The Ministry of Time was overall a fun romp through a near future contemporary British world where historical figures are "saved" form history and brought to contemporary times. I liked how the offset it tried to set itself apart from the classic sci-fi tropes of the "Grandfather paradox" by setting up a scenario where this "Ministry of Time" is extracting people from historical crises who would be dead anyway. That allowed me enough room to suspend my sense of disbelief and become immersed in the fiction. I enjoyed and was entertained by the breadth of historical characters and eras of time that the author drew from which made the story very entertaining and gave me more connection with story. It was also very fun to see how she was able to make the historical characters interact and how they differently approached integrating to contemporary times.

 

It was interesting to think about how different historical ages would have different levels of ability to adapt to contemporary times, how language change and develops, how it might be easier for someone from 1914s to have the vocabulary to better adapt to today versus say someone from the 1700s.

 

I fell off with the romance plot between the main character and her historical charge. It took me out of the story for a minute when I was thinking that in all the great wisdom of this supposed Ministry that they would stick a handsome dashing historical male figure with a young female companion logistically. It was fun seeing how the male figure adjusted to the societal morays, but once they started fucking I had to roll my eyes a bit.

 

My main criticism of the book came towards the end when the "Grandfather paradox" became a the central plot point and I was ready to roll my eyes even more than before, but I continued on and... I don't I wasn't left with the most satisfying ending, but the journey to get to the ending was still an enjoyable ride.