Group Reads Discussion - Sea of Tranquility

[SRC Moderator, Moderator]

This is the discussion thread for the Summer 2023 Group Read Sea of Tranquility in the category Fiction - Canadian Fiction. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

[Aimee]

This was my first completed book for the summer challenge, because it worked out very serendipitously with another challenge I am doing (Around the Year in 52 Books) that called for "a book with a body of water in the title".

I've read three of Emily St John Mandel's books before, starting with Station Eleven which I really liked, but the others left me feeling a bit less enthused. Sea of Tranquility was very much the latter; I enjoyed it and I thought the inter-weaving narratives were clever and well done, but I never felt like I was fully immersed in the world. The characters all seemed a bit aloof, possibly because in a short book we don't get much time with each one which was a shame.

[Heather(Gibby)]

This one worked out for me because I am hoping it will be the July book of the month for the Time Travel Goodreads Group.

I love time travel books, and this is one of the better ones I have read. It moves seamlessly through multiple storylines and examines the human condition. I don't want to give away too many spoilers, but if you enjoyed Emily St. John Mandel's previous books, you will love this one.

The author wrote this during the Covid pandemic, and it partially about an author who writes a pandemic book, during a pandemic, Kind of makes the head spin a bit.

I listened to this in audio, but if I can get my hands on a print copy, I'd like to explore it a bit more.

[NancyJ]

I read this when it first came out. After some initial confusion, I loved it. I liked the moon colonies. She references characters in other books she wrote, so I’d like to reread this some day after reading one or two others. I adored Station Eleven but I haven’t read The Glass Hotel.

[Dee]

I'm currently listening to this - I'll admit i was initially disappointed when this beat out Great Circle (Maggie Shipman) because that one has been on my TBR list for AGES!! But thankfully the audiobook of this was readily available - i'm around the first moon colony introduction right now - but I'm kind of excited for my commute to work tomorrow so I can listen to me (what kind of weirdo am I)

[Robin P]

I agree that Station Eleven is by far her best book. My favorite part of this one was the author tour. Supposedly all the stupid questions asked by fans were ones Emily St. John Mandel actually got asked on tour.

[Aimee]

NancyJ wrote: "I read this when it first came out. After some initial confusion, I loved it. I liked the moon colonies. She references characters in other books she wrote, so I’d like to reread this some day afte..."

When I started reading Sea of Tranquility, I didn't realise the world was connected to that of The Glass Hotel and when the names "Vincent and Jonathan Alkaitis" came up I thought they were real people because the names were familiar. It wasn't until a fair way into the book that I realised Vincent was the MC in Glass Hotel!
You don't need to have read Glass Hotel first though.

[Trish]

Aimee wrote: "This was my first completed book for the summer challenge, because it worked out very serendipitously with another challenge I am doing (Around the Year in 52 Books) that called for "a book with a body of water in the title."

I used it for that very same prompt!

This was my second book by the author, the first being Station Eleven. She does seem to love a good pandemic! I really liked the move outwards to include the moon colonies, though.

Robin P wrote: "I agree that Station Eleven is by far her best book. My favorite part of this one was the author tour. Supposedly all the stupid questions asked by fans were ones Emily St. John Mandel actually got asked on tour."

Awesome! I did enjoy the author tour section and was sad to learn later in the book how it turned out.

[Dee]

I finished this up on my commute this morning - overall, while i liked the premise, it just kind of fizzled for me. the ending just happened - it was like she had a hard page count, hit that and was ok, i'm done - although the twist about who the violin player was did kind of surprise me...

[KmarieD, Moderator]

I am not generally a fan of time travel books, but this was a shorter book and easy to get on audio. I thought the book was OK. I thought it was interesting that the character was promoting a book about a pandemic while a new pandemic was starting, but not seeming to realize what might happen to her until she meets a certain person. I was also surprised at the identity of the violin player at the end of the book.

[Jen B]

***SPOILERS***

Finished this one last night before bed, and I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it. I wasn't sure where all the interwoven story lines were going at first, but I like how it all came together in the end.

I guess what I take from it is humanity in the face of adversity. Gaspery crosses time to warn Olive about her impending death, giving her another chance at life with her family; then he gives St Andrew the reassurance that he's not insane, giving him some peace at the end of his life. Even his playing of the violin brings others pleasure. So, even in the face of chaos, the moments of kindness, empathy, and goodwill are the ones that really change the course of things.

I probably need to sit on it awhile longer to have it really sink into my understanding...but, overall, I enjoyed.

[Molly]

I was a bit apprehensive about reading a book with pandemics as a plot point, given what we've all experienced these past few years. But I love sci-fi and time travel so picked this out of the group reads.

Absolutely loved it. While I understand the criticisms of it, I thought it was wonderful. I enjoyed the intertwining of the stories, thought the reveals were well done, and while it's brevity didn't allow for lots of character development it grabbed me from the beginning (but especially towards the end).

Station Eleven will certainly be added to my TBR list.

[Amy]

I'm not a huge fan of time travel books, so it's not a surprise that this one didn't do it for me. All of the readers of the audio version did an excellent job, but the story itself was just meh for me. As others stated, the character development was lacking so I didn't really become immersed in the story. Glad it was a short book...

