La Mer de la Tranquillité

by Emily St. John Mandel

300 pages

French language

Published Aug. 23, 2023 by Payot & Rivages.

ISBN:: 978-2-7436-6049-9

(11 reviews)

Sea of Tranquility is a 2022 novel by the Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel. It is Mandel's sixth novel and a work of speculative fiction. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic, the novel considers "what constitutes reality, how time flows, and what memory is in the context of perception" by pondering the simulation hypothesis and time travel.

5 editions

Martin Rundkvist reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Low-key time-travel scifi

4 stars

Content warning Discussing core plot point

I'm OK with the time travel paradoxes -- those are inevitable. But to me it's a pretty bad plot weakness here that the Time Institute notices, and manages to find documentation of, a glitch in the matrix that just looks to three observers like a migraine symptom or a petit mal epileptic fit. People's brains and senses make up all sorts of weird shit all the time, and nobody takes it as evidence of anything particularly significant.

Ajbarbieri@bookwyrm.social reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Quick to read and gripping

5 stars

Was easy to read - that's what I needed at this time, and enjoyed the characters and plot. A great author.

mouse reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Lovely

5 stars

I found this touching and hopeful, I liked how poignantly the characters were drawn, and the themes of kindness and the vicissitudes of life.

My main complaint was that I think the simulation theory stuff was basically an unnecessary macguffin and didn't add to the themes (at least as far as they interested me).

David H reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

A hopeful pandemic novel

4 stars

I liked the story of isolated humans trying to find meaning in their lives, all tangled together and touched by the miraculous. It left me feeling hopeful and reassured.

PanaX@bookwyrm.social reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Review of 'Sea of Tranquility' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Nice short book. Nothing groundbreaking but adequately conveyed it's purpose.

Erica Molesworth reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

meh

2 stars

a little overrated

joachim@lire.boitam.eu reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Enjoyable, even once you've guessed how it’ll all go down

4 stars

I liked it because it was well written and short. Longer would have been boring, shorter would have cut too much. I wonder how the author's experience during the pandemic influenced the Last Book Tour Before the End of the World chapter (at least one discussion in the book was real—but from 2015). I liked this book very much, but I liked Station Eleven better, hence the 4 stars.