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The Ministry of Time

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The Ministry of Time

By: Kaliane Bradley
Narrated by: George Weightman, Katie Leung
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About this listen

The Time Traveller's Wife meets David Mitchell meets Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow meets Kate & Leopold in this debut novel from an award-winning writer.

There are several ways to tell a story.

A boy meets a girl. The past meets the future. A finger meets a trigger. The beginning meets the end. England is forever; England must fall.

A civil servant starts working as a 'bridge' - a liaison, helpmeet and housemate - in an experimental project that brings expatriates from the past into the twenty-first century. This is a science-fiction story.

In a London safehouse in the 2020s, a disorientated Victorian polar explorer chain smokes while listening to Spotify and learning about political correctness. This is a comedy.

During a long, sultry summer - as the shadows around them grow long and dangerous - two people fall in love, against all odds. This is a romance.

The Ministry of Time is a novel about Commander Graham Gore (R.N. c.1809-c.1847) and a woman known only as the bridge. As their relationship turns from the strictly professional into something more and uneasy truths begin to emerge, they are forced to face the reality of the project that brought them together.

Can love triumph over the structures and histories that shape them?

©2024 Kaliane Bradley (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Best of 2024 Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Time Travel Witty Funny

Critic Reviews

A delightfully audacious screwball comedy (Katie Goh, Fiction to be excited for in 2024)
Within the first couple of pages I was gripped. The novel is clever, witty and thought-provoking, asking the question of what any of us might do if we could engage live with people from the past. Kaliane Bradley is a wonderful writer and I can't wait to read what she does next (Kate Mosse, bestselling author of THE GHOST SHIP)
Holy smokes this novel is an absolute cut above! Kaliane Bradley leaps into a storytelling league of her own. This book is a deadly serious speculative fiction but it is also one of the funniest books I've read in years. It is exciting, surprising, intellectually provocative, weird, radical, tender and moving. I missed it when I was away from it. I will hurry to re-read it. Make room on your bookshelves for a new classic. (Max Porter, bestselling author of SHY)
Smart and affecting, full of ideas plus that slow-burning love story, it's a wonderful debut (David Nicholls, author of YOU ARE HERE)
An outrageously brilliant debut with a premise that just gets more and more original. The Ministry of Time pulls off the neatest trick of speculative fiction, first estranging us from our own era, and then facilitating our immigration back into the present; but it is also a love story, exploratory, sensitive, charged with possibility, and powered by desire, reminding us that history is synonymous with human beings, and that we all have the ability to change it. This is already the best new book I will have read next year (Eleanor Catton, author of BIRNAM WOOD)
All stars
Most relevant  
Really loved this book - fantastic, fabulistic, futuristic story! Great characters and such whimsical imagination trooping through the Eras.

Cracking story and superbly narrated!

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An engaging story with a original concept at its centre. Narration was wonderful and added to the sense of each individual character.

Entertaining and original

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The extraordinary complexity of the narrative is wonderful. It would be easy to get a bit lost, but I didn't.

language is beautiful

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Just wonderful … a must for all those that love to travel through time and hear its distinctive sounds.

A wave of beautiful language…

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I’m not a big sci fi fan but when there are some gems out there (Bone Clocks, Tome Travellers Wife for example) and this is one of them. I loved it because it combined sci fi with history and romance and the writing is exquisitely descriptive. It’s on my all time favourites list!

A work of genius

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Dear Voice Over Artists, Directors, Producers, it’s frustrating when narrators read characters of opposite sex dialogue and adjust their voice. Like in this instance, when the female narrator reads a male voice, it just sounds silly. Like pantomime. I’ve heard other male narrators use higher pitch for female voices - also ridiculous. Just read the dialogue in your natural voice. Don’t need to
Overthink it.

Other than that, good fun book. Liked the concept. Lovely poetic writing. Lost a bit of interest in the middle. But overall a good read.

Fun concept - annoying narration

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The author has a nice way of speaking that had me enjoying the whole unfolding of the story. Coupled with expert narration the whole story came out really well. Dialogue in an audio book is so much clearer if the narrator does a good job of differentiating character voices, as she indeed did this very well.

Easy, pleasant reading

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I love sci fi and this was very believable I enjoyed the characters and how in twined the story read it made it very interesting

I loved how easy it was to listen to

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quintessentially English ScFi in character and plot. Being an expat it was like going home to London and England present and past.
Rich emotionally genuine characters in a unique dilemmas

quintessentially English ScFi

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This is the story that has everything! Mystery, romance and thrills. This is speculative fiction at its best ... but I suggest you read the book yourself, or you might get bored by this performance.

Terrific and original story only spoiled by an overly mechanical performance.

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