I was really looking forward to this novel and to see additional ties between this and Mandel's prior releases. Unfortunately, these connections and the choice of the author to conflate her fictional pandemic with our true history of 2020 circumstances didn't lock in for me as a reader. This story reads quickly, the writing is compelling and the overall story intriguing, but it didn't live up to what I had expected.

I dearly loved Station Eleven and so much of Sea of Tranquility reminded me of that title - the switching timelines, poignant observations of life and humanity, and beautiful prose. I enjoyed this title far more than The Glass Hotel. So many characters make a reappearance in this new title giving me such a nostalgic feeling while reading the book. Overall, wonderful lyrical prose and such a brilliant execution of time travel.

A tale of interwoven stories and odd circumstances that lures you into the magical realism that Mandel writes so well.

So good I had my husband read it (exciting since our taste never really overlaps). Will definitely read again. Enjoyed having crossover characters from the Glass Hotel.

5 ⭐️

I was elated when I heard ESJM was writing a new book and as always, she did not disappoint! This book had all the best elements of the movie Inception and Blake Crouch’s novel “Dark Matter”. The book did start slow and take a bit of concentration on my end to really absorb the information (as someone with very minimal knowledge of science/physics/time travel). The second half or so picks up quickly, and it demands to be read in one sitting. The way this story harmoniously weaves together plots from some of her other novels is brilliant. I still find myself thinking about this wonderful story and the many layers of it that I’ve yet to discover.

Emily St. John Mandel is such a good writer. I can recommend her to both fans of speculative fiction and readers who are unsure of they like speculative fiction.

This is a novel that is both simplistic and incredibly complex all at once. The writing is superb. I do believe that Emily St. John Mandel is one of the great authors of our time. This being said, I always leave scratching my a head a bit after reading one of her novels. It’s just a lot to take in, but in a deceptive way. This novel has so many elements that can cause the reader’s head to spin from time travel to the simulation hypothesis. For fans of speculative fiction, you won’t want to miss this one.

Mandel’s book is hard to describe. There are different timelines and characters that at some point, intersect. First there’s Edwin, an exiled Brit sent to Canada in 1912. He flounders, crossing the country and meeting different people. An aristocratic son who is destined to inherit nothing, he wanders aimlessly. Olive is a writer in a distant future who lives on the moon but is currently traveling from one continent on earth to another, promoting her new book. She meets a variety of people on her book tour and then she learns about a new pandemic.
Gaspery-Jacques Roberts is another character who has an unusual role in the novel. He is critical to the plot, a key player in the timeline.

Similar to her post-apocalyptic novel, Station Eleven, Mandel imagines a world that is threatened; one facing disaster or a cataclysm. One of the ingenious settings here is the moon world made up of a set of different communities and landscapes that evolved as the moon was settled. The premise of the novel is complex and examines the interconnectedness of time. It’s almost otherworldly and will make a confusing story come together by the end.

Completely mystified this story! Emily St. John Mandel writes in such a lyrical and moving way that the reader is just drawn into the plot. Despite this one covering different time periods, it was still incredibly easy to follow. The plot while seemingly being far-fetched and mystical, also is completely timely and relatable.


If you've enjoyed her other books or How High We Go in the Dark, this one is for you!

Thank you publishers for an advanced ebook in exchange for an honest review!

The hum of a violin, a rush of air, the roar of an engine—this odd moment, experienced by a few noteworthy individuals across centuries, binds their stories together with a thread that transcends time. Part mystery, part metaphysical exercise, Sea of Tranquility is a search for meaning and presence in a world chronically fixated on what comes next. And like all of Mandel's earlier work, it does not disappoint.

“When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.”

Not just two timelines, my friends. THREE. Yet, somehow, it doesn’t overwhelm.

The Pandemic-adjacent-ness might have been a little too soon for me, but, I loved the brushes with past, present, and future.

The characters, though we meet each of them fairly briefly, are vivid, engaging, and sympathetic.

The touch of sci-fi was delightful, and the ‘twist’, satisfying.

9/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for this satisfying ARC.

Emily St. John Mandel's breakout novel, Station Eleven, featured comic books about people living on a moon colony written by a human living on Earth. In Sea of Tranquility, a celebrated author who lives on a moon colony comes to Earth for a book tour. Sea of Tranquility also features the reappearance of key characters from St. John Mandel's previous novel, The Glass Hotel, characters who must come to terms with the fate of that novel's protagonist, Vincent. But if you've heard anything about Sea of Tranquility, you've probably heard that it is about time travel, and so it is. When such a powerful technology is at the hands of mere mortals, who can be trusted to control it? St. John Mandel has once again written a beautiful novel that asks difficult questions about human nature, our connections to each other, and the impossible choices we must sometimes make.

