Initially, this book starts off a bit slow, but let me tell you, it evolves into such a captivating and original read! I absolutely loved how it seamlessly blends science fiction, thriller and romance.

💙⏳𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕊𝕡𝕠𝕥𝕝𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥⌛️💙
𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓜𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓻𝔂 𝓸𝓯 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓫𝔂 𝓚𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓮 𝓑𝓻𝓪𝓭𝓵𝓮𝔂

How do you make a book SO jam packed with diverse, cross-genre content and make it work? Well, ask Kaliane Bradley because she has nailed it with this superb and original debut which is out soon on 16th May! Swipe for the blurb.

This unique story includes (but certainly not limited to!) time travel, romance, history spanning decades, micro-aggressions, generational trauma, slavery, colonialism, climate change, refugees, sexual identity, homophobia, racism, cultural/gender bias, SO many cigarettes smoked (yuck!) and much more!

Our main two characters are a biracial British-Cambodian unnamed (though affectionately referred to as a cat throughout) woman employed as the assigned caretaker of Navy Commander Graham Gore who has been pulled from his era of 1847 into the novels present which is a time in our not too distant future. Our MFC is tasked with helping Gore acclimatise to the present day, a task far more complicated than you might initially assume. The generational differences are apparent from the beginning and lead to some truly witty dialogue between the pair. With spending so much time together living in each others pockets, it becomes inevitable for those professional lines to blur - queue the slow burn romance. And it really is slow! But as there is so much else going on, I didn’t mind this as much as I usually would though the pacing did lag a little in the middle for me - but I am rather impatient and this is definitely a me problem!

I would have liked to have seen more from some of the secondary characters, the eccentric, quirky, queer and loveable Maggie and Arthur - they have my heart!

I found this incredibly clever book to be heartwarming, educational, sad, enchanting , thought provoking and laugh out loud funny in parts! The plot twisting climax was fantastic!

I am looking forward to rereading this as I feel it is one that you take more from on each read.

Thank you @netgalley and @sceptre for the early access to this, I highly recommend, and a reminder that “it’s always worth reading the footnotes”

#TheMinistryofTime #netgalley

𝓢𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓯𝓪𝓿𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓺𝓾𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓼:
“𝐵𝑒𝓁𝒾𝑒𝒻 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁𝑒. 𝒲𝒽𝓎 𝒹𝑒𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶 𝓂𝒶𝓅 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓊𝓃𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓇𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓇𝒾𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎”
“𝒜𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝑒𝓆𝓊𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓈. 𝐸𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝓉𝒾𝓃𝓎 𝒹𝑒𝒸𝒾𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒, 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝒸𝒽𝑜𝒾𝒸𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃, 𝒶𝒻𝒻𝑒𝒸𝓉𝓈 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑒𝓁𝓈𝑒”
“𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝓁𝒾𝓂𝒾𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓇𝒸𝑒. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒”
“𝐼𝓉’𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒽 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝑜𝓉𝓃𝑜𝓉𝑒𝓈”

The Ministry of Time is a wild ride of a novel, a chaotic blend of time-travelling spy thriller meets rom-com.

It's a fun concept and I wanted to love it, so it's a shame that it reads like self-insert fanfiction, with the added ick of being based on a real historical figure. There are some clever twists and charming characterisation, but with so much packed in it needed a stronger plot to hold all the elements together, and the whole thing unravels at the end.

The Ministry of Time is wonderfully whimsical, but it was a little too weird to win me over.

The Ministry of Time is a fascinating and original read, blending science fiction, thriller and romance. It starts relatively slowly, but the idea of a historical figure living in a modern world caught my attention, and the pace picked up later. Especially once we discover that the Ministry has different plans for the “expats” from what they initially revealed. There is more to this book than the romantic plot the blurb suggests.

What I liked most about this book was the wide cast of characters. They all have distinct personalities and their own stories. The author brought together a modern civil servant and “expats” from different historical periods who do not share experiences or values, creating many comic situations and an unexpectedly close-knit group of friends. I found this book to be a surprising blend of cosy, heartwarming, and funny, with some really sad scenes.

