The Ministry of Time, a review by Shelley

posted in: Shelley | 0

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THE MINISTRY OF TIME
Kaliane Bradley

Simon & Schuster Canada | Avid Reader Press
May 7th, 2024
352 Pages
Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop.org

Genres: Science Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, Historical, Speculative Fiction

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It was utterly unique mixing a wide range of genres. Normally I don’t enjoy books where the author can’t make up their mind what category their book falls into but Kaliane Bradley makes it work. The way she mixed time travel, romance and a spy story was so intelligent and extraordinary that I just got lost in the words and the world-building. I also enjoyed how she researched and mixed a real-life character with fictional ones.

Even though there are serious spy vs. spy issues throughout and a budding romance I found the book to be very humorous. I can’t count how many times I laughed out loud at the expats. The characters behaved like their timeframe and were very well developed. They had idiosyncrasies and personalities…their needs and wants were realistic. This is a wonderfully well-plotted book. I can imagine the author with lots of Post-it notes all over a storyboard trying to keep everything together in their proper order and timeline. Her world-building style made it so easy to read and imagine. I could picture in my mind’s eye the devices, clothing, the ship in the Arctic ice etc.

Overall Bradley is a genius. The twisty ending blew my mind and I did not see it coming. I read all 350+ pages in a few sittings, I was riveted. I can’t believe this is a debut, remarkably well done.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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