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 machine,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But he adjusts quickly; he is, after all, an explorer by trade. Soon, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a seriously …
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 machine,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But he adjusts quickly; he is, after all, an explorer by trade. Soon, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a seriously uncomfortable housemate dynamic, evolves into something much more. Over the course of an unprecedented year, Gore and the bridge fall haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences they never could have imagined.
Supported by a chaotic and charming cast of characters—including a 17th-century cinephile who can’t get enough of Tinder, a painfully shy World War I captain, and a former spy with an ever-changing series of cosmetic surgery alterations and a belligerent attitude to HR—the bridge will be forced to confront the past that shaped her choices, and the choices that will shape the future.
An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks the universal What happens if you put a disaffected millennial and a Victorian polar explorer in a house together?
I'm usually a contrarian reader about books that show up on a lot of media "best of" lists, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Ministry of Time. The story warns about the consequences of climate change in a very subtle and un-preachy manner. I wasn't wild about the romance aspect - maybe I'm too old, but the sex scenes are more detailed than I'm looking for in fiction. Otherwise, I found this a highly entertaining blend of spy stories and s-f.
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 …
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.
As I write this review, I'm once again finding myself on the goodreads page for this book (no idea why I do this, like I want to check my own taste against that of 'the people'?) and I'm very surprised to find that The ministry of time is an extremely polarising book. One star ('I'm thankful to this book for providing some needed perspective on what a bad book is'), or five star ('the author is a genius'), kind of thing. I would have thought it would be a solid 3-4 star crowd-pleaser. To me, it reads like one of those addictive Netflix series with a quirky plot, fun dialogues, and just enough nods to social issues to make it possible to watch without feeling completely gross afterwards.
The basic plot (very minor spoiler) revolves around a young, British-Cambodian public officer, whose job is to help / monitor a British …
As I write this review, I'm once again finding myself on the goodreads page for this book (no idea why I do this, like I want to check my own taste against that of 'the people'?) and I'm very surprised to find that The ministry of time is an extremely polarising book. One star ('I'm thankful to this book for providing some needed perspective on what a bad book is'), or five star ('the author is a genius'), kind of thing. I would have thought it would be a solid 3-4 star crowd-pleaser. To me, it reads like one of those addictive Netflix series with a quirky plot, fun dialogues, and just enough nods to social issues to make it possible to watch without feeling completely gross afterwards.
The basic plot (very minor spoiler) revolves around a young, British-Cambodian public officer, whose job is to help / monitor a British explorer that has just been kidnapped from the 19th century, and ends up falling in love with him. The story touches upon some 'serious' issues: colonialism and its effects on the present, migration and experiences of outsiderness, individual agency and responsibilities within state apparatuses, climate change. It does so in a way that is both clever and relatively superficial. Intentionally, I think, because the author's main goal is to write a fun book, that blends time-travel novels, some elements of a spy thriller, and others of horny fan-fiction.