Each chapter in The Ministry of Time starts with an extract from an account of a polar expedition. This felt familiar, although it was not until the third or fourth chapter that the Erebus resonated in my brain. Yes, I read Michael Palin’s account of this ship, including its momentous search for the Northwest Passage, a few years back.

But it was Kaliane Bradley’s brilliant construction that pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go. I was fully gripped, entwined in this thriller with spy-story overtones, that I’ve merely classed as ‘suspense’. The plot is as intricate as a time travel tale can be. The characters not only present themselves in great depth but with the elegance of people yanked from their eras into a twenty-first century political experiment. The creation of accurate responses to different mores, philosophies and ethics is a real tour de force. Yet it is written so cleanly that they seem to belong to both times at once.

I devoured this book. It gripped me in much the same way as Diamond Eye and Lessons in Chemistry gripped me in previous years. Which suggests it could be my book of the year. The only wrinkle was the ending, which was as twisted and baffling as most time-travel thrillers. I think. I’ll have to re-read it.

This book plays with themes of immigration and displacement, and brings new thoughts to the endless discussion of the responsibilities and repercussions of time-travel, whilst managing to be thrilling and funny. I found it very difficult to put it down once I'd started, and it's such a fun mix of genres that I'd recommend it to basically anyone.

First and foremost I'd like to thank Hodder & Stoughton and the author for this ARC and audiobook. I had both the book and audio versions and just loved both. I really enjoyed the performances of the narrators. Katie Leung in particular was great at playing the different characters and changing her tone so you knew just who was speaking without question.

The story itself was beautiful. I was hooked in by the description and I wasn't disappointed. I find with books like these its best to go in without much knowledge but what I will say is if you enjoy time travel, historical and sci fi -esque stories with some romance thrown in for good measure you will love this.

I loved Graham Gores character and the fact that he was a real person in history was so clever. I have thought about him since finishing reading. There is some information in the book about him near the end with a photo of him and it was lovely putting a face to a character. it endeared me more to him. I highly recommend this book and the audio version in particular is fantastic. Such a clever use of historical figures and story telling. I will be checking out this authors work in future for sure.

Thank you Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest unedited review.

The "Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley is "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."

The plot centres around a biracial British-Cambodian translator who is employed by the Ministry of Time, becoming one of 4 other officers responsible for facilitating the integration of historical figures into the modern day world. Specifically, she is assigned to manage Commander Graham Gore, who was part of the failed Franklin expedition to the Arctic in 1847.

The story follows a genre-bending tale that seamlessly merges elements of romantic comedy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction. Central to the plot is a slow-burning romance that addresses and explores topics such as colonialism, slavery, inherited trauma, and racial identity within the narrative.

With the amalgamation of the two worlds, the historical figures from the past acclimatising to present day, there were so many moments where I would burst out into laughter at their bemusement, curiosity an often shock at just how much the world had changed from how they once knew it.

As the story progresses it does take on a more introspective tone and reflects poignantly on life and society.

The use of characters to bring sensitive issues to the fore was well handled and not preachy/crude in any way. The characters all felt relateable, their motivations and apprehensions were understandable and I love how they were fleshed out in the book - Margaret and Arthur, despite supporting characters made up some of my favourite moments in the book.

The aspects I struggled with was the background/history. Although in this book, it is basic education and readers can read up on it, from a purely subjective POV, where I did not have previous knowledge of the event/an understanding of the consequences, it felt like some concepts of the book went over my head and would feel jarring. The dual timeline with Gore during the Expedition made for great and valuable insight into the experienc of the character but again, sometimes disrupted the flow of the book for me.

Overall, this was such a delightful read and at no point did I want to put it down. "The Ministry of Time" does not disappoint and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys time-travel, romantic comedy, with a underlying tone of substance and reflection. It definitely made for a hilarious and yet thought-provoking read. I applaud Bradley on a fantastic debut!

