Imagine, if you will, the notion of experiencing a life moving through time and space on an emotional journey of self-discovery. Imagine further that life unraveling a puzzle of corrupted time tied to a specific point of time that intersects a specific place in western British Columbia, Canada. Just such a journey awaits in Sea of Tranquility: A Novel as written by Emily St. John Mandel.
(Emily St. John Mandel wrote Sea of Tranquility: A Novel).
That Sea of Tranquility: A Novel deals in time travel has been raised. Imagine too the notion of simulation hypothesis, which as defined on Wikipediahere “proposes that all of existence is a simulated reality, such as a computer simulation.” While the exploration here is much more tranquil than say the exploration provided in The Matrix (1999), Emily St. John Mandel ask similar questions about what reality is, how time is experienced, and what constitutes memory when our perceptions of what is real are blurred.
(An alternative cover for Sea of Tranquility: A Novel, which was first published April 5th, 2022).
The character Edwin St. Andrew opens Sea of Tranquility: A Novel by being exiled from England, across the Atlantic Ocean, into Canada. While enjoying the Canadian wilderness, Edwin suddenly becomes shaken when experiencing what he takes as the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal. Famous writer Olive Llewellyn, her home the second artificial colony on the Moon, writes of a man playing his violin on an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him. Gaspery-Jacques Roberts then investigates this and other items, focusing the story into a mystery and romance that set about answering questions of reality, the experience of time and memory in a sweet tale of attempts to do the extraordinary being disrupted by the human experience.
(Emily St. John Mandel also wrote the book Station Eleven, which was first published September 9th, 2014).
Sea of Tranquility: A Novel was written during the strictest movement restrictions of the COVID-19pandemic. While get into the metaphysical, St. John Mandel maintains a sense of the ordinary with sprinkles of the grasp for meaning, connection, recognition and aspiration. The reach for these points mirrored the human experience during the COVID-19 lockdowns in a fictional way that gave meaning intermixed with beauty to the human experience. I give the experience of reading Sea of Tranquility: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5 stars.
When bringing back a previous television show as the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) did with Quantum Leap (1989-1993), a central decision is to continue the original storyline or create a new world for the show. In a move that many thought they didn’t want, Quantum Leap (2022- ) returned with storylines that extended the universe of the original series with really good results.
(Raymond Lee as Ben Song in the television reboot of Quantum Leap).
The original Quantum Leap series ran for five seasons with Dr. Sam Beckett having never returned home after a series of leaps into the lives of people, aiming to turn right what once had been wrong. 30 years after Beckett had vanished after stepping into the Quantum Leap accelerator for the last time. We are introduced to the story of Dr. Ben Song and Addison Augustine, Song’s fiancé. We see Song breach protocol and initiate a leap in Augustine’s place with no planning for such a turn. Raymond Lee and Caitlin Bassett portrayed Song and Augustine, respectively.
(From left, Nanrisa Lee as Jenn Chou, Ernie Hudson as Herbert ‘Magic’ Williams, Mason Alexander Park as Ian Wright and Caitlin Bassett as Addison Augustine in the television reboot of Quantum Leap).
Ernie Hudson, in a reprisal of the role of Herbert ‘Magic’ Williams from the third season of the original series, heads the team left behind. Jenn Chou and Ian Wright, as portrayed by Nanrisa Lee and Mason Alexander Park, support the Quantum Leap project with the wife and daughter of Sam Beckett’s observer, Al Calavicci, playing recurring roles. Susan Diol and Georgina Reilly portrayed Beth Calavicci and Janis Calavicci, respectively. Twists in the larger unfolding story of the 18 episodes of this first season back rested with Walter Perez, who portrayed the mysterious Richard Martinez.
(From left, Walter Perez as Richard Martinez, Susan Diol as Beth Calavicci and Georgina Reilly as Janis Calavicci in the television reboot of Quantum Leap).
