I absolutely love time travel books, movies, stories and ideas, so I was looking forward to reading this book!
The book, taking place in the not so distant future, started a bit slow, as the main character described how the characters from the past were brought into the future and assimilated by paring each with a "bridge" to live with (an employee from the Ministry) for a year, to monitor their adjustment and progress. The narrator is assigned Graham Gore, an officer from a failed arctic expedition from 1847. Through the monitoring and assessing, we get to know Gore. along with a few other travelers from different time periods as they bond over the disorientation, loneliness and culture clashes they experience. I absolutely loved the unique descriptions and writing style that was poetic but to the point. The Commander's friends Maggie and Arthur were great examples of characters who found that our current time might have been a better place for them to have been born rather than the time they originated. I do wish there had been a bit more description of their lives previously, so we could better watch their evolution and better get to know their characters, as they brought humor and warmth to the story. I also wished for a bit more from the narrator's history, including that of her family, as there is mention of her family's traumatic past, but it is more mentioned in passing rather than being descriptive or truly in depth. I also wished for a bit more description of what it was like in the future world. More depth in general, I think would have brought this book to a 5 star for me. I am so happy to hear that the BBC will be brining this to the screen, as I think this book will adapt beautifully and may even be enhanced by adding more visuals and depth to the story. This book touches on many timely topics of climate change, imperialism, power, control, LGBTQ issues, and family/love/belonging. I absolutely LOVED the twist (I didn't see it coming and wish there had been a bit more interaction after the reveal!) and absolutely loved that at the end, there was hope for a better future for humanity , even one that included love and family, for the narrator.

A civil servant discovers that all is not as it may seem in a pioneer government program that involves time travel and helping historical figures assimilate to the 21st century. As the woman begins to make inquiries, she discovers a larger plot at play. Debut Author Kaliane Bradley tackles several weighty topics and handles all of them with aplomb in her first book The Ministry of Time.

In the near future, an unnamed British citizen is in the final round of her interviews for a new position in civil service. She’s risen as high as she can in the languages department of the Ministry of Defense as a translator and needs a new paycheck. When the opportunity comes to apply, she jumps at it.

Much to her surprise, she makes the cut to become what is informally known as a “bridge” for a brand new program in the Ministry of Expatriation: the British government has solved the problem of time travel and has retrieved five “expats” from various centuries in the past to study the effects of their new tech. Each of the expats will be paired with a bridge for a year. The expat and bridge will live together, and the bridge will act as the expat’s guide to the 21st century.

The protagonist bridge is assigned to Commander Graham Gore, a naval officer who was on an expedition in 1847 to find the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Gore is retrieved moments before he dies on the expedition and experiences an understandable shock at being in London in a completely different century. Despite his discomfort, he makes peace with this sudden turn of events and agrees to move into the government-issued home with the bridge.

For the next year, the bridge helps Gore settle into his new century. The living arrangements prove to be difficult for Gore at first who lived in an age of utmost propriety between men and women. With so many new discoveries to be made every day thanks to the bridge, though, he makes sincere attempts at assimilating into this new world. The bridge performs her assigned tasks, recording Gore’s reactions and basic vital signs every day and filing her paperwork like clockwork along with the other bridges.

Soon, however, the bridge makes a startling discovery. She and the other bridges have been collecting reams of data, yet none of it is being taken seriously. When one of the other expats begins experiencing a strange sensation that all five can only describe as “thereness,” the bridge begins to wonder whether she and the other bridges really do know what’s going on. The science and technology of time travel is wondrous enough, as is the retrieval of people from the past. But where will all this lead eventually? And why does it seem like the Ministry of Expatriation has hidden motives?

Author Kaliane Bradley juggles a variety of serious topics and for the most part does them justice. She doesn’t hesitate to channel her protagonist’s dry wit to comment on British colonialism, racism, and sexism, making keen-eyed observations and then leaving them with the reader before moving on to the next topic. With the premise of time travel as the backdrop, Bradley’s deep research into Gore’s original expedition shines and makes the novel a richer experience.

While the romance between the bridge and Gore may seem inevitable, its unfolding will still surprise many readers. Like the best love stories of the 19th century, Bradley takes her time in bringing her two characters together. Before they do become a couple, she lets readers take a jaunt through London and modern conveniences with a new view of everything.

Bradley doesn’t try to belabor—or insult—the book with the science and physics behind time travel. Instead, the protagonist bridge reassures readers that they can trust her to tell them the most important part of the story. Clearly, solving one of the biggest mysteries of science isn’t it, which will delight fans of science fiction who want more than the “science” of the genre.

