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The problem with time travel in science fiction novels - or the fun with SF time travel adventures if you like - is that it has unforeseen consequences. Some writers choose to ignore the paradox it creates and just explore the opportunities it offers, others have their own strictly defined rules. Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time takes the consequences part of it all relatively seriously, but has fun with the concept at the same time. But then, if/when we have time travel, you would expect that the matter be taken very seriously, so seriously in fact that, as the title suggests, that the British government has set up a whole department to deal with the ramifications, approaching the matter cautiously, but at the same time not in a particularly ethical manner. That's the fun part. Unfortunately the rest of the novel has mixed ideas about how seriously the author wants to write about science-fiction or indulge in romantic fantasy. Initially however there is much amusement i...

Originally published as Almost Home , the title of Pam Jenoff's latest novel has been renamed The Officer's Lover for its UK paperback edition. The new title it transpires is meaningless (not that the original title is much better), changed undoubtedly to capitalise on the recognition factor of Pam Jenoff's previous thriller-romance novels The Kommandant's Girl and The Diplomat's Wife . I haven't read either of those books to know how well they fit their descriptions or their remit as thriller-romances, but in this case there is no officer (though there is a diplomat), there is no lover (he's been dead for 10 years) and there's not a great deal of either romance or thrills. Jordan Weiss, a diplomat for the US State Department in Washington, asks for a transfer to London in order to be with a sick friend. She hasn't been back in England since finishing her studies at Cambridge ten years ago, still traumatised by the accidental death of her lover Jar...