Sea of Tranquility is well-written and it has enough momentum to keep me reading, but until a compelling last-act twist that makes what came before feel worth it, my overall impression is that I was right in expecting a convoluted, pretentious work focused entirely on concept with barely a passing thought for character or plot. Under strict instructions not to interfere with their lives, Gaspery investigates an exiled young earl, a moon colonist stranded on Earth during a pandemic, and a woman whose husband ran a devastating Ponzi scheme. Is reality real or is it a simulation? That’s the question that time-traveller Gaspery-Jacques Roberts intends to find out when he investigates several strange instances-scattered through time, of course-of people seemingly transported to an airship terminal to the sounds of a violin playing music that has not yet been written. What’s it about? (Kind of spoilery, I guess? I’m actually talking about the plot, not just the setup and vibe like all the official summaries do). This was either going to be very good, I thought, or very bad. It sounds absolutely horrible: convoluted and pretentious and focused entirely on concept with barely a passing thought for character or plot. On the flipside, though, I read the blurb for Sea of Tranquility and yikes. I’ve heard raves for both her previous novels, The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven, and the latter has even been adapted into a show that has likewise made quite the splash. On one hand, Mandel is an extremely well-regarded and popular writer. John Mandel and, going in, my feelings were even more mixed than usual.

This month the book was Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. If I’m being totally honest, that book club has given me significantly more clunkers than hits so at this point I go in very pessimistic and walk out very happy as long as I didn’t hate the book. Because of my book club, once a month I read a book that I almost certainly would not have picked up under any other circumstances.

Sea of tranquility a novel book review