Okay, try this one on for size: In Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time, mostly contemporary London has extracted five people (dead though they may be) from different eras and transported them to the present by way of the “door of blue light.” Each person is subjected to a weeks-long re-entry program before being assigned a Bridge, a specially trained agent of the Ministry of Time. 

The action centers around Graham Gore, aka 1847 (‘47), who died on the 1845 Franklin Expedition to discover a northwest passage through the Arctic Ocean. The Ministry had discovered time travel, but this was their first real-life experiment. Our narrator is tasked with cohabiting with ‘47 and slowly bringing him up to speed in the 21st century. 

And right here I admit that I never once thought about why the Ministry was, in essence, re-training these subjects. Who wouldn’t be simply caught up in the story of Graham and the narrator, and the antics of Maggie (1665), the insufferable Thomas (1645), and the serious-minded Arthur (1916, Battle of the Somme)? Problems arise when the narrator falls in love with Graham; he reciprocates physically but is always withdrawn, just enough to start ringing alarm bells on all fronts, especially as the Ministry has called him in for field training. 

So what’s the deal here? Is Graham a field agent or a turncoat? Who’s spying on whom? 

Do I need to re-read the last 100 pages, because it began to feel like an advanced math problem where too much was assumed and not enough explained. Good luck and happy reading. It’s worth it!

Just out and reviewed glowingly by all the “big guys,” Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell. Exclamation points abound for one of the UK’s favorite fantasy writers. So why haven’t we heard from her in the US? 

Compared to Tolkien, Lewis, and Pullman, Katherine Rundell has been writing for 10-and-up children for a while; her books are written for children, yes, but also resonate with grown-ups. Who doesn’t want to engage with dragons and centaurs on a far-flung archipelago? Snap it up at the library and lose yourself in the quests!