An interesting exploration of life in a pandemic, travelling across centuries and focusing on the human impact. I appreciated that the sci-fi elements were not over-explained, focusing instead on the characters and their specific missions. An interesting look at how humanity perseveres under pressure and presents some interesting concepts to think about. The structure of the novel appeals to me - the story moves quickly and we don't linger on a particular storyline for too long. All of the threads come together in a satisfying way and I was quite moved by the finale.

Emily St. John Mandel is probably the best writer Canada has to offer at the current moment. Since her breakout hit, Station Eleven, first graced bookstore shelves in 2014 (but was not her first novel), she has proven to be able to write consistent follow-up novels, The Glass Hotel being one of them, and her latest tome, Sea of Tranquility, being the other. Both novels are gloriously good — though Sea of Tranquility seems a bit short and more novella-ish than anything. Both tales are connected to each other as they both feature some of the same characters: Vincent and her brother Paul. However, and I hope I’m not saying too much, the events of Sea of Tranquility take place in a slightly altered timeline: Vincent’s Ponzi-scheming husband no longer goes to jail, but Vincent herself dies in the same tragic way that she did in The Glass Hotel. To that end, can you say that Sea of Tranquility is a sequel to The Glass Hotel, or is it just merely a companion novel(la)? Hard to tell, but readers of Sea of Tranquility will find it fun to spot all the Easter eggs that link it to the previous novel. That said, you don’t have to have read The Glass Hotel to enjoy Sea of Tranquility, though it might help to be familiar with Mandel’s work first.

Sea of Tranquility is about a lot of things. It is a novel(la) about the laziness of colonizers, whether they be British immigrants to Canada before World War I or colonizers of Earth’s moon in the far-off future. It is also a — let’s just call it a novel, shall wee? — about being a writer and the lonely life of promoting your work while on a book tour. It is additionally, like Station Eleven before it, a volume about pandemics and how does one survive when you’re in perpetual lockdown. If that weren’t enough, Sea of Tranquility begs to ask the question: are we living in a simulation a la The Matrix? To that end, Sea of Tranquility is a novel for literary readers who are interested in science fiction but don’t have the patience for that genre, and probably not for readers of science fiction who will find this slice of literary fiction to not be deep enough or travel far enough down paths that aren’t particularly well-worn. However, for those willing to come along for the ride, Sea of Tranquility is a fun book. It is gloriously entertaining for those who like their SF to be on the light side.

The novel flip-flops through different eras and strands of time: from the familiar-to-readers of The Glass Hotel fictional Vancouver Island hamlet of Caiette, here set in 1912 and the early ’90s, to the pre-COVID pandemic New York of 2020 to the imagined moon colonies of the 2300s after the Earth becomes more and more inhabitable due to climate change and geopolitical posturing. At the book’s heart is a male time traveller who ping-pongs between these settings to find out what’s behind an anomaly in the space-time continuum, while debating whether he should save the lives of some of the subjects he’s interviewing. Readers will delight in seeing how Mandel weaves together what seems to be, at first, divergent strands of plot that are seemingly unrelated to each other. It’s a similar trick to what she did in The Glass Hotel, which only serves to bolster the connections between the books. And, in so much as the fact that The Glass Hotel turned out to be a prescient look at life pre-COVID (and Station Eleven imagined what life would be like in a post-apocalyptic landscape after a pandemic), Sea of Tranquility deals with what it is like to live through an actual pandemic and how disconcerting that feeling truly is. In short, this book will certainly resonate with readers reading this in the year 2022.

In the end, while Sea of Tranquility is an enjoyable book, it does feel a little hurried and not quite as fleshed out as The Glass Hotel. Readers may note the two-year gestation period between the publication of these books, and the six-year wait between Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel. In many ways, Sea of Tranquility feels light, airy, and frothy, and is more playful than The Glass Hotel. However, there are those Easter eggs to contend with. The real fun is in noticing links that occur between this and the other novel, which is why you might want to go back to The Glass Hotel first if you haven’t read it. Still, Sea of Tranquility is a book that stands on its own merits. One must wonder if Mandel might be composing a trilogy here, and it’ll be interesting to see just where the author goes after this novel. If you’re looking for a good, “park your brain at the door” work with a bit of a literary twist, Sea of Tranquility will put that mind at ease. At the end of the day, this is a fine read and a worthy addition to Mandel’s growing oeuvre and should be actively sought out by those who love a good book. I’ve already mentioned this, but Mandel just might be Canada’s best contemporary writer, and it’s exciting to watch a true talent shine so brightly in the firmament of the Canadian literary scene. Go already and check this book out. You won’t regret it. I certainly didn’t.

