Science Fiction: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

There was a good amount of discussion and hype around Kaliane Bradley's time travel novel The Ministry of Time. As someone who often has a hard time grasping the concept of time travel, I was hesitant to pick up this book and attempt to follow the narrative. Thankfully, the narrator acknowledges from the outset that the mechanics of time travel can be difficult to make sense of. Whether this is a copout on the author's part, or a clever way of putting the reader at ease (and maybe allowing some humor) is hard to know.

The Situation: In a not-so-distant future, a civil servant living in London is offered the opportunity to work with expats as a "bridge." While she may have gotten the position due to her own history as the daughter of a white father and a Cambodian mother who escaped her country, the pay is not bad, and it may get her closer to the job she wants. However, the "expat" she has been assigned to is not only new to London, but also new to this moment in history. Commander Graham Gore was part of a doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, and was supposed to have died in 1847. Now he is to spend an entire year living with a woman he does not know, in a London he does not recognize, with everything he does being restricted and recorded.

The Problem: Helping a 19th century commander acclimate to a different timeline is, at the very least, a strange task. A bridge must navigate their charges' unfamiliarity with how culture has changed, how language has evolved, and how to deal with the internet. Plus, there is the decision of when to inform Graham about 9/11, or what happened during World War II. Eventually, it becomes clear that the Ministry has plans for the expats that they are not telling the bridges about. And when people begin disappearing, and being labeled as defectors and traitors, the bridge begins to suspect that her job may not be as safe and secure as she had hoped, and that the future, all of it, may be at stake.

Genre, Themes, History: This is a science fiction novel that focuses on time travel, and what humanity would do with the ability to reach into the past in an attempt to alter a disastrous future. The first-person narrator remains nameless, possibly because what she is telling the reader is considered sensitive information. The man she is to assist, Commander Graham Gore, is a real person from history, although he was a First Lieutenant of the Erebus in 1945. Bringing a person from history nearly two hundred years ahead in the timeline has its expected consequences, with the ever present question of whether or not history can be changed, and should it.

My Verdict: This plot line has so much potential, and the author tackles the usual issues with time travel narratives. Leaving aside the question of whether such a thing is even possible, the book looks at what it would mean for someone from the mid-1800s to be suddenly thrust into the 21st century. Some of it is funny, a lot of is awkward (while still funny), and there are moments that get incredibly serious. The book ultimately takes more aspects of a spy-thriller, which would have been enjoyable if the pacing of the novel had not been slightly off, as well as some of the phrasing, and even some of the paragraph structure. There were parts of the narration where I had to go back after realizing I missed some crucial discovery, due to how everything was worded. For those readers who can get past this, they may find an enjoyable novel that looks at the progress we made, and where our world is headed next.

Favorite Moment: I did enjoy watching Graham discover new types of cuisine that he did not have the chance to encounter in his own time.

Favorite Character: Graham was fun to observe as he attempted to make sense of his new life, as were his new friends Arthur and Margaret, who were also brought forward from another time.

Recommended Reading: I recommend Recursion by Blake Crouch, a science fiction book that explores time travel and memory.