Executive producer credit for the new season rests with Donald P. Bellisario as Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, having developed the new series, also served as executive producers. The core sensibilities of the original series remain with this reboot, though ways in which the universe exists for the audience are appreciated extensions into the current world. The world for next season and beyond is well open for Quantum Leap, which leads to my rating of 4.0-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars for the opening season.
We return to the fictional theatre of the very real European portion of World War Two during the fourth and fifth decades of the 20th century of the common era. The story director Jonathan Mostow brought us with the military action movie U-571 (2000) includes U-boats, criticism from British and German circles over perceived “affronts” to national truths and the historical record, and finally an interesting experiment geared at capturing a critical piece of German technology.
(From left, Matthew McConaughey as Lieutenant Andrew Tyler and Bill Paxton as Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren in the Jonathan Mostow movie U-571).
U-571 is set during the Battle of the Atlantic a contest between the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers (particularly Germany) for the control of the routes of passage across the Atlantic Ocean. Despite there being historical precedent for British sailors having captured a GermanEnigma device before the United States formally entered the war as combatants, the object of this film is an operation by American sailors to do precisely this. Former BritishPrime MinisterTony Blair called this “rewriting of history” an affront to British sailorshere. That GermanU-boat crews were shown shooting Allied survivors rather than assisting them, or taking them aboard as prisoners, also was a point of controversy.
(From left, Bill Paxton as Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren and Jon Bon Jovi as Lieutenant Pete Emmett in the Jonathan Mostow movie U-571).
The German submarine U-571, having suffered damage to its’ engines by a British destroyer, makes a distress call intercepted by American intelligence. The United States Navy modified the S-33 submarine to resemble a resupply U-boat, with a mission to steal the enigma device. Immediately before receiving this assignment, Lieutenant Andrew Tyler feels that he is being blocked in his career by Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren. Bill Paxton portrayed Dahlgren as Matthew McConaughey portrayed Tyler.
(From left, Jake Weber as Lieutenant Michael Hirsch and David Keith as Major Matthew Coonan in the Jonathan Mostow movie U-571).
The AmericanS-33 is torpedoed during a storm by a German resupply submarine while looking to engage U-571. Lieutenant Commander Dahlgren, wounded in the Atlantic Ocean from that attack, orders the S-33 to submerge. Lieutenant Tyler sinks the German resupply U-boat after assuming command from the presumed dead American S-33 commander. The S-33 is sunk; Tyler and members of the S-33 crew commandeer the U-571 U-boat.
(From left, Matthew McConaughey as Lieutenant Andrew Tyler, Will Estes as Torpedoman Ronald ‘Rabbit’ Parker and Harvey Keitel as Chief Gunner’s Mate Henry Klough in the Jonathan Mostow movie U-571).
With a mission to keep the crew morale on point and their focus on the mission, Tyler now holds a precarious place on board the U-571. After performing repairs to the U-571, the crew heads to Lands-End in Cornwall, England. A German destroyer spots the commandeered U-571 while on the way, with a test to the new commandeers nerve and cunning tested for all to see.
(From left, Erik Palladino as Seaman Anthony Mazzola, Dave Power as Motor Machinist Charles ‘Tank’ Clemens and Harvey Keitel as Chief Gunner’s Mate Henry Klough in the Jonathan Mostow movie U-571).
The situation with the German destroyer has multiple layers, with U-571’s Kapitänleutnant Günther Wassner escaping captivity and killing a member of Lieutenant Andrew Tyler’s crew during the tension of aiming to dodge depth charges and German attempts to neutralize the engines of the U-571 boat. Thomas Kretschmann portrayed Kapitänleutnant Günther Wassner.
(Thomas Kretschmann as Kapitänleutnant Günther Wassner in the Jonathan Mostow movie U-571).
A pair of increasingly difficult commands for Lieutenant Tyler, both aimed at saving the American crew aboard U-571, follow. The means of bringing about resolution to the larger drama, and what it means to specific characters that do or do not survