Is it possible to add an author to your favourite writers list after reading just one of their books?

I feel like I'm really late to the party. This is the first book that I've read by Emily St. John Mandel and I have to say that I'm going to rush out to snatch up her backlist. Pronto. This book drew me in from the very first sentence. I knew immediately that I was going to love it.

The story follows a variety of characters through various points in time over a period of 500 years: from 1912 to 2401.  There's the 18-year-old Edwin St. Andrew that travels from England to Canada on a steamship in 1912; the successful author Olive Llewellyn who lives on a colony on the moon but is travelling the Earth for a book tour 200 years later; and Gaspery-Jacques Roberts -- a man from the year 2401 who is trying to piece together a strange mystery that spans five centuries. The book touches on time travel, pandemics and human connection.

I loved the combination of the past, and future in the story. I have never been one for science fiction (I thought) but I especially loved the futuristic worlds that Mandel created: these out-of-world colonies where people live. The writing made these environments seem normal and made me (a staunch unsupporter of humans living outside of earth) almost excited or at least O.K. about the prospect. 

The journeys of the characters, their lives and the mystery about what was going on in the story kept me so engrossed. I loved being immersed in both historical fiction and a futuristic time; reading about timely issues such as pandemics; following the characters as their lives are fascinatingly intertwined.  It was all relevant, beautifully written, touching, moving, exciting...intelligent! Such a page-turner.

I highly, highly recommend this read. Even if you think you aren't into science fiction, time travel, etc, give it a try -- like me, you just may be a new fan after reading this book. 

Many thanks to Harper Collins Canada and Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

i can't imagine how big someone's brain must be to conceive of something like this?? i haven't read any of emily's other books and i was told that this was a mistake, but honestly, i took so much out of this regardless. not only is her writing style incredible, but the way she weaves this stories together and the characters she creates are just... wow.

Thanks to NetGalley for an e-arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

I can't believe I am saying this, but this may be a firm 5 stars. Prior to this, I've been a bit lukewarm on Mandel's other books (Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel). It's never a problem with the books so much as a not-quite-my-taste sort of thing. Except, in Sea of Tranquility, I think her style fits the narrative really well. Mandel crafters character focused stories that often jump between seemingly independent perspectives until they are slowly revealed to be intersected in some ways. It was fascinating in Station Eleven, jumping between before and after a society killing pandemic, but even then, the story was a bit mundane for my taste. Then in the Glass Hotel, the central plot is about tax fraud. As beautiful as her writing his, that just didn't do it for me. Now enter Sea of Tranquility.

The Sea of Tranquility is region of the moon, but it also represents a larger theme in the book about finding peace and calm amongst all the chaos. Given its connection to the moon, you might can connect where the story goes, starting back in the 1900s spanning all the way to the far 2400s (I think). We start from the beginning, being introduced to characters from each time, then propelling forward to the next period of time and set of characters. At a certain point, things begin to connect and we see the larger story, but that first period of discovery (for us as the reader) is its own magnificent journey. It reminded me of the Martian Chronicles in how we see the progression of society in time, making our way to the stars (but not as bleak as the Martian Chronicles thankfully).

The character that interested me the most was a writer, set in around 2200 I think. She feels like Mandel writing herself onto the page, speaking to the reader in a very meta way about the commentary around her own books, by making it commentary of the fictious author's books. Honestly, I loved it. I loved seeing how Mandel's own experience influenced her work.

