"Billed as 'a time-toying spy romance' by Kirkus, this 'genre-bending' novel reads more like slice of life with speculative elements that, unfortunately, never feel fully developed or satisfying.

Set in the near future and narrated by an unnamed main character, we follow a set of 'time ex-pats' pulled from various points in the past through a time door that the British government has commandeered and is using for...some purpose unbeknownst to us?

Our protagonist serves as a 'bridge' aka a glorified government-employeed babysitter for one of the 5 ex-pats we meet as he adjusts to the present day after having been extracted from a failing Arctic expedition in the mid-1800s. Most of his characterization comes from the classic fish-out-of-water experiences the time travel genre expounds on; his bafflement over bicycles and pop music serve as most of the punchlines.

Told over 10 lengthy chapters, the story, for the most part, follows our MC and Graham (often referred to as '1847' - the year of his extraction to the present) in their day to day lives, adjusting to modern London...really doing nothing? Then in the last 20-30% the story turns into an action spy thriller before abruptly ending.

You can probably tell I had some issues with this book from my review so far. Prior to this book's release, it had a HUGE marketing push (1,000+ Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ reviews before publication date), massive author support, and some shining praise from other reviewers. So I was excited for this book pitched as a wild ride and something fun to escape into.

Unfortunately, I think this book was a huge letdown. The saddest part is that it has a ton of potential but lived up to none of it for me! With better editing, I really think this could have been great. But the pacing, as previously mentioned, was so off. Truly very little *happens* in this story, which is fine if you want to explore themes through more mundane, day to day moments.

The contrast of our MC and her ward could have been used to dive into the themes she lightly touches on already: history, colonialism, gender, etc. Or it could've been more focused on the sci-fi speculative nature of the time travel bits which didn't get enough explanation to make much sense. Confoundingly, this also had some romance in it (one surprisingly spicy scene) which I suppose could've been its own story if that is where the author wanted to take it. Instead, the book tries to do all of the above in a short amount of time, and I felt it lacked because of this ambition.

On a sentence-level, I also found the writing to be extremely awkward and clunky. The author LOVES a metaphor, and while occasionally they work, many times they make absolutely no sense if you stop and think about it for one second. ("I was a doll, with no more inner intelligence than a bottle of water." Huh? Or "My knees were jumping like a pair of boxed frogs.") This style of writing is constant, and perhaps simply because I do not enjoy it, it really started to grate on me after a while. I recognize this is one area of the book that others might simply overlook. I, however, could not.

Along with metaphors/similes which abound, there were many strange word choices or phrases that, to me, felt like it was trying really hard to be poetic or profound, when perhaps the simpler word choice would've sufficed. Instead, the prose regularly took me out of the story because of how bizarre it was.

All in all, I wish this book had been a bit more focused on doing 1 or 2 things really well. With better editing this would've been a solid read I'd recommend for those who want something escapist. But instead it really dragged for me and by the end I was ready for it to be over. Ironically, the last 20% or so were the most readable and enjoyable to me."

"Originally posted here: /review/show...

I loved this book. It was funny, charming, sad and clever... but the overwhelming feeling I’m experiencing as I sit down to write this review is anger.

Anger at all the people who rated this book 1 star and screamed "plagiarism" after reading a title and blurb, and anger at all the mindless sheep who rushed to copy them.

I'm trying to stay calm and collected, but I confess I'm furious about what has happened here. Bradley has been hounded on twitter for a baseless accusation and had people spam-rating her not-yet-published book on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. This is not okay, guys.

I will fight to the death for your right to say if you think a book is crap. I say it all the time. But plagiarism is a serious accusation that can ruin an author’s career. I’d hope someone throwing it around would do the bare minimum� like actually reading the book. It is obvious no one here has done that because this book is so dissimilar to El ministerio del tiempo-- a Spanish TV series about time travel (it's fun, I recommend)-- in plot and overall tone that the accusation is laughable.

Anything more than a cursory glance would make it obvious that the two are not similar at all. This is a funny and charming love story between a biracial British-Cambodian translator and Commander Graham Gore who was part of the failed Franklin expedition to the Arctic. El ministerio del tiempo is a historical adventure series in which the main characters journey back to many different time periods to deal with incidents caused by time travel and ensure no one uses time doors to change history. In The Ministry of Time, we don't see any characters travelling back in time.

I don’t know what the complainers think has been plagiarised here. They fixate on the title (El ministerio del tiempo means The Ministry of Time in Spanish) but titles are not protected by copyright*. Neither is the concept of time travel, which� I gotta tell you —Javier and Pablo Olivares did not invent. They did not even invent the concept of a government agency dealing with time travel.

The TV series Seven Days (1998-2001) follows a secret branch of the NSA which has developed time travelling technology.

The movie Timecop (1994) sees the creation of the Time Enforcement Commission to police the threat of time travel.

The premises of both of these are far more similar to El ministerio del tiempo than this book and they predate it by about twenty years.

Then in 2017, two years after the first airing of El ministerio del tiempo, Neal Stephenson published his The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., in which the Department of Diachronic Operations uses time travel to benefit the US government.

But I guess it’s okay when white men write about time travel.

I've seen some people actually trying to frame the argument against this book as being about Big Bad Britain being their good ol' imperialist selves and stealing from other nations! Guys, this is SO FUCKING IRONIC it's almost funny. Because if those people had actually read this book they would know that it's a book by a British-Cambodian writer in which a British-Cambodian woman explores themes of colonialism/postcolonialism.

So far as I understood the British Empire, other people’s countries were useful or negligible but rarely conceived of as autonomous.

*Takes deep calming breaths*

It's annoying that I can't just gush about how much I enjoyed this book. It deserves a review that isn't all me screaming onto my keyboard. I'll try to do that now.

Time travel and government drama are the backdrop here to some truly marvellous characters. Imagine what you would get if you put a near-future British-Cambodian woman and a man who was raised at the height of empire together in a house. It makes for many scenes of hilarity and important conversations about the changes that have taken place. The dynamic between the MC and Graham is just delightful.

“You’re a musician. How can you have no sense of time-keeping?�
“You are a larger instrument than a flute.�
“I bet you say that to all the girls.�

It is primarily an introspective novel and slow-burn romance, at least until the last 25% or so, but the scenes are driven by dialogue so the pacing doesn't lag. Bradley explores themes of colonialism, slavery, language, being mixed-race, being white passing, exoticization of other cultures, and inherited trauma. The MC carries the inherited trauma of the Cambodian genocide with her and it sneaks into her everyday life and thoughts in unexpected ways.

I adored the secondary characters, too, especially Margaret.

It is rare to find a book that is equal parts entertaining AND contains so many important messages. I thought I wanted more from the ending but, having sat with my thoughts a while, I think it was a good example of an author finding that sweet spot of wanting more before it tips over into too much. And the last part of the book is written so beautifully I wanted to quote it, but I won't do that to you.

*I love how some are claiming the title is too weirdly specific to be coincidence when it's not specific at all. It’s actually very generic. Countries have used the title “Ministry of…� throughout history, and the UK still uses it for the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice. If someone tasked me with coming up with a name for a government department dealing with time travel, I wouldn’t need to dig into Spanish television to arrive at "The Ministry of Time.""