This was a spell-binding read. I couldn't put it down, and I read it cover to cover in one sitting. I haven't encountered such an intricate, compelling story in a really long time. As proven by her previous work (cough cough... Station Eleven...) Emily St. John Mandel is a wonderful writer, perhaps one of the best storytellers of the 21st century. To anyone interested in stories that feature time travel, this novel offers a fresh, highly intelligent take on the subject and it will absolutely not disappoint.

Well paced with some good twists, but ultimately wasn’t totally my jam. I think it was missing a character connection for me, but if you like plot driven books you’d like this. Also, if you liked this one, I would recommend The Anomaly by Herve le Tellier!

Sea of Tranquility is one of my most anticipated books of 2022 and I can finally share that I read and loved it. It is different from her previous books in that it is more sci-fi but likely still fits under post apocalyptic fiction as well.

I love a book with some brain food in it and this one delivered. The way the book was organized set up some mysterious moments that were soon addressed with the theories of a scientist from far into the future.

It’s 1912 and a young man exiled from his English family travels to British Columbia. He travels to a remote community up the coast and stays there for a time living off a remittance. One day he decided to journey a little way into a forest and sees a large Maple tree. But then something happens and he is hearing a violin and a sound like the echo of a train station. Has he hallucinated this? This ‘blip’ in his reality is one that is repeated again at another time by another person. Researchers from far into the future are made aware of this and want to investigate.

I adored seeing some of the characters from The Glass Hotel making their way into this book and would highly recommend reading The Glass Hotel before The Sea of Tranquility if you haven’t already. I also wondered if there was some crossover from Station Eleven but don’t have a good enough memory to have noticed any specifics.

The writing as always is sophisticated but accessible. Each character, primary or secondary has a great bio and personality characteristics. If you enjoyed The Glass Hotel, I think you will especially love this one.

This novel deals heavily with pandemics and not the brightest future from a climate change stance so be aware of this if you are sensitive to these topics.

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @harpercollins for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. Sea of Tranquility publishes April 5, 2022.

This book is so beautifully written - I can't believe I haven't read Emily St. John Mandel before now.

Sea of Tranquility is a book that requires the reader to be involved in the storytelling. It was such an immersive reading experience where I felt like I was putting all of the pieces together as I read. I found myself briefly confused at the beginning of the novel and struggled to keep some of the characters and their storylines straight in my head, but the nice thing about this book is how quick it is to read. I felt so consumed in the storytelling and the world that I truly couldn't put the book down and read it from cover to cover.

I can't recommend this book enough!

This book is a series of interlocking narratives that all revolve around a strange occurrence in a forest near the tiny, fictional town of Caiette, British Columbia.

Apparently this standalone title contains some of the same characters as Mandel's previous novel, “The Glass Hotel.” I have not read “The Glass Hotel,” so I can't say whether or not having read it would enhance the experience of reading this book. I can say that I did not have any trouble following the story or understanding the characters in this book.

First, the prose. The prose is, as ever with this author, easy to read and allows for some moments of beauty and reflection as well. I found myself being pulled along quite comfortably through the story. The tone is rather light and doesn't dive too deep into the emotionality of the characters or the situations they find themselves in.

Next, the plot. I found it easy to follow, honestly a little too predictable for my taste, although I understand that this lighter tone and fairly tidy plot is characteristic of Mandel's work. Unusual to find a story that evokes existential dread but can also be described as a “comfort read,” don't you think?