That, coupled with a subtly crafter story and a compelling science fiction narrative made this book an amazing read. It's one of those books I am already itching to reread. 5/5 stars

You can see my review on my YouTube channel, Josh's Bookish Voyage, in late April/early May.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel. Published April 5th, 2022. Thanks to Net Galley @netgalley and Harper Collins @harpercollinsca for letting me read a digital ARC of this book.
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“I’ve been thinking a great deal about time and motion lately, about being a still point in the ceaseless rush.”
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Mandel has a tendency to tell her stories in shifting timelines with all the threads of the story weaving together in the end. This means that Mandel's books are always even better upon rereading - once you've had a chance to see how the dominos are set up - and I'm sure Sea of Tranquility will be no different.
This book is loosely connected to Mandel's last two books and familiar characters make appearances. The book includes time travel spanning from Vancouver Island in the early 1900s to a moon colony 300 years later - and also includes with an experience very specific to Emily St John Mandel herself: the experience of writing a pandemic novel and then writing a subsequent novel that is published during an actual pandemic.
While some readers may feel deterred from reading Sea of Tranquility precisely because the novel contains a pandemic, those people do not need to fear. The book manages to capture something of the melancholy of our present moment in history while still being a hopeful story about humanity and connection.
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#emilystjohnmandel #harpercollins
#harpercollinscanada #seaoftranquility
#netgalley #bookpost #recommendedread #2022reading #2022books #bookshelf #pandemicfiction #scifi #timetravel

There is a magic to Emily St. John Mandel's writing that always moves me. It's been a few days since I've finished reading the Sea of Tranquility and I'm still thinking about this book.

💫 𝐒𝐞𝐚 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 💫 ⁣
𝘉𝘺 𝘌𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘚𝘵. 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘭⁣
𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳: 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘧 (𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘭 𝟻.𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸)⁣
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Felt like a series of short stories that time travel. There’s only one main character that weaves in and out of time but we don’t really understand why or how until the end. ⁣
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I’m going to keep this one short because I felt like the book was one that I was supposed to take slowly and my brain hurts from thinking, examining and re thinking what the author is saying about life, pandemics, connections between generations and how our world changes. The heart of it for me, was that even with the advances each decade hits, it’s still the connection between people that matter most. Maybe I missed the main focus but that’s what I took from it all. ⁣
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𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘴𝘤𝘪-𝘧𝘪, 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝟻 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝟹 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶.

Station Eleven is one of my all time favourite novels, so when I received an ARC of Emily St. Johm Mandel's latest, Sea of Tranquility I was jumping for joy. A huge thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins Canada & the author for this literary treat. My only "struggle" with this book was that I simultaneously wanted to binge read it and also make the reading experience last as long as possible.

This was one of my most anticipated new releases of this year and it makes my heart sing that it lived to all of my expectations. The story follows multiple timelines, starting in 1912 in British Columbia, all the way to a couple of centuries later on one of the moon colonies now populated by humans. Exiled son of British aristocrats, a woman looking for a long lost friend, a writer on a book tour & a time travelling investigator all come together in a story about time, space and connection. I loved the goodreads description of the book, especially as it didn't reveal too much so I'm attempting to do the same.

Sea of tranquility is beautifully written, thought provoking but also entertaining. Emily's imagination and writing skills are nothing short of brilliant in my books. I wanted to save so many quotes from it and this one ended up being one of my favorites (as did the entire book):

"My point is, there’s always something. I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world.”

If you enjoy speculative fiction, you absolutely have to read this one. I know with certainty that I will be excited about and reading anything else written by this author.

For many people, the words of René Descartes have long drowned in the corners of the mind; to have consciousness is a confirmed presence & yet, what if it’s not. In works of fiction & non-fiction sprinkled throughout the ages, society has asked itself in a multitude of ways what it means to be a human; what constitutes a reality & how the time in which we are alive has any effect on the world around us. It would not be self-deprecating to acknowledge that few human beings set tidal waves in motion; overthrowing everything that the species thought it knew to introduce an entirely new concept or set of understanding. Descartes, Aristotle, Newton, Wordsworth, Proust, Wollstonecraft, Radcliffe et al. are among the very select minority of people that have added substance to the bulk of humanity.