Thank you to the author, publishers Sceptre and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.

In an alternative version of our world a time travel door allows people who were recorded as dying to be plucked from history and brought into the present day. Each of these travellers is supported by a ‘bridge’ who helps to settle them into the 21st century and also monitors them for a secretive government department.

An ambitious debut novel that takes complex social commentary, science fiction and a dose of humour and love to create something uniquely wonderful.

The main character carries a lot of the book, and does it so well that I didn’t realise until quite late on that we are never given a name for her. It’s first person perspective so it’s not difficult to manage, but is unusual. What is noticeable is that even in first person narrative the supporting characters are well developed. Travellers Arthur and Maggie are particular favourites.

The story deals really well with not only the transitions for the travellers, but how their own pasts impact on their experience in the future. From Maggie who embraces feminism and film, to Arthur who finds a time where he can be open about his sexuality but where gender norms still restrain him.

I also really enjoyed the bureaucracy of the whole process. That this amazing world-changing technology is drained of its wonder by the filing of reports and the rules and approval processes for every decision. That the travellers are able to find any measure of joy against this backdrop makes that joy and pleasure even brighter.

A wonderful book.

Kaliane has produced a good debut novel about time travel that is a little bit different from most of the time travelling books I have read recently. In ‘The Ministry of Time’ the protagonist doesn’t time travel herself but acts as a ‘bridge’, handler if you like, for a sea commander who has been brought forward from 1847. Together with a group of other handlers and characters rescued from the past the reader is taken through the attempts to assimilate the time travellers into the modern world. Why is the Ministry doing this and who is the mysterious brigadier?
A great debut novel.

Packed with mind-bending plot, charming and infuriating (and very repressed) Victorian men rescued from time, a whip-smart complex narrator, lesbians from the 1600s, spies, conspiracy theories, time-travel romance and a twist that I did NOT see coming, The Ministry of Time was a joyous and occasionally hard-hitting story of love, second-chances, identity, the power of forgiveness and also an astute commentary on the British nation.

I loved every moment!

I thought that the characters jumped off the page, and were wonderfully complex - they really kept me grounded in what otherwise would have been a pretty intricate plot. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t even see the main twist near the end of book, and that really tickled me. It’s nice to read a narrative focused on intrigue but that doesn’t rely on simply bamboozling readers in order to surprise them.

I was equally surprised at how often I was murmuring in agreement, or at how well executed a concept or feeling was thanks to Bradley’s deliciously descriptive but accessible writing style. It had the emotiveness and tangibility of good poetry, but without any of the vagueness, and made for fast reading despite the plot heavy structure.

I highly, highly recommend this as a great and thought provoking read!

4.25*

I was so intrigued when I saw the concept of this debut novel from Kaliane Bradley - A time-travel romance, speculative spy thriller and workplace comedy all rolled into one and it didn't disappoint.
This is an imaginative and innovative debut with wonderfully vibrant and vivid writing that brings the characters to life and for the most part manages to seamlessly weave the disparate genre strands together.

I'd read a little on the lost Franklin Expedition in 2023 and was glad to have that prior knowledge as it helped give me much more empathy and brought more of a connection to Gore and the situation he found himself in. The fish-out-of-water setting for the characters as a whole brought a lot of pathos to the story and also a great deal of humour and I enjoyed these sections of the narrative immensely. I felt immediate connections to Margaret and Arthur and their joy at discovering the new world and also the sadness and dissonance felt at being out of time but also with their own backgrounds completely in time in the present. I also appreciated the discussions around the ethics of the situation mixed in with commentary about the bureaucracy of the civil service and it's own lack of humanity and understanding when handling these people that they 'saved' from their own time.

The comedy in these early sections of the book does give way to focus more on the dystopian spy thriller aspects of the story in the final third. There are many complex and important threads that are touched upon (environmental disasters, migration, the refugee experience to name a few) and at times some of the analogies felt a little heavy handed. The romance also took me out of the story a little. I loved the slow burn build up and so I didn't need the in-bedroom scenes but, with the ending, I understood the importance of them.

