This week, I started and finished the book The Ministry of Time¹ by Kaliane Bradley. I’ve broken my usual reading pattern and gotten back into works of fiction recently, and I haven’t been disappointed. This book was well worth the time and energy it took me to read it, and I found the story to be engaging, compelling, and a lot of fun.

This book is set in London, England, in the not-too-distant future. The world of the book is beset by looming catastrophe. The narrator’s experiences hint at climate disruption and geopolitical instability, making the book quite relatable as most of us are currently experiencing both of these problems in real-time.

The narrator is employed by the English government in a secretive, compartmentalized program that is ostensibly working on scientific research related to time travel. The government has obtained, through dubious means, some sort of machine that can rip apart the fabric of spacetime and pull people from the distant past into the modern era. The narrator works for this program as a Bridge, a live-in guide whose task is twofold. First, the Bridge must help their ward adjust to the modern era. Second, the Bridge must frequently report back to the Ministry in great detail what kind of progress they are making, including micrometrics such as diet, technology usage, vocabulary, and so on.

Of course, as the Narrator spends more time with her ward – a handsome sailor and explorer from the Victorian era – she begins to develop more than professional feelings for him. As she begins to navigate these complex emotions, things at the Ministry begin to unravel: mysteries surface, colleagues become opaque, and the Narrator begins to sense that something is amiss, although she’s never able to articulate specifically what it is.

After the first third or so of the book, the pace begins to accelerate. By the final third of the book, I found myself racing through pages, captured by the narrative, curious to see what would unfold. Bradley weaves an intricate tale that takes a few sharp turns, culminating in an astonishing plot twist that I didn’t see coming and an explosive series of events as the action builds to the climax.

The Ministry of Time was a joy to read. The plot and action were fun, but the book is also thought-provoking. Bradley paints an uncomfortable close picture of the world we live in now, one that seems to be holding it’s breath as catastrophe closes in on all fronts. She also paints a picture of a despairing future in which the worst impulses of Empires and humans come together in a world that is plausibly apocalyptic. But despite all that, the book holds a message of hope. This isn’t just a good story or a wild ride, this is a journey on which we can learn more about ourselves, reflect on the past, and think about building a better future. I really enjoyed this book, and I hope you will too.

1. Not a sponsored link. ↩︎