Review: The Ministry of Time (#1) by Kaliane Bradley

Rating: 8.2/10

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

“This summer’s hottest debut.” —Cosmopolitan • “Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch…It’s a smart, gripping work that’s also a feast for the senses…Fresh and thrilling.” —Los Angeles Times • “Electric…I loved every second.” —Emily Henry

“Utterly winning…Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow…Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

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: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

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.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.

Review

The Ministry of Time is an odd novel for me; for it has all the right elements of time travel and includes a modern ministry to deal with time travel issues. At the same time, it cleverly connects to the ongoing climate change crisis that the world is being gripped in and foreshadows future wars and how the earth will become terrible to live in. As someone who studied politics at the University of Portsmouth from 2015 to 2019, I witnessed the rise of the Far Right in American Politics and how it spread to European shores. And the reason is simple: People want more. People want to feel safe, and they will follow the rules without saying a word. Yet, when the characters from the past are transported into the 21st century it is an overwhelming transformation from their old pasts.

At the same time, I didn’t feel I was a part of the Ministry, nor did we get much perspective on different Ministry agents or how they dealt with time travel. I watched the original El Ministerio Del Timepio on Netflix set in Spain, which I felt was a better version. The reason is that the agents were recruited from the past, and they were dealing with the past itself. I find that format much better. I would say that the British version adopts a modern approach, in fact, more similar to Sky’s The Lazarus Project. This is a crossover between the Lazarus Project and Doctor Who, except more serious sci-fi. The characters within this novel have bubbling personalities, that resonate with their pasts and have some serious contrasts to the 21st century. Plenty of romance and chemistry between the vast and vibrant cast of characters pulls you into the story.

In the end, I would say that some parts of the story didn’t win me over when it came to the modern-day section. The pacing was slow in some areas, and some prose could have been improved rather it felt more like raw prose that hadn’t been rewritten. But still, I want to see more different formats of Time Travel Ministries being adapted to different cultures. The British version is another adaptation of this brilliant format. But I wish we would stop going into the modern day, and explore history. History is far superior to explaining the problems of the past. After all, the 21st century is the most comfortable period we live in, with fewer wars, and fewer famines, but human greed and politics always play a role because we always want more. Despite this, this novel is 100% worth a read. I would recommend picking it up.