Genre-bending, fiery, and darkly reflective, The Ministry of Time asks pressing questions like "what will we do for love?" and "what does it mean to uphold empire from within its mechanisms when you are also marginalized by it?" and also, crucially, "what if the British government time traveled real life historical figure from the Franklin Expedition Graham Gore to the 21st century?"

I was completely drawn into this book, and boy is there a lot to unpack. Our unnamed narrator is a funny, unreliable, and blunt underqualified civil servant, who is telling us the story of her year as a "bridge," helping (and falling in love with) one of the British government's newly time traveled "expats"—a handful of people brought to the 21st century moments before their deaths—adjust to their new time. She feels painfully real, and very well-realized. Bradley's writing style is captivating and gritty, and created a creeping sense of foreboding that followed me through the novel and didn't leave when I'd put it down. This was a book that had me staying up late to finish it, and left me staring at the ceiling metaphorically chewing on everything I'd just read for a long time afterwards.

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

This was nothing short of spectacular and I'm going to spend the rest of 2024 being completely obsessed with this book. This novel really goes through all the genres - it's a science fiction, a love story, a comedy, and a spy novel. I laughed, I swooned, I cried. I certainly never expected to fall for an 1800s Commander, but I sure as hell did. And now I'm completely and utterly bereft that it's all over. I did not expect anything in this book and that made it all the better. Ultimately, this book is SO much fun (and a little sexy okay?)

It is a truly beautiful thing to stumble into your new favorite novel.

I adored this book. It's fun, thought provoking, and has some of the most breath catching prose I've ever read. I often had to sit and just stare off into space after reading some lines.

A romance disguised as a science-fiction mystery; this novel has everything! It has time travel, secret government agencies, dreamy artic explorers, subterfuge, discussions of colonialism and race, and band of unlikely friends you cannot help but fall deeply in love with. We follow the narrative of our MC describing her assignment as "bridge" to 19th century English naval lieutenant, Graham Gore, who has been rescued--my means of a Time Door-- from the doomed Franklin Expedition through the artic. Our MC is tasked with helping Gore adjust to life in the present day, part of a covert government project. Against her better judgement, our MC falls irrevocably in love with him. But all is not fair in love and time travel, and while our MC and Graham figuring out love in the 21st century, sinister forces are at play to change the course of time.

One of the most exciting debut novels of the year. This novel is a brilliant take on time travel. It is a story that will stick with you. Also, this book is written with wide range of vocabulary. I felt smarter after reading it.

It was very good. The pacing was very good, and I liked the retrospective building sense of tragedy. The last 45 pages were amazing.

This was really fun and clever! I usually find it hard to get into books regarding time travel, but the author made this really intriguing and enjoyable.

Man, this is a hard one to review. I definitely thought I was going into a rom com about a hunk who gets pulled into the future and all the hijinks that would ensue. While there was some of that, this was way more spy thrillery than I expected. Lots of suspense and high stakes action.

I loved the travelers and the little family that they formed through their trauma bond. I liked that there were important issues being discussed. The plot definitely kept me guessing. I think I just wanted a little more from the ending. Overall, this was an interesting read. Not a rom com, more of a character driven spy novel. There were slow bits, but it came together nicely.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting. But this book was MUCH more than all I've expected. While time travel is a component to it, it's a lot more lit fic than sci-fi. While the MC is observing a time traveler, it's fascinating to get to notice how much of the observations are internal reflections. It's also a very interesting look at identity. I have been thinking about it since I finished this one, and I might just re-read it!
I definitely recommend reading this one with someone, just to discuss the details.

Thank you so much to Avid Reader Press for the ARC of this one.

Thank you to Avid Reader Press for the early review copy of The Ministry of Time.

This is one of the quirkiest books I've read recently and I loved it. Honestly, this could be a perfect pick for a book club because there are so many elements to dissect and discuss. Sometimes this reads as a historical narrative about a doomed polar expedition in the mid-1800s, other times it's a fast-paced spy novel, and then there are the parts that read as a love story.

The Ministry of Time is a small government entity tasked with studying the impact of time travel. By wrangling "expats" from different historical periods and bringing them into the present, the ministry can observe the physical and emotional impact that time travel has on the human body. Each time the ministry brings a new "expat" into the present timeline, they are assigned a bridge - someone who is expected to live with and observe the behaviors of the "expat" in their new environment. Our main character is the assigned bridge for Captain Graham Gore - a polar explorer who perished on Sir John Franklin's expedition to find a Northwest Passage. Disoriented and surprised to find himself in a time very unlike his own, we watch while Gore acclimates to a life where modern marvels such as "Spotify" are commonplace in everyday life.
Over the next year, Gore and his bridge forge a connection that will be tested in ways they never could have imagined.

I loved this book - I found the parts about the failed Franklin expedition to be incredibly interesting and loved how Bradley brought this historical character to life in the present. As our main character begins to uncover the true intentions of the ministry the novel shifts into a tightly wound spy thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. Overall, this is one of the most memorable books I've ever read and I can't wait to see what this new author does next.

A striking and entertaining blend of fast-paced and philosophy and time travel, that explores mixed-race identity, inherited trauma, and Britain's imperial legacy.

It's been a long time since I've read something this original and this inventive. I LOVE the way that Kaliane Bradley sees the world - as a writer, her description is so surprising, the details always so sharp, so exciting. Very very stylish stuff.

Okay, onto the book itself. Strange and exciting and weird and imaginitive and funny, and FUN! And also sexy. Yes, I do now have a debilitating crush on Commander Gore. If you want to read this/sell this as predominantly a romance, you absolutely can. Great dialogue, excellent tension... some popular writers of romance fiction could do with taking notes. As a romance lover, the central relationship is - for me - what made the novel really sing.