3.5 stars rounded down.
By the time I started reading this ARC, I had forgotten what the book was about. I think a reader is better served to start reading this book with the synopsis in mind. Otherwise, the book feels disjointed and confusing. As a time travel novel, the first 40-50% of the novel involves introducing various characters at different times. As soon as I became interested in a character’s story, the narrative switched to another character and I had to start all over. I found this frustrating, maybe because it went on too long. The connection between the characters were not immediately apparent, which should build suspense and keep the reader turning pages. I found it frustrating because I became invested in one and then had to start over with someone else. The changes seemed abrupt and disjointed, but this may have been intended.
The time travel concept involved pandemics (imagine that!). The author described situations that readers should find relatable such as lock-down. However, I found the pandemic premise too thinly veiled to be engrossing or entertaining. I’m tired of pandemic plots. They are not fresh anymore, and this one felt especially forced. Should a time traveler warn others about an upcoming disaster/pandemic? And then came all of the obligatory timeline stuff that has been used to death in a plethora of time travel fiction. Ho hum.
It is a decent read, and people who are less tired of pandemics and blatant COVID references than I am, may enjoy this book more. There were clever lines and interesting correlations between the characters, and the individual characters were intriguing. Unfortunately, this book is nowhere near as good as Station Eleven, which I found enormously interesting and well-written.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Had I deigned to read the plot — or even just the blurb — before downloading an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley, we wouldn’t be here and I would have one less 1 star read in my 2022 books. I don’t know why I keep doing this: I hear someone talking about an author and their previous books and I go around requesting ARCs for they upcoming releases.
I hate time travel, it’s one of my least favourite tropes ever and this is a book about time travel. It says so in the first two lines of the plot. How on Earth did I think I could like this? Another thing I don’t like in books, especially after 2020, are pandemics. Is this also stated in the plot? Of course it is. Why don’t I just read the plot.
Aside from the time travel aspects, I also did not like anything else in the book, to be fair. The plot was extremely boring and the few “twists” thrown in there were predictable, especially the last one. I had figured it out really early on because the main reason of the time travel relies on a character we know nothing about, so for me it was obvious how it would all connect in the end and I was right. It did not shock me in the least.
The characters were flat and I did not care for them, like at all. If you know me, you’ll know I am a characters-first reader and these ones did nothing for me. They could live or die or suffer or whatever and I couldn’t have cared less, honestly. It was mainly that they were quite one dimensional, but also that they were just uninteresting and you didn’t have enough time with any of them to really grow attached to them and their destinies.
The writing was okay, I guess. I can see people falling head over heels for Emily St. John Mandel’s style, but it was not for me. It felt too forced, in my opinion, and I know I am in the unpopular opinions realm with this one. I’m used to that, though.
I am still interested in reading some of this author’s backlist titles, which I’ve had on my TBR for years now, but I’ll be going in with lower expectations, in the hope they’ll surprise me. If you’ve read The Glass Hotel, would you recommend it to someone who did not like this book? It’s the one I am most interested in but I don’t know if I’ll like it, as I’ve read they are somewhat connected? I am not really sure how or how much, so let me know!
This is all for today, sorry for the shorter review, but it’s really my fault and not the book’s, so I don’t want to dwell on this for too long. I’d still recommend it, if you don’t hate the tropes above like me. And be sure to read the plot, don’t be like me!

Wow. There's a lot to unpack here. Emily St. John Mandel is one of the most prolific writers of our time. Hands down. With beautiful prose and masterful storytelling, she weave together a tale that transcends time and space. And with all that, a fundamental truth is revealed. Read it, you'll see.

Emily St. John Mendel is a master of taking strands and weaving them together into a larger story. Each of the timelines stood on it's own as a narrative while ultimately coming together and making sense as a whole. I find her books to be compelling and immersive in a quiet and almost soothing way, and I loved how this book connected with The Glass Hotel.

Thanks to Netgalley for the e-ARC!

“But so much is inevitably left out of any biography, any accounting of any life.”

Tell me, what do these five people have in common? A listless third son in 1912, two women seeing a murder under an underpass before they were preteens, a pandemic author who survived when she shouldn't have, and a violinist playing in an airport?

Emily St John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility is beautifully written. Slow going at first, the halfway point really reeves up the plot when the audience is learns more about the connections between these characters in separate centuries. While not my favorite book by St John Mandel, that title will always go to "Station Eleven," The Sea of Tranquility drew me in so quickly. So quickly, that I finished this book within a day.

While I'm not usually for time traveling books, I was caught in how beautiful and diverse these characters are. How I left feeling like I spent lives along with every character, how I wanted them to succeed, to live, to survive. The reader is left with the impression that each one of us is an important part of history, that we are more than just a plot point in another's lives, but fully realized ourselves.

Sea of Tranquility is the latest novel by Emily St. John Mandel. If you enjoyed her earlier books, I am almost sure you will enjoy this one, too. As usual, Mandel writes in a dreamy, beautiful prose. She gives us just enough details of her characters' lives to intrigue us and make us want to know what happens to them. We know them, but we are not them. There is always an element of detachment in her writing, which I like. Mandel is also great at evoking a convincing sense of place, whether she is describing an existing place or one she has created in her imagination.

Sea of Tranquility is a series of interrelated vignettes that take place over the course of centuries. There are reoccurring characters, a pandemic, colonies on the moon and time travel. It's very difficult to summarize the plot without giving anything away, but I will say that SOT comes across as more a contemplation on life and relationships than as a science-fiction novel, per se, so don't be put off trying it if you are not into sci-fi.

Sea of Tranquility is a companion book of sorts to Mandel's earlier book, The Glass Hotel. It could certainly be appreciated by those who have not read the earlier book, but having read it definitely adds another layer of enjoyment.

I received an advanced copy of Sea of Tranquility in exchange for my honest opinion. Thanks, NetGalley!

"A distinctly slight work from Mandel, one that is very much enjoyable on its own terms and nails its tonal progression but has too soft a center to hold up to much scrutiny."

From my Library Journal review.

This was such a singular book to read during this period of time. I hadn't been able to predict the ending and was incredibly moved.