Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel Book Review

 Sea of Tranquility 

By Emily St. John Mandel 

Published Year: 2022

Page Count: 166 pages 

Medium Used: Kindle PW 

Genre: Science Fiction, Time Travel, Colonization of Space, Mystery, Suspense, 2026-read. 

Rating: 5/5 ❤❤❤❤❤

In the year 1912, on a Caiette island, off the shore of British Columbia, a young man experiences a time space anomaly. He stands under a maple tree and in a flash of darkness, hears violin playing, airship taking off before he is brought back to reality. He becomes aware of the presence of a priest nearby whom he hasn't seen before and soon after, the priest vanishes. The young man - a Edwin St. John - brushes away the experience as one where he is hallucinating and probably experienced some derangement of the brain. Similar experience is recorded towards the end of 20th century when a music composer Paul Smith, while playing his orchestra, shows a video footage where the glitch is obvious. Then, in a separate incident in the 22nd century, a successful author Olive Llewellyn, records a similar experience, only this time someone in an Oklahoma airship terminal is experiencing time backwards to the maple tree and plants rising around. 

These incidents are registered by a TIME institute, situated on moon and they, being the guardians of the time line integrity send a man to investigate them. His role is simple; to locate these main figures who have first hand experience of the glitches and interview them; learn as much as he can about the events. He is given a strict set of directives to follow and every chance he gets, he breaks the most important of those. He knows of the future events of all these main players and uses that knowledge to tinker with timelines. He makes it as if it is a compulsion for him, despite knowing that he is not jeopardizing just himself, but those others who trusted him at the institute too. They warn him, before setting off, of 'getting lost in time' for those who fail to comply with the rules. Still, he gives in to his "human" impulses and becomes a marked man. He is framed for a crime he didn't commit and is sent away for a long time. Is he doing these things at his volition or is he just following the dictates of a higher source - call it a software or a simulation in which we are all, just like him, mere cogs in a machine? Do these glitches that he interrogates prove the nature of our existence as being a simulation? If so, should we be worried about it? - Myself, I think yes, we are living in a simulation. Only not something that is managed by future humans or aliens but by a divine power - call it whatever God - but some supernatural force enforcing laws of Karma(comeuppance) and dharma (righteousness)!

What an amazing book! I guess the most appealing aspect of the book to me is the retrospective connection of the dots and the assimilation of 'aha!' moments it created. The story telling is brilliant and very clever. The subject which the author is handling is quite complex and she deftly maneuvered it. She is really very coherent and although I don't agree with all her conclusions - like, for example, the reason why interest in post apocalypse books has surged in the past decade - I think she did a wonderful job in crafting this masterpiece. I liked how she took on some difficult angle of looking at things - like what if we are living in a simulation? and would a simulation be created/handled with all the flaws? - and didn't make it sound like preaching. Yes, she was inviting me, the reader, into a virtual brainstorming and allowed her point of views to flow in without being harrowing. I liked how calming and soothing her writing is. I got transported to all those timelines she was dealing with at the point of reading. I enjoyed the retro timelines just as much as I did the future ones. She masterfully blended science with love, compassion and pandemics and showed how complex people and their inner dialogues can be, despite what appears on the surface!! 

Cheers! Do let me know what u think in the comments below!