Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Titus G Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: Sea of Tranquility, Emily St John Mandel. Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2025 17:22:14 +1200 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 31 Message-ID: <101tttt$22aq1$1@dont-email.me> References: <101olpt$kavd$1@dont-email.me> <101tene$1s0j2$2@dont-email.me> Reply-To: noone@nowhere.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2025 07:22:05 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="c0fc5fb509ad016c6444048be3556577"; logging-data="2173761"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+ISYqN36klf19th7nAn7KV" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:Oj4w18ae6JMTeeEG4omxyx+0Ang= In-Reply-To: <101tene$1s0j2$2@dont-email.me> Content-Language: en-AU On 6/06/25 13:02, Tony Nance wrote: > On 6/4/25 1:32 AM, Titus G wrote: >> Sea of Tranquility, Emily St John Mandel. >> >> My first impression was that this would be a pleasant three star pot >> boiler as the writing style and content appeared simple and straight >> forward and I had no idea what to expect as I had read nothing about it >> prior to beginning to read. However, after about half way, the plot soon >> became more complicated and a solid four stars resulted. It is a story >> from the perspective of a new employee of the government agency having >> the only time travel machine and their failure to follow rules resulting >> in the question of whether reality is a simulation. >> The structure is the same as David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas with four >> layers written by the same person in the same style instead of six >> written by different people in different styles so it is a lot simpler, >> a lot shorter but still fascinating. Highly recommended. >> > > Thank you for this. Isfdb indicates this is the second entry in the > Caiette series. Have you read the first one? (The Glass Hotel) > > > Tony No. That was the first of hers that I have read. It was recommended by one of my favourite authors, (I can't remember who), on Fantastic Fiction. I now want to read The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven which has also been nominated for awards. A look at the brief outline at Fantastic Fiction doesn't suggest that The Glass Hotel is related to Sea of Tranquillity, (now spelt correctly), which I think I would also like to reread soon even though there will be no surprises.