Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Rating: 2.5 of 5

Caution Spoilers Ahead

Sea of Tranquility is a time travel/simulation theory mystery novel. It covers four sections of time past, present, future and far future and tries to weave a consistent narrative of time travel based on simulation theory.

Two weeks after finishing the Novel I have very few memories of it. Its told from three or four points of view finally finishing on a main character who gets “lost in time” and whose existence is paradoxical. My opinion is the novel is strongly influenced by the Robert Heinlein short story By His Bootstraps.

Besides the central theming of the time travel paradox future Earth and its moon colonies are described. I found these sections less imaginative then I would have liked. They felt a lot of like someone just imagining modern cities on the moon. Issues like how someone copes with the limited lunar gravity are ignored. Why someone might prefer to live on Earth the Moon don’t seem well thought out. There’s too much emphasis on pandemic. We can live on moon bases but can’t manage a respiratory virus? Overall I found the ScyFy unimaginative and weak. I think the Arthur would have been better off setting this in a much nearer future and eliminated the ScyFy mess.

Overall I can’t really recommend Sea of Tranquility its ok but not anything special.