Dropped at 100 Pages Review: The Ministry of Time- Kaliane Bradley

The Ministry of Time is a science fiction about time travel turned romance between a man from the 1800's and the woman responsible for helping him acclimatise in the present. Though the premise sounded promising, upon reading the first 100 pages my impression was certainly otherwise.

This is my first time reading a book by Kaliane Bradley. Even if I did not want to finish the book perhaps reading my review of it will make you curious enough to want to read it for yourself.

 Review-

The book begins with an attempt at a cold open. Where our main character is interviewing for a job in a secret ministry in the British government. What this ministry is or what her job would be is a mystery to her, though she has been through 6 rounds of interviews from the same. The interviewer informs her that this ministry "has time travel". There is a lack of a proper explanation to how the british government even discovered time travel in the first place. I know this as I have researched about the book beyond the hundred pages I have read.

We are then subject to a 2 and half page exposition dump on our main character, the ministry and time travel. She is referred to as the "bridge" as her job is to help test subjects who have been taken from the past adjust to modern Britain and how the world has progressed. She remains unnamed throughout the book apparently, but more on my theories on that later.

Our main character's "expat" or immigrant from back in time is a man named Graham Gore. He is from the 1800's, an Arctic explorer, a coloniser who trafficked slaves and was responsible for genocide, and shockingly the love interest.

The author's writing style is unique to say the least. She makes obscure comparisons to hypothetical situations (very strange metaphors and phrases). For instance she would describe someone raising their eyebrows as their eyebrows "doing something semaphoric". She would also include odd similes like "Quentin treated me with impatient familiarity, as if we were both sticky and were leaving streaks on one another." and "...left the meeting room like a diver kicking free of a kraken.". She tries to be fancy or quirky with her words but it just comes off as unintelligible. This makes a bit tough to get through.

The first hundred pages seem like a never-ending of montage of short scenes where the main character teaches Graham about technology and modern society. The main character is a British- Cambodian woman much like the author herself. This, the lack of name for the main character and the reviews of others who have read the full book gives the impression of a self-insert. This gets even stranger as the plot seems to be progressing toward Graham learning to overcome his prejudices, such as sexism and racism, in order to fall in love with the main character.

Also, Graham Gore was a real person and is described exactly as he was, an officer in the British Royal Navy. The arctic expedition he went on the book also happened. She even describes him as he is on his picture on wikipedia with "an imposing nose in profile" which is like a hothouse flower growing out of his face apparently. It reads at times like a fictional love story between the author and this man from the 1800's who was a coloniser.

It seems like a bizarre yet funny (unintentionally at times) read that I may get back to in the future but am dropping for now. If you are interested in eccentric romances and science fiction, perhaps you can give this read anyway.