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Available
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 best-selling 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 black-skied 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"--From the publisher's web site.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member sturlington
Emily St. John Mandel's writing has a quality to it that makes any scene interesting. This novel stretches both into the past and the far future, encompassing the mundane and the fantastic. In one scene, a woman at a party realizes she has fallen out of love with her girlfriend. A writer
Her writing is so detailed, so quiet and lovely, so transporting. I just fall into her books.
This book, as I mentioned, has to do with pandemics, moon colonies, time travel, and some interesting ideas about time and reality and the experience of life. It is strongly connected to her previous novels, Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, and this novel will have more resonance if you've already read those. There seems to be an autobiographical element to it as well, the experience of a writer suddenly thrust into best-selling status, and also some musing on why we are fascinated by postapocalyptic literature. And of course, there is commentary on the pandemic we are currently experiencing. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which I read in a little over two days, and while nothing yet has quite lived up to the emotional power of Station Eleven, I think Mandel is probably one of the best writers working in that nebulous realm where science fiction and literary fiction merge.
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experiences the tedium of a book tour in a series of motel rooms and snippets from her standard talk. The same writer then experiences the tedium of lockdown during a pandemic in her home in a settlement on the moon. A man, a time traveler, remembers his childhood growing up near that writer's house but two hundred years later, the edge of the dome under which he lived, the strip of overgrown wildness near that periphery. Her writing is so detailed, so quiet and lovely, so transporting. I just fall into her books.
This book, as I mentioned, has to do with pandemics, moon colonies, time travel, and some interesting ideas about time and reality and the experience of life. It is strongly connected to her previous novels, Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, and this novel will have more resonance if you've already read those. There seems to be an autobiographical element to it as well, the experience of a writer suddenly thrust into best-selling status, and also some musing on why we are fascinated by postapocalyptic literature. And of course, there is commentary on the pandemic we are currently experiencing. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which I read in a little over two days, and while nothing yet has quite lived up to the emotional power of Station Eleven, I think Mandel is probably one of the best writers working in that nebulous realm where science fiction and literary fiction merge.
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LibraryThing member nivramkoorb
I have read all of Mandel's books. She is excellent and this is one of her best. It deals with time travel, colonies on the Moon, pandemics, and the interweaving of different characters in different times that have a connection.This is not a long book and it flows wonderfully as she introduces all
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of the various characters in the first 100 pages. She expands on a couple of characters with the focus on the time traveling investigator, Gaspery. She ties all the characters together by the end and it all works for me. If you have never read Mandel, this is a great introduction to one of our best authors. Show Less
LibraryThing member ozzer
This is a hard novel to follow, but well worth the effort it requires. Mandel gives us a wonderful meditation on many of the issues that would arise should we ever conquer time travel. She never loses sight of the essential humanity of her characters. In the final analysis, our grasp of reality is
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called into question, but so what. It's all still pretty wonderful. Show Less
LibraryThing member albertgoldfain
Satisfying from cover to cover. I'm a sucker for the nested narrative "cloud atlas" style. The simulation hypothesis keeps coming up in things I read (maybe a glitch?)
LibraryThing member novelcommentary
There is something hypnotically graceful about the confluence of characters that Mandel pulls together for this exceptional novel. Edwin St. Andrew, a remittance man in 1912, a young film maker named Vincent Smith in 2020, and a novelist named Olive on a book tour in the future --they all have
And though this is science fiction, dealing with pandemics, simulation hypothesis, and moon colonization, it is also about relationships and humanity and decisions you're willing to die for. It's impressive that this young author, after achieving major success with Station Eleven has now gone on to pen The Glass Hotel and
The Sea of Tranquillity. Highly recommend all three and will look to venture into her earlier work.
Lines
Sometimes you don’t know you’re going to throw a grenade until you’ve already pulled the pin.
“The simulation hypothesis? Yeah.” She didn’t open her eyes. “Think of how holograms and virtual reality have evolved, even just in the past few years. If we can run fairly convincing simulations of reality now, think of what those simulations will be like in a century or two. The idea with the simulation hypothesis is, we can’t rule out the possibility that all of reality is a simulation.”