In Mandel’s most recent work we see the age-old question of time presented in a way so as to entice the reader to regard the philosophical pondering of great minds in a simplistic fashion. Through the presentation of multiple timelines set in centuries far apart, the reader is introduced to a handful of characters that are interconnected by their experience with a glitch in ‘the simulation’, also known as life, more specifically the state of time in which they move forward in their consciousness. In the far set future, Gaspery applies to work at the Institute where anomalies in their timeline are sought to be corrected. As we read through the story we come to learn that Gaspery is in fact the reason for said glitch; moving through timelines (centuries, lives, events) with little understanding of the motions set forth by his presence in the interconnectedness that most human beings would express as being ‘a small world’.

Few of us have not come to the realization that the world is a small place. Be it by the fluke meeting of a long-ago relation, a friend we had forgotten about or the joining of people under an otherwise coincidental event or place. Everything feels enormous when you live day-to-day but for Gaspery, as for many people in the non-fictional world, things have a mysterious way of being interlinked even without our knowing. Due to this, I am left feeling conflicted about the presentation of events within this book. How was it possible that a team of scientists who had all the technology & brains at their disposal to study anomalies within timelines, did not think of the possibility that their presence would cause in the lives of those whom they met along the way?

They did, of course, consider what is known to us within the Chaos Theory as the Butterfly Effect, as being a probable outcome & seemed to have calculated ways for the timeline to repair itself after a Traveller had made their way through time. However, I cannot speak on the level of calculations they did to ensure that this was concluded as being fact, given that Gaspery creates an insane glitch in five (5) people's lives & their timelines. Therefore, perhaps we are meant to regard the advances of science in the same way as we always have. The human brain is an absolutely fantastic tool & one that has allowed humanity as a whole to advance through multiple setbacks. Medicine, tools, machinery, vocabulary, technology, nutrition, food, etc. have all been areas that have seen huge increases in success & benefit to the species due to the dedicated work of scientists throughout the ages. Yet, we find ourselves unable to calculate the odds for certain things & see tragedy befall many an unsuspecting victim. It is therefore not far-fetched to assume that the technology & scientific tools available to Zoey, Gaspery’s sister, were prone to failure, such as every aspect of human advancement is.

Another aspect of this book that I will acknowledge as being quite annoying was Gaspery’s decision to save Olive. In his training to become a Traveller, Gaspery was explicitly told that he would not be at liberty to influence the decisions of those he met while travelling. During this mission, he would meet Olive who would be on her final book tour on Earth & who would die due to the most recent spread of SARS over the globe. Instead of taking that information to heart, Gaspery convinces himself that he needs to warn Olive to stop her tour & return to the Moon planet on which she lives.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if things truly worked so effortlessly? I couldn’t help but feel confused as Olive rushed back home as though a viral infection wouldn’t have already had the opportunity to infect her body while she travelled the globe. At this point in the story, the human species had already lived through multiple pandemics. Why was Olive acting without logic or reason? I would love to say that we as a species learn from our mistakes but there are too many of us in numbers to make an accurate account of everything we continue to do wrong even when fact proves us to be doing the contrary of what we know to be right. During the Black Death, people smeared blood on their skin, sharing fluids in an attempt to respect the directions given to them. One might look at this type of behaviour & think it ridiculous. Yet, during COVID-19 people refused to wear masks because they were being imposed upon them for the greater sum’s benefit. We circle around the same repeated decisions, most of which will be looked upon as making little sense; one might even say that many of the decisions done by humanity were stupid. However, that is simply par for the course when it comes to human behaviour. We make mistakes, we are in earnest, we make errors & we try our best. Such as the world turns in a circle so too do our habits & tendencies.

This leaves me feeling that there is little within the story that I can critique in terms of accuracy reflected in the characters’ actions. Of course, someone along the line would have wanted Edwin to lead a full & stress-free life. Having fought in WWI, seen the man he secretly loved killed in a bombing raid, have had both his brothers killed in battle & seen his life meander through the impeding Spanish Influenzas; Gaspery telling him that the glitch he witnessed was not a bout of insanity but was, in fact, real, might have been done in good faith but, ultimately changes nothing. Is it wrong to want to lend a helping hand or share in hope, even if it is short-lived? I suppose it is not.

