A 19th-century painting of John Franklin’s doomed ship Erebus, trapped in ice
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy
The Ministry of Time
Kaliane Bradley (Sceptre (UK); Avid Reader Press (US))
When you read a lot of novels for work, as I do, it can be hard to get into a new one at first. You have to push on. But The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley had me right from its teeny tiny prologue. Just 150 words or so about a man trudging through snow and hearing his ship signal to him, and somehow I was there. That’s some trick to pull off.
The book, this month’s pick for the New Scientist Book Club, has proved itself a smash hit since publication last year, and rightly so. It is the story of a young civil servant who applies for a new job not knowing what it entails. It turns out time travel has been invented, but is being kept secret, and people have been moved from the past into the present.
These “expats” need some looking after, as you might imagine, and so our unnamed heroine is to become the caretaker, or “bridge”, for one of them. His name is Commander Graham Gore, and she must live in a house with him and help him fit into the world as it is now.
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This isn’t a book that dwells on the mechanics of time travel or examines too closely whether any government would really let time travellers out into the world with only a civil servant to look after them. But the novel sets out with such confidence that this reader, at least, was able to sally forth without worrying about details.
Now, a piece of genius at the heart of the book is that Gore is (or rather, was) a real person, although not one most people will have heard of. He was first lieutenant of John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to the Arctic, and he died in either 1847 or 1848. The exact details of the expedition’s last days are unclear. In this novel, however, he is snatched away just before death, and thrust into modern London.
Modern London is a lot for a man from a lost world to take in. But Gore is a resilient and can-do officer
Bradley’s rendering of Gore is the second piece of genius in the book. She describes him so brilliantly that he leaps from the page as a real, breathing, passionate, fantastically brilliant and interesting man. It is rare indeed to find a character so vividly drawn in a novel.
And so our young bureaucrat and this vibrant officer of the colonialist Royal Navy must enter into a house-share. London, or this near-future version of it, is quite a lot for a man from a lost world to take in. But then again, Gore is a resilient and can-do officer, and if anyone can adapt, he can. This is by far the most enjoyable part of the novel, as the two muddle along, each teaching the other something about their world.
The book morphs into a love story and then a thriller. It probably ends up as about 40 per cent sci-fi, 40 per cent romcom and 20 per cent thriller. I preferred the first section by far, and wasn’t sure the thriller-y ending really worked. But none of that obscures the fact that the book is a delicious treat, so if you are looking for something really enjoyable to read, look no further.
At the end of the novel, Bradley includes a copy of a photograph of Gore. I found it very moving to see him there, as he actually was, after getting to know a fictional version of him so well. According to Bradley’s postscript, he was described by one contemporary as “a very good officer, and the sweetest of tempers”.
What an extraordinary twist of history that this sweet-tempered officer should end up in a bestselling novel almost 200 years later. Bradley has certainly made the most delightful hero of him.
New Scientist Book Club
The Ministry of Time is our new read. Sign up here: newscientist.com/bookclub
Emily also recommends…
The Persian Boy
Mary Renault (Virago Modern Classics)
This isn’t sci-fi, of course; it’s historical fiction. But it does bring another historical figure to life – Alexander the Great, seen through the eyes of an enslaved Persian boy, Bagoas. For me, this book and its prequel are the only ones you will ever need to read about Alexander.
Emily H. Wilson is a former editor of New Scientist and the author of the Sumerians trilogy, set in ancient Mesopotamia. The final novel in the series, Ninshubar, is out in August. You can find her at emilyhwilson.com, or follow her on X @emilyhwilson and Instagram @emilyhwilson1
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