* This review contains spoilers!

Sea of Tranquility, authored by Emily St. John Mandel, was published in 2022 by Alfred A. Knopf. A Canadian author born and raised in British Columbia, Mandel has published numerous short stories, essays and six novels, Sea of Tranquility being the most recent. Mandel is  the recipient of five awards, including the coveted Arthur C. Clarke Award for her 2014 novel Station Eleven. Her first three novels, which are less popular, skewed towards the mystery and crime fiction genre, while Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility align more with science fiction. The intended audience of Sea of Tranquility appears to be adults, though I imagine a well-read teenager could understand it. The novel would best be enjoyed by readers already interested in science fiction or time travel novels, as those unfamiliar with the tropes and conventions associated with these genres might become confused by the non-chronological plot.

The novel primarily follows four characters in four distinct times and places: the exiled remittance man Edwin St. John St. Andrew in the fictional Caiette on Vancouver Island in 1912; the modern widow Mirella Kessler in New York City in 2020; the moon colonist author Olive Llewellyn visiting Earth for a book tour in 2203; and the Time Institute employee Gaspery-Jacques Roberts on the moon colony in 2401, a time traveller who interferes in the other three characters’ lives in search of answers about an unexplained “anomaly” that spans the timeline and may reveal that the universe is nothing more than a simulation. 

Following a chiastic-like structure, the unfolding of the plot slowly reveals the mystery of what ties these characters together, revealing what life truly means in a possibly illusory world in which a never-ending story always appears to be ending. As Mandel writes, “as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story … We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history … [b]ut all of this raises an interesting question … what if it always is the end of the world? ... [b]ecause we might reasonably think of the end of the world … as a continuous and never-ending process” (189-90).

Unlike hard science fiction, the novel is less concerned with the technical mechanics, structure and traversing of the space-time continuum than it is with the philosophical implications of humans and their relationship to time. Witnessing the protagonists struggle with their spatial and temporal existence is more relatable thanks to Mandel’s appeal to universal human experience rather than to futuristic, speculative imaginings.

Just like Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility does not rely on technical jargon or obscure scientific thought experiments to convey its philosophical musings and message; in her story, time travel acts as a vehicle of the affective experiences of its protagonists. 

The scientific background becomes a way for Mandel to reflect on how individuals choose to live based on their relationship to time. This novelistic theme calls to mind Martin Heidegger’s theory of being-unto-death, in which confronting our own morality should cause individuals to live more authentically and abundantly. However, in Sea of Tranquility, Mandel is more interested in the collective experience of the human race when they perceive the end times are near.

Despite its innovative theme, intricate plot and engaging prose, the novel is not without its flaws. If the reader is familiar with science fiction conventions, especially with other intertwining, temporally and spatially complex, multi-narrative novels like Cloud Atlas, they might find Sea of Tranquility’s conclusion predictable, as it ties together four seemingly unrelated narratives in a somewhat contrived fashion. Further, the storylines of some secondary characters do not have satisfying endings, such as that of Vincent Smith, whose life and death are covered in fuller detail in Mandel’s previous novel, The Glass Hotel, which many readers might not have known was a companion story. Another apparent weakness of the novel is that the introduction of Gaspery at its midpoint renders many of the other characters’ stories less relevant and their plotlines are hastily wrapped up or left unfinished.

However, Mandel does successfully convey the key moral or message of the novel through Gaspery’s character. Gaspery is the one who comes to realize the futility of his desire for and fear of time when he reaches the end of his narrative arc. At this point, he recognizes that he, in his pursuit of excitement and knowledge, had “moved too fast” and “too far,” losing much of his life in the process, and realizing in his newfound wisdom that he “wished to travel no further” and decides to be “a still point in the ceaseless rush.” 

Mandel, therefore, appears in The Sea of Tranquility to encourage readers to slow down, move through our existence at a calm and steady pace and experience life in its fullness as it stands before us. This, she suggests, is necessary, whether we are living during “the end of the world” or not.