I'm OK with the time travel paradoxes -- those are inevitable. But to me it's a pretty bad plot weakness here that the Time Institute notices, and manages to find documentation of, a glitch in the matrix that just looks to three observers like a migraine symptom or a petit mal epileptic fit. People's brains and senses make up all sorts of weird shit all the time, and nobody takes it as evidence of anything particularly significant.
Krasna knizecka. Opet trosku obava z pandemicke vlozky, prezil sem. Pro fandy hard bude cestovani casem jiste usmevny. Ale proste podobne jako ve Stanici 11 je tady spousta "poezie" v pribehu. Zaokrouhluju na ctyri hvezdy.
Although the time anomaly and time travel in this book are of the standard variety the author manages to give the concept an uniqie and compelling spin. It's more about the characters that encounter the anomaly and are linked through it while they're unstuck and kind of isolated in their own time. I appreciated the inclusion of pandemics in the narrative but it's a little depressing that people don't seem to have learned from them even centuries in the future. There are some minor flaws but I liked the overall feel of the book.
A nice and easy read, came in knowing NOTHING and I do recommend to go in blank if u wanna dabble. Not a lot of depth in characters, I think that's what made me feel a bit disconnected throughout.
I must say though, this book is kind of insane cuz it connected me with the ACTUAL longevity of the human race and that is bonkers innit? There were girlies like me living, feeling, and thinking in 1844? And there will be others humans, in flesh and bone, living, feeling, and thinking in 2440? What will societies look like in 2440? Where will we be? What trials and tribulations will humans persist? And what wonders will we discover about the vast and magical natural world we have found ourselves in?
I'm but a speck of consciousness in infinite time and space !!!! SAD !!!!
Goodreads Review of Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
5 stars
I'll never get over Emily St. John Mandel's ability to weave many different simple narratives into a compelling braid of a story that still manages to have surprises, twists, and turns without being overly bulky or needing extensive exposition. She always holds you right on the cusp of confusion, making you think you lost the plot, but you didn't. She will reel you right back in. This was the case for Station Eleven, and The Glass Hotel, and Sea of Tranquility was no exception.
In this book we follow a few different narratives, and those who have read her previous other works will find some familiar. Edwin St. Andrew is the lesser son of some English nobles, sent to colonized Canada in 1912 as a punishment where he experiences something extraordinary, and almost alien in the Canadian Wilderness. A man watches. Vincent (a character readers of the author's works may …
I'll never get over Emily St. John Mandel's ability to weave many different simple narratives into a compelling braid of a story that still manages to have surprises, twists, and turns without being overly bulky or needing extensive exposition. She always holds you right on the cusp of confusion, making you think you lost the plot, but you didn't. She will reel you right back in. This was the case for Station Eleven, and The Glass Hotel, and Sea of Tranquility was no exception.
In this book we follow a few different narratives, and those who have read her previous other works will find some familiar. Edwin St. Andrew is the lesser son of some English nobles, sent to colonized Canada in 1912 as a punishment where he experiences something extraordinary, and almost alien in the Canadian Wilderness. A man watches. Vincent (a character readers of the author's works may be familiar with), has a same experience at the same place in the wilderness in 1994, filming with a personal camera. A man watches. In 2020, Mirella, a former friend of Vincent's, is looking for her, and comes to an experimental art show put on by Vincent's brother where he shows Vincent's recording of that event in 1994. A man watches. Olive is an author from the second colony of the moon in 2203. She's doing a book tour on Earth while the beginnings of a pandemic break out. A man watches. In 2401, Gaspery is a man living in the second colony in of the moon, aka Night City, who gets wrapped up in the business of his sister who works for an agency that governs time travel.
St. John Mandel's strength has always been structure and composition. She is truly an expert at revolutionizing how a story is told without burdening the reader with knots of stories. Her character work is also always something to look forward to as well. I love how she sometimes only allows us a surface level understanding of a character, like Edwin (even if maybe they're a protagonist) while others we get an in-depth, deep dive into their psyche, like Olive. It mirrors our own relationships with the people in our lives.
I continue to be impressed with everything I read from Emily St. John Mandel, and I will read everything she's written at this point. I should warn potential readers, while not necessary, it would be beneficial for you to read, at the very least, The Glass Hotel before you read this book. If you want some more small Easter eggs, you should also read Station Eleven before reading.
in general a big fan of this linked trilogy and this felt like a good extension of the others. it gets better as it goes along / if you live as if it's real, it will be real
I liked the intertwined storylines and i thought the characters were well drawn and sympathetic. The only problem I had was the idea of the continuation of culture over hundreds of years. it rang false to me.
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).