As one would expect from a novel with multiple perspectives, there are quite a few loose narrative threads pulled out as we meet each new character. And many of the threads tie together in a very satisfying way. However, one thread was left unresolved, which I found a bit disappointing. Perhaps we'll hear more about it in a subsequent novel?

A side note. Obvious author self-referential elements aside, this book directly references and, at times, comments upon, the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm not a big fan of COVID-19 references in novels. I read novels to escape reality, not be reminded of it! However, this book takes what seems to be the most common approach to referencing COVID these days. All comments are non-specific, apolitical, and I found they didn't intrude too much on my enjoyment of the story overall.

The characters. As I did with Mandel's “Station Eleven,” I found myself wanting a little more depth from the characters in this book. While distinct from one another, the characters were difficult for me to connect with, perhaps because of their brief appearances in the book. I also had a hard time feeling invested in what turned out to be the main character.

Speaking of the main character, they are introduced quite late in the story-about halfway through the book-and I was honestly pretty irritated that they were included in the blurb from the publisher. Knowing their name and a little bit about who they were ahead of time took the element of surprise completely out of the equation for me, to the detriment of my reading experience.

Overall, I enjoyed this book even though I found it predictable and I'm still not quite sure what it's about. It was a light, easy read, with a couple of deeper questions tossed out here and there. It won't stick with me for too long.

This book would work well as an audiobook, though I didn't read it in that format. Each perspective is relatively self-contained, and the main thread of the story is not too hard to follow. If the audiobook has multiple readers, then even better!

I absolutely love this book. I thought it would be more, well, pandemic-y and wasn't sure I would be ready but it speaks to the quiet of our time while pushing beyond the boundaries of enclosure. The way St. John Mandel weaves together time, connection, and identity is beautiful. The time-travel component is fantastic and raises interesting questions about the nature of time, who we are, even what we are and what is real. In this time of unreality and newness I loved spending time with a character who is asking the big questions and fighting for what he believes.

Mare Tranquillitatis or the Sea of Tranquility is the place where humans first landed on the Moon and I love that the name of the book not only connects it to history but also brings a sense of calmness while reading it. That is the beauty of atmospheric writing I have found - it allows us to experience the world almost through a fog. There is a lot to decipher and if we pay attention, it can be a wonderful mystery to unfold. That is how I approached this book and I was not disappointed at all.

Sea of Tranquility has a number of characters and it is only as the story unfolds that the main character starts to emerge. We experience our history through chapters set in 1912, 1918 and 2020, and then later re-experience it through stories and history told in the years 2203 and 2401. One of the words that came to mind as I was reading this book was 'cinematic'. Maybe because I have adjusted to the atmospheric storytelling style that Mandel writes, I imagine the characters and the chapters being scenes from the characters’ lives. The slice of life narratives are quite engaging. I did not truly need to know the characters by their nature and virtues, I just needed to know how they fit in the puzzle I had been handed, one that in the beginning, I did not quite comprehend. It is all about slowly revealing the big picture with intricate details from different lives, some characters being so peripheral yet pivotal to the plot that one could almost miss them.

Time travel is one of my favorite subgenres to read! Often, I find myself wanting to know its intricacies and how it came to be, but Sea of Tranquility is written so beautifully that the mystery at hand about the anomaly that the time traveler is investigating is way more important than how he time travels and how it affects him. The main idea is how he affects the timeline.

Reading so many different years in Sea of Tranquility made me wonder about longevity of life and memory. What we see in our lives is such a small part of the world events, of the experience that humans have and continue to have. I really like the idea of looking at centuries as different worlds. No one person remembers the change. I wasn’t here in the 1800s and for sure, I won’t know 2200s either.

This book, like Station Eleven, comes full circle. It leaves just enough room for the reader to imagine what happens next. It tangled me in its plot in such a way that I could not let go and from a reader, I quickly transitioned to a student, taking notes, highlighting sections. It was like being on a boat that is following the path that the river is taking. I don’t have control but I have the choice to enjoy the view and see what happens next.