I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world.”
“My personal belief is that we turn to postapocalyptic fiction not because we’re drawn to disaster, per se, but because we’re drawn to what we imagine might come next. We long secretly for a world with less technology in it.”
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experienced an anomaly, a glitch or data corruption in the time and space continuum. Olive seems especially similar to the author as she has to leave her husband and daughter for a multi-city book tour about her pandemic novel. We sympathize with Gaspery Roberts who is our guide through this maze of adventures as he, (as an employee of the Time Institute), goes back to investigate what happened when "—... reality broke: Gaspery and Vincent were in the cavernous echoing cathedral of the Oklahoma City Airship Terminal, where Olive Llewellyn was walking just ahead of them and notes were rising from a nearby violin. And here too, impossibly, was Edwin St. Andrew, face upturned toward the branches/ the terminal ceiling—"And though this is science fiction, dealing with pandemics, simulation hypothesis, and moon colonization, it is also about relationships and humanity and decisions you're willing to die for. It's impressive that this young author, after achieving major success with Station Eleven has now gone on to pen The Glass Hotel and
The Sea of Tranquillity. Highly recommend all three and will look to venture into her earlier work.
Lines
Sometimes you don’t know you’re going to throw a grenade until you’ve already pulled the pin.
“The simulation hypothesis? Yeah.” She didn’t open her eyes. “Think of how holograms and virtual reality have evolved, even just in the past few years. If we can run fairly convincing simulations of reality now, think of what those simulations will be like in a century or two. The idea with the simulation hypothesis is, we can’t rule out the possibility that all of reality is a simulation.”
I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world.”
“My personal belief is that we turn to postapocalyptic fiction not because we’re drawn to disaster, per se, but because we’re drawn to what we imagine might come next. We long secretly for a world with less technology in it.”
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LibraryThing member brianinbuffalo
This masterfully written tale spans several centuries as it slowly (sometimes a bit too slowly) connects the literary dots between interrelated stories. I generally prefer a more linear storyline as opposed to a novel that employs interwoven narratives. But the author is such a skilled storyteller
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that “Sea of Tranquility” worked for me. I’ve never been a huge fan of time-travelling adventures, but this book is laced with so many creative and thought-provoking twists that it made for an enjoyable read. Show Less
LibraryThing member Meredy
Six-word review: Space-time dream shimmers in watercolor layers.
Sea of Tranquility is a beautiful novel. It has a certain mystical quality. Watching it unfold is not like watching an artist at work--Mandel's touch is too subtle for that--but like watching a wind-stirred diaphanous veil alternately
The story is multilayered and multidimensional, yet it has a deceptive simplicity owing to the author's exquisite command of the language. Like a Japanese brush painting, her rendering of scenes and dialogue does more in a single sentence than many writers can achieve in paragraphs. You see one stroke and it conveys an entire image. Where in another author's hands I would see smoke and mirrors, in Mandel's I see expert control of her material with a light touch and a clear instinct for pacing and revelation.
The incorporation of a pandemic into the plotline affords some very relevant observations, notwithstanding the fact that in her narrative it occurs several centuries hence. Even beyond that, I find the author's exploration of classic what-if style conjectures both brilliant and stimulating.
She integrates intriguing philosophical questions, mostly in the voice of her fictional counterpart, novelist Olive Llewellyn. Some of those quotes are transcribed below.
I salute Mandel's courage in using the author as character. I have groaned many a time on meeting this trope in film and fiction, sometimes barely veiled as artist or musician, because it usually plays out as some sort of self-serving self-justification or, equally, self-mortification. Here, to the contrary, I believe she has broadened its dimensions even while anchoring it in the domain of mortal humanity.
A few choice excerpts:
"There's a low-level, specific pain in having to accept that putting up with you requires a certain generosity of spirit in your loved ones." (page 116)
"It's shocking to wake up in one world and find yourself in another by nightfall, but the situation isn't actually all that unusual. You wake up married, then your spouse dies over the course of the day; you wake in peacetime and by noon your country is at war; you wake in ignorance and by evening it's clear that a pandemic is already here." (page 173)
"I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world. ... What if it always is the end of the world? ... Because we might reasonably think of the end of the world as a continuous and never-ending process.” (pages 189-190)
“My personal belief is that we turn to postapocalyptic fiction not because we’re drawn to disaster, per se, but because we’re drawn to what we imagine might come next. We long secretly for a world with less technology in it.” (page 191)
I gave it five stars, a rare rating in my scheme of things.
Sea of Tranquility is a beautiful novel. It has a certain mystical quality. Watching it unfold is not like watching an artist at work--Mandel's touch is too subtle for that--but like watching a wind-stirred diaphanous veil alternately
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conceal and reveal the landscape beyond. The prose is spare but not naked, just very carefully pruned: nothing superfluous, digressive, or self-indulgent. I can see a firm yet delicate hand trimming frills away.The story is multilayered and multidimensional, yet it has a deceptive simplicity owing to the author's exquisite command of the language. Like a Japanese brush painting, her rendering of scenes and dialogue does more in a single sentence than many writers can achieve in paragraphs. You see one stroke and it conveys an entire image. Where in another author's hands I would see smoke and mirrors, in Mandel's I see expert control of her material with a light touch and a clear instinct for pacing and revelation.
The incorporation of a pandemic into the plotline affords some very relevant observations, notwithstanding the fact that in her narrative it occurs several centuries hence. Even beyond that, I find the author's exploration of classic what-if style conjectures both brilliant and stimulating.
She integrates intriguing philosophical questions, mostly in the voice of her fictional counterpart, novelist Olive Llewellyn. Some of those quotes are transcribed below.
I salute Mandel's courage in using the author as character. I have groaned many a time on meeting this trope in film and fiction, sometimes barely veiled as artist or musician, because it usually plays out as some sort of self-serving self-justification or, equally, self-mortification. Here, to the contrary, I believe she has broadened its dimensions even while anchoring it in the domain of mortal humanity.
A few choice excerpts:
"There's a low-level, specific pain in having to accept that putting up with you requires a certain generosity of spirit in your loved ones." (page 116)
"It's shocking to wake up in one world and find yourself in another by nightfall, but the situation isn't actually all that unusual. You wake up married, then your spouse dies over the course of the day; you wake in peacetime and by noon your country is at war; you wake in ignorance and by evening it's clear that a pandemic is already here." (page 173)
"I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world. ... What if it always is the end of the world? ... Because we might reasonably think of the end of the world as a continuous and never-ending process.” (pages 189-190)
“My personal belief is that we turn to postapocalyptic fiction not because we’re drawn to disaster, per se, but because we’re drawn to what we imagine might come next. We long secretly for a world with less technology in it.” (page 191)
I gave it five stars, a rare rating in my scheme of things.
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LibraryThing member msf59
I liked Mandel’s last novel The Glass Hotel but honestly it wasn’t much to write home about. Well, she returns here with another gem, equal to her smash hit Station Eleven. It is a mind-bending time/traveling good time, teleporting the reader from 1912 Vancouver Island to a colony on the moon.
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She has such an easy narrative style. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member lisapeet
I liked this a lot. It's a smart, twisty, propulsive, and ultimately very humane novel about time travel, pandemics, and questions about the nature of reality, and I just gulped it down. It's a very sweet book at heart, but complex and very thoughtful at the same time. I see I'm going to have to
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read The Glass Hotel now. But this was a fun ride. Show Less
LibraryThing member Narshkite
I love when I luck into a series of great books that surprise me and satisfy long-held curiosities and desires i did not know I had. It is coincidence perhaps that this book and The Candy House (which I read last) are both books which employ Borgesian time travel and slippage to connect our current
This book, again like The Candy House, Station Eleven and The Glass House, was structured around a number of loosely knitted together storylines in differnt non-linear time frames. I think there are scenes in every century from the early 20th to the late 25th. My favorite storyline I think was the Olive storyline, which has a strong whiff of autofiction about it. It was beautiful and moving, and had a core of truth and relatability and love of people and of beauty (whether the work of a great violinist, or the words of Shakespeare, or a stately forest.). But all the storylines, even the most science fictiony parts, had a strong core of truth and relatability and love. (There is also and interesting anti-colonial thread. It emerges in the beginning with a statement about "British India" and Canada, but the same ideas crop up in discussion of the moon colonies in the later centuries of this book. The moon colonies are domed and have simulated environments. I think St. John Mandel implies that a colonized India and Canada are also simulated environments based on illusions, like the illusion that the land was uninhabited and there for the taking. Even more than that I think the messaging is is that the moon colonies and Canada attempt to create an idealized vision of England -- like a sort of Six Flags or Epcot but with oppressed people who don't dress up as Micky Mouse. But I may be wrong about where she is going. It seemed that way to me.)
