Every now and then you come across a book by a writer so skilled that you can fully put yourself in their hands and trust that they will carry you through and exceptional tale. This is one of those books.

So, I loved Station Eleven, was just ok with Glass Hotel and now we have Sea of Tranquility. While Station Eleven is still my favorite of the three I am happy to say that what I loved about that one-the multiple character arcs and their connections-is very much present here. Sea of Tranquility also takes place at multiple points in time. Gaspery-Jacque Roberts thinks he's finally found meaningful work when he is tasked to investigate an anomaly experienced by several people across time. The novel spans from the early 1900's to centuries later when plague has ravaged Earth and people are living on moon colonies to even farther into the future. There is so much to this book that I just can't articulate in a short review but the writing here is wonderful and it lead to a wholly satisfying and surprising conclusion that definitely shows what a truly talented writer Emily St. John Mandel is. Pick this one up!

What can be said about this book? It lives up to the hype. It is so well written it engages you and makes you want to stay up late to finish it. I have told everyone about it.

While a bit thinner (literally and metaphorically) than either her blockbuster Station 11 or her follow-up The Glass Hotel, Sea of Tranquility is nevertheless well-written, original, and highly readable. It will not disappoint fans of Mandel's earlier work. The narrator is a version of Mandel herself, in the role of author. Mandel weaves a seamless story about moon colonies, a global pandemic (natch), and time travel, peppered with tantalizing hints that we might all living in a computer simulation. Delightful.

So, I loved Station Eleven and was underwhelmed by The Glass Hotel, so I went into Sea of Tranquility with an open and hopeful mind. I was not disappointed! I could see (sort of) what was going to happen maybe 2/3 of the way through, but that didn't take away from my "OH!" moments.

There are a lot of characters and a lot of time covered in this book. I really liked the way the characters' stories were told, even if I didn't always like the characters themselves. Like Station Eleven, this one makes the reader think a lot of things about people and nations and love.

My thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What an absolute disappointment. This was one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2022. I guess I'm all alone out here, wondering what in the world I just read.

I devoured EM's Station Eleven, which I read back when I thought pandemic fiction was quirky and speculative, instead of based in a near-future reality. Station Eleven was prescient and tantalizing and written so evocatively. I'm not sure why possessed EM to revisit a pandemic novel considering she had already written a massively successful pandemic novel which meant that her book would be compared from every angle to that book, and was almost guaranteed to suffer in comparison considering how big of a hit the former was, and to top it all off, it would come out alongside a slate of pandemic novels. And, I'll admit, I've reached full pandemic novel fatigue.

EM's latest take on the pandemic novel is also a time travel novel. I'm not sure there's any real story here. I can see that Mandel is playing with time and space in the way she was so successful in Station Eleven, but here it isn't contemplative or curious. It's just basic action movie plot--guy finds out time travel is real and in spite of promising not to try to change time, he does, and he's in big trouble. Are you surprised? The ending was an interesting twist but it just felt like too little too late.

Ultimately, this just felt like a flop for me but I can see from the reviews that I'm the only one who feels like that.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for a review.

I'm sure she is lovely person,and she's a very talented writer, but I'm not a fan of this author's books. I hated The Glass Hotel. This felt very Cloud Atlas, which I also hated. If you are going to write a time travel book, the characters have to be more interesting and the plot has to have me on the edge of my seat. For example, I loved The Time Traveler's Wife, and Outlander. This was far from those. This book is based in 2401 and is very Sci-fi-y. Again, I can get into Sci-fi if it's written in a certain way, but I just think I don't mesh with this author.

Thank you so much to @netgalley for this advanced reader's copy for an honest review.

This books put an interesting spin to a pandemic book. The time travel aspect discussed past and future pandemics which was interesting. All the different plot lines were not too difficult to follow and wrapped up in the end. However all the different perspectives made it difficult to get attached to any of the characters. Once you got going with one, it switched to another character.

