Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Ministry of Time

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

33 reviews

pomoevareads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I had high hopes for this one going in but in the end I was more disappointed for its potential than its reality.

When I learned of this book, discussion about the themes tackled within had me very excited to read it. Climate change, colonialism, racism, sexuality, government oversight, and more were promised. And yes, all of these were touched upon and given some weight to the story. The story however moved from a bit of pop culture criticism and folly to confused jargon and finally to a stop action spy thriller.

The story focussed on one of the characters brought forth from a different time period more than it did the others which didn’t bother me and this character was inspired by a real person from the failed Franklin Expedition. The author added in chapters about the Arctic expedition after an early reader who did not know about the expedition had difficult understanding the story. I enjoyed these chapters.

There is a love story in it that the synopsis gives away which was somewhat unfortunate. I wish the synopsis had not given away the who for instance. And while I did enjoy the development of this plot line and related ones, it wasn’t enough to redeem the book.

I am primarily a reader of literary fiction and I think that it’s important to mention here as my expectations of the book may differ from someone looking for a contemporary fiction book with some laughs, a little romance and a not too serious time travel trope. I feel like the themes could have been explored more deeply and could have done with less of the clunky action bit at the end. The author spells out the message on the last page of the book and without that I am not sure I would have come to the same conclusion.

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uniquelymace's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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dionnesims's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Okay, I enjoyed reading this book...I liked the mix of historical fiction and sci-fi, I thought the sex scenes were surprisingly hot, and the humor was dry which always gets a laugh from me. For the anime watchers reading this, it's a slice of life for sure. The ending was kinda roughshod... not a happy ending, not a sad ending, potentially a cliffhanger for a duology if she wanted. Ultimately an interesting concept and I'm glad I read it.

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Thanks to Avid Reader Press for the free copy of this book.

- What an inventive, emotional, and thought provoking book THE MINISTRY OF TIME is.
- This book is what I would call literary sci-fi, which is one of my favorite genre mashups. It’s also quite heavily character focused, with most of the action happening in the last third of the book.
- Despite my usual love of plot-heavy books, I was immediately drawn into the story of our unnamed narrator and her displaced-from-time charge.
- It’s easy to see how much research Bradley put into this book, but it never loses the intense emotion amid the historical tidbits.
- I don’t even have the space to touch on the elements of race, survivor’s guilt, and of catching someone up on centuries of history. There is so much going on in this book and I’m going to be thinking about all the pieces of it for a long time to come.

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nicklybear's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

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theyellowbrickreader's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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sarahweyand's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

If you don't know me, know I am a time travel HATER. The biggest hater. So I surprised myself when I was looking forward to listening to this audiobook, where "Time" is literally in the title. I appreciated that for most of the book, time travel was a catalyst for the story to occur and not a primary plot element. I found the characters and their relationships with one another to be charming and endearing, if not fully realistic for the time periods they were from.

I enjoyed the spy thriller aspect of the novel as well, but not as much as the romance and character building. Unfortunately, this element takes over the plot towards the end of the book, and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the first 75%. I won't get into spoilers, but more time-travel based plot also comes into play here which I also didn't like (and am a little confused on the ending).

All in all, I really enjoyed most of this book, but the ending fell a little flat for me. I think it's a very strong debut and I look forward to keeping an eye on Bradley in the future!

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