I ripped through it yesterday in a few hours’ time. It was so… flimsy? Like more of a too-long short story or merely an outline of an idea? It was as if Mandel just had to get something, anything to the publisher to fulfill a contract real quick. The author character made me never ever want to write a book. The characters had no depth, the concepts weren’t fleshed out, and the vision of the future wasn’t credible to me. What did everyone else think?
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Yeah, it just felt like a basic sketch. If I was younger I’d be more impressed, but having read many of the books that influenced her style, it doesn’t seem very original.
I liked it a lot but I can’t exactly say why. Same with Station Eleven (terrifying but in the nicest way) which I am reading now. But I thought The Glass Hotel was a slog. Haven’t read The Lola Quartet yet. I don’t know, her writing is kinda like a walk on a nice beach…I’ve seen it before but for now, I’ll just keep walking because it’s pleasant…in the nicest way.
It felt like Mandel didn’t actually respect science fiction as a genre. She writes it like she’s too good to actually learn from and engage with writing that other authors have already done. Her time travel mechanics are super flimsy, but they aren’t even flimsy for thematic reasons. It was just laziness. She barely understands Simulation Theory herself, and she does a poor job of presenting it before making it the central theme of the novel. Mandel writes like she’s a true “literary” author and found herself fucking up a genre story that could’ve been something passable with a modicum of respect for sci-fi.
The book is far from perfect but I have a hard time acknowledging criticisms of a books when the person admits they “ripped though it in a few hours” most books are going to feel flimsy that way.
It was only 255 small sized pages with large line spacing and many many short chapters, so tons of pages had few words. It was a one sitting read. There was no skimming, I never skim, even if I hate the book I almost always finish it. I’d be able to respond to any plot or character points you’d like to touch on, hit me with it!
I went into this book pretty much blind but with positive expectations. It just never gave me anything to care about. Engaging vibes and evocative prose was nowhere to be found. The characters all were weakly written. Everyone felt guided by the invisible plot hand in order to serve the narrative without any real desires of agency of their own. Which might be forgivable if the plot itself was something special, but it wasn’t. We spent so much effort jumping around between people, space, and time. After reading the final payoff tying everything together, my only thought was “huh, why do I care about any of this?”
I really liked it. I’ll agree the characters felt a little… minimalist? But at the same time, like u/fuckit_sowhat says there’s a atmosphere I like about her writing and I think that ‘minimalism’ adds to that. There’s something light and ethereal to it.
Also, I couldn’t read it without thinking about Mandel’s perspective of just having written a popular book about a pandemic only to have a real life pandemic hit. Definitely would have had me thinking about determinism/destiny/existential type themes if I’d been in her shoes mid pandemic.
That really wasn’t my experience - I felt like I knew all of her characters really well, could picture them in my head and understood their motivations, and while I’m not always into heavily meta fiction, I’m really enamored with the way Sea of Tranquility responds to Station Eleven. I think you have to embrace a certain surrealist quality she has, where reading her stuff makes you feel a bit like you’re on mushrooms: Everything is, like, connected, man.
I might be in the minority, too, but I like shorter novels that don’t try to be grand epics or round out every possible detail. Like movies that are all over 2 hours now, it seems like so many books are stretching out past 400 pages. It’s just not necessary to tell a good story.
I couldn’t put this book down and thought about it A LOT for days afterward.
I see what you mean when you say embracing the surrealist quality. I felt unusually critical about this story, my brain kept yelling BUT BUT, etc. I do think she’s a great writer so I was surprised at my reaction.
I like all lengths of novels. I’ve been reading a lot of Agatha Christie lately for that short and sweet hit they give. Thanks for your thoughts!
I really liked the melancholy, slow atmosphere of her writing. I found the later parts - the protagonist that is just her - a little indulgent (oh no, the rich person felt guilty during COVID). The first character is well rounded and interesting. The rest are pretty thin. Some good lines in it but I agree it’s not my favourite. Moody and atmospheric - yes. A well rounded plot with believable characters? No.
I loved it! The writing is beautiful and I honestly liked the way the deeper themes were handled. Not everything has to be explained to death to be meaningful in my opinion. I can appreciate how that style wouldn’t work for everyone though!
All of your criticisms are probably valid and accurate. I’m too biased to give proper feedback because I find Mandel’s writing to be so atmospheric and engrossing that I almost don’t care what the plot is about. I start one of her books and am done with it before I realize how long I’ve been sitting there. Any book that can make me forget about time and the real world is a good book to me.
The author character at one point fields a question from a reader how one of the author’s books kind of just ends with no conclusion and I remember not being stoked to finish the book after that expecting it to be the case. Tbf, it kind of had a conclusion but it also felt like it kind of just ends.
I forget the character’s name who is ostracized from his royal family but I knew nothing about the book going into it and thought I was going to be reading that characters adventures all the way through. If anyone can recommend a book about a character like that please let me know. I’m not looking to read another of Mandel’s works though.
I was.disappointed by it, and disappointed that I was disappointed by it. I LOVED Station Eleven and really really enjoyed The Glass Hotel, but I couldn’t get over that Sea of Tranquility felt like a poor attempt on Cloud Atlas. If you’re going to attempt a Cloud Atlas, it’s got to be so much better than the original and for me, Sea of Tranquility just…wasn’t.
Ah, Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility. I have to say, I had a similar experience with it. It felt like a sprint through a marathon, leaving me wanting more substance and depth. The characters lacked the complexity I crave, and the world-building fell short for me. Curious to hear others’ thoughts.
Went from liking the idea to bored real quick.
The “pandemic” character was a just an author self insert from 2020, with incredibly little effort beyond that. In fact Id’ve appreciated just going full Steven King and inserting herself into the narrative in 2020, rather than the quarter hearted attempt at making a “near future” setting by slapping a “hologram” label on a handful of things.
I suppose if you’re just into writing style and characters then the book is over so fast you might not notice that the characters are shallow, and might not care that the plot and ideas are empty.
I enjoy Mandel’s writing stylistically, but I completely agree with you in terms of the substance and weight of her plot and characters. It definitely feels a bit flimsy and lacking. This is part of the reason why I actually thought that the TV adaptation of Station Eleven was SIGNIFICANTLY better, more nuanced and with so much better character development than what Mandel gave us in the book. Sea of Tranquility was fine, but there really was no meat on the bone in terms of the character development or where the story actually took us.