Space travel is always an exciting yet perilous proposition. Similarly, this journey through space and time by Emily St. John Mandel is an exciting yet precarious way to create a novel. One wrong step, and the whole thing could have fallen apart. In *Sea of Tranquility*, you're strapped into a roller coaster that transcends centuries, planets, and pandemics. Buckle up. "I think you'd want to visit all those points in time," Zoey said. “You’d want to speak with the letter writer in 1912, the ...

Breathtaking, mind-blowing, complex, serene, intelligent! These are the first words that come to mind having finished this fascinating journey—easily one of the best books of 2022. If you're looking for book reviews that nail it, look no further. The novel’s central question is far more intricate than it first appears. What would you do if you found yourself in the middle of a time corruption—an unexplainable derangement where moments bleed into and distort one another? Four people, scattered...

A claustrophobic, spiraling novel, like a nautilus shell. The synopsis bills this as a time travel story, but to me, it felt less about time travel and more about a novelist's wistful reflections on the jarring shift from *a writer, a quiet observer of the world*, to *a writer, performing the act of being a writer*—on how her identity and time are devoured, along with her novels. I get why the summary emphasizes time travel; there's a good amount of it in Sea of Tranquility. But for me, the book...

“Isn’t that why we’re here? To leave a mark on wilderness?” I was one of the few readers (or so it seemed) left underwhelmed by Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven when I read it back in 2014. The hype and gushing reviews seemed at odds with the very okay novel I read, which is why I passed on reading The Glass Hotel.Now I'm wondering: should I go back and read the author's other stuff? Because I have to admit I found Sea of Tranquility riveting and beautiful.From what I remember, it is no...

I'm honestly on the fence about this one. It screams 'written during the pandemic.' It almost feels like you *need* to have read The Glass Hotel first, and there's even a quick nod to Station Eleven. But, truth be told, I think those earlier books are stronger than **Sea of Tranquility**. The plot felt like a bit of a jumble – space colonies, the future, life as a writer, surviving a pandemic, and the ethics of time travel. What really bothered me, though, was how underdeveloped the characters w...

Nothing makes me feel dumber than reading a time travel book. Lol.I don't know what it is, but my brain just can't comprehend the concept enough to enjoy stories that use it as a plot device. Which is such a shame because I really love Emily St. John Mandel's writing style – it's just as lovely and lyrical in this as it is in her previous books. And I said before, when ESJM wrote about a Ponzi scheme (one of the dullest topics on earth), that it's not what her books say, but how they say it, tha...

In Emily St. John Mandel's *Sea of Tranquility*, the story unfolds across shifting timelines with a diverse cast of characters. In Mirella's timeline, a flurry of introductions happens quickly, which can get a little confusing. Adding to this, there's a character named Vincent—who is actually female. I found myself rereading passages, trying to figure out what I was missing because I kept assuming "she" referred to someone else entirely. It was a bit of a head-scratcher!The first 40% of *Sea of ...

One of my most anticipated new releases of the year, *Sea of Tranquility* by Emily St. John Mandel, turned out to be a watered-down rewrite of *Cloud Atlas*. If I were David Mitchell, I don't know whether I'd feel flattered or just profoundly ripped off. *Sea of Tranquility* has exactly the same narrative structure as *Cloud Atlas*, consisting of interconnected stories that occur across different timelines, starting in the past and spanning into the future. Like *Cloud Atlas*, the opening story...

Be sure to visit Bantering Books to read all my latest reviews.“… what she found at that moment, as the lights of yet another ambulance flickered over the ceiling, was that it was possible to smile back. This is the strange lesson of living in a pandemic: life can be tranquil in the face of death.”Emily St. John Mandel brought me out of a writing slump. This is the first book review I’ve written in months, and not only do I want to share my thoughts regarding her latest novel, Sea of Tranquility...

I honestly don't know how to review Sea of Tranquility.https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...Even when I'm totally on top of things, firing on all cylinders, life's going great, and I'm organized with plenty of cookies and Persian cucumbers (the two best foods, obviously), the *absolute best* I can hope for is a three-week gap between finishing a book and reviewing it.But that's not the point, because this one's been sitting with me for two *months*.I just... don't know where to start. I've ne...