While the revelation of why the protagonist doesn't get a name comes a little too late, the increasing intimacy of the storytelling may surprise readers and get them guessing as to the real recipient of the story. The ending stays true to the genre and to the story world Bradley has created.

Thank you to Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity read this eARC!

I saw this book as an early release Book of the Month selection and found the synopsis to be very intriguing, but did not ultimately choose it for this month. So when I was on NetGalley and happened upon the eARC I quickly requested it. The first 50% of the book was utterly absorbing as I oriented myself to the characters, to the premise, to what goals were and even began to get pulled into the mystery of it all. Graham Gore is hilarious, swarthy, handsome and swoony while the bridge is funny, a bit vulnerable and oddly relatable. I was all in and gobbled up the first half of the book in an afternoon. Unfortunately, I found the second half of the book to be where the wheels fell off plot wise. The plot felt simultaneously like it moved tediously through daily life while also feeling like far too much was swirling around. It made me lose interest and ultimately felt like it lost so much of the whimsy and romance that the first portion held. I believe that even in portions committed to action it could have held onto that. A few character deaths were also included that I felt unnecessary and ultimately a promising first half of a novel was a let down in the end. I applaud the ingenuity and creativeness of the plot and look forward to seeing what Bradley comes up with in the future as her writing continues.

Most time travel stories are about the wld adventures of a person or people visiting the past or future. There is the problem of causing changes to our own time if you let these time travel adventurers do just anything. Suppose instead, you could only bring people from the past to the present. Especially if those you moved were on the verge of dying anyway, this "perhaps" eliminates the problem of causing paradoxes. And as long as the story is bringing the characters to us, how about doing the book in the style of literature from the time of one of the involuntary time travelers. So a victorian novel with its huge span of description and background and character development for the first half of the book telling the story of twenty-first century folks trying to cope with people from. say the World War I era to oh, sixteen hundred something or other. When we finally do get to the action in the plot of the story, it turns out that even our carefully chosen people from the past that can't have any affect on the present, do have an effect, on all of spacetime, just by being in in a different time than they started from.

There's a lot to enjoy about The Ministry of Time; what stood out most to me was how seamlessly the fusion of genres worked in this unique story. Part sci-fi, part romance, part spy thriller – the story is consistently intriguing throughout, but has a lot of fun along the way. The quirky cast of inter-century characters reminded me of the found family in BBC's 'Ghosts', and the caustic wit of both the author and main character were in league with Sloane Crosley's sharp style of humor. I found it very easy to read, but with a satisfying and intelligent prose style to rival the most compelling and popular litfics.

I would certainly count The Ministry of Time among the more fresh and distinct books of 2024; I look forward to seeing how it's received at large after pub day!

I liked this, but it didn't really go anywhere. The romance was fine. The characters were mostly interesting. Unfortunately I just couldn't figure out why I was supposed to care about what was happening. Why time travel? Why are people on different sides? What exactly is happening? Didn't care enough to try to figure it out.

Gosh, I adored this fresh take on time travel! The premise is so fun: what happens if you grab a bunch of would-be-dead people from Olden Days™ and inject them into modern society? Give 'em a guide, teach them the ways of the world, what could go wrong? Obviously, hijinks will ensue, and the possibilities are endless! Here are some of the reasons this was such a hit for me:

►I do love me a historical rabbit hole! Legit, our main character finds her own self in a rabbit hole of sorts, wanting to know all the things about Commander Graham Gore when she is tasked to be his handler. Fun fact, this is an absolutely real man, who went missing on an Arctic expedition in the mid-1800s. The author herself basically aquiences that this is a fan fiction of sorts, and I am here for it. Honestly, Graham gets a way better story here than "freezing and cannibalism" so I feel like he'd approve. Guess I'm going to have to watch The Terror now, eh?

►Just decided that time travel banter is my new favorite thing. I loved every bit of the relationships. Obviously between MC and Gore, but really just all the characters! They were all so wonderfully well developed, and then throw in different time periods and different personalities and yeah, it was an absolute riot!

►There is such a great mix of fun moments and serious/emotional moments. Look, I know it sounds kind of lighthearted, and at times it was, but there are also a lot of other emotions coming at you. I cried, I laughed, I swooned, I gasped in shock... this book has it all, friends.

►Obviously the whole premise paves the way for a lot of important discussion about racism, sexism, homophobia, misogyny, etc. I mean, in the eras that the travelers are from (basically from the 1600s-early 1900s), folks are not exactly pillars of tolerance. (If we're being honest, people still aren't, but it is better, anyway.) Coming from various points in history, all the characters had a lot of preconceived ideas of the world and those in it. Some were more open minded than others, but it was still a huge culture shock, obviously. Plus, the MC is a WOC, and several of her coworkers come from marginalized backgrounds, so there is just a crapton of important commentary and conversations.

