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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I found this a curious, odd, interesting, riveting, confusing story. As the title implies, this is the story of The Ministry of Time, a group (in the British government) that has discovered a time travel door and used it to bring to the present (from what I gathered sometime in the 2020s, post-Covid) a number of people who had died in their own time. Among them was Graham Gore and you can read more about him at (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Gore) or (https://www.commandergrahamgore.com/). These unintentional time travelers (Graham, Thomas Cardingham, Margaret Kemble, Anne Spencer and Arthur Reginald-Smyth) were called 'expats' and each was paired with a person called a 'bridge' who would help them acclimatize while keeping an eye on them. Graham's bridge was a young Cambodian-British woman. I think her name was mentioned just once towards the end of the book, which explains why I have no name by which to reference her.
This story touched on many topics: being a refugee (as in from another time or from another country), spys, bonafide history, time travel, satire (the world as it currently exists, the gadgets, the state of the climate), comradeship, community, passion, the idea of history – who writes it, who makes it, values (or the lack of)…
At times I wasn't clear what was happening, at times the sentences weren't written in ways that made sense to me, yet the story intrigued me. It is like no other book I've yet to read. Ultimately, I also found it disturbing for a number of reasons. It felt cynical and, looking around at the state of my country (U.S.) it seemed like the lunacy here is not so far off from the lunacy in the story. Sigh.
This story touched on many topics: being a refugee (as in from another time or from another country), spys, bonafide history, time travel, satire (the world as it currently exists, the gadgets, the state of the climate), comradeship, community, passion, the idea of history – who writes it, who makes it, values (or the lack of)…
At times I wasn't clear what was happening, at times the sentences weren't written in ways that made sense to me, yet the story intrigued me. It is like no other book I've yet to read. Ultimately, I also found it disturbing for a number of reasons. It felt cynical and, looking around at the state of my country (U.S.) it seemed like the lunacy here is not so far off from the lunacy in the story. Sigh.
medium-paced
Chapters were too long, tried to do too many things with little success. Not connected to the characters, everything felt flat. I dragged myself through it waiting to feel something. She was trying to be philosophical sometimes or discuss important themes of racial identity but it was vague and frustrating.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
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:
Complicated
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
not the style of book i typically enjoy, but it was a very interesting story and kept me hooked (so it gets an extra star)... not sure i understand even 10% of what happened but i enjoyed what i did understand. too verbose and prosaic for my taste
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
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:
N/A
Hayley did me so wrong. This book broke my heart. I haven’t been so distraught at a book since I finished divergent in middle school. It was beautifully written and I loved most of it but I’m killed by the end. Dead. Won’t recommend to anyone who wants to be happy. Like academically I get it but emotionally, in my heart, dead. Can’t handle when books do this to me.
A begrudging 3 stars. I am not quite sure what to make of this book. I picked it up thinking that it would be sci-fi based on the time travel premise, but I’m not sure I would describe it that way now. There is definitely a science fiction aspect to it, but that the time travel is secondary to the semi-autobiographical story telling of the author’s personal experiences and viewpoints. I can see why other people liked the book - it offers sharp social commentary, a dark glimpse into our potential future, and a hopeful/warning ending. But, for the first 200 pages I was so utterly bored. The pacing was bad (like, one chapter was just 30 agonizing pages of the main character moping around her apartment with PTSD and seasonal depression, bad). I didn’t enjoy the style of storytelling either, rapidly switching from blunt, short descriptions (“telling” more than “showing”) to flowery steam-of-consciousness, spoken-word-esque ramblings about climate change, race, wealth inequality, etc. While the ramblings were cathartic, I’m not sure that’s quite what I needed right now or that any of the platitudes were particularly groundbreaking. Did I agree with this author’s perspective? Yes! Did I find it interesting or exciting? No! I also took issue with the main character who, in retrospective, was supposed to be painted as morally-ambiguous in her decision-making. I feel that I would’ve enjoyed the book a whole lot more if I knew the ending ahead of time and where the plot (and messaging) was going. That being said, what really made this book 3 stars over 2 for me was the last chapter and the author’s note. The last chapter has the main character speaking to herself in a different timeline, and therefore speaking to the reader in 2nd person. It made me so sad, not because of my attachment to the character, but because it reminded me of the current state of the world. And the authors note, explaining how much of the story was based on REAL historical events and REAL people pulled from footnotes - that was more interesting than any of the book to me! Overall, this book felt to me like a good idea but poor execution. The beautify of sci-fi is that it’s supposed to convey inherent, subtle commentary on society after immersing the reader in a world that, in first glance, seems wildly different from their own. THIS novel did the opposite - filled with modern-day anachronisms, the author painted a vivid image of our current society and tried to force the fiction is a vehicle for reflection; too heavy handed for me and losing its impact on delivery.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not a romance, well written fiction with good time travel plot, but not a romance and it was advertised as such.