I don't want to say more. I went into this book without reading any reviews or even reading the publisher's summary, and that was a really good choice. I recommend it. For those considering the audiobook, all four narrators were excellent, and I really enjoyed listening. Perhaps I will read the print version at some point, but I feel really satisfied having experience the audio.
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pandemic to the past and to the future. They provide historical context to a time which seems completely out of time. They also both have an odd note of hope, a belief that our humanity will prevail. And both also reintroduce characters and tie up loose ends from books I read before and loved. This book provides some epilogues for The Glass House and Station Eleven and Candy House does the same for A Visit from the Good Squad. Both books also proved entirely immersive, which is something I found comforting as I sat listening to this audiobook on a suspended F train, at first glancing at the headlines from Ukraine and then reading alerts that explained we would be waiting for some time since police were evacuating victims of a mass shooting in Brooklyn. The world is a confusing place these days, so yeah, immersion and hope have been looking pretty good. I also realized at some point, perhaps around the midpoint of this book, that in both books time was linked together by shared characteristics of ennui, curiosity, connection and decency.This book, again like The Candy House, Station Eleven and The Glass House, was structured around a number of loosely knitted together storylines in differnt non-linear time frames. I think there are scenes in every century from the early 20th to the late 25th. My favorite storyline I think was the Olive storyline, which has a strong whiff of autofiction about it. It was beautiful and moving, and had a core of truth and relatability and love of people and of beauty (whether the work of a great violinist, or the words of Shakespeare, or a stately forest.). But all the storylines, even the most science fictiony parts, had a strong core of truth and relatability and love. (There is also and interesting anti-colonial thread. It emerges in the beginning with a statement about "British India" and Canada, but the same ideas crop up in discussion of the moon colonies in the later centuries of this book. The moon colonies are domed and have simulated environments. I think St. John Mandel implies that a colonized India and Canada are also simulated environments based on illusions, like the illusion that the land was uninhabited and there for the taking. Even more than that I think the messaging is is that the moon colonies and Canada attempt to create an idealized vision of England -- like a sort of Six Flags or Epcot but with oppressed people who don't dress up as Micky Mouse. But I may be wrong about where she is going. It seemed that way to me.)
I don't want to say more. I went into this book without reading any reviews or even reading the publisher's summary, and that was a really good choice. I recommend it. For those considering the audiobook, all four narrators were excellent, and I really enjoyed listening. Perhaps I will read the print version at some point, but I feel really satisfied having experience the audio.
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LibraryThing member streamsong
It’s 1912 and the never do well second son of British upper class family has been sent to Canada to start a new life. While walking in a British Columbian forest , he feels as if he’s been transported from underneath the huge maple tree where’s he’s been walking; He hears violin music and a
It happens again to a young woman in the early twenty first century. She has a habit of capturing her walks on her phone video recordings and so makes a record of it; her brother incorporates her experience into a musical piece.
In 2200 an author is in a space port and listening to an old man play a violin; she has the opposite experience and feels suddenly transported to a forest with the huge maple tree as the center of her vision.
Clearly, the timelines of various centuries are bleeding into each other. But what is causing the anomaly? Could it be evidence of the simulation hypothesis that everyone exists in an artificial universe?
In 2400, with the help of a bit of nepotism, a man with no scientific or time travel experience, Gaspary-Jacques is trained and sent back in time by the super secret Time Institute. Gaspary knows that if he intentionally interferes with the time line, the Time Institute has harsh punishments and may leave him lost in time (or worse). But his mother’s favorite author is due to die in a pandemic in three days and Gaspary can not just walk away.
This is beautifully crafted space/time who-done-it by the author of Station Eleven. I had trouble putting it down. And once finished, I was compelled to reread sections to see just how the parts had been so wonderfully pieced together.
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strange whooshing noise.It happens again to a young woman in the early twenty first century. She has a habit of capturing her walks on her phone video recordings and so makes a record of it; her brother incorporates her experience into a musical piece.
In 2200 an author is in a space port and listening to an old man play a violin; she has the opposite experience and feels suddenly transported to a forest with the huge maple tree as the center of her vision.
Clearly, the timelines of various centuries are bleeding into each other. But what is causing the anomaly? Could it be evidence of the simulation hypothesis that everyone exists in an artificial universe?
In 2400, with the help of a bit of nepotism, a man with no scientific or time travel experience, Gaspary-Jacques is trained and sent back in time by the super secret Time Institute. Gaspary knows that if he intentionally interferes with the time line, the Time Institute has harsh punishments and may leave him lost in time (or worse). But his mother’s favorite author is due to die in a pandemic in three days and Gaspary can not just walk away.
This is beautifully crafted space/time who-done-it by the author of Station Eleven. I had trouble putting it down. And once finished, I was compelled to reread sections to see just how the parts had been so wonderfully pieced together.
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LibraryThing member gbelik
Admirable plotting. It all fits together quite well, but remains mysterious.
LibraryThing member bookworm12
I adored Station Eleven, but The Glass Hotel didn't click for me. I was a bit nervous about this one, but I shouldn't have worried. I loved this sci-fi meditation on humanity and the threads that connect us. The novel is equal parts hauntingly beautiful and heartbreakingly familiar. A pandemic,
"I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we are living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we are uniquely important, that we are living at the end of history, but now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now it’s finally the worst that it has ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world."
"This is a strange lesson of living in a pandemic: life can be tranquil in the face of death."
"Illness frightens us because it’s chaotic. There’s an awful randomness about it."
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time travel, a book tour, a moon colony, so many topics are explored and it left me reeling. Layer after layer is revealed in the plot, all while maintaining an eerie sense of loneliness and longing for something that’s just out of reach."I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we are living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we are uniquely important, that we are living at the end of history, but now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now it’s finally the worst that it has ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world."
"This is a strange lesson of living in a pandemic: life can be tranquil in the face of death."
"Illness frightens us because it’s chaotic. There’s an awful randomness about it."
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LibraryThing member adzebill
Halfway through an author character whose recently wrote a novel about a pandemic is interviewed on her book tour about what it's like being prophetic during a worldwide pandemic. Except this is science fiction, where it's 200 years in the future which is exactly like early 2020 but with moon
Anyway this is a perfectly good novel about time travel and self-referential time loops and would be fresh and new for someone who's never read a time travel novel before.
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colonies and holograms. People still go on book tours and leave voice mails and stay in La Quinta motels (a chain I was very surprised to see survived unchanged for 200 years). And then we jump forward another 200 years and people still live in cramped apartments with their cat and leave voice messages and… It reminded me of Golden Age SF, where Asimov or Clarke posited a future with hats and telephone booths and cigars but also rocket ships and AI. Not that all SF isn't about the present day, but it should be subtext not actually just the present day.Anyway this is a perfectly good novel about time travel and self-referential time loops and would be fresh and new for someone who's never read a time travel novel before.
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LibraryThing member Charon07
I’d read The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier not that long ago, as well as Ghostwritten by David Mitchell and How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, three books that I find comparable to Sea of Tranquility in one way or another. Sadly, I think Sea doesn’t fare well in
The Anomaly most forthrightly shares the science fictional theme,an anomaly in the space-time continuum that might indicate that the universe as we know it is a simulation, and I think it handled the concept in a better and more interesting way. How to Live Safely offers a similar theme, and of the three I found it the most touching and the most interesting.