►It is just plain entertaining as hell. I just wanted to keep reading and never put it down, while simultaneously not ever wanting it to end. That's it, that is all you really need to know. Apparently the rights have been bought and seems to be moving along, and you need to read and watch this!

Bottom Line: Never knew how much I needed old timey Arctic explorer fanfic in my life.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

The Ministry of Time follows a civil servant in a near future who must support the transition of a man plucked out of 1847 as he acclimates to modern society.

I love a good time travel book, and I love a good quirky book, and this book had both in spades. Beyond that, it has humor and wit, a solid romance, some mystery, and a rich emotional foundation. I think it might be so weird or all over the place that some folks will struggle, but I have to say, weird and scattered is my jam. This reminded me of everything I love about sci-fi and time travel stories, and I adored that it wasn't relentlessly bogged down by gritty darkness that so often finds its way into these kinds of stories.

In all, there's so much to love here, and I'd definitely recommend this read to anyone looking for a whirlwind read.

The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley, is a great time travel-ly romance. It is the perfect fun enthralling read.

I was happy reading this book and I had a great time. I was texting my friends about the swooning tension occurring. I didn’t know where the novel was going but I was happily along for the ride.

Here’s the plot in a nutshell: Time travel exists, a secret government agency is testing it out on historical expats. The expats have handlers who live with them, help keep tabs on them, and help them adjust to modern life. There’s danger, there’s humor. It’s not too heavy on the romance or the science. So if you want one but not the other don’t let the genres dissuade you.

The direct to reader asides are not my fav. That’s more personal preference to me than a dig against the novel. I also don’t love blatant foreshadowing. It dropped too many comments about the fate of the characters. But overall I really enjoyed it and I think readers are really going to like it. “1847”/Commander Graham Gore is going to have many fans.

Government organizations with secret departments is a specific niche I rather enjoy. If you’re looking for move books along this line try The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., by Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland, or The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley.

If you’d like more time travel romance try A Quantum Love Story, by Mike Chen, or An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim.

Here are some quotes from Kaliane Bradley:
“I’d fixated on Graham because ever since seeing his daguerreotype, I’d fallen a little in love with him, and I wanted my readers to be a little in love with him, too.”

“Writing this novel was a sometimes quite exposing journey into thinking about mixed-race identity, inherited trauma, and the ways the personal can be political, or politicized.”

Quotes from the book:
“All likeable people know how to be a flattering mirror.”

“If you ever fall in love you’ll be a person who was in love for the rest of your life.”

“When something changes you constitutionally, you say: ‘the earth moved’. But the earth stays the same. It’s your relationship with the ground that shifts.”

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradly was, by far, one of the most unique books I have read in such a long time. I loved it. It was funny, it was entertaining and it was truly one of the most unique stories I've read. I think this is definitely something that is outside of people's usual reads but I think it will surprise them in the best way. I cannot wait to recommend this to everyone!

Wondering about THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley? Don't wonder: Read it if you like stories that are exceptionally well-written, wonderfully plotted with deft descriptions, dialogue that is witty, clever, and revealing. I fell more than a little in love with 1840s Arctic explorer Graham Gore and his "bridge" . No qualifications or explanations can adequately describe the magic, the art, the deft handling of time travel in a time of bureaucracy and overweening management of time traveling where the past and near-future meet in an unlikely pair of man saved from his own death and woman thrilled to have landed a great-paying civil service job. The repartee, the world Bradley has created are like nothing else I've ever read -- an absolute delight from the first lines. I especially enjoyed the management of the impossible, the fissures and complications of managing time travelers by a bureaucratic, extremely cautious team and the inevitable complications and twists regarding messing around with time. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

I am so glad I decided to read something outside of my comfort zone—because this was fabulous. Was it a bit slow in parts? Sure, but there is a definite pay-off at the end that made it all worth it. It feels a bit like Outlander (though nowhere near as sexy) with a bit of what I think Doctor Who would be (I haven’t seen more than one episode, so this could be a terrible comparison). One thing I will note is that we never find out the main character’s name. If that’s going to bother you, proceed with caution (but please don’t let it stop you!).

What didn’t work for me

Chapter lengths: This book only has 10 chapters, and though there are lots of places to stop, I did find it a little bit frustrating as a reader that the sections were overly long. That’s why it took me a long time to get into it, I think. (See next point.)