Sea of Tranquility has factors that I relish in well-written fiction: time travel; interesting characters, mind-bending play of time and space; relevance to current events. Set in several centuries, from 1912 to the 2500's, and several locations, from western Canada to a moon colony, there is a unifying event and a character who is transported in time. Particularly engaging for me was the plot, probably somewhat autobiographical, of an author on a global book tour as a pandemic breaks out. Having read the Glass Hotel, the reappearance of some of those characters was especially satisfying, but this novel definitely stands alone beautifully on its own merits.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/sea-of-tranquility-emily-st-john-mandel-book-review-michael-saler/

I loved Sea of Tranquility so much. There were a lot of elements that I love in a book, including a tightly-woven plot, beautifully-written prose, and perfect , quotable insights into life. I also loved The Glass Hotel & appreciated the ways in which these two novels were connected but could also be read independently. This was just a really beautiful novel and I'll be recommending it to everyone. I like books that make me feel both part of something bigger but also insignificant in the grand scheme of things and I definitely had both of those experiences while I was reading this. Also I LOVE that Emily St. John Mandel thanked her daughter's nanny for taking care of her so she could write this book...what a lovely and honest gesture - I'm not surprised that this author is amazing at making the invisible visible.

Really lovely. I wasn't too sure what was up at first and had a bit of a time finding my stride. But once I had met each of the characters, I was hooked. Mandel writes beautifully, and her quiet take on time travel and pandemics was mesmerizing.

Another haunting, elegiac novel from the gifted Emily St. John Mandel, that pairs well with her previous work, The Glass Hotel. But Sea of Tranquility is a true science fiction work, with time travelers, hovercrafts, and moon colonies. It is also very much a novel of Covid-19, as the theme of epidemics recurs throughout the book.
As the author plays with the idea of the time/space continuum, we meet various characters in different centuries (including female author Olive Llewelyn who seems suspiciously like St. John Mandel herself). They are all connected by a disturbing, inexplicable event...and how this fits together unfolds quite brilliantly through the course of the novel.
Despite all the scientific and technological advances of the future, the novel focuses more on the frailty of humans. Diseases can still wipe out huge numbers of the population, mothers still imagine the unspeakable horror of losing a child, petty jealousies still exist between authors. And despite warnings from his shadowy employers, one time traveler with a conscience can decide to save a life, even if it can significantly alter the course of the future.

Have you ever finished a book and then feel remorse for the earlier versions of you that didn’t get the chance to read that book? The Sea of Tranquility is so beautiful, so smart and so interesting! It was just the mental puzzle and split narrative that I needed right now.

Special thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: April 5, 2022.

I cannot say enough great things about this book! I love that although the timeline jumps around, I was never confused about where I was in the timeline. This story was amazing and relevant and scary due to what we are going through now. It really makes you think.

A detective story set in the future/past/near present where everything is neatly connected by the end and set against the backdrop of a global pandemic without the apocalypse anxiety that other pandemic based books may have, Sea of Tranquility is succinct, does not drag out a story or fill out with details irrelevant to point, which is how humanity survives, no matter the advancements of science or space, and that humanity is what gives us our stories.

I loved this book from beginning to end. St. John Mandel's latest takes us on a time travel sci/fi journey that will appeal to all types of readers.

I am a fan of Emily St. John Mandel. This is another stellar example of her work. She just gets better. This was a twisty tale, bouncing in time and space. It kept me engaged and curious up to the end. I think a book group could have a great discussion based on this tale. What is reality? What is time? What is the right thing to do?
This is a review of an eGalley provided by NetGalley.

I love this book. Emily St. John Mandel is getting better and better with each book. Sea of Tranquility takes the Glass House and builds on every part of it.it is lyrical and beautiful in every line. This is Canadian literature at its finest.

Honestly, this was just fine to me. I liked most of the parts individually but didn't think they cohered that interestingly. Also - I just started reading The Paradox Hotel and stopped because I found the writing and characterization not to my taste but that dealt with some similar themes with what felt like better world-building.