Sea of Tranquility

Happy New Year! I hope everyone’s January has been as busy and positive as mine has been. My goal this year is to read 2 books a month, and I’m already at 5. Woohoo! Let’s hope I keep up this momentum. Also, I’m happy to report that some of the craziness of the last few months has died down and I actually have some free time again! My first review of the year is Goodreads’ top sci-fi novel of 2022, Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. And to accompany today’s review is a Tranquility cocktail. This one’s a little boring for the pun, but not everything works as well as “wish-key sour”.

Tranquility Recipe

1.5oz White Rum

2oz Passionfruit Juice

1/4oz Lime Cordial

2oz Pineapple Juice

1oz Blue Moon Wheat Beer*

1 Orange Wheel

*This is an optional ingredient.

In a cocktail shaker with ice, add all ingredients and shake for approximately 10 seconds. Pour into a tall highball glass, and garnish with an orange wheel.

This is a really fun cocktail! It’s tasty and simple and what else could we really ask for. This month, I’ve added Blue Moon Belgian White beer as my special ingredient. This one’s not very deep or meaningful to the story, but it works. Two of the main characters of the novel live on the moon in the first colonies moved there from Earth. So, I played off of that and chose a moon beer for fun. I did worry about the taste of the beer with the rum (I was hoping for the Blue Moon Mango, but it’s only available in one liquor store in BC), but I didn’t need to. This cocktail was good without the beer, but great with it! The beer really emphasized the flavours and balanced this cocktail out nicely.

Sea of Tranquility Synopsis

(from book cover)

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite English society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later, a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s travelling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for spare change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery Roberts, a hotel detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: the exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City, who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

Review

“We knew it was coming.”

This is a bit strange because it’s my first time reviewing an author for the second time. So, I feel like I have way less to say than normal. If you’ve been with me for a long time you may remember that Mandel’s The Glass Hotel was the second book I ever reviewed in 2020. And while some of my thoughts today are quite similar to my take on that novel, I am happy to say that I liked Sea of Tranquility even more! I’ll try not to compare the two novels this entire review, but no promises.

Sea of Tranquility is essentially a sequel to The Glass Hotel, so it is actually quite hard not to compare. And it’s also difficult to not compare Sea of Tranquility to Mandel’s other pandemic novel, Station Eleven. That being said, you don’t need to have read either of those novels to enjoy this one. But, I definitely feel that I got more out of the story from having read The Glass Hotel before. So that is something to keep in mind. My review of The Glass Hotel mentioned that the novel felt like it was lacking. Specifically, lacking in character development and a consistent plot that made sense. But where that novel was lacking, Sea of Tranquility shines.

Mandel has an unbelievably beautiful writing style that I really connect with. As I described in my previous review of hers, she has a distinct Vonnegut style to her writing that I appreciate. This style again matched the tone of the story well and really immersed me in the novel. It’s both poetic and flowy as well as completely unique. And her writing style really sets her apart compared to other current authors for me.

Beyond the writing, the story itself was great. It was interesting and poignant and topical. It was especially interesting to draw parallels between Mandel’s actual life and the novel. As her own experience promoting the show based on her pandemic novel in 2020 was clearly represented in this novel. I frequently found myself wondering just how much of the feelings in this novel were things she really experienced. So, I felt that all these layers to the story, The Glass Hotel and Station 11 connections and writing from her own life, added a lot of depth to Sea of Tranquility.

My biggest complaint with Mandel before was that her characters lacked depth and I couldn’t connect with any of them. And while there are still some characters I didn’t overly connect with, I did feel for the main characters and what was happening to them. Overall, I felt that the characters had a lot more substance than those in The Glass Hotel, even the characters that appeared in both novels. And I will admit that there wasn’t necessarily more to these characters, it was still a short novel that jumped between multiple characters, but their personalities were presented in a much more coherent and substantial way.

I honestly don’t have any huge complaints about this novel. With The Glass Hotel, I felt confused, unconnected, and like I was reading a fever dream. But this novel was everything I wanted The Glass Hotel to be— a beautiful story that showcases Mandel’s distinctive writing style. That being said, my only downside was that the ending felt a bit played out, especially for sci-fi. I didn’t hate it by any means, but it did make me say “oh, I was expecting something more from this ending.” Maybe this is just me being overly critical and wanting there to be something completely new around every corner, but it is what it is.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. It was a beautiful work of fiction that really hit this sci-fi loving girl’s sweet spots. I absolutely think Sea of Tranquility outshines The Glass Hotel, but I’m torn on if I enjoyed it more, less, or the same as Station 11. Regardless, it’s a fantastic choice for any reader, sci-fi fan, or for anyone who read and enjoyed Mandel’s other works. So, I highly recommend snagging yourself a copy of this one. And if you’re looking for a fun and fruity drink, I strongly recommend the Tranquility cocktail as well.

My Rating:

Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading The Glass Hotel Nacional and Klara and the Italian Sun if you liked this one!

Teghann

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