These elements are quibbles and didn't stop me from loving the reading experience. This is a startlingly fun, complex, witty, and sad story. It's speculative and yet also so very human and I'm so glad that I've been afforded the chance to read it, absorb it and continue to think about it after finishing it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton | Sceptre for a digital review copy of "The Ministry of Time" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

I really enjoyed this book! It's not often I feel like I'm experiencing something new. I'm kind of a sucker for a predictable book, one where I see everything coming and I can soak up the comfort that comes from this.

This book was not predictable. The discussion of time travel, the queer representation thought time, and the author showcasing people who are often forgotten and their stories just lost to time was so captivating.

It was fascinating and witty all while show casing human relationships and how they can thrive even when people have what appears to be startlingly little in common.

I would recommended this book to anyone, and not just so I get to talk about it with more people.

This was a really fun book. The main character is an absolute mess trying to negotiate and manage time travel, the importance of history, ethnicity and identity politics... as well as Graham Gore. This is a story that has a slow burn romance but it is also a complicated tale. How does someone who manages another and has secrets over them and about them manage a relationship? How does the person from the Victorian era manage modern romance and dating?

I especially love some of the side characters in this such as Margaret and Arthur, as well as Graham of course. I did find that a lot of the "bridges" early in the story were trickly to keep hold of and kept mixing up the characters, but this did not take away from my overall enjoyment of thr book. It might have been handy to have a diagram at the start of the books that showed the bridges and their person from the past, as well as who each of the "years" were. Especially as some characters get referred to later numerically such as "46" later on which did get confusing.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder for the ARC!

I loved this book – I crashed through it in no time at all because I couldn’t stop reading it once I started.

Briefly, the British government have some technology that allows them to extract people from their own time, and bring them forward to the current day, the date of which is left vague. To help them acclimatise, these ‘expats’ have a ‘bridge’, or case-worker. ‘The Ministry of time’ focusses on Commander Graham Gore, formerly of the Royal Navy, and his bridge.

With a setting like this, of course there’s romance, but there are a lot of other layers in the book: colonialism, the perception of history, the use of language and crucially, what does happen to a person when they are transplanted from their natural environment. For me though, it was the relationships between the characters that made the book sing. Graham Gore, formerly of the Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage, is funny, thoughtful and extremely sexy. His bridge is an enigma, and I still can’t make up my mind about her. I do know that I am going to reread the book very soon.

Whilst I was reading, I kept thinking of Audrey Niffenegger’s ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’. ‘The Ministry of Time’ isn’t like that book at all, but for me it had the same emotional weight. If you like a book that isn’t quite SF, isn’t quite romance, and will make you think about contemporary issues as well as laugh out loud, this is for you.

I finished this fairly quickly so it was definitely very entertaining. I would classify this book as more of a 'slice of life' type of story with some light sci-fi, historical fiction, romance, and spy plot lines sprinkled in. There is a lot going on but it is more slow paced than expected. I was pleasantly surprised by this since it allowed for more character insight. In fact, the author could have removed some of the sub-genres and I wouldn't have minded (would've maybe even preferred it) since the character study was a bulk of the story anyway. Throughout the story, the author weaved in commentary on refugees, immigration, race, micro-aggressions, biracial identity, family trauma, colonialism, post colonialism, climate change, homophobia, and more. I thought all of this was extremely interesting but, again, I do wonder if maybe the story was trying to be too many things at once. While I felt frustrated by the (unnamed) main character's lack of action and agency as the story progressed, I understand what the author was trying to say about how oppressive systems & trauma shape a person, about the model minority myth, and about how seemingly small decisions can make giant ripples through the timeline.
All in all, I would definitely be interested in future books by this author.