With all that being said, this was not a horrible book. The prose is lovely & it was written in a style that I very much enjoy. However, none of the characters spoke to me with very much depth. There seemed to be inconsistencies within the story as well which made it difficult to reason if this was simply an editing error or the characters were given so little to say that nothing more but a repetition would suffice. For example, when Gaspery is meeting with his sister, Zoey, she tells him that Edwin became a soldier in WWI then when he is doing training at the Institute he sees a picture of Edwin in uniform & expresses that he didn’t know that Edwin had been a soldier. Another example of this is when Gaspery tells Olive that she needs to leave Earth & get back safely to her family. She automatically assumes this interaction means she was destined to die in the SARS outbreak yet, when she is laying hidden on her lawn & Zoey & Gaspery meet in the street, she expresses shock at the fact that she was destined to die in the pandemic.

Discussions regarding post-apocalyptic literature felt a bit tedious. I appreciate that thousands of years down the line we might not have the ability to keep track of all the literature that was ever written yet, this feels improbable. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of stories regarding the ‘end of the world’ type stories, Olive is nowhere near unique or original in her plot efforts. It became a bit tedious to read about her interview answers & process towards her most recent book, all the while her first book centred around a subject matter that had also been written about a hundred times over. Of course, I appreciate the irony of personal experience wherein an individual might feel like an anomaly in terms of their encounters throughout life but, it felt odd that all those years later no one would have remembered something so monumental as the dystopian novels, “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley for example.

As a final thought, I wonder what the logic behind framing a Traveller for an Earth inhabitants crime is. If we are to assume, as we are led to, that the crime in question is unsolved or near being solved (say in the case presented wherein the shooter is running away but could easily be fingerprinted)—what happens to the actual criminal? By substituting a Traveller in the place of an actual criminal the Institute is simply opening the door to alterations in the timelines on an endless basis. As proven by the example that was utilized in the final chapters, the Institute is not keeping a tally of victimless crimes, or shall we say crimes involving a rather low level of violence (ex. the theft of a parked car without passengers). Therefore, if the shooter, in this case, ran away & became a serial murderer what are the impacts of that on the timeline? Had they considered that or are we to link their original errors towards timeline repair as them also lacking in forethought when it came to substituting Travellers?

When all is said & done this was a good book. Exploring the definition of an end of the world was intriguing & I enjoyed how it was approached in the book. So many instances that feel like the end of the world could be classified as just that, for example, the loss of a child. Yet many times we say, ‘it’s not the end of the world’ in an effort to comfort ourselves. This is not wrong either. Simply, I think it’s well placed to encourage the reader to regard the events in their own life as being substantial enough to validate in whatsoever capacity they have come forward as being.

If you are not interested in reading something that feels overtly familiar & has been done several times before, I would encourage you to seek out Classic literature, specifically the works by monumental philosophers. There are also movies that present similar themes to the ones within the book such as: “The Truman Show” (1998) & “Mr. Nobody” (2009). One has many options when it comes to delving deeper into Descartes’s philosophy & I should hope that this book encourages many readers to do just that.

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins Canada & Emily St. John Mandel for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is quite different from her previous works that I have read (Station Eleven), but I really enjoyed it. The only thing that I didn't really enjoy is the ending. But all in all great book!

This was a fantastic book & you should all be running out to your favourite bookstore to buy it rn! I suppose I should have read the synopsis before picking it up because I thought it was historical fiction at the beginning which it is but with such a beautiful sci fi esq twist. The time periods and aspect of time travel are so interesting and the connections made to pandemic borne from the past (with the mention of small pox) and the future, is so well done and not anxiety inducing at all! With the pandemic so close to home still I was a bit nervous about a fiction novel addressing it, but this is done really well! Gaspery character was so well written and the growth of his character is a beautiful and confusing story to follow.

I think this books would be a fantastic option for a higher level english class. Especially, with the aspect of time that is introduced throughout and the relationship to current events. Unlike other stories that use time this one is written with a nice path to follow and the thread does not get lost. I quite literally could not put this book down because I wanted to see what connection the previous chapter was leaving in the present.