I’m sure I’m not the first to compare Sea to David Mitchell’s work—Cloud Atlas most obviously, but also Ghostwritten, which I’ve read more recently—in that they all have characters crossing centuries of time in one way or another (and the fact that both authors seem to like recycling characters from book to book). Maybe the problem with Sea is that it’s simply too short to do all the characters justice the way Michell’s books do. Or maybe the science fictional element is getting a little threadbare for me, and Mandel’s treatment of it seemed particularly predictable. In any case, this was not my favorite of Mandel’s novels. On the other hand, it does offer a perfect response to thesimulation hypothesis : So what?
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the comparisons. Nor does it fare well in comparison to Station Eleven or even The Glass Hotel, where Vincent Smith Alkaitis and the village of Caiette made their first appearance.The Anomaly most forthrightly shares the science fictional theme,
I’m sure I’m not the first to compare Sea to David Mitchell’s work—Cloud Atlas most obviously, but also Ghostwritten, which I’ve read more recently—in that they all have characters crossing centuries of time in one way or another (and the fact that both authors seem to like recycling characters from book to book). Maybe the problem with Sea is that it’s simply too short to do all the characters justice the way Michell’s books do. Or maybe the science fictional element is getting a little threadbare for me, and Mandel’s treatment of it seemed particularly predictable. In any case, this was not my favorite of Mandel’s novels. On the other hand, it does offer a perfect response to the
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LibraryThing member travelgirl-fics
the last time i read something this good was earlier this year.
"station eleven", by the same author.
sea of tranquility is subtle in its prose, its plotting. the words seem weaved from much denser material, but those same words don't go out of their way to bludgeon your experience.
i can't wait to
"station eleven", by the same author.
sea of tranquility is subtle in its prose, its plotting. the words seem weaved from much denser material, but those same words don't go out of their way to bludgeon your experience.
i can't wait to
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see if her other works are as precise and quietly elegant as belgian lace. Show Less
LibraryThing member damcg63
Interesting story about confluence of time periods, time travel and parallel time paths. It is overlayed with really good writing
LibraryThing member quondame
OK, the writing struck me as beautiful, but I prefer writing that is transparent to me, so that's not entirely optimal. This series of scenes involves a particularly navel gazing sort of time travel, with pandemic interludes and the ultimate question of real or simulation. I think I should have
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preferred a story of a redeemed, or at least an adventurous, remittance man. Show Less
LibraryThing member tangledthread
This is a nested story, beginning in 1912 when a Edwin a "remittance man" (younger son of landed gentry in England) emigrates to western Canada after espousing his negative views of British colonialism at a family dinner. He wanders into forest in British Columbia and has a paranormal experience
Next the story shifts to current day New York were an avant garde composer uses an old piece of video recorded by his sister in the woods of western Canada to accompany one of his current works.
Then we are transported to the 23rd century where famed novelist Olive Llewellyn, who was born and raised in a Lunar colony is visiting earth for a book tour of her latest book, Marienbad, is about a pandemic. While she is on the tour an devastating pandemic engulfs earth.
And a fourth strand takes us two centuries later with the main character named after one of the characters in Llewellyn's book.
There is time travel, and intrigue, and the sense that all of the troubles of our current times have a universality to them that we don't tend to appreciate. And it is all wrapped up in an ending that has an O. Henry feel too it.
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that leaves a profound impression on him.Next the story shifts to current day New York were an avant garde composer uses an old piece of video recorded by his sister in the woods of western Canada to accompany one of his current works.
Then we are transported to the 23rd century where famed novelist Olive Llewellyn, who was born and raised in a Lunar colony is visiting earth for a book tour of her latest book, Marienbad, is about a pandemic. While she is on the tour an devastating pandemic engulfs earth.
And a fourth strand takes us two centuries later with the main character named after one of the characters in Llewellyn's book.
There is time travel, and intrigue, and the sense that all of the troubles of our current times have a universality to them that we don't tend to appreciate. And it is all wrapped up in an ending that has an O. Henry feel too it.
