Sea of Tranquility

Finished up my second by Emily St. John Mandel novel, Sea of Tranquility, after just finishing The Glass Hotel a few days ago.

Goodreads Stats

Why I Read This Book/How I Heard About It

I enjoy Emily St. John Mandel's storytelling and I'd added a few of her books to my Hold list without any information about any of her books beyond Station Eleven.

Goodreads Summary

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied 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.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.'

First Impressions

What a delight to hear a character's name in the second chapter and do a quick double take, "Wait, did she just say Vincent?" The main character from The Glass Hotel, along with her brother (Paul) and best friend (Mirella) all feature in this book as well! I was like Elf the night before Santa comes.

"VINCENT!!!! I KNOW HER!!!!"

I always think it's fun to see an author reference past characters from other stories in their newer works. This is something Stephen King does and it's never not fun. But, what I didn't know was that this book was not only connected to The Glass Hotel, but ALSO Station Eleven. What a delightful surprise.

Final Thoughts

It's funny, but even though some of the characters from past novels overlap, the story is nothing like either of the other two books at all. This is a story about time travel and simulation theory. But, somehow, Mandel works in her previous plots in tiny pockets of this story. It feels like all her work is coming together in a massive meant-to-be circle and it's extremely satisfying as a reader.

The feeling of vastness in this story reminds me of the way I felt when I encountered the final chapter of How High We Go In The Dark. If you have read that book, you will probably enjoy this book too. The scope of this tale is magnificent. I was so confused in the beginning, trying to figure out how all of these pieces fit together and I began to wonder if I was going to understand this book at all. But, Mandel does a really nice job of smoothly interlocking all the storylines and, when you get to a specific chapter (about 60% of the way through), all of the threads snap into place and you have that "aha moment". It's like those Magic Eye puzzles that don't make any sense and then, suddenly...you see it.

The only reason I'm giving this one 3 stars instead of 4 is because I felt Station Eleven was a superior story overall. But don't let this dissuade you from picking up this book. This story is great as well. And, for all it's expansiveness, it's a pretty quick read.

Rating on Goodreads

I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars.

My rating method:

• I rarely rate books 5 stars. I save this for the absolute best books I've read. You know the ones...the ones that you can't get out of your head, even after you've finished them. The ones you think about for weeks afterwards.

• If a book is really, really good, I'll give it 4 stars. If you see a 4-star rating from me, I'd definitely recommend it to you to read.

• If it's just OK, it gets 3 stars. Basically, it means I could take it or leave it. I'd probably read it again because it wasn't terrible. But not like a favorite or anything.

• If I rate it 1 or 2 stars, I would not recommend anyone read it. It either didn't hold my interest or I couldn't relate to the characters/plot.