[Christine]

I loved Station Eleven and I've had this book on my TBR for awhile, so I was excited when it was chosen as a group read this season. It didn't quite live up to my hopes, but it was an interesting story. I was surprised by the identity of the violin player, and the moon colonies were intriguing. I would've liked more - more about each of the characters, more world-building, all of it. I didn't know before reading this thread that the author references characters from her other books. That makes me want to move The Glass Hotel up on my TBR!

[Insiyah]

I loved the reflective nature of this book. I found it very slow and almost poetic in how it's been written (not to mention how easy it is to read). The way the different timelines were weaved together so gracefully really got to me. I haven't read any of the author's other books, but I'm definitely interested in reading more of her work now.

[Shawn]

I have not read any other book by this author, although I have a number of her works on my TBR. I agree with Insiyah - I also loved the reflective nature of the book and how easy it was to read. I didn't find any of the characters overly compelling but still found the book really enjoyable. I have found myself thinking about this one quite a bit since I finished reading it. Overall, I really enjoyed this one and would recommend to anyone with an interest in this type of book. I am definitely going to check out her other works.

[Meg]

Oh wow this book was so good! It combines elements of some of my all time favourite books ( Cloud Atlas Cloud Cuckoo Land The Candy House Station Eleven), and is taking its own place in that list of all time favourites! I really enjoyed the interplay between the different time points, the characters, and the pandemic themes. It really fits a lot into what is quite a short book.

[Alex]

It took me a minute to get into this book--but once the story lines and time periods began intertwining, it hooked me a lot more! This is very far outside of books that I would typically pick up, so I enjoyed stepping outside of my normal genres.

I did, however, also read The Glass Hotel and didn't even realize that overlap until reading some of the comments here! So, that's a fun reflective point of this book.

Overall--I enjoyed it!

[Shanna_redwind]

I'm not a huge fan of time travel books, but I did enjoy reading this one. At first I really wasn't sure if it was going to be for me, despite very much enjoying Station Eleven, but once the action started I became much more engaged with the story.

I especially enjoyed the story of the pandemic.

[KSMary]

I thought that this book started a bit slow. You would think from the beginning that Edwin St. John St. Andrew would be more central to the rest of the book. The book did pick up though once we got to Gaspery's perspective. The different timelines and perspectives could have gotten very confusing but I think the author did a good job seamlessly intertwining them and bringing the different characters together and giving them closure.

[Nick]

Nick KY

Time travel has always been a plot device that I dislike. But I am OK with it here. I like how it is subtlety introduced through the character of Edwin. Many comments here say that characterization is thin in this story. I did not feel that way. The introduction of the mysterious maple tree as a thematic device comes through Edwin’s POV. I think character comes first.

But there are a lot of characters. Many of them appeared in previous novels, I understand, and the only one I have read is Station Eleven. I am OK with that. I liked the 4 storylines and how they converged. I find speculative fiction to be especially rewarding when we readers have to mull over the empty spaces in the story, thinking about them and coming to our own conclusions.

[Marie (UK)]

I am done with this author. This book can be described in 4 or 5 lines that form part of the narrative
p 71 " i was so confused by your book ... there were all these strands ... all these characters and i felt like i was waiting for them to connect"
The author does eventually get round to creating a connection for me it wasn't well done and it wasn't worth the wait.

[Cat]

yeah, I'm not convinced by this one. I feel like Station Eleven did post-pandemic much better than this one did - it's almost like the author wanted to write a "simulation" book, but got sucked into adding, and then fore-grounding, the pandemic stuff because of real life.

I think less on the pandemic and more on the simulation or time travel paradox tangle might have improved it, but I didn't love the story even if I thought it was generally well written

[JennRenee, Moderator]

I wasn't the biggest fan of this read. I think I had too high expectations with the average rating as it was. I hadn't heard of this one before it became a group read... so I didn't know what I walking into. I liked the ending but the rest of the book was a little slow for me and too much pandemic stuff. I did ended up giving it a three star but only because of the ending.

[Peg]

This is my first read of hers, and I will read more based on her writing. I really enjoyed it. I just felt that this was too light. Having these characters, stories and ideas delved into further I feel would have been better. In the end, I felt like I had just read a novella, a light quick read and still wanting more. The violin player's identity also surprised me and I wish there had been more surprises. There were opportunities where I was expecting them but they never appeared. I felt by giving us the thoughts and quotations that she was using as a writer were given for the reader to do the heavy thinking rather than her doing the work to give it a spin to this story. I gave it three stars because because I did enjoy it, I just can't go higher because it left me wanting in many areas.

[Maria Jo]

Mandel writes a compelling novel based around the concept of time travel. She does an excellent job bringing motifs through the story: pandemic, time travel, and the notes of a violin common to many of the characters. I could have done without so many instances of same-sex couples, although the references were not overwhelming, merely mentioned in passing. I appreciated the slow unfurling of the story through the first three parts, then the coming together in the fourth part. I did not expect the ending!

[Erica]

I just started this today, but hope to finish soon. So far the writing is very good.

[Erica]

Not done yet but probably by tomorrow. I already give this book 5 stars. Well written, very interesting.

[Erica]

Done. I'm glad I looked at the structure of the chapters in this book early on. It helped me get through the first few, which were seemingly disjointed. But it all pulls together beautifully. I will read more by this author. Her writing is clear and the characters well drawn. I'm not a huge sci-fi fan but this one worked for me.

[Heather(Gibby)]

If you read her previous novels after this one, keep an eye out for characters which appear in in this book that were drawn from her previous novels