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LibraryThing member whitewavedarling
Although I found Mandel's Station Eleven underwhelming in terms of story, I enjoyed her prose enough that I was more than willing to give her another shot--particularly when I read the blurb for this one and it sounded far more up my alley. Unfortunately, the end result is that I now believe I
As best I can tell, Mandel must be getting such attention both because of her prose and because she's bringing something of an MFA sensibility to SFF genre tropes--in this case, time travel. And while I guess I can appreciate that, I read widely enough in both literary fiction and SFF that just adding a MFA sensibility to well-worn tropes isn't enough for me to be satisfied with a story. That's especially the case when it comes to a book like this, where the structure itself is so off-putting as to make engagement with particular characters and storylines more difficult than necessary. Perhaps I'd have been more impressed if I hadn't already seen similar structures employed elsewhere, but since the structure itself wasn't all that fresh, I instead found it predictable and underwhelming.
All told, I have to say that the book is more clever than enjoyable, and while the second half read far more smoothly than the first half, once it finally found its footing and stopped playing games with the reader, I simply didn't enjoy it, and was more bored than anything. No matter how much a blurb appeals to me, I don't see myself picking up another work by this author in the future.
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likely won't pick up another book by this author in the future, as this story was even more underwhelming, albeit told in often gorgeous prose.As best I can tell, Mandel must be getting such attention both because of her prose and because she's bringing something of an MFA sensibility to SFF genre tropes--in this case, time travel. And while I guess I can appreciate that, I read widely enough in both literary fiction and SFF that just adding a MFA sensibility to well-worn tropes isn't enough for me to be satisfied with a story. That's especially the case when it comes to a book like this, where the structure itself is so off-putting as to make engagement with particular characters and storylines more difficult than necessary. Perhaps I'd have been more impressed if I hadn't already seen similar structures employed elsewhere, but since the structure itself wasn't all that fresh, I instead found it predictable and underwhelming.
All told, I have to say that the book is more clever than enjoyable, and while the second half read far more smoothly than the first half, once it finally found its footing and stopped playing games with the reader, I simply didn't enjoy it, and was more bored than anything. No matter how much a blurb appeals to me, I don't see myself picking up another work by this author in the future.
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LibraryThing member krau0098
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this as an ebook through Netgalley to review.
Thoughts: This book started out very slow, however as the story continued I really enjoyed how the different characters' stories ended up being woven together. This is definitely a slow
I enjoyed reading about all these different characters. Although, the stories initially seem very piecemeal and a bit slow, I was impressed at how they ended up weaving together. The themes discussed also get a lot more complex as the story goes on. You can really see how humans are human, no matter what age and space they live in. I have also always enjoyed discussion about the Simulation Hypothesis and I love (and agree with) the fact that the characters' general summary of it is "who cares"; a life lived is a life lived.
This was very easy to read and stay engaged in. I was impressed by how impactful the story was in such a short page space; that's a difficult thing to do and it was done very well here.
I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was fine. They have different narrators reading each of the characters' time periods and that worked out okay. There was one narrator I didn't love but the rest were easy to listen to. If you enjoy audiobooks, this is a good one to listen to.
My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I enjoyed this and am glad I read it. I find myself thinking back to it quite often. The characters here are well done and easy to relate to. The story starts deceptively simply but gets incredibly complex (both in ideas and plot) as it continues. I loved the surprise of how everything came together. I would recommend to those who like layered stories about different characters that come together as one story. I would also recommend if things like time travel and the Simulation Hypothesis intrigue you. I plan on checking out some of St. John Mandel's other books as well.
Thoughts: This book started out very slow, however as the story continued I really enjoyed how the different characters' stories ended up being woven together. This is definitely a slow
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burn book and it spans a number of characters and times; all of them are brought together by a single event. For some reason the way this book was pulled together reminded me a lot of Doerr's "Cloud Cuckoo Land", which I also really enjoyed.I enjoyed reading about all these different characters. Although, the stories initially seem very piecemeal and a bit slow, I was impressed at how they ended up weaving together. The themes discussed also get a lot more complex as the story goes on. You can really see how humans are human, no matter what age and space they live in. I have also always enjoyed discussion about the Simulation Hypothesis and I love (and agree with) the fact that the characters' general summary of it is "who cares"; a life lived is a life lived.
