Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022--San Antonio

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel surprised me by being so short and so good.  I knew it had good reviews, but for some reason I avoided reading it until now.  I was so pulled into the story that I read it within 36 hours (not using all those hours, just reading off and on).  I had read and thoroughly enjoyed her Station Eleven, so I shouldn't have been surprised by this one.  Like "Eleven," this one is science fiction.  Chapters take place over centuries, but all tie together.  What seems strange when you first read it makes sense as you go further along.  The big question addressed in the book is whether life is REAL or if it is just a giant simulation.  The question arises because of a blip in time that makes no sense.  But the book also deals with global warming, the establishment of settlements on the moon and then further out, time travel, ethics, etc.  I do think there was one scientific error in the book.  She states that the moon settlements have two weeks of sun and then two weeks of darkness.  If I remember my science correctly, the moon does not rotate; it has one sunny face and one dark face, so at any given point on the moon there will be either total sunshine all the time or total darkness all the time.  I think the author was thinking of how the moon, seen from the earth, has phases that transition from a total moon face to total darkness in two weeks and then back to a total moon face two weeks later, but that is not an indicator that the moon is rotating so that points on it are transitioning every two weeks in terms of light and darkness.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.