A review by pollyflorence
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

It’s going to be hard for me to put into words just how much of a masterpiece this book is and just how truly connected to it I felt while but I’m going to try to articulate my love for this book as succinctly as I can. 

I already knew going in that Mandel is a master world builder and storyteller in the way that she effortlessly weaves the various threads of the plot and creates a beautiful and captivating narrative—as expected, Sea of Tranquility does this, but not only does this stand alone as a fully realised novel, it also feels like a perfect culmination of Mandel’s previous two books— Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, flawlessly done in just over 250 pages. 

(You don’t have to read either book to read this one but characters from The Glass Hotel do show up in Sea of Tranquility and there is a meta commentary on Station Eleven in there too.) 

Sea of Tranquility explores the complexity of colonies on the moon, parallel worlds and time travel while at the same time focusing in on the heart of being human, what our place in the world might be and the connections we make with others— and also profoundly capturing what it has felt like the live through the last couple of years. All of this in the most dreamy prose that I found it hard pull myself away from, it’s just stunning. 

Thank you to Picador Books for the early proof copy of Sea of Tranquility.