A real trip in tradition of best sci-fi
After the critical acclaim bestowed on the page-toscreen version of HBO’s “Station Eleven,” Emily St. John Mandel fans will no doubt read “Sea of Tranquility.” It’s not a sequel by any means, but it does employ the same kind of narrative time jumping, in this case quite literally, as some characters travel through time. There’s also a couple of real-life pandemics that factor in the plot, both the 1918 flu and COVID-19. Lastly, fans of St. John Mandel’s 2020 novel, “The Glass Hotel,” will enjoy reacquainting themselves with some characters from that novel. You’re even treated to brief glimpses of their futures.
But summarizing the plot in a paragraph is not easy. There are three main settings: Vancouver Island a few years before the
First World War, a book tour in 2203 just before the onset of a pandemic that will be much deadlier than COVID-19, and a lunar colony in 2401. Yes, somehow all those settings impact one another and propel the plot, which is driven by first-person passages from the life of a man named GasperyJacques Roberts, who works for the Time Institute, which readers familiar with the plot of the Disney+ series “Loki” will recognize as similar to the Time Variance Authority. Suffice it to say something funky has happened/is happening/will happen with the world’s timeline and by the end of the book, you’ll know what.
The journey to the conclusion is a relatively easy read, despite the lofty themes. The chapters are short, and while some are head-scratching, you keep going and trust that the puzzle pieces will click into place. As in her other novels, St. John Mandel paints quick scenes with her characters, then moves on to something else. In
the tradition of the best sci-fi, there are off-hand references to things like “the Republic of Texas” or the illegality of killing animals either on Earth or the moon. There’s a sense of world building even though we only get glimpses.
It’s a real trip, and one worth taking. — Rob Merrill, Associated Press
If you stand on a street corner all day yelling
at passersby, you might reach a few hundred people. If you do the same thing on the internet, that number is comparatively limitless.
“Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for the Truth” is exactly what it purports to be, though the title couldn’t have prepared me for the level of schooling I was about to get.
Journalist Elizabeth Williamson’s new investigative piece is a bit longer than the news features you may be used to reading from her. “Sandy Hook” is split into almost 30 chapters, each one with as much care and integrity as the last.
Filled with the most impeccable details — the ones that rarely make it into tight news reports — Williamson draws on documented facts to paint pertinent portraits of the
families and victims of the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. But only about a quarter of the book focuses on Sandy Hook and the people involved. The rest is about the internet and the fight for truth.
Williamson, a feature writer in the Washington bureau of The New York Times, waded through brackish swamps of misinformation, disinformation and trauma to arrive at a well-documented explanation of a tragedy, receipts in hand and nicely organized in the book’s notes section.
Expert organization keeps the narrative momentum up, never stagnating on any one person or topic. Williamson artfully lays foundations throughout, using these touch points to gently remind readers who’s who in the long list of people who appear in “Sandy Hook.”
That said, the book is exhausting: vivid accounts of grief, heartbreaking details of Sandy Hook, terrifying things people have said and done in the dark anonymity of the internet.
Somehow, despite the depressing nature of the subject matter, “Sandy Hook” remains hopeful.