Lastly, I think this is the type of book you could read multiple times and pull out more and more little secrets! A fantastic story! 5 stars ❤️

Having loved both Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, I was pleased to be granted an eARC of Sea of Tranquility. Mandel's writing captivates and flows, with an ability to create atmosphere and setting as a character itself. This book provided me with a sense of calm, while speaking of calamities such as pandemics and environmental destruction, and the potential long-term effects of human's use of the planet.

Characters and settings from The Glass Hotel are interspersed through the story, but reading The Glass Hotel is not necessary to fully enjoy this book. Multiple timelines take the reader from Vancouver Island in the early 1900s to moon colonies 300 years in the future, with several stops in between. Time travel, with the ethics and effects of disrupting the past, play an integral role, and had me considering the ways in which history could be changed with a simple statement or question.

At less than 300 pages, this book was a quick read for me, and it ultimately left me wanting just a bit more. I wanted more of the backstory on some of the characters, and of how the pandemics and climate change had effected the worlds in each generation. Mandel offers beautiful, poetic writing, and I just wanted to disappear into it for a wee bit longer.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Canada for granting my request for an eARC, in exchange for an honest review. Definitely recommend, and will be purchasing a copy for my personal shelves.

In 1912, Edwin comes to British Columbia to seek adventure. In 2203, author Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour when a pandemic breaks out. In 2401, we find ourselves in a lunar colony. In fewer than 300 pages, Emily St. John Mandel’s latest novel Sea of Tranquility takes us to all of these places and tells a fascinating tale that weaves between them.

A quick, page-turning read, I flew through this in two days. It’s short and, with multiple storylines in play, it draws readers forward in the quest to understand what’s going on and how or if things will resolve. Mandel explores familiar science fiction ideas whilst also commenting on our current times (particularly the pandemic) in an attempt to answer the age-old question: what does it all mean?

Sea of Tranquility is the third of Mandel’s books that I’ve read. Many readers are familiar with Mandel’s earlier works, especially Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, and some of the characters from the latter turn up here. It’s not necessary to have read The Glass Hotel to understand what happens here but it provides context and gives you a sense that this is all happening within the MLU (Mandel Literary Universe).

As a reader of big books, I’m always wishing for more. Mandel has a light touch and manages to weave thought-provoking complex stories in a small space. I kind of hope one day she decides to write an epic, chunky book. I would be all in to read one of these stories told over 500+ pages with more of the rich details she slips in here and there. Sea of Tranquility is a compelling read which, as the best sci-fi does, helps us turn a thoughtful eye to our own times. Recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Canada for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I requested to review Sea of Tranquility on a whim because I enjoyed Mandel’s Station Eleven. All I knew about Sea of Tranquility was that it was a time travel novel.

If you’ve read any of Mandel’s other work you know that her writing is beautifully poetic. Each sentence flows into the next painting a vivid image of the world and characters. The novel opens with three characters who are seemingly not connected. Mandel doesn’t spend a lot of page time developing these characters, but who they are and their hopes and dreams are communicated to readers effectively and efficiently.

One of my favourite parts of the novel follows a character living through a pandemic. Mandel captured the reality of harsh lockdowns. These passages hit close to home as she described the mundane activities that need to be done in order to make it through the day, and how family and work obligations changed.

One of the issues I had with Sea of Tranquility was Gaspery. Gaspery is comically stupid at some points and is just handed the keys to castle, if you will. There is a time jump that I would have liked to see more of to help get a better understanding of his character and his job. This time jump also sped up the novel so that the end it felt like it wrapped up too quickly.

Overall, Sea of Tranquility is a beautifully written novel that spans three hundred years with multiple characters connected in some way to create an atmospheric novel about life, love, and time. All this without mentioning how Mandel captured living through COVID-19 and put it in historical context.

