Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Ministry of Time

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

76 reviews

avasbookmark's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

oxfordcommas91's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I struggled with the first 50% of this book. It really took me a while to wrap my mind around the plot and where the author was leading the reader.
Additionally, the writing was a challenge in more place than one - there were some forced metaphors and the writing isn't super accessible, even to those who are used to reading fantasy and sci-fi. The aggressive use of SAT style words led to overcomplicated and flowery prose that convoluted the meaning. The author was trying so hard to write a beautiful book that sometimes it was an incomprehensible book.
Now that we got the bad out of the way with - the back half of the book was what really had me stopping in awe more than once. There's a lot of set up, but if you can deal with the writing, the pay off is certainly worth it. I was impressed by the unique spin on the time travel trope - its done with a lot of precision and expertise, and the twists that you're treated to in the last 50 pages are really stunning and well done.
Our narrator and protagonist, the daughter of Cambodian immigrants, inadvertently finds herself working for a British spy agency that has embarked on a secret project to bring a collection of individuals from the past into modern-day Britain. She is assigned as a "bridge" - essentially a companion and cultural encyclopedia - to one of the time travelers. She must quickly confront a whole host of cultural complexities (gender, race, colonialism, romance, technology...) alongside the man she is tasked with protecting and defending. It made for a fascinating and sometimes complicated read, but when I think back over this book one thing that stands out to me is that I've never read anything like it and I doubt I ever will again!

Content Warnings

dpekus's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

Pamačiau, kad šita knyga laimėjo goodreadsų metų sci-fi knygos apdovanojimą. Galvoju, ok, išbandom. Ir nebuvo ji bloga, idėja tikrai įdomi ir išpildyta visai tinkamai, knygoje netrūksta twistų, priverčiančių vis palaikyti mano dėmesį. Visas persikėlimo laiku konceptas ir jo padariniai buvo įdomiausia knygos dalis, puikiai išnaudota komedija bei atrasta vietos tinkamai įterpti socialinius komentarus.

Obettačiau, knyga nereikalingai per daug užsižaidžia romantinėse temose (neturiu nieko prieš, bet ar tai buvo itin reikalinga? turbūt ne), o ir šiaip kartais sunku suprasti, kuria kryptimi ji eina - ar čia sci-fi, ar čia romantinė knyga, ar čia detektyinis trileris, ar čia socialinių komentarų rinkinys. Kartais šie bandymai maišyti viską į vieną krūvą visai pavykdavo, bet daug dažniau buvo kiek nuobodoka skaityti. Bet, vis tiek, susiskaitė greitai ir visai smagiai, tai stiprūs trys iš penkių.

Content Warnings

lailybibliography's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark funny reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

He’d always lived inside me, years before I’d known him. I’d been trained to love him.

Okay so I don’t get all the fuss.

For months now, I’ve heard endless explanations of how The Ministry of Time was a self-insert, plagiarized fanfic level mess; others fiercely rebutting by raving about its romantic, humorous blend of commentary, self-reflection, and deep-state subterfuge. I fall on neither extreme. While I went through the book quite fast, it didn’t blow me away - positively or negatively.

I’ll stick to positives. Kaliane Bradley is a good writer. Her narration maintains an engaging, witty tone throughout pretty much the entire page count, something I appreciate a lot since a not insignificant amount of the story was basically our MC and Graham Gore screwing around their safe-house (quite literally in the second half). There’s discourse to be had about the merits of the POV character being a deliberate blank slate beyond the scantest possible details, but I cannot deny that even during bits I wanted to throw my hands in frustration with her actions or political viewpoints, I was entertained. Particularly impressive was the sharpness with which Bradley deftly critiques Empire and the ever-present dynamic between colonizer and colonized. The MC’s (and Bradley’s) mixed British-Cambodian heritage informs much of her cynical, assimilationist approach to life and passive reaction to the outer world. Intergenerational trauma and paranoia that comes with being a daughter of a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide runs throughout the story and it is both heartbreaking and tragic the ways our MC’s cautious apathy completely unravels everything in the end. I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say Ms. Bradley made some interesting capital-C choices. A stunning presentation for a debut author. She will definitely be someone whose works I will look out for.

I’ll keep the negatives brief. I definitely get the confusion about the book’s genre marketing choices. For all that the ‘romance’ aspect is played up in reviews and blurbs, it only really comes into play more than halfway through the book and I’d argue, still not an aspect that holds the most interest IMHO. Personally, for me, I felt that the MC and Graham had a better emotionally resonant connection with Margaret and Arthur respectively, but it is what it is. I don’t mind the romance overall and I certainly don’t get all the handwringing over the “ethics” of depicting a fictional romantic/sexual relationship for a historical figure. For the love of god, this was like half of all historical fiction not too long ago. People need to calm down and get off their high horses. This is not the same as Harry Styles RPF fanfiction republished with the serial numbers filed off. I do, however, think Bradley would do better with a more restrained, focused genre approach to any future works. She’s decent with the individual genre traits she writes (soft sci-fi, slice of life, romance, observational), but this scattershot style didn’t quite stick the landing.

So yeah. This was fine

Content Warnings

cfw100's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

Content Warnings

oceanwriter's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

I’ve heard a lot of people say that this book is slow to start so I ended up opting for the audiobook even though I purchased it through BOTM. I don’t know if it made much difference aside from not having page numbers to follow along with. I found the concept interesting, but it lost me when things started getting spicy. Definitely wasn’t the content I was anticipating for this type of book, but glad I finished it because there was one passage in particular toward the end that was so beautiful.

Content Warnings

hcmizzle's review against another edition

3.75

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

raptorq's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

lenouveau17's review against another edition

2.25

mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing sad 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

This book manages to be somehow incredibly fluffy and comforting, and yet intensely sharp and challenging at the same time. Bradley uses the notion of time travel to hold up a mirror to institutions, cycles, complacency, and identity, maintaining an endearing sense of humor and a shocking degree of behavioral awareness throughout. With a debut this strong, I will certainly be keeping an eye on her work to come!

Content Warnings

More...