Sea of Tranquility

by: Emily St. John Mandel

Goodreads description:

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 bestselling 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 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. 

Helen says:🤓🤓🤓🤓

This was an interesting follow up to The Glass Hotel. Part of the story line seemed familiar so I googled the plot of The Glass Hotel and some of the characters fell into place. This book was bizarre, but I liked it! It was a captivating, quick read. Side note- I am drawn to dystopian and sci/fi style novels and movies! David Bowie could have written the soundtrack for a movie adaptation – think Star Man …Is there life on Mars? This book blew my mind. I can’t imagine how the author constructed this story. Read it and get back to me!

Holly says: 🤓🤓1/2

Once someone explains to me what in the heck actually happened in this book, maybe I’ll be able to render better comments. I just didn’t get it – or reallly understand it. As a disclaimer, and in respect to the author (I enjoyed one of her other books more than this one), I am not much of a fan of futuristic or sci-fi novels or movies, with a few exceptions, such as Blade Runner, E.T., and Star Wars. 😁 The prose is lovely, I just had a great deal of trouble following the story, plot and characters – maybe because they kept time travelling. Perhaps I’ll try and read it again and pay closer attention…nah…

Click here to purchase.