Title: The Ministry of Time

Author: Kaliane Bradley

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2024

Genre: Speculative Fiction

Pages: 352

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; 52 Book Club - Buddy Read

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.

I grabbed this one from Book of the Month and immediately some of the Nerdy Bookish Friends decided to do a buddy read this past week. Perfect timing! I dove in with a summary that I had heard on a book podcast. And I must say that the the first half of the book did not align with the summary I had heard. (And honestly I was glad of that because I wasn’t a fan of the summary.) For most of the book I was very interested in this time travel mystery. Who exactly are some of the more shadowy characters? What is the ultimate goal of the program? We know that the narrator is not currently in touch with the expats, but what exactly happened there? I had so many questions and really enjoyed the slow pace of the mystery. Unfortunately, the last few chapters took down my rating. The reveals were fast and furious without a lot of explanation. Some of my biggest questions were never answered. It felt like the author was trying to confuse us instead of explaining. And I really disliked the very last two pages. Thankfully we had a great buddy read in the group.

Next up on the TBR pile: