Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Emily Mandel is an excellent writer. I just finished reading her 2022 book Sea of Tranquility, and I cannot stop thinking about it.  Having read her 2014 novel Station Eleven a couple months ago, I was looking for another book by the same author. I am glad to have found Sea of Tranquility and to have now read the latter book second. The two books are not part of a series, and yet they are tangentially-related. A major character in Sea of Tranquility is an author who wrote a highly successful book that is a lot like Station Eleven. 

I think both books are considered to be science fiction, yet Station Eleven doesn't contain any sort of fictional technology. On the other hand, Sea of Tranquility features time travel, air ships, lunar colonies, and colonies in the stars. Therefore, it is definitely in the science fiction category.  But definitely not a space opera. The plot moves from 1912 to 2020 to 2203 to 2401 and then swings back. Action takes place on earth, the moon, and A seemingly minor character keeps appearing and becomes more important. Similarly, unimportant events turn out to be important later in the novel and later in time; people's lives loop through time and intersect again; a passage in a novel becomes an event that happens in real life; a musical performance from the future is heard by someone in the past. I find myself reflecting on the interactions between different parts of the novel and between characters from different times.

Ultimately, this is all in service of the metaphysical idea that our universe is actually a simulation in some computer. But if it is, how would we tell and does it matter? 

I enjoyed both of these books so much that I intend to reread them both and also to look for more books by this very talented writer. There are six so far, and I hope she produces more.