Quick Review: THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press)

BradleyK-MinistryOfTimeUSHC2A highly-anticipated new time-travel mystery

A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time…

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible — for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how — and whether she believes — what she does next can change the future.

I first heard about The Ministry of Time from a friend of the author’s, in the summer of 2023, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating it ever since. I started reading it a few days after its release, and I’m happy to say that I very much enjoyed it — it’s a witty, interesting take on time travel mysteries. Continue reading

Quick Review: THE TRIALS OF EMPIRE by Richard Swan (Orbit)

SwanR-EotW3-TrialsOfEmpireUSHCThe epic conclusion to the Empire of the Wolf trilogy

THE TIME OF JUDGEMENT IS AT HAND

The Empire of the Wolf is on its knees, but there’s life in the great beast yet.

To save it, Sir Konrad Vonvalt and Helena must look beyond its borders for allies — to the wolfmen of the southern plains, and the pagan clans in the north. But old grievances run deep, and both factions would benefit from the fall of Sova.

Even these allies might not be enough. Their enemy, the zealot Bartholomew Claver, wields infernal powers bestowed on him by a mysterious demonic patron. If Vonvalt and Helena are to stand against him, they will need friends on both sides of the mortal plane — but such allegiances carry a heavy price.

As the battlelines are drawn in both Sova and the afterlife, the final reckoning draws close. Here, at the beating heart of the Empire, the two-headed wolf will be reborn in a blaze of justice… or crushed beneath the shadow of tyranny. 

In The Trials of Empire, Richard Swan brings his Empire of the Wolf trilogy to a fine conclusion. Complete with political intrigue, bloody and epic battles, and inter-dimensional horrors, I enjoyed this. Fans of the first two books will no doubt be pleased with how the author has brought the story to a close. Continue reading