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The Ministry of Time  By  cover art

The Ministry of Time

By: Kaliane Bradley
Narrated by: George Weightman, Katie Leung
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Publisher's summary

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

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.

©2024 Kaliane Bradley (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: Romance

What listeners say about The Ministry of Time

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Lots of fun, B-plus light entertainment

I listened while doing sudoku or the easier NYTimes puzzles. Neither alone engages my full attention, but they were a great combination. The characters are interesting and well-drawn enough to be engaging, and the plot is pretty well done. I was sorry to be finished. Thought-provoking in the end. Very satisfying read, if you're someone who doesn't have the energy or patience for actual great literature.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

More than the sum of its parts but…

I want to say upfront that I liked “The Ministry of Time.” It’s inventive, and thought provoking, and original. The deft prose of first-time (!) author Kaliane Bradley is scrumptious and assured. She writes the kind of sentences worth rereading aloud for their beauty. The topics she touches on are important and timely. Her characters (one based on a real historical figure) feel three-dimensional.

But - and this is important - it was nothing like the book I expected. Or, to be more accurate, the book I was told to expect.

It’s not just that the punchy primary-color cover telegraphs that we’re safely in zany or cozy Sci-Fi territory, promising something akin to “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” or “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.” It’s also that so many book reviews describe “The Ministry of Time” as “a rip-roaring romp” (Kirkus), “escapist fiction” (LA Times), “a lot of fun” (Washington Post), and a “time-travel romance cum sci-fi comedy” (The Guardian).

Nope.

Or maybe it’s just that I think the pervasive and unflinching exploration of racism, sexism, micro-aggressions, genocide, terrorism, imperialism, displacement, sexuality, religion, cannibalism, survivor guilt, post -traumatic-stress, and climate crisis don’t make for fun escapism. If you’re easily triggered, consider yourself warned.

Elsewhere, The LA Times did better with “edgy, playful and provocative… likely to be the most thought-provoking romance novel of the summer,” but still misses the mark on the book’s tone. While there are occasional playful and often romantic (or at least sexual) situations, the implication that this book fits neatly into any category, let alone Rom-Com or Sci-Fi, does a disservice to both “The Ministry of Time” and to fans of those genres who may find their tropes in service to something they don’t recognize at all.

If “The Ministry of Time” shares DNA with any genre more than another it’s Dystopian Suspense. Maybe something by China Mieville, like “The City & The City.” It’s a moody, often moving, read. And one worth your while if you know what you’re getting into. Just go in with your eyes and mind open.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Poetic but boring

The story doesn’t ever take off despite wading through many chapters. Advertised as funny and romantic, but actually depressing.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Hard to follow

I wanted to like this book even though it didn’t have the best initial reviews. I just couldn’t get into it though. It was incredibly hard to follow the story and enjoy.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow

This book touched on things that bruise and things that delight and things that make you feel beyond words

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Slow down!

Maybe just hard for a North American, but the narrator speaks too fast and dips her volume frequently. I found success listening 10% slower. Once I figured that out, it was a fun read!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Complex characters

I liked the way characters evolve through the story but it’s a pretty sad story.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Extremely Idiotic and Incompetent Main Character

The most idiotic and incompetent main character I have ever encountered on the page.

I normally don't write reviews, but I truly, from the bottom of my heart, want to save someone else the time of reading a story with what is the most frustratingly stupid protagonist ever. As a woman, I am angry that this female protagonist here is so dumb and in need of saving all the time (which might be fine in other books with a different characters meant to be totally out of their depth, but she is supposed to be in a top secret defense-related job at the Ministry after going through multiple rounds of rigorous interviews and having special training in self-defense. Laughable.) I was rooting for her, too, as there seemed to be some great opportunities to explore inherited trauma, race, imperialism, identity, and more. But all of that was obscured by her incompetence.

WOW the main character here is STUPID. Every time she has a choice to make and the options are a) a good decision or b) bad decision, she chooses on option c) the dumbest decision ever. She picks something so stupid and naive that it blows your mind she has made it this far in life.

This book is billed, in part as a "work place comedy" and I guess that's true if you count how much you laugh at how utterly dumb and incapable this person is at just about everything. She also never sees the obvious things coming. There are multiple times when someone pulls a gun on her (which you, dear reader, will see coming from 10 miles away) and she just says "oh." OH.

Someone called this book the next best thing to Outlander and I would like a word with them. They obviously never read Outlander or didn't understand Claire, Jamie, or their relationship. The MC here couldn't be any further away from Claire Fraser if she tried, but that would require trying to do something. This character is in a completely different universe from the Outlander Heroine. Claire is not a Damsel in Distress.

I really tried to overlook the main character's weaknesses - which also include being unethical, highly incompetent at her job, and even lacking some basic empathy - and kept reading, hoping that there was something redeeming about her I wasn't seeing. Or that she would save the day somehow. NOPE. I could spoil it for you, but it would be a waste of your time.

As for the performance, I am not sure if this was the performer or something that happened in post, but there are sections that are extremely rushed, as if the performer was reading paragraphs upon paragraphs without any punctuation. Like VERY rushed. I had to keep checking the Audible app to make sure I hadn't accidentally upped the speed significantly. Again, that may not have been her fault - maybe pauses were removed in post to have feverish stream of thought quality or she was directed that way? IDK but it is not good.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disjointed

It was hard to follow. I kept thinking I missed a part of the story. Nothing really happened or resolved.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Hard to follow the story line

I did not like this it was hard to follow and understand the point of the story

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