The Ministry of Time

Bradley, Kaliane. The Ministry of Time. New York: Avid Reader 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

 

Perhaps he'll die this time. He finds this doesn't worry him. Maybe because he's so cold he has a drunkard's grip on his mind. When thoughts come, they're translucent, free-swimming medusae. As the Arctic wind bites at his hands and feet, his thoughts slop against his skull. They'll be the last thing to freeze over.

Description:

Being a fan of time-travel books, Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time, was a definite must-read for me. Of course, it involves different eras, people trying to understand earlier and later worlds, and possible altering history.

But Ministry of Time is quite different on many levels. First, it is primarily a character study between several protagonists, not just people wandering around a different world with their mouths open, making awkward mistakes. Second, it does not sem to dwell on the time-travel element. The time machine is rarely presented and remains cloaked in origin, powers, and dangers right up to the end. And the people simply go about their business in the new era, knowing they cannot return to their origins, so that issue rarely is discussed.

Here's the premise, without spoilers since this all happens in the first few pages. Somehow England in today's world and its government agency called "The Ministry" has a time machine that can bring a handful of people from their eras into the present. The selected people historically were destined to die soon, so removing them from the past probably wouldn't affect the future. One was from the plague era in the 1600s; one was a member of John Franklin's ill-fated Arctic exploration in the 1850s; one a soldier in the trenches of Somme in World War I, etc. 

Commander Graham Gore, the arctic explorer, is one of the five transported "expats" who is assigned to a previously lowly female Ministry civil servant in languages to be his Bridge. As his Bridge, she is to monitor and report on the expat's mental and physical developments, platonically living with Gore and being there to help him aclimate to the 21t century during his first year. After that, he had to get a job. 

 

But to what purpose has the Ministry of Time brought these five individuals into the present day? How will the expats cope with their new world and their Bridges? What is the future of the time machine and the administers who make decisions regarding its use? And finally, what will become of Gore and his relationship with other expats and his nameless Bridge?

That's all I'm revealling. It is a slower plot without ray guns or rockets, realistically paced to guage the activities and thoughts of the characters to reveal their deliberations and actions as they work on how best to address the people and the world of this century. 

But the writing, especially the imagry, are first rate:

• Being around her made me want to run across the crosswalks without looking;

• The days moldered and dampened, like something lost at the back of the fridge;

• She looked at me as you ight a cat that, with unusual perspicacity, has brought home a ten-pound not instead of a dead mouse;
• He was looking worse than when I last saw him -- he had that inefable air of someone who has to boil hot water on his stove for bathing, which was surely incompatible with his rank.

It's a compelling read with a layered plot that is not fully uncovered until the final pages. Until then, buckle up and follow these interesting characters try to uncover the mysteries and purposes of their very much-altered existance.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Crouch, Blake. Recursion.   

People have begun realizing they have False Memory Syndrome, where they recall bits and pieces of an alternate life they've lived (or are living now). If so, which life can they choose to continue living? Fascinating.

Happy reading.

Fred

 

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