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ceruleanseas's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Colonisation and Murder
Minor: Death of parent, Grief, and Death
caryndi's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
When I picked up this book, I didn't expect it to be so similar to Station Eleven. I thought the multiple-narrators, multiple-times thing was a device Mandel used to tell her pandemic story, specifically. I guess that is just how she writes, though, because this book was done the same way. It's not a bad style, but I was expecting a different approach given the uniqueness of that approach and the fact that this was a very different story.
The construction of the novel wasn't my main gripe, though. I cannot figure out the internal logic to this book.We're introduced to an "anomaly" that takes place under a tree in Northwest Canada and an airship terminal in Kansas City (?) simultaneously, but also hundreds of years apart. We find out some time travelers from the future are investigating this anomaly, and the main investigator, Gaspary-Jacques, is warned not to change anything while traveling through time. However, he accidentally causes the glitch by being in the same place twice (sent back as a time traveler, he encounters and speaks to a version of himself who was stranded in time after interfering with the timeline).
However, this glitch existed prior to his decision to become a time traveler -- in other words, the changes he made were always going to be made before he decided to make them. But, in other instances of time travel, that is not true! The Time Institute (I think that's the name used) tracks its agents by looking at historical records before and then after their visits to other times to see if anything changed in the timeline. So, in my mind, this glitch should not have existed for them to investigate because it was a change made by Gaspary-Jacques. Maybe the idea is that since it was a "glitch" it could exist in that paradoxical way that time-travel actions do. I don't know. But my brain kept bouncing off the way things played out and because of that, I don't think the entire story holds together.
That doesn't take away from the fact that the book was very atmospheric and technically well-written. I thought it was interesting that one of the main characters was the writer of a book about a pandemic, and at least one noted plot point matched the way things happened in Station Eleven. Like a little Easter egg. And it's fun to put together the pieces you pick up from the different time settings as you read. But the way the story falls apart if I try to think about it too hard outweighs the technical proficiency, in my mind, which is why this book only gets 3 stars from me.
The construction of the novel wasn't my main gripe, though. I cannot figure out the internal logic to this book.
However, this glitch existed prior to his decision to become a time traveler -- in other words, the changes he made were always going to be made before he decided to make them. But, in other instances of time travel, that is not true! The Time Institute (I think that's the name used) tracks its agents by looking at historical records before and then after their visits to other times to see if anything changed in the timeline. So, in my mind, this glitch should not have existed for them to investigate because it was a change made by Gaspary-Jacques. Maybe the idea is that since it was a "glitch" it could exist in that paradoxical way that time-travel actions do. I don't know. But my brain kept bouncing off the way things played out and because of that, I don't think the entire story holds together.
That doesn't take away from the fact that the book was very atmospheric and technically well-written. I thought it was interesting that one of the main characters was the writer of a book about a pandemic, and at least one noted plot point matched the way things happened in Station Eleven. Like a little Easter egg. And it's fun to put together the pieces you pick up from the different time settings as you read. But the way the story falls apart if I try to think about it too hard outweighs the technical proficiency, in my mind, which is why this book only gets 3 stars from me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, and Abandonment
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Gun violence, and War
mariebrunelm's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The third son of a wealthy family looking for a purpose in the 19th-century Canadian wilderness, a young girl in the forest of a pre-pandemic world, and an author on a busy book tour stopped in her tracks by a violin player in an airship terminal, find themselves connected by the experience they make of a glitch in reality, a second when darkness engulfs them and they catch echoes of other realities.
This book! This. Book.
I’m very tempted to leave the review at that because what can I say? This book is gorgeous, it made me question my abilities as a writer, it’s doing things other books take hundreds of pages to do in a couple of pages and yet doesn’t feel rushed. I pity the translators for having to work so much information in so little words, all the while keeping the perfect fluidity of the sentences and the overall rhythm of the book. A masterclass in writing.
It won’t be a spoiler, because it’s literally in the contents at the beginning of the volume, that the structure of this novel is like that in Cloud Atlas. I won’t say more, because if you know, you know. It’s not a structure I’ve encountered much in books, but when well done it’s incredibly effective.
And when I thought this book couldn’t get any better, the last line encompassed a writing project I’d had in mind for months.
Do read Sea of Tranquility if you want a quiet, moving, time-travel story that will make you long for something you can’t name.
Rep: bisexual character in a queer-friendly environment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Grief
galexy_brain's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Death, Murder, Misogyny, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Grief
sxndaze's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
It takes a little bit to get into, but it’s such an entrancing and gorgeous read. The way everything ties in together is mesmerising, and it kept me hooked. It speaks about life so beautifully as well, and it’s really a lovely read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Grief
norwegianforestreader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, War, Vomit, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Colonisation, Confinement, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Sexism
xosirenox's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Death
Moderate: War, Grief, and Colonisation
haexelhasel's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Gore, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, and War
Minor: Murder and Suicide
miller8d's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Emily St. John Mandel is the only author I’ve ever read as an adult whose writing is effortlessly legible— I don’t have to drag myself through the continuation of the logic, the story, the names and details. She is an incredible world-builder and crafts her books in a way that kindly takes all pressure off the reader to painstakingly translate the story as they go, and she does it without losing the substance nor the sophisticated chaos of the story. She includes unnecessary yet enriching details everywhere so that you never quite catch on to the endings (unlike so many stories that make me think “Oh, well, that must be foreshadowing something”). I had a complicated feeling of disappointment at the ending of the story: I was pulled to finish this book in two days because I was so excited to learn the explanation for the anomaly, and when I turned the final page, I said “Oh, come on” out loud because I did not feel like I got one at all in the moment. I found the twist exciting and sweet and logical but emotionally frustrating at first. But since I completed the book twenty minutes ago, I’ve realized I’m not actually disappointed because that is actually the most natural and truthful ending there ever could have been, and it rings true to the entire story, to the nature of time and space and boring explanations for exciting anomalies. It shines light on the entire hero’s journey and disarms us with a lonely sense of naked responsibility over the choices we make and especially over the universally lackluster inevitability of the logical consequences of the choices we make. I also really love how Mandel softly infused a strong clarity of anti-colonization and anti-cop sanity throughout the actions and beliefs of the lovable characters— refreshing to read a sci-fi/fictional/apocalyptic piece that doesn’t bury the lead of what evils are obviously leading us toward the darkness (colonization and cops, etc.), and refreshing to read any fictional book that pursues a leftist narrative through world-building and plot points, instead of just veering recklessly into harmful tokenization, superimposed racial dynamics written by a white author, and so on. I also just realized I liked the red herring of Vincent falling off into the sea— at the time, I was 100% sure she’d been teleported by the anomaly and that we must meet her later on. Fun to think that perhaps she did teleport somehow but that we’ll never know because Gaspery never knows. I loved this book.
Note: I pictured Gaspery as Jacob Wysocki from College Humor.
Note: I pictured Gaspery as Jacob Wysocki from College Humor.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Death, Mental illness, War, Suicide, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Deportation, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Body horror
Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Vomit, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, and Car accident
I’m quite a sensitive person and even I’d say that despite the content warnings for this book, it is not an upsetting read (at least for me). The mentions of upsetting topics are justified and unsurprising in the context of the book, and very rarely is any upsetting detail given for the sake of indulgent displeasure. The bits that did upset me wereannaofjesup's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Confinement, Stalking, Grief, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting
Minor: Death of parent and Suicide
Derealization, pandemic, COVID