The Ministry of Time

It's rather 2.5 stars.

I liked parts of the book. In places, however, I felt the book was not thought through to the end. And for me there were too many stylistic breaks in the main character's text passages as well as blocks were things seemed to be missing in her train of thoughts. I also felt that the change in her moods was not well described stylistically, but seemed more like something that was put in to emphasize her character but was not done in a progressively well done way. The course of the plot itself was also not sufficiently logically explained to me in some places, but seemed erratic.

In general, I felt that the written portrayal of the main character and her emotional actions and reactions, which were strongly based on (supposed) logic, and her rationalized, sometimes fashistiod attitude and decisions were well portrayed. However, her room for maneuver or lack of maneuver due to her strong self-centeredness also leaves many questions unanswered about the structure of the ministry and its power and environment. In my opinion, there were discrepancies here in particular between the developments hinted at and the way they were handled (for reasons of course, that the reader learns later on, but still seems a bit off at parts), but even this was not elaborated enough to avoid ending up in speculation.

The comparison between the forlornness of different types of immigrants was niceley done, but also here, the lack of deeper talk of her Dad and his influence on her mother and thus, possible grounding effects of him in comparison to her and her charge, fell short.

All in all, an interesting approach that unfortunately didn't talk enough about the background (e.g. why were there still resources to build the machine, ...) and that has left too much in the way of possible alternatives and plot developments for possible speculation.

It's hard to call this scifi since it's written so well. It is more of a literary achievement.

That said, as I am from the US, much of the UK vernacular was lost on me. But more than that, although I consider myself at least somewhat worldly, the character's motivations and emotions came a bit too quickly and deeply for me to keep up. (I only had one critical literature course in university.) It was quite interesting to experience though.

I might have to reread to see if I can catch more.

This... is a fine time travel book. There are some decent ideas here, and the narrative rightly springs along.

My problem with the book is that I'm guessing Kaliane Bradley isn't in any way interested in the Science Fiction genre, because there's no sense of her realising at any point that most of what's interesting here has been done to death in the genre. This is a 'literary fiction' novel, paired with some form of romance fiction, with a hackneyed and rather dull SF-lite premise.

Even apart from the poorly realised Time Travel elements, the one thing the author seems most proud of is the concept of "hereness and thereness" which she gives to her time travellers - something that Adam Roberts does to far better effect in The Thing Itself.

Just, an interesting enough book, but woefully inadequate in modern SF terms. I can't believe that this made the Hugo Shortlist, frankly.

(If you want a decent modern SFal take on Time Travel, then try Kameron Hurley's The Light Brigade.)

I'm not sure if. this book knows what it wants to be when it grows up, spy fiction, romance, time travel mystery, It's a bit of all of that, and never quite lands any of them for me.

can see how this could be a story that people enjoy. It has this over positioning of times, past and present. But the story is so banal for the longest part of the book, then that characters are a caricature of a Young Adult novel and when things get interesting; sadly they turn into the most stereotypical flat character in a book. The book has undertones of a great story. Unfortunately for me and my taste, they developed the boring parts of it

I found this to be enjoyable, but it jumped around between the genres too much for my liking.

It really irked me that the MC never gets named. It was at least bearable due to the perspective being almost entirely from her point of view, but with how much she interacts with the other characters, it drove me a little bonkers that she was never called by any name.

I'm glad that I read this still, but it's not one that I'm ever going to have an interest in revisiting.

#SFFBookClub May 2025

I really enjoyed The Ministry of Time.

I was frustrated with the protagonist for big chunks of the book for not realizing obvious things. The author repeatedly tried to defend this with "I bet you're thinking 'I would have realized this right away', but" and in a world where I know time travel exists, I absolutely would!

However, the writing is very good, and it kept me engaged. The combination of themes around time travel, colonialism, and refugee life really worked, and I feel like it allowed them to be explored from different angles.

I'm kind of let down by the inconclusiveness of the ending, but on the other hand they avoided most of the cliché time travel tropes, so overall I guess it balances out.

#SFFBookClub

Overall, I love this novel's ideas but the genres it mixes together work against each other rather than being stronger for the combination.

(also please name your protagonist, it's so awkward, thank you)

I found the writing here to be surprisingly funny and engaging. The dialogue between the protagonist and Graham continually made me laugh, and the book is peppered with delightful drive-by analogies like "he looked oddly formal, as if he was the sole person in serif font" or "I lay in my own body like a wretched sandbank".

The strongest part of the book to me (and the part that I found the most engaging) was the relationship and dialogue between the protagonist and Graham. A 19th century sailor is a great foil for modern London life; however, it also does a good job of making both the protagonist and Graham real, fallible characters who each make incorrect assumptions about the other. One other way this relationship also works for me is that it lets the book delve into the parallels of being an expat forced into a new time versus a new place work really well, or of not being be able to go "back".

However, the construction seams of this novel show, and that's where it gets weak. The more "serious" time travel and time war shenanigans feel tacked on, and thematically don't really integrate with the rest of the story (tonally or thematically). As a time travel story, it's not doing anything particularly novel here, and these bits weaken the rest of the novel.

(This was the #SFFBookClub book for May 2025.)

I read the "The ministry of time" by Kaliane Bradley in a few nights, I simply  couldn't put it down. A gripping story of time travel as much as a thoughtful reflection on structural power.  I adored how she elegantly broaches the subjects of colonialism, racism and sexism simply through who her characters are. The structural power relations between them drive the story as much as the romantic angle (which was also very neatly done, btw).

This reminded me somewhat of "The Echo Wife" by Sarah Gailey in that it's science fiction turned inwards rather than outwards, focused on the individual rather than the grand sweep of history. Considering that time travel is a central part of the story, that's an interesting choice, but honestly I think it's a bit inspired, because it's a reflection of the main character's myopia regarding her place in her society and in history. A couple elements weren't inspired: there's a lack of explanations about certain characters and events and there's a twist that's probably obvious to those who pay attention to the signs of such things. Still, thought-provoking overall, and sad and sweet in equal measure.

Some of the humour was good, I was reminded of Mary from the TV show Ghosts. And there was a certain warmth and masculinity about our traveler, I enjoyed hearing his voice in my head in a sort of Churchillian growl.

That said, I didn't connect with the Bridge, and so didn't enjoy the story as much as I was expecting. I'd been looking for a Jodi Taylor or Jenny Colgan and got something a bit different.