224 pages
English language
Published April 21, 2022 by Pan Macmillan.
I found this touching and hopeful, I liked how poignantly the characters were drawn, and the themes of kindness and the vicissitudes of life.
My main complaint was that I think the simulation theory stuff was basically an unnecessary macguffin and didn't add to the themes (at least as far as they interested me).
I honestly really wanted to like this book but it was mostly ok. I’d give it 2.5 if goodreads had the system.
The book set itself up for a great premise and then, over and over, did fairly underwhelming things with it.
It mostly felt like a Vonnegut without all the joy, but without enough emotional stake to make up for it.
whoaa... outstanding twist, i loved the way the author gradually hinted at the possible complication and outcome of the plot. i wish we'd heard more about mirella though.
A good, short book. It got me entertained enought that I read in basically one go on a trip.
Ogólnie świetna książka, ale mam wrażenie, że trochę autorka na siłę chcę nas wzruszyć.
Zdecydowanie druga część książki jest lepsza, podoba mi się wykreowany świat i ta fragmentaryczność historii.To idealny przykład, że dużo mądrej i ważnej treści można przekazać w krótkim utworze.
Content warning Slight spoiler towards the end of the paragraph
… which is Goethe and translates as "one notices the intention and is disappointed". Which is the feeling I got from reading the book: While the sections set in the early 20th century work very well, the sci-fi settings have a forced and constructed feel; while the overall story arc makes sense, the details of the construction are visible too often (how everything is about what is real and what is virtual, about connection and loneliness, and in the end really only about the experience of Covid-19); and while the idea of using time travel as a plot device, not as the main topic, is great, there are just too many inconsistencies in how it is used (sometimes things happen the way they have always done because of some cross-time intervention, sometimes such an intervention causes things to change). Overall a nice read, but not much more.
Another exciting time travel story with a cool twist at the end. I appreciate the conclusion around the Simulation Hypothesis. Made me think of Cloud Atlas or the Years of Salt and Rice.
I didn't think I'd love this book as much as I did. It was a fascinating story, with very compelling characters. I love the references to Station Eleven (and I'm hearing that there's even more with Glass Hotel that I haven't read yet). The pandemic is woven into the story in a very sensible way that really spoke to me. My only criticism is that it's too short. Some characters and storylines really should have been more developed. Maybe in future books, as it seems that the author is slowly building a more or less shared universe.
Tranquil it is, this highly praised book. The first half flows gently and introduces the main characters and their lives. In the second half, some low-level action casually picks up to create a sort of mild excitement. I did care what would happen, and how the layers of this novel are connected - but everything was so mellow that I ended up not caring all that much.
I've seen "Sea of Tranquility" classified as "quiet sci-fi", and I think this captures the mood well. Everything does finally flow together, but not even the pandemic theme or the "big reveal" at the end really moved me.
Regardless of my opinion of the content, this book is exceptionally well written - the characters feel real, their motivations are clear, their development is plausible. For what it's worth, this book did have me turn the pages, it was very quick read - everything …
Tranquil it is, this highly praised book. The first half flows gently and introduces the main characters and their lives. In the second half, some low-level action casually picks up to create a sort of mild excitement. I did care what would happen, and how the layers of this novel are connected - but everything was so mellow that I ended up not caring all that much.
I've seen "Sea of Tranquility" classified as "quiet sci-fi", and I think this captures the mood well. Everything does finally flow together, but not even the pandemic theme or the "big reveal" at the end really moved me.
Regardless of my opinion of the content, this book is exceptionally well written - the characters feel real, their motivations are clear, their development is plausible. For what it's worth, this book did have me turn the pages, it was very quick read - everything was just toned down too much for my taste.
I think I will read everything Emily St John Mandel writes.
More pat, if not more enjoyable, as Mitchell’s “Cloud Atlas” meets “Glass Hotel”. I find myself more and more comparing rather than absorbing. “How Ferrante like, how so Cuskan, how pale Le Guinian.”
But a downgrade.
I liked the story of isolated humans trying to find meaning in their lives, all tangled together and touched by the miraculous. It left me feeling hopeful and reassured.
It was okay, but it made me think of a simpler Cloud Atlas. But a short and diverting enough novel to pass a few days.
[a:Emily St. John Mandel|2786093|Emily St. John Mandel|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1576606299p2/2786093.jpg]'s [b:Sea of Tranquility|58446227|Sea of Tranquility|Emily St. John Mandel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1626710416l/58446227.SX50.jpg|92408226] is a fun book to read with lots going on for such a short book (255 pages, with lots of air) that I read in just three days, which is rare for me, but don't approach it as regular sci-fi if you're big on that genre. Not much of that makes real sense.
The story relies on time travel, which I doubt will ever be possible and if it ever is it should be banned as much as possible. Once you step on that one butterfly ...
The time travel links a few plot lines, most of which make satisfying little tales on their own, especially, to me, the first one. The stories probably mesh to a greater degree than I'm aware of, but I am too dumb to get it.
I enjoyed …
[a:Emily St. John Mandel|2786093|Emily St. John Mandel|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1576606299p2/2786093.jpg]'s [b:Sea of Tranquility|58446227|Sea of Tranquility|Emily St. John Mandel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1626710416l/58446227.SX50.jpg|92408226] is a fun book to read with lots going on for such a short book (255 pages, with lots of air) that I read in just three days, which is rare for me, but don't approach it as regular sci-fi if you're big on that genre. Not much of that makes real sense.
The story relies on time travel, which I doubt will ever be possible and if it ever is it should be banned as much as possible. Once you step on that one butterfly ...
The time travel links a few plot lines, most of which make satisfying little tales on their own, especially, to me, the first one. The stories probably mesh to a greater degree than I'm aware of, but I am too dumb to get it.
I enjoyed reading it anyway.
There is clearly a lot of autobiographical stuff in here St. John Mandel packed in to get off her chest, especially an extended bit on book tours. Good reading, but I have to hope that men (mostly) won't say the idiotic things they do now in the year 2203.
Excerpt:
"I was so confused by your book," a woman in Dallas said. "There were all these strands, narratively speaking, all these characters, and I felt like I was waiting for them to connect, but they didn't, ultimately. They just ended. I was like"—she was some distance away, in the darkened audience, but Olive saw that she was miming flipping through a book and running out of pages—"I was just like, Huh? Is this book missing pages? It just ended."
