Review: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Synopsis

A civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering ‘expats’ from across history to test whether time-travel is feasible.
Her role is to work as a ‘bridge’: living with, supporting, and monitoring expat ‘1847’ – Commander Graham Gore, a former Victorian polar explorer. Gore, an adventurer by trade, soon adjusts to this bizarre new world of washing machines, feminism and Spotify; and during a long, sultry summer the pair move from awkwardness to friendship to something more.

But as the true shape of the project that brought them together begins to emerge, Gore and the bridge are forced to confront their past choices and imagined futures. Can love triumph over the histories that have shaped them? And how do you defy that history when it is living in your house?

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Review

This book blew up in the beginning of the year and I saw it basically everywhere online. It took me a few months before I finally got it myself.

While the Sci-Fi element does play a role here, the book focuses more (at least in the beginning) on the emotional side of the time travellers. The were taken out of their timeline / environment (different time periods) in an instant and dropped into an unknown future. To get used to modern day language, food, economics, technical developments, and basic human interactions (gender roles are not what they used to be in hundreds of years ago) is not an easy feat. Each expat (how they are called) gets assigned a bridge (modern day contact) to help them navigate their new live. Not everyone adjusts to their new life that easily. I enjoyed that aspect. We took time getting to know our expats.

The last third of the book was drifting more into the area of a combination of spy, potential of time travel (misusing it) and betrayal. While I get the part of not everything being *sunshine & rainbows* it felt a bit rushed and a very stark contrast to the first 2/3.
It felt like it wanted to be both, a sci-fi book, and a romance book. While I enjoyed reading it, it is not a book you absolutely must read.

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Interested in more?

• Review: Queen of Sorrows by Eliza Tilton
• Review: Three Shattered Souls by Mai Corland
• Book Review: The Barracks of Forgotten Pages by Sophie Dane
• Review: Fractured Fate by C. Shell
• Review: Girl Of Fierce & Fire: Schwelende Schatten by Klara Fuchs

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