Sea of Tranquility

Interesting how this feels like she's remixing the themes of [b:Station Eleven 20170404 Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451446835l/20170404.SX50_SY75.jpg 28098716]: there's a pandemic, there's a piece of art that connects across the timelines, there's a composer, there's a transportation hub... I can't even fault her writing, I enjoyed listening to it. But I'm mad at the book for choosing timetravel only to pick the most rehashed timetravel trope (Oh look, it's the timetraveller encountering himself, and now he has to go to close the loop.), which feels like lazy writing. And I'm also surprised how she set up quite interesting characters at the beginning of the book, only for them to basically be dropped and only pop up again as plot pawns in the story of the way less intriguing investigator. Not a fan of author self-inserts either, see [b:Beautiful World, Where Are You 56597885 Beautiful World, Where Are You Sally Rooney https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1618329605l/56597885.SY75.jpg 88516904], or maybe that just felt like one straw too many. Another one of those low ratings that don't fully reflect upon the quality of the book, but rather on my disappointment about the book not fulfilling it's own potential.- Reading the synopsis of her previous book [b:The Glass Hotel 45754981 The Glass Hotel Emily St. John Mandel https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1564199892l/45754981.SX50.jpg 57817644] now made me realize that she's reusing characters and basically building one giant interconnected story.