Slow start: Again, just grasping at straws because no book is perfect, but it did take me a long time to get into it. I was expecting the book to be a bit…funnier. Don’t get me wrong, this book has its funny moments. But if I’m looking to nitpick about this story, I would have loved for there to be a bit more humourous about the expats living in the modern day—especially with the roommate dynamics. Based on the synopsis, I was just expecting a slightly different tone than what we got, but it wasn’t a bad thing. That being said, about halfway through, I was completely hooked.

What I liked

The history: I love that Graham Gore was a real person. Though there are some fictionalized bits, there are lots of parts of this story that are rooted in the experiences we know he (and his team) had exploring the Arctic. And his other companions like Arthur and Maggie, though not real people, were rooted in history—you knew who they were and could imagine them perfectly. It made this farfetched story seem more plausible.

The writing: Bradley has a way with words that I haven’t seen in a long time. There are phrases and moments throughout the whole book that are just so tender and thoughtful and really make you feel something. She’s not a flowery writer or one that hits you in the head with details, but the way she strings the words together is almost like magic. It’s quite beautiful.

The ending: I’m definitely not giving anything away, but I did not predict where the story went. It took me on a journey, and I loved every second of it.

5 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an advanced book copy in exchange for my honest review.

It’s very weird to think a book was well written, funny, and deftly touches on some sensitive themes, and yet not like it. Y’all, this book just wasn’t for me and I have no idea why. I loved the idea of the plot, the characters were fun, and there was a bit of mystery - but I just could not connect to the point where I actively thought about wanting to read it. I kept picking up other books, or binge-watching YouTube, or choosing to go to bed at 8pm. I didn’t like the time jumps, or flashbacks, or whatever we want to call them. Maybe I’m just not a time-travel girlie? I am sure plenty of people are going to love this book, I am just not one of them. (thanks to @‌netgalley for the ARC to review!)

Thank you Netgalley and Avid Reader Press for access to this arc.

This blurb sounded awesome. Time travel, spy stuff, and romance. Heck yeah. Unfortunately I discovered that I am one of the readers who does not click with this book. Either I didn't know or didn't remember that Graham Gore was a real person. Yes, I'd heard of the Franklin Expedition and its horrible end but Gore's name didn't ring any bells. After reading the author's introduction and seeing that she has more than a slight crush on this (dead) man, I felt ... weird about it. Then the book starts and I was reminded of why I don't read books in which Jane Austen or Queen Elizabeth (either I or II) or some other real life person solves mysteries. Making a real person a main character and completely changing them creeps me out and feels slightly insulting to that person. The further I got into the book, the more uneasy I felt about the Gore character. 

The fact that (at the point I stopped) the whole details of the time travel was hand waved away was okay. I'd actually rather that than a tortured explanation that also makes no sense. But then we find out that these people were literally snatched away as if they were wild animals by use of steel mesh nets, that they fought this and were subdued, then hauled off whether or not they wanted to go hit me badly. Fuck that. 

The humor, which I was looking forward to, felt more stiff and awkward than funny. I can see by the other reviews that I'm an outlier but I'm calling it quits on this. DNF

This is such a weird book that I cannot stop thinking about and will definitely be up there as a favorite book of the year!

It is a mix of romance, science fiction, spy novel, time travel, and even some comedy. I have had so many people ask me what kind of book I am always looking for and this is it. This is my perfect read and one I really can’t recommend enough.

I don’t know if you watch the tv show Severance but if you haven’t you really should. There are not many similarities in plot between the show and this book but the vibe is the same and I was picturing so many of the characters from the tv show as the characters of this book. If I were you I would read this and then binge the show and you will definitely see what I am saying.

I really don't want to give anything away but picture expats from the past living with bridges, people that assist the expats with acclimation, one of them being from the Victorian era. The expats are hilarious, the bridges thought provoking, and the Ministry that they are all a part of…. Intriguing.

You are going to want to get your hands on this one and please DM so we can talk about it once you are done!

Thank you so much to @avidreaderpress for the early copy You got my hands on a favorite of the year!

Go buy this today!

When I finished this ARC I thought instantly, "I'd like to own this." Which is quite literally the highest praise I can give a book as I don't often purchase hard copies. I go into every book with as little knowledge as possible about its contents so when it comes to The Ministry of Time I have to recommend you do the same. This is a story about time travel, its not a romance but it is bound in love.

Time travel as governed by the British bureaucracy. What a “novel“ idea!

The story is as well executed as the idea. In an attempt to test a brand new found technology, the BRITs decide to take a “minimal“ harm approach and grab, with a big net of course, people from the past who are about to die. The logic being their absence can do no harm to history as they were just about dead anyway.

The time immigrants are paired with a civil servant, known as a bridge, whose job is to spend a year helping them acclimate to Britain in the 21st-century. The characters, both bridge and immigrant, are fully formed thanks to the excellent writing. Their settings and experiences come to life.

There is bureaucratic infighting. The ministry of defense thought the time ministry should be a part of it; not separate. There is a mole. And, there is an interesting paradox that connects this unique perspective on time travel to the greater world of time travel literature.

This is an entertaining read. I really enjoyed it and recommend it heartily.

I really appreciate that this story came out of the author’s completely random fascination with Polar expeditions, one specific expedition and one specific member of the expedition in particular. (As someone who has had random obsessions with the Titanic, the 1899 newsboy strike, and obscure Scandinavian royalty, I relate.) Graham Gore was a real person! Go look at his picture on Wikipedia like Kaliane Bradley tells us to, both in the preface and the afterword! I will say it is just a teensy tiny bit odd that this is very obviously self-insert fanfiction (we never learn the first-person narrator’s name!) about a real person, but not odd enough that I didn’t enjoy it (My dear friend who listened to me talk about how weird fanfiction about real people was for years is laughing at me, by the way).

This book covers a lot of ground in not a lot of pages. There’s time travel, romance, colonialism, climate change, government bureaucracy, diaspora, espionage, and more. The idea of time travelers being classified by the government as “refugees'' leads to some interesting commentary on asylum seekers and immigrants more generally. For the hardcore science fiction readers, this may not be for you. It glosses over the actual mechanics of time travel and doesn’t get too much into semantics, but it works because our main character is simply one cog in a bureaucratic machine (at least at first) and doesn’t need to know these things.

This book was also my exact brand of humor with deadpan descriptions of absolutely ridiculous situations (YOU try to explain an equal opportunity employer to a British naval officer from 1847). My Kindle is awash with highlighted passages.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

“Saving” immigrants by rescuing them right before they die…but in the past then tossing them into current day? Sure, The Ministry of Time Travel seems like a legit government operation!

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley has a very interesting premise but was far from what I expected, and that’s a good thing. The reader and even the characters themselves are mostly left in the dark. However that makes for a mysterious book that keeps you reading.

I enjoyed the book as a whole but it did take a few long chapters to really grab my attention. At first I was bored with the history lessons and quite confused as to what was happening and why, until I learned that the origins of this story began as fan fiction for an Arctic British Navy expedition gone horribly wrong. Then the story itself and the satire started to make sense.

The Ministry of Time is about an expat (really meaning immigrant) program that picks people from different eras of time and transports them to present day, shortly before they die in their own timeline . Each expat is given a Bridge; a trained Ministry employee to be their friend and help them assimilate into modern times aka “train them” Both bridge and expat are subject to many odd tests by The Wellness Department to determine if they could mentally and physically survive time travel without their brains melting into glue. The actual details of time travel is not explained.

It’s written in first person by an unnamed female half Cambodian refugee main character who is the Bridge to Commander Gore. I personally had a hard time caring much about her until well into the book when her and Gore become “friends.” She doesn’t talk about herself a lot which lends to my opinion of her being socially awkward, sarcastic yet reserved, often embarrassed, and just lonely in general. I wanted to know her more, OR at least her name, even a nickname would suffice. How does this cast of characters never say her name?

Every other character is unique, intriguing, sometimes insane and grabbed my attention within a few pages of their introduction. Gore is a well-written likable main character with depth and a witty sense of humor, especially when it comes to Sesame Street. He is calm and collected; not much seems to faze him. He assimilates easier than the others which is hard to believe considering his circumstances of being ripped out of the 1800’s and dumped into present time. He is a natural storyteller which helped me learn about him and genuinely care about his life; past and present. Who knew he would be so relatable and hunt all the backyard squirrels?

I do love the story and plot overall. It’s thrilling, funny, and exciting with more than a dash of romance and surprise wrapped up in a bundle of suspense. Social commentary on racism, sexism, immoral experiments, immigration, British colonialism, and shady government practices weave in and out dressed in satire. I won’t lie I had to google a few British things simply because I didn’t know what they were, or the history behind them.

I found myself asking too many questions, even more than the expats. Which is why I kept reading; I wanted to know the answers! It’s a mystery! What will happen next? How do doors work? Open sesame? Sesame Street? What exactly IS a toilet and WHY? Am I an expat? I sure am acting like one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Ministry of Time is equal parts thought-provoking and hilarious. I really enjoyed the characterization of the expats, especially Graham Core. This story could have so easily just been a fun romance novel with time travel aspects sewn in, but it did such a good job of navigating past hardships and present-day conflicts and turning them into a really memorable, enjoyable story that stays with you well after the last page.