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adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Absolutely loved this. It felt fun, sad, complicated, devastating and even a little bit hopeful. A great read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit, Murder, War
medium-paced
A novel weak in science fiction and flawed in romance, which depends on unrewarding tropes and fails to fully develop an intriguing concept.
In an interview, Kaliane Bradley says that an obsession with the historical Graham Gore is the Franklin expedition inspired her debut novel, The Ministry of Time. This starting point helps to make sense of a somewhat thin time travel mechanism and the lack of concrete detail around the ministry that utilizes it to experiment with bringing people from previous centuries into present-day London. The book is framed as a romance, which goes from slow burn (ie. Victorian) to all-at-once in a single scene. Where it was loose and unconvincing up to that point, the protagonists’ development stagnates there.
Bradley uses obvious foreshadowing, with phrases like, “I didn’t know it would be the last time” and “it ended up like this because of my stupidity” (paraphrasing). This doesn’t contribute much to the plot, but does make the narrator annoying. Since Graham Gore is mainly shown from her perspective, as a handsome, charming gentleman, he reads as false and boring.
In contrast, his “expat” friends, Maggie and Arthur, are more dynamic; however, the way queerness is treated through these two characters felt off. I’m not sure whether the author is queer, but their sexuality came across as an experimental quirk to prove a point (of 21st century progress, of Gore’s winning personality) rather than a realistic unfolding identity.
Some of the expats’ learning and emotions around coming to the 21st century interested me—Arthur and Graham’s music performance, a game of finding things from their times, etc. There are hints of good fiction here, but they don’t make up a solid core.
Some of the expats’ learning and emotions around coming to the 21st century interested me—Arthur and Graham’s music performance, a game of finding things from their times, etc. There are hints of good fiction here, but they don’t make up a solid core.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder
Minor: Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Vomit, War
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, Xenophobia
Minor: Cannibalism
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body horror, Torture, Cannibalism, Colonisation
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Blood, Colonisation, Classism
Minor: Cannibalism
challenging
emotional
funny
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, Murder
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Emotionally taut and fraught with detached idealization. This book complicates literary sci fi* with a confused sense of identity, as our MC is mixed race and mixed in personal loyalties. I found our MC insufferable and romantically self-absorbed, meanwhile falling in love with every character she did as viewed through her experiences: Graham, Maggie, and Arthur. I grinned at Maggie's vernacular ("malodorous expression"), giggled at Graham's sedate charm, and sighed over Arthur's sweet and earnest disposition (and his reference to Wilfred Owen, so offhand). There's also a tragedy in how every character and plot still serves colonialism and narrowmindedness. I'm not sure any of our characters with agency were blameless or unvictimized, whether they had self serving or ostensibly more noble aims.
The prose is also studded with vivid and unique description that caught in my throat and made the characters and world feel embodied:
"put cold things in their mouths and the cold walked around their stomachs"
"put her thoughts out to dry [on the shrine]"
"holding me in his arms, the way poems hold clauses"
*This novel is literary first, sci fi second, and as such does not place emphasis on the scientific workings or implications but rather on the inner experiences of the main character facing the strange circumstances. I judge it accordingly.
The prose is also studded with vivid and unique description that caught in my throat and made the characters and world feel embodied:
"put cold things in their mouths and the cold walked around their stomachs"
"put her thoughts out to dry [on the shrine]"
"holding me in his arms, the way poems hold clauses"
*This novel is literary first, sci fi second, and as such does not place emphasis on the scientific workings or implications but rather on the inner experiences of the main character facing the strange circumstances. I judge it accordingly.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Murder
Minor: Gore, Vomit
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-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:
No
Time travel and espionage, plus a Victorian gentleman living in present day London. Add romance and trying to figure out who are the bad guys. Plus several diverse characters
Content Warnings
Minor: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
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
Prompt 48 - a book that features a married couple who don't live together - March 25, 2025 - I love a good time travel tale and this one is no exception. The story is unique, told from the point of view of a "bridge", a person employed by the government to help time travellers adjust to our timeline. It has intrigue, romance and adventure. I feel like this book is going to stick with me for a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Slavery, Cannibalism, War