Yet again, I am proof that modern marketing works. After just the right amount of targeted adverts, I looked up 'The Ministry of Time' by Kaliane Bradley to find out what the fuss was all about.
Strangers in a Strange Time
An ambitious civil servant gets a job in a new government department, the Ministry of Time. Her role is to act as a 'bridge', working with a person from the past to help them adjust to 21st century life. She is paired with Commander Graham Gore, snatched from the ill-fated Franklin expedition. Thanks to the project, he is the only survivor of a failed mission to explore the North West Passage, a 19th century 'expat' trying to find his place in a world of new technology, complicated weather patterns and traditional British bureaucracy. They have a year to work together, living in a government-sanctioned house, tracked, surveilled and monitored as Gore settles into this brave new world. But nothing is as simple as it seems. While suspicion turns to friendship, then to something more, cracks begin to show in the Ministry's story and it becomes clear that not everyone is quite what they appear...
The Future of Now
'The Ministry of Time' defies convention. It sounds like it ought to be a science fiction story, but there is so much more going on between its covers. It's about migration, identity, and loyalty, not to mention our relationship with authority, history, and responsibility. It manages to be science fiction, romantic, adventurous, informative, erotic, funny, action-packed and thought-provoking. It challenges assumptions about people who seek sanctuary, whether that's safety in our time or in our country. The publicists must've been tearing their hair out trying to work out how to promote this book. Sci-fi purists will probably hate it, but it sort of is sci-fi. It made me think of the original series' of Star Trek, which so often tackled the big issues of the day through fantastical stories set in outer space. It's wonderful to see someone making use of the genre again in this way.
The Bridgerton Effect
Bridgerton has a lot to answer for. Having turned Regency fiction into erotic fantasy, it does feel a bit like this book is part of the same evolution in story telling. But it reinstates sex as an important part of the lead characters' relationship. While the more prudish might be uncomfortable with these scenes (perhaps don't read it in a public space if you're prone to blushing and fits of the vapours), once I got over the surprise of their existence, they absolutely fitted and felt essential to the plot.
But...
I'm not sure how I feel about Bradley's fictionalisation and intimate imagining of a real person. There's something just a touch intrusive and exploitative about it. Having done a bit of light research, it does sound like not much is known about the real Graham Gore, but does that really give us the right to fill in the gaps? For a good chunk of the book, I assumed that the author had created a character in the context of a real historical event (which, by the way, actually made me want to find out more about the Franklin Expedition). Knowing he was real made me uncomfortable and it's hard to brush aside thoughts about how he might've felt about the depiction. That said, Bradley does a good job of creating a complex, rounded human being. Gore certainly has more dimensions than some of the supporting expats. But have we inadvertently slipped into 50 Shades fan fiction territory?
Overall
'The Ministry of Time' is by no means flawless, but it does feel like part of a new wave of novels that are creative, modern and meaningful. I enjoyed this book in the same way that I enjoyed 'Bliss and Blunder'; as something new and different that showed publishing is still bold, brave, and able to navigate away from established authors' guaranteed hits, same-again stories, and celeb-penned novels. Perhaps the reason the advertising stood out was because 'The Ministry of Time' is so different from what I've come to expect. I look forward to seeing how this author and others will surprise me again in the future.
Now, what next..?
'The Ministry of Time' by Kaliane Bradley was published by Sceptre, an imprint of Hodder and Stoughton, an Hachette UK company, in 2024. I read the paperback edition. The lovely pink one.
