bradley

The concept of 'The Ministry of Time' was interesting and the blurb sounded fascinating. However, I just couldn't grow to love the writing style and for me it just didn't end up to be my favourite book. Of course, it is an amazing concept and a lot of people should definitely read this and fall in love with it but I just couldn't connect to it sadly.

The Ministry of Time is an enormously satisfying book - I was left with the feeling that I had read an important novel destined to be a future classic.

A heady mix of adventure, science-fiction, romance, social commentary and humour that in less talented hands could have been a mess. But here Kaliane Bradley, in her debut no less, masterly balances these genres with a shining intellect, a rich vocabulary, and a great sense of pace.

A gripping yarn with much for the reader to reflect on. Thrilled it is to be a BBC drama.

This was a unique and interesting book. I really enjoyed the concept of the time travel and bringing particular characters from different times together. This book subtly tackles a lot of issues relating to how society has evolved over the last few hundred years as well as many ethical questions surrounding migration and assimilation. I could see this book making an interesting book club pick.
There are lots of great characters in the book and I found it fun and enjoyable to read.

Well-paced and funny, THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley is great for a slump. It’s not going to change your life, but I anticipate it being a buzzy favourite for a lot of readers this year. Pick it up if you like Outlander, R.F Kuang, charming males in period dramas, or preferably all of the above.

I’m not sure I was the correct demographic for this book but having said that it did redeem itself a little for me towards the end essentially where it took a more serious tone.
The basic premise of bringing back people through time travel from various points in history is a good starting point however I think this book tried to include too much. I found the first half of the book flitting all over the place and confusing. At attempt at humour came across as forced and flippant. But there is a good story here and I would certainly recommend to give it a go.

3.5 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley.co.uk and the publishers for this DRC.

I was really intrigued and excited to read The Ministry of Time. I picked it as a holiday read which I think was perfect: my platonic ideal of a holiday read is something immersive, readable, intelligent without being incredibly clever, and a fully realised world, and this totally delivered. Brief summary for anyone who hasn't yet encountered this one – nameless government employee is hired to look after a nineteenth century Arctic explorer, Graham Gore, who has been transported to the 21st century, nefarious things ensue.

I do have some qualms about the plotting and the execution of some plotlines – they were a bit blurry and confused and maybe felt a bit silly to me? – but in my opinion it also did lots of things right. Really liked Graham and the other time travellers, really liked the questions it raised about empire and immigration and the (terrifying) way climate change was addressed, really liked too the way the time travellers adjusted to the 21st century and the interrogation of value systems.

But I wanted a lot more of the things I liked and those elements of the idiosyncratic world Kalaine Bradley created – which I mean in both a complimentary and uncomplimentary way. It would have been fascinating to have delved more into how the time travellers acclimatised and I would have loved more of the interpersonal relationships of the characters I liked so much, but personal preference aside, I do think that more of that stuff and less of the (slightly messy) plot would have made it a better book. Thank u Hodder xoxo

I had heard a lot of talk about this and how funny it was, and with a premise like that I could not resist. This was such a treat. It felt so fresh and new. I loved how the travellers bonded and formed their own groups and interests. I loved the discussion of home and race. The romance was lovely in it but I do question the blurb revealing it when it doesn't happen until 3/4 of the way through. Nonetheless this was fantastic and I do hope we can revisit this world.

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.

Kaliane Bradley's novel, The Ministry of Time, is garnering much advance praise. It is easy to see why - at its heart it is a human story with a sci-fi twist. That twist is pure simplicity and provides a number of intriguing what-if questions. It is the near future and time travel has been invented. The gatekeepers of this technology use it to save the lives of people who history considered dead before their time. Men such as Graham Gore, one of the men who sailed north to find the fabled Northwest Passage never to return home. In this novel, he is bought to the future. How will he settle in? What could go wrong?

This fast-paced novel is a lot of fun. It's probably not sci-fi enough for fans of that genre, but for those readers who love a human story told in unusual settings, this is perfect.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Funny, enjoyable and quite weird !

Great, confident writing from an author who is working well above the level of new comer - can’t wait to see what comes next .

Definitely one to watch. Thank you for the original to read

This is a rare literary gem that sparkles with intelligence, insight, and heart. It is a book to savour, to revisit, and to treasure—a timeless masterpiece that will continue to resonate with readers for generations to come.

It's been 2 weeks since I finished reading The Ministry of Time, and I can't stop thinking about it! It's my favourite book I've read so far this year, and it'll take a lot to knock it off the top spot come the end of the year! Inventive, compelling and profound - I genuinely could not put it down, I felt so invested in the characters and what was going to happen to them. This is such a well-crafted exploration of time travel and it's consequences, Bradley wastes no time in exploring the how it happened and instead devotes the time as to what it could mean - and it feels so terrifyingly plausible. A modern classic.