I was very excited when I was approved to read Sea of Tranquility. I wanted to give Mandel’s writing another try and I am so glad I did. She took time travel and made it into something remarkable and unforgettable. This story will always be with me and while I won’t know the characters very well, when I think of time, The Matrix, Dark or time-travel, I will think of all of them. I will imagine the world of the 2200s and 2400s that Mendel created with minimal details in my head.

A full detailed review will be posted to armedwithabook.com closer to publication date. Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. I will be pre-ordering this one!

4.5 stars

Sea of Tranquility was a quick read containing a multitude of speculative ideas, times, and worlds. The novel touches on our current situation without being of the class of “pandemic novel”, which is a relief to the reader seeking an escape from reality. As is due, Mandel revisits and remodels the idea of how society would respond to a global pandemic in contrast to her earlier efforts while also dealing with themes of despondency, death, bureaucracy, and the inevitable passage of time.

In a future where technological advances lead to sustainable living for humankind outside of Earth, where holograms and virtual reality have advanced and time travel is possible, Mandel poses an unnerving idea that begins as an itch until it slowly consumes you: what if life is not what you think it is, and what will it take to find the truth? While this notion is at the crux of the novel, the story gives way to a broader rumination on humanity – how we fill our days amidst the unexpected chaos that interferes with our day-to-day lives and the decisions we make that impact ourselves, our closest companions and complete strangers. Without oversentimentalizing, Mandel’s novel optimistically weighs that human good will often trump passivity when put to the test.

Sea of Tranquility delivers a profound investigation of humanity that is approached with such honesty, sincerity, and reverence which is trademark to Mandel’s narrative style. And as any good story will do, the reader will be left wanting more.

Thank you to HarperCollins Canada and Netgalley for this wonderful read.

4.5 stars.

This was a really beautiful and intriguing science fiction book about reality, the future, living through a pandemic, time travel and the effects our small actions make in the world. I found it so interesting! It is one of those books that send you down a dark hole of daydreaming, wondering what the distant future holds and if it will be anything like the book. The book was written so well that it felt very real, like it was just definitely the future.

The time travel was done seamlessly. I often don't like books that jump between time periods but this one was done so flawlessly that I didn't find it took away from my ability to get to know and follow the characters and their lives, it just added to the wonder of what could be.

Overall this book was stunningly, thought provoking. What makes a life? What is reality? How much do our seemingly small decisions effect those around us? How much can these effects change the entire course of history? I definitely recommend this read.

Sea of Tranquility is a quick but delightful read. I finished this in an afternoon during a period of Covid-related isolation, and as many others have likely said, it is a perfect pandemic read. Mandel is a master of character-development and from the first pages I was invested in what would become of the main players. She plays eloquently with time travel and simulation theory, but without it feeling trite like some other fantasy/sci fi works. Honestly, Sea of Tranquility is further evidence that everything Mandel writes is magical and worth picking up

While it is helpful to have already read Station 11 and The Glass Hotel to get some of the meta references, you can still enjoy this book if those titles are in your TBR pile.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Canada for the ARC.

Emily St. John Mandel expertly weaves the various threads of her story together into a cohesive, stunning narrative that absolutely had me captivated from start to finish.

‪I truly love the way that Emily St. John Mandel does this quiet sci-fi that’s unexpected and beautiful. It’s so subtle but incredibly well done. I didn’t realize this would tackle pandemics and be a little bit tricky to read at times (whilst we continue on living in an ongoing pandemic) but the story is focused on so many other things that it’s not a major concern for anyone who might be burnt out on the subject. Her previous work, Station Eleven, explored the fallout from a pandemic as well as the pandemic itself and this doesn’t go into depths like that. It’s a footnote in the overall story.

Like Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen, it feels like it plays with similar elements we’ve seen a bit recently in pop culture love Marvel’s Loki series. Time travel, institutes to preserve the timeline, agents that are trained to deal with disturbances and variants. They all have their own unique flavour though and approach things wildly differently. You could give a dozen creators the same concept and what they come up with would be entirely different in each instance. Time travel isn’t a new concept to play around with either. But it’s so interestingly developed here and I couldn’t put this book down.

I was really excited to read Emily St. John Mandel’s latest novel, Sea of Tranquility. I read both her previous books Station Eleven and the Glass Hotel and loved them. The two books were so compelling and readable and they were so different from each other. Mandel manages to up her game in my estimation even more with her third book, Sea of Tranquility; the story telling is even more riveting. I read this book in practically one sitting because I couldn’t wait to know what would happen next.

Sea of Tranquility can be defined as a book about colonization, time travel, pandemics and so much more. It’s been days since I’ve read it and I’m still peeling back the layers. There are dystopian elements as well as some fantasy aspects. All of the characters we meet throughout time are interesting and well thought out. Throughout the book we jump back and forth in time and spy on various characters and situations that are masterly weaved together by the author to come to a cool conclusion.

Although this is a stand alone book, I thought it was so cool that characters from her two previous books lived on in this one. It felt like I was able to get an update on past characters that I was curious about. I thought it was very creative and such a fun read. In my mind, Emily St. John Mandel has served up three very well written and entertaining reads that also leave the reader with some deeper topics to contemplate. I highly recommend.

This is a wonderful, perplexing novel of soaring imagination. It draws on speculative physics, metaphysics, and science fiction in an original, thought-provoking manner. What if what we consider our reality is actually a manufactured simulation? The controls carry a glitch (or file corruption) that bleeds or melds together moments from the past, present, and future for an instant over the centuries. The theory is with the advance of holograms and virtual reality; this is a technical possibility far in the future. Perhaps the sounds, smells, the people, and the world we see around us, and what we consider the reality of our lives is only a simulation.

In 1912, Edwin St. Andrew was exiled from his family's estate in England and is now living as a remittance man in the wilderness of British Columbia. He is indolent and spends his time wandering in the forest. He is shocked to hear violin music played in an airship terminal, falls ill, and believes he has suffered hallucinations. He is questioned by a man impersonating a priest.

In 2020, a young girl filming old-growth trees experienced an anomaly, disrupting time and place.

Olive Llewellen lives on Moon Colony 2 in the year 2203. She is on a book tour scheduled to take her through the colonies and Earth to promote her pandemic novel that has become a bestseller. This is the beginning of a deadly pandemic, soon to lead to lengthy lockdowns and death.

In the future, at about 2400, a hotel security guard, Gaspery, is finding his work boring. He has learned that his sister and a boyhood friend are employed in prominent positions at the Time Institute. He manages to get accepted there and has an assignment after lengthy training. Time travel has already been invented but is mainly outlawed. Problems have arisen from time travellers making mistakes or breaking the rules, altering timelines. The Time Institute works at restoring these changes. Those charged are imprisoned or made to vanish.

Gaspery's assignment is to go back in time to different years and places and interview the man playing the violin and three others who have experienced the anomalies. He must be impartial and resist any urges to better his subjects' futures. Can he overcome his humanity? Can he solve what is causing the glitches or disruptions?

Many thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins Canada, and Sarah Gregory for this splendid, memorable, mind-boggling book.

I absolutely loved this book so so much. Mandel is my favourite author ever and this is up there with my favourite books of all time. I can’t recommend it enough

Sea of Tranquility is my favourite Emily St. John Mandel so far: more playful than her previous novels, I found this to be meaningful and thought-provoking while absolutely capturing the experience of living through the Covid-19 pandemic. Some characters from The Glass Hotel make a return and, metafictionally, Station Eleven is referenced (as a stand-in for Mandel herself is asked what it’s like to see her pandemic novel, Marienbad, resurge in popularity during an actual pandemic), and the whole feels like a David Mitchellesque über-project; Mandel is on her way to creating an epic here. On its own, this volume might feel a bit slight (it only takes a few hours to read), but for what it adds to the overall project, and for what it captures of our times, I am rounding up to five stars; it’s a perfect little gem.

I must start by thanking NetGalley as well as the publisher Knopf for my eARC in exchange for my honest review. I had already moved too fast, too far, and wished to travel no further. I’ve been thinking a great deal about time and motion lately, and being a still point in the ceaseless rush. What a wonderful perplexing novel! Time travels and the anomalies that can occur. Emily St. John Mandel has reaffirmed the reason to read everything she writes.