The premise of "the Ministry of Time' is great, and there were so many characters in this book I loved. The main trio from the past were so compelling. Graham is genuinely so charming and funny, Maggie is sweet and fun and her excitement towards the future really endeared me to her, and then there's Arthur with his quiet devotion which makes him such a joy to read about and root for.

I found the pacing of the book to be difficult, and the retrospective nature of the tone made it difficult for me to feel excited and present in the narrative -- I was experiencing my own dissociation between 'hereness' and 'thereness' (borrowing some of the book’s time travel terminology here) while reading. When reading a book about time travel you're expecting some kind of flippy twist, some moment when you realize the thing you've been looking forward to has been behind you all along, but I found when that twist came there didn't seem to be any real narrative investment in it - the big stakes were immediately and easily side-stepped. I also never understood any of the real goals for the Ministry, and not in a way which pointed towards the Ministry having an unknowable nature, but just plainly I had a tough time believing in the Ministry because its actions seemed to be contradictory and unfocused.

I thought the author had a genuine gift for writing these historical characters, in the sense that I believed they were from their respective times completely and I loved the way language was used. There were a few too many moments of disconnect for me to feel really grabbed by the story — moments when a new character was introduced just for the sake of it but not really fleshed out. But that’s not to say that was always the case, some of the situations the characters got put into were genuinely very cinematic and wonderfully uncanny, but it wasn’t enough to make up for where it lacked. I also didn't appreciate how much of the main character's identity was dependent on her standing with Graham; I really needed more of a sense of her own growth and development rather than just seeing how well Graham was doing and then associating her own success through his. The main character's dependency on him for identity affected my ability to feel excited about their romance.

This was a book I was incredibly excited about, and I was so happy to receive this advanced copy -- while there were some great elements I found it fell short for me and left me feeling a bit disconnected and disheartened. I do hope it finds a happy and dedicated audience as it's clear in the writing how much care and research was put into the book -- I thought including the photo of the real Graham Gore to be a really lovely touch.

The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley took me by surprise with its blend of humor and thought-provoking themes.

The narrative centers on a biracial British-Cambodian translator employed by the Ministry of Time, tasked with facilitating the integration of historical figures into the present. Specifically, she is assigned to assist Commander Graham Gore, who was part of the failed Franklin expedition to the Arctic in 1847.

What unfolds is a genre-bending tale that seamlessly merges elements of romantic comedy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction. At its core, it's a slow-burning romance that explores topics such as colonialism, slavery, inherited trauma, and racial identity.

The initial part of the story is a riot of laughter, as we witness the antics of historical figures adjusting to the modern world. Their curiosity and commentary were hilarious, I found myself chuckling out loud more than once. However, as the story progresses, it takes on a more introspective tone, going into deeper, more poignant reflections on life and society.

The characters are well-developed, with understandable motivations and depth. However, I did find myself struggling to navigate some of the past segments. While they offered valuable insights into the character, they occasionally disrupted the flow of the main narrative for me.

Overall, though, I wholeheartedly recommend "The Ministry of Time" to anyone who enjoys romantic comedy with substance and reflection. It's a delightful blend of humor and depth that's sure to entertain and provoke thought.

What an incredible -and unique - debut novel this is. Genuinely unlike anything I have read before. While at times the plot comes over as being little too quirky and contrived, Bradley always manages to pull you back in by writing a sentence which punches the breath right out of you. I loved the time travellers and like, everyone else who reads this, fell a little in love with the dashing, chain-smoking, curly haired charmer that is Graham Gore. No spoilers, but the ending will have you weeping into your pillow for a good 24 hours or so.

The Ministry of Time is outrageously sexy, outrageously readable and outrageously good fun. It is going to be absolutely huge and deservedly so.

I was excited for this book when I read the blurb as I’ve never heard anything like. I think the premise is an amazing idea and I will keep an eye out for Kalianes future works.

However, I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to. I thought it was just okay. The writing style wasn’t to my taste and I found myself getting bored quite easily.