DNF at 32%

I have been waiting over a year to read this book and it is very disappointing to be writing this review rather than the enthusiastic endorsement I had hoped for.

Several people recommend this book to me, knowing that I am a fan of the Outlander books. So, it brings me no joy to say that this book is NOT similar to Outlander. Not in anything beyond the tenuous link of a plot involving time-travel.

The warmth, detail, and intelligence of Gabaldon's Outlander books (which, it must be said, are not without their own problems) have not been recreated in the The Ministry of Time. Instead, it feels we are dropped into the abridged version of this story.

The story being that of our protagonist, a new senior handler for a clandestine government program that seeks to use their newly developed time travel tech to bring people from history to the present time. One such historical person is Commander Graham Gore, who was part of the doomed Franklin Expedition in 1847. Our lead becomes Gore's handler. The story is set up to offer a deeply interesting study of these characters and the complexities their situation is surely to have thrown up. However, it proceeds to do nothing of the sort.

The plot and characters feel shallow, a sense largely borne out of how the story begins in media res, which I normally like, but it never moves beyond the point of *telling* us what the characters do - go to work, visit the doctor, watch tv.

This is exasperated by plot that moves at such a clip that it almost feels like each paragraph is merely another item ticked off a to-do list.

I never felt that I was ever getting close to the emotional world of either character and this was the biggest issue for me. If I have cannot care about a character, I can't care about what is happening to them.

If you like plot over character this may still be an interesting book for you, but sadly not for me.

The Ministry of Time is an incredibly assured and accomplished debut that will surely be one of the books of the year. Kaliane Bradley has crafted a fantastic story that mixes time-travel, intrigue, and romance with impossibly high stakes.

For me, the stand-out elements of this book were the characters, in particular the 'Expats'- those who have been plucked out of their original time period and deposited in the twenty first century. Reading about a nineteenth century naval officer encountering such broad subjects as feminism, the internet, and modern day London was about as fun as you'd expect, but Bradley also manages to make it endearing and genuinely moving. I found the cast of characters so engaging, charming, and fully realized that I was bereft when I finished the book and had to leave them behind.

Believe the hype, this is a book you'll be forcing your friends to read for the foreseeable future.

Thank you to NetGalley and @Hodderbooks for this e-ARC of Kaliane Bradley’s ‘The Ministry of Time.’

‘The Ministry of Time’ is a sci-fi novel (however it really is a mash up of several genres) about a British-Cambodian civil servant who is offered a job working in a new top secret government department. She is to work as a ‘bridge’ to help assimilate the ‘expats’ rescued from history and brought to live in the 21st century. Our protagonist’s assigned expat is Commander Graham Gore, or ‘1847’, a real life historical figure who died on a doomed Artic expedition.

I was instantly intrigued by the sound of this novel. I don’t read much sci-fi, but I used to watch a bit of sci-fi film and tv, and I’m well aware that it can be done in literature brilliantly (just look at Kindred by Octavia Butler). The vibes I got from this book were very similar to the likes of The Umbrella Academy. The time travel was integral to the story (it didn’t feel *too* fantastical to me), there were unexpected twists, and the characters were engaging and individual. There were many amusing and endearing moments, particularly the scenes with Graham and his fellow expats - first world war soldier, Arthur, and 17th century, Maggie.

However, there were moments where I felt like Bradley was trying to do too much at once, and as such we didn’t get to delve fully into certain aspects of the story that I personally found more interesting (like how living in the 21st century affected Arthur and Maggie’s relationship with their sexualities and identities). I felt like the execution of the novel overall fell a bit flat, but perhaps this is due to it not being my usual genre(s) of choice. It also got a bit slow in the middle, but the pacing significantly picks up near the end.

If you enjoy sci-fi, history, spy thrillers, and a bit of romance then this will likely be the perfect novel for you. I enjoyed reading it but it’s not a novel that I think will stay with me. A solid 3.75 stars. ⭐️

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
This was a fascinating premise - the narrator of the book is the bridge for Graham Gore a traveller in time who has been brought to the present from the depths of the Arctic. This is set in a near future where the Government have created a portal which enables them to bring forward in time people from the past. They pair these people up with Bridges who are tasked with enabling the visitors to be assimilated into the future.
Graham Gore is paired with a woman already half in love with him after reading about the Franklin Expedition and seeing his photograph. Although we learn a great deal about Graham Gore I did not feel that I found out enough about the Bridge. She had her own problems in dealing with her mother’s trauma as a refugee from the horrors of Cambodia and the Killing Fields.
This was an interesting idea but I found the ending a little rushed and a little confusing. She is definitely an author I would read again.

utterly and unexpectedly wondrous! as always, i fall in love with books due to character and plot narrative and this is exceptional in both arenas. but the writing is just beautiful, and the relationships so seductive… it reminds me in tone of Never Let Me Go, but with flashes of very contemporary humour and just a little sci do