But there's plenty going on here, and all of it interesting. This is a novel about time-travel, about expatriation, about writing the diaspora. It's about the mundanity of bureacracy, it's about the insidiousness of bureacracy. It's sly, and disarming - but also forthright, and charming. It's giving its readers lots to think on, but it's not afraid to withhold answers and complicate conclusions.

4 stars because I really enjoyed this book, but I'd be hesitant to describe it as 'satisfying' - I think a lot of readers will find the ending too abrupt, and perhaps a little confusing.

I’m apprehensive about time travel, but when it’s done right, wow is it so much fun. This novel sits somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between Connie Willis’ Oxford Time Travel Historians and Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s This is How You Lose the Time War. I absolute sped through it once I got started, compulsively propelled along by the plot and the characters.

By turns funny, sad, sexy, thrilling, and swooningly romantic, this was an absolute joy to read from start to finish, just completely charming. I can’t wait to recommend it to friends and customers alike.

hmmmm not sure how to put this one into words? it was a bit too weird for my taste, but I was interested enough to finish it out

I found the tone of this book to be very reminiscent of Jodi Taylor's The Chronicles of St. Mary's, which is a big positive in my opinion. I began this book thinking that it would be a mostly fun, light read, and I did in fact find myself smiling a few times throughout, but I also found that the overall themes were darker and more reflective than I expected. While leaning into the more serious questions of time travel, Bradley still manages to create a charmingly amusing dynamic between the main character and Commander Gore. That being said, I would not classify this as strictly romance, as there isn't a clean-cut happily ever after.
Side note, Commander Gore reminded me a lot of William Laurence from Naomi Novik's Temeraire series.
I would definitely recommend this book to readers interested in time travel and the ethics of time travelers, especially if they enjoy Jodi Taylor.

The Ministry of Time is an outstanding romantic thriller. The main female character is a Biracial British Cambodian translator for the British government who has just been promoted to a new job. The British government has obtained a time machine and used it to bring to the future 5 people who were going to die. Their fates were already documented so their removal from the past would not affect history. With her new job as a Bridge, she must help Graham acclimate from the past to the 21st Century. Commander Graham Gore was part of Franklin's Expedition to the Arctic in the mid 1800's.

The story is beautifully written and told and the author does not rush in the telling of the story. As might be expected with a man from Graham's time period, all aspects of everyday life but especially romance have changed. The author honors that difference nicely. I also feel that the author has blended many genres into a lovely cohesive narrative. The story covers many topics including colonization, slavery, inherited trauma, genocide, and more. While there is a underlying time travel element, the book is set in the present day and thus it conveys a commentary on the past. The dialogue is smart and I have nothing I could compare this story to.

Thank you NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the advanced review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and publishers.

The Ministry of Time is a sci-fi thriller, combining time travel, spy capers and much more. What if the government discovered a way to pull people through time? What would happen to those people? What would our world be like to them? Our main character is assigned to shepherd one of these people, Lt. Graham Gore of the lost Franklin expedition. This one was a lot of fun.

The Ministry of Time never made me as excited as similar titles in the genre. It felt as though Kaliane Bradley wanted to write a Matt Haig or V.E. Schwab book but never reached the goal. Her writing is good but never feels elevated above okay.

The Ministry of Time is beautiful, sad, and a bit mind-bending. I adored it.

If you like the idea of a bureaucrat thrust into espionage combined with a time-traveling romance, this is the novel for you. As Stefan SNL would say, it's got everything — a plague victim on dating apps, Sir Franklin's lost expedition, futuristic weapons, and a hot Victorian/modern love affair. Bradley's prose is also gorgeous.

I don't want to say more because I feel like this one is best enjoyed going in knowing little. It is one of my favorite books of the year so far. You should read it. That is all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

This reminded me of a childhood favourite movie, Kate & Leopold, mixed with Men in Black, but make it literary and also make it examine topics like colonialism, race, and trauma.

In the near future, the government has discovered time travel, and a newly created Ministry is gathering "expats" from across history to examine the effects on their bodies and the fabric of time. The Ministry assigns employees to monitor and help acclimate the time travelers, and one employee is assigned to a Victorian arctic explorer named Commander Graham Gore. Comedy, slow-burn romance, and spy thriller shenanigans ensue.

Watching Graham adapt to the modern century (Spotify, Google, weed, platonic and not so platonic cohabitation, among the highlights) was so entertaining. I fell in love with him just as the main character did. I fell for the other expats too, and really enjoyed their found family dynamic. The expats' experiences were moving, funny, and heartbreaking. I enjoyed the spy element less than the comedy and romance, but it was effective in creating an urgency and foreboding in an otherwise tender and introspective novel.

I gotta be honest, I did feel like some of the political rhetoric was too smart for me, and some things went over my head. But this still charmed the crap out of me and I can't stop thinking about it.

Read if you like:
🕰 Time travel
🚢 Charming, repressed Victorian men
🔫 Escaping spies, dismantling corrupt systems, and a little bit of paperwork 📎
👤 Themes of identity, belonging & trauma
✨️ Beautiful writing

The Ministry of Time is an exploration of time travel and how, if at all, it would really work. Weaving together mystery, humor, and slice-of-life moments, it is a thrilling and romantic journey that feels wholly original. With charming and witty prose, Bradley effortlessly traverses genres by combining science fiction, romance, comedy, and espionage into a seamless narrative. This book is perfect for both fiction and genre readers looking for something fun and distinct.