The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley is a sort of historical fiction, sort of romance, sort of climate crisis novel. I use “sort of” in these descriptions, not to show the mix of genres, but more the fact that the author didn’t seem to fully commit to any of them. That said, I did have a whale of a time reading this book, but I think that was because I was reading it at the same time as two of my friends and we got to talk about it together.
This book starts with the premise that the British government has gained access to time travel and they go back in time and bring several people who are about to die in their timeline to the future – undetermined what year, but around 2024/2025. Among these “expats” is Commander Graham Gore, who was a real dude who explored the arctic. The main character is assigned as his “bridge” to the new timeline he finds himself in. She is half Cambodian, which is a super interesting dynamic to read about.
I’ll be so real with y’all, I would have rather read 500 pages of teaching Graham Gore, arctic explorer, how to navigate modern London instead of the weird spy thriller that this turned into half way through.
I felt that the novel became extremely self-insert, which is fine, but I do wonder if the important issues of identity as a half-British person get sidelined in favor of some kind of doom climate crisis plot twist?
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