Delighted to include this title in the April edition of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for Zoomer magazine. (at link)

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'm torn between 4⭐️ and 4.5⭐️ for this one

First of all, since this is my first experience with Emily St. John Mandel, I have discovered that I really enjoy the way she writes. Her prose style just flows very well, and although this was a short book in the first place, the writing definitely contributed to me being able to read this quite quickly. I admired how she was able to establish each setting, timeline and character that we visited so quickly -- she did a great job connecting me to each one!

Overall, I think this book has some really strong ideas, and a really intriguing and interesting central idea tying it together. I very much enjoyed the first half of the book when we explored character stories in 1912, 2020, 2203, and 2401. During this time, there is obviously a thread connecting each of these stories, but the mystery has not been revealed. I blew through the first half of the book very quickly because I was enjoying these characters so much and I was looking forward to seeing how it all tied together. I think the author did a wonderful job with the perspectives from the future, because she managed to keep things grounded while conveying a sense of how far humanity may have progressed technologically in that time frame. I wouldn't call the pacing fast, exactly, but the writing is very snappy and efficient while still being nice to read, and it really pulled me through the book!

The second half of the book switches gears a little bit, but my reviews are always spoiler free, so I will be vague here. I was still enjoying myself as the mystery began to unravel, but I was surprised by what I felt was an abrupt ending to the book. Sure, Emily St. John Mandel wrapped up the story she meant to tell, and I thought that her ideas were very cool, and for the most part she executed them in an appealing way. However, because of the nature of her writing and the emotional aspects of the story, I think I was expecting a bit more of a meditation on what we had experienced in the book, or a bit more of a reflection period at the end, so it felt a bit sudden to me. However, I will say that things came full circle in a way that made her choice for this ending reflect back on an earlier part of the book in a very interesting way, so I really don't know how I feel!

I definitely don't regret picking this up either way :) I had an enjoyable experience with it, and I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a short read with some sci-fi vibes and interesting characters!

Sea of Tranquility was a fairly quiet book, but I was riveted by the different stories taking place at different points in time. For a sci-fi, there's nothing particularly new about the time travel or twists in this novel, but they're done in a way that works with the more human aspects of the book. Mandel manages to balance the more thoughtful chapters, for example, Olive thinking about her interactions with random people on her book tour, with more eventful scenes, like Gaspery starting the investigation. It was also interesting to read the sections set in the future and see what kind of technology or advancements would be made. It was a little startling to read about COVID-19, but it fit in with the pandemic themes.

Some of my favourite things about Mandel's books are how prominently she features Vancouver/Victoria Island and how she includes characters and places from her other books. The fictional town of Caiette and several characters from The Glass Hotel make a reappearance in Sea of Tranquility. While we didn't get much new information on Paul or Vincent, it was nice to see what happened to Mirella after the events in The Glass Hotel. I found the other characters in Sea of Tranquility kind of lacklustre and was hoping we would get more insight into their thoughts, motivations, etc. Even though the characters weren't as developed, the themes/experiences of each of the characters were very realistic and relatable (e.g. Edwin's aimlessness, Mirella's loss/grief, Olive's over thinking).

Sea of Tranquility was a really great companion to Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel.

What does the moon, a coastal community in British Columbia, abstract multimedia art, time travel, and a novelist have in common? They somehow ALL come together in this book. I went into this book without knowing much about it and I was blown away. The structure of the book, the short chapters and different sections made it surprisingly easy to follow. I always get nervous knowing time travel is involved and expecting some confusion and loose ends. This book left the nitty gritty sci-fi time travel details out and focused on the people’s lives and relationships involved.
Mandel obviously gets bonus points from me for mentioning Saskatchewan, and Prince Albert (and the relentless nothingness and alcoholism that tends to reside here, even in1912). This book had a way of making every character and every story feel equally important. I was just becoming attached to Edwin and drawn into his story, and then we were transported. But none of it was jarring or took away from another timeline.
Please don’t let the fact that I said Moon and Time Travel when describing this book scare you away, I would definitely NOT describe this as sci-fi, we just live on the moon in the future - is that really so hard to imagine? Pandemics are also a theme in this book, COVID-19 as well as future *fictional* pandemics are mentioned, but again, they are a device for us to learn more and feel more about the characters, not as the main plot.
The element of fate and the unavoidable crossing of paths is my favourite element of time travel and it absolutely scratched the itch for me - the ending left me with goosebumps, tears in my eyes, and I was able to put down this book with a big sigh of relief and satisfaction.

*ARC received in exchange for an honest review*

So beautiful, so poignant, so full of phrases and ideas that I’m sure I’ll keep in my head for a long time. I love Emily St. John Mandel’s writing; it feels ethereal but still grounded, enormous in scope but still so exquisitely detailed. I’ve read her earlier book “Station Eleven” several times, and I find new things to love and appreciate from it every time. This new novel of hers feels much the same to me, brilliant and impactful, and I’m sure I’ll return to it again and again. It was reminiscent of David Mitchell’s “Cloud Atlas,” a favourite of mine, in that it focuses on characters in different points in time and weaves all the narratives together. I was fascinated by the question of time anomalies, by the uneasy focus on pandemics throughout history, by the quiet world of moon colonies, by the steadfast humanity of the characters. Honestly, I’ll read anything she writes; Emily St. John Mandel never disappoints.

Thanks to Harper Collins Canada and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Sea of Tranquility will transport the reader throughout time.

Emily St. John Mandel’s latest release loosely connects to her previous books Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel.

This story follows several characters in the past, present, and future. It begins in 1912 when Edwin St. Andrew, exiled from his family for his views on colonialism, experiences something so inexplicable he believes he imagined it.

About a century later, Mirella wants to reconnect with her old friend Vincent and learn more about her possible knowledge of a Ponzi scheme that left many in financial ruin.

In 2203, the story follows a well-known author who previously wrote a dystopian book about a pandemic. A book that is gaining popularity again since the population is currently in the clutches of a real pandemic. Sound familiar?

Two centuries later, Gaspery is bored working as a Hotel Detective and thus takes on a riskier but more enlightening job.

A singular moment ties all of these characters together in a way that is difficult for them to comprehend.

It sounds complicated, but Mandel’s writing is so clear and crisp that it’s relatively easy to keep all the timelines and characters in order.

Even though this has ties to her two previous books, they can all be read as standalones. I’ve read The Glass Hotel but haven’t got around to Station Eleven yet.

In some ways, this book reminded me of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. They both cover a broad timeline.

This novel has themes of death, illness, loneliness, and hope for humanity.

This is a relatively short novel, but it leaves a huge impact.

Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

PREORDER ALERT: Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel

One of my favourite authors has a new book coming out April 5th. Thank you so much to @netgalley and HarperCollins Canada for the advance copy.

This isn’t an in-depth review (no spoilers!) but just a note to say if you’re an Emily St. John Mandel fan, particularly of her last two books Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, I suggest you preorder this one. It will not disappoint.

I will say that it felt a little less substantive than Station Eleven, in particular, but part of that might just be its length (a mere 217 pages) because it’s not to say there weren’t intriguing concepts and bold ideas to ponder and reflect on

Engaging storytelling elements of both speculative fiction (eg. time travel, planetary colonism) and realism (eg. Covid 19), and literary while still being accessible and propulsive, much like Mandel’s other works, this was a true pleasure to read. One review I just looked at called this one “sci-fi with soul” which is an apt description.

There are characters from The Glass Hotel (although it’s definitely not necessary to have read it in order to make sense of this one) and also from Station Eleven (I think). It’s also a little meta which I found to be an enjoyable technique in this context.

I really appreciate having received an advance egalley of this one, but I’ll most certainly be buying the physical copy to shelve alongside the rest of my Emily St. John Mandel collection.

Have you read any of Emily St. John Mandel’s works? Are you interested in this one? I’ve seen it on a number of most anticipated lists, it was certainly on mine.