I think this book suffers from its own synopsis which makes it sound very scifi-mystery. It is weak on the science fiction of it all, no explanation for the time travel or even how it came to be, no proper explanation on the "project", but it is strong on the history, which I enjoyed. The main character stayed a bit too far out of reach for my liking, unnamed, undefined, but the expats were engaging and interesting and I wasn't bored for a second. The ending felt a bit rushed after the big finale,

but I was glad to at least get a glimpse of a resolved-ish ending, I would have not enjoyed being left hanging in the aftermath of whatever happened with the Ministry.

It did somewhat take away from the social/post-colonial commentary a little however, that ultimately, the focus was shifted so much to the romance rather than what was going on in the world at a larger scale.