This was very easy to read and stay engaged in. I was impressed by how impactful the story was in such a short page space; that's a difficult thing to do and it was done very well here.
I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was fine. They have different narrators reading each of the characters' time periods and that worked out okay. There was one narrator I didn't love but the rest were easy to listen to. If you enjoy audiobooks, this is a good one to listen to.
My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I enjoyed this and am glad I read it. I find myself thinking back to it quite often. The characters here are well done and easy to relate to. The story starts deceptively simply but gets incredibly complex (both in ideas and plot) as it continues. I loved the surprise of how everything came together. I would recommend to those who like layered stories about different characters that come together as one story. I would also recommend if things like time travel and the Simulation Hypothesis intrigue you. I plan on checking out some of St. John Mandel's other books as well.
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LibraryThing member Perednia
Excellent novel of a moment in time that is actually a moment in several time periods, and of the people involved. What is real and what matters, especially in during a pandemic when nothing can be taken for granted.
LibraryThing member capewood
2022 book #34. 2022. A time traveller has to try to unravel an anomaly in time, an event that has been witnessed at 3 widely different times. Good read. I like the way the mystery was wrapped up in a good time traveling way. A sequel to an earlier work but seems to stand alone.
LibraryThing member Verkruissen
Wow, this is the first book I've read from Emily St. John Mandel and I'm floored. It's hard to write a review on this book without giving anything away. I'll say this though, it's spectacular! The story is told from different years through time, 1915, 2020, 2203 and 2401. What do these years have
From early English settlers to settlers on the moon this book will definitely hold your interest. It was very hard to put down. I'll definitely be reading more of her work in the future and recommending this be added to everyone's to be read list next year!
Huge thanks to @penguinrandom and @edelweiss_squad for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing book!
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in common? An event witnessed by various people. How are they related? Only a time traveler might be able to tell. From early English settlers to settlers on the moon this book will definitely hold your interest. It was very hard to put down. I'll definitely be reading more of her work in the future and recommending this be added to everyone's to be read list next year!
Huge thanks to @penguinrandom and @edelweiss_squad for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing book!
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LibraryThing member mzonderm
This book is a great example of when you should read the blurb first. It's not always the case, of course, that reading the blurb first is important, or even advisable, but for this book, the blurb gave me just enough information to understand the relevance of the first sections of the book,
So the blurb tells us that we're dealing with people in multiple time periods, and that someone is tasked with figuring out what links the different people together. However, the blurb gives away nothing in terms of the intricacy of the plot, the loveliness of the writing, or the depth of the characters, even those of whom we see very little.
What makes this book even more enchanting is that it's very self-referential, and also refers to Mandel's previous book, The Glass Castle, putting the reader in mind of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Readers who pay close attention to the details will be rewarded with seeing those details take on extra importance and meaning in other scenes, allowing the whole picture to come together seamlessly.
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.
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without giving away any major plot points.So the blurb tells us that we're dealing with people in multiple time periods, and that someone is tasked with figuring out what links the different people together. However, the blurb gives away nothing in terms of the intricacy of the plot, the loveliness of the writing, or the depth of the characters, even those of whom we see very little.
What makes this book even more enchanting is that it's very self-referential, and also refers to Mandel's previous book, The Glass Castle, putting the reader in mind of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Readers who pay close attention to the details will be rewarded with seeing those details take on extra importance and meaning in other scenes, allowing the whole picture to come together seamlessly.
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.
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Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2023)
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Quarterfinalist — 2023)
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Fiction — 2023)
Evergreen Award (Nominee — 2023)
Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize (Longlist — Fiction — 2022)
Books Are My Bag Readers Award (Shortlist — Fiction — 2023)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Fiction — 2023)
Kurd Laßwitz Preis (Nominat — 2024)
Prix Aurora Award (Finalist — Novel — 2023)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Genre Fiction — 2022)
NPR: Books We Love (2022)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction/Poetry — 2022)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (2022)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Fiction — 2022)
LibraryReads (Annual Voter Favorite — Hall of Fame — April 2022)
Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List (Selection — 2023)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2022)
BBC 50 Best Books of 2022 (2022)
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