sporter412's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
cableguy094's review against another edition
3.0
Bear with me as I am still organizing my thoughts and deciding exactly how I felt about this little read. It feels all at once like something that already exists and something all it’s own which is how a work of science fiction really should be. However, the conglomeration of concepts and works that feel well known gave me pause as I worked my way through. Is it possible for a book to move too quickly and leave the reader behind? I wasn’t sure until getting though the first part and realizing I had some catch up to do.
There are many narratives at play here and the trap I feel many authors fall into is not distinguishing them enough through the use of their characters. And unfortunately that is the same pit I felt here. There are so many characters and voices packed into this tiny book and had I not been listening to the audiobook that includes many narrators I would not have been able to separate them on my own. They are lacking in essential personality to tel them apart even through timelines.
Overall, this feels like and outline or pitch for a much larger work of fiction. Other than the inclusion of the pandemic, this could’ve easily been taken from the pages of Cloud Atlas or Cloud Cuckoo Land or even the script of Gattaca. Regarding the pandemic, it feels too close for me personally. I lived through it and don’t need to ask the “what if” because it happened. The main question posed on these pages is “what if we had known?” and that lost me for a while. What drew me back in was the tying of the narratives together although I would’ve loved to have seen it expanded in a grander way.
There are many narratives at play here and the trap I feel many authors fall into is not distinguishing them enough through the use of their characters. And unfortunately that is the same pit I felt here. There are so many characters and voices packed into this tiny book and had I not been listening to the audiobook that includes many narrators I would not have been able to separate them on my own. They are lacking in essential personality to tel them apart even through timelines.
Overall, this feels like and outline or pitch for a much larger work of fiction. Other than the inclusion of the pandemic, this could’ve easily been taken from the pages of Cloud Atlas or Cloud Cuckoo Land or even the script of Gattaca. Regarding the pandemic, it feels too close for me personally. I lived through it and don’t need to ask the “what if” because it happened. The main question posed on these pages is “what if we had known?” and that lost me for a while. What drew me back in was the tying of the narratives together although I would’ve loved to have seen it expanded in a grander way.
haywee_waka's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
alb720's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
thetravelingtay's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Mandel is a beautiful writer. She makes sci fi feel like poetry. Though the storyline itself was a bit scattered, the journey to the end was a worthwhile adventure.
booksandababy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
zoebaillie's review against another edition
2.0
DNF at 63%, library took the ebook back. I could not get absorbed in this one at all so probably won't get it out again to finish it.
danielinbinary's review against another edition
2.0
I felt like Station Eleven and Glass Hotel were absolute masterpieces, which probably added to my disappointment in this book. Sea of Tranquility ultimately capitalises on St. John Mandel’s most successful works, extending on the world of The Glass Hotel, and making a meta-commentary on Station Eleven’s success using a self-insert fictional version of St. John Mandel (who lives in the moon!). There is also a foray into time travel, which makes this story much more plot driven than Mandel’s slow, meditative, more character driven works. But what makes time travel plots successful - intricacy and satisfying conclusions - aren’t present here, and the characters don’t feel nearly as fleshed out as they could have been (even the dialogue feels weak and clichéd, only serving to move the plot along). Ultimately, the entire thing felt too thin and failed to hit the mark.
A longer novel would have been nice, but it is clear throughout that this book is ultimately a COVID-19 lockdown novel (as a compliment to her full-blown apocalyptic pandemic novel), and so felt like I was reading Mandel go through some self-therapy in order to make sense of the pandemic to herself. Somehow the (purposely) thinly-veiled commentary on lockdown felt, already, a little dated, and the many meta aspects felt to me a little mastubatory and cheap:
The use of characters from The Glass Hotel felt completely unnecessary, seeming somewhat like fanservice and continuously taking me out of the immersion. I couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that the introduction of sci-fi elements into The Glass Hotel may undermine some of the magical realist elements that weaved through that novel and made it so satisfying.
Also, the inclusion of Olive, the writer of a pandemic novel who then goes through an actual pandemic(!), also felt obnoxiously tongue-in-cheek at times. In one particularly immersion breaking moment this character, an obvious self-insert of St. John Mandel on a book tour for the success of her world’s version of Station Eleven, at one point quips about disliking auto-fiction, as if lampshading it makes it ok.
I think this book shined where Mandel always shines: in interesting characters with interesting personalities and sad backstories. However, this makes up such a small portion of this already very small book and absolutely none of the intrigue, excitement, or existential questions hit the mark.
There are better time travel and better Emily St. John Mandel books out there, so feel free to skip this one.
A longer novel would have been nice, but it is clear throughout that this book is ultimately a COVID-19 lockdown novel (as a compliment to her full-blown apocalyptic pandemic novel), and so felt like I was reading Mandel go through some self-therapy in order to make sense of the pandemic to herself. Somehow the (purposely) thinly-veiled commentary on lockdown felt, already, a little dated, and the many meta aspects felt to me a little mastubatory and cheap:
The use of characters from The Glass Hotel felt completely unnecessary, seeming somewhat like fanservice and continuously taking me out of the immersion. I couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that the introduction of sci-fi elements into The Glass Hotel may undermine some of the magical realist elements that weaved through that novel and made it so satisfying.
Also, the inclusion of Olive, the writer of a pandemic novel who then goes through an actual pandemic(!), also felt obnoxiously tongue-in-cheek at times. In one particularly immersion breaking moment this character, an obvious self-insert of St. John Mandel on a book tour for the success of her world’s version of Station Eleven, at one point quips about disliking auto-fiction, as if lampshading it makes it ok.
I think this book shined where Mandel always shines: in interesting characters with interesting personalities and sad backstories. However, this makes up such a small portion of this already very small book and absolutely none of the intrigue, excitement, or existential questions hit the mark.
There are better time travel and better Emily St. John Mandel books out there, so feel free to skip this one.
definitelyfinch's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0