"But the rhythms of loss and asylum, exodus and loneliness, roll like floods across human history."
This is an intriguing blockbuster - Bradley spins a tale that combines time travel, spy tropes, and survivalist narratives with more meditative tone that invites interrogation of who we are, how our histories shape us, and whether colonialism is ever something that can be escaped. There's also some very steamy restrained (and not-so-restrained) romance and a whole lot of very funny, very dry humour.
It is the humour that will draw most people into the book initially, I suspect. Especially if they are English. Or know someone who is. This is a very British spy agency, and Bradley writes the civil service with the savagery of familiarity. The humour does drop away, however, replaced in part by a very decorous emphasis on the growing, unconsummated yearning of the characters. This is all laced with a developing intrigue, which asks pointed, wonderfully unanswered, questions about how people respond to fear of power, to trauma and to agency.
I didn't love all of it - the pacing drags in the middle, especially if the romance isn't your thing. The cast of characters is fascinating, but you get too little time with all but the main two. Occasionally, points that are drawn out end up a little trite (time travellers are people too). But overall, this is a book which lingers well after it is finished in what it explores, and manages to upend a current trend of sf books with simplistic values narratives. Bradley wants to make you think, and does it with a great deal of entertaining and no preaching or high ground at all. It's popularity gives me cheer.