Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Sea of Tranquility

Sea of Tranquility
by Emily St. John Mandel
Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. 255 pages. Science Fiction

Although they live centuries apart, three people record having the same transformative experience. Edwin St. Andrew records his experience in his journal while on a small island off Vancouver in 1912. Vincent Smith records her experience with a camcorder in the same woods almost a hundred years later. Author Olive Llewelyn, based on a moon colony but currently doing a book tour on Earth, records her experience in her wildly successful pandemic-themed novel in 2203. In 2401, the researchers at The Time Institute discover this uncanny link, and send a time travel investigator to figure out what happened.

A first glance, Sea of Tranquility covers a lot of the same themes and even plotlines covered in the author's most recent novels, Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel. For those who are intrigued by this novel but haven't read anything else by this author, know that this book stands pretty well on its own. I loved the surprising twists and turns the time travel element brought to the story. I also loved the humanity embedded in each theme and character. While this book covers the effects of pandemics and loss, it also covers the value of relationships and connection, leaving an overall message of hope and resilience. If you like quiet, meditative books that also throw in interesting twists and turns, this book is for you.

If you like Sea of Tranquility you might also like: 

by Sequoia Nagamatsu
William Morrow, 2022. 292 pages. Science Fiction

Told from the perspective of a different person in each chapter, this story tracks the rise and fall of a deadly virus from its discovery in the Arctic permafrost, to its spread across the globe, and to the eventual discovery of a cure. Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resiliency of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.

Utopia Avenue
by David Mitchell
Random House, 2020. 571 pages. Historical Fiction

David Mitchell is known for writing complex, multilayered tales with storylines that tie together in fascinating ways. This book covers the lives of the band members of Utopia Avenue, a folk-rock-psychedelic quartet trying to navigate life, meaning, and music in 1960s London.


This is How You Lose the Time War
by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Saga Press, 2019. 198 pages. Science Fiction

For those who would prefer not to read about pandemics, but would love to read about time travel, this book covers the agents of two warring time travel factions who begin an unlikely correspondence which grows into a strong attachment. The discovery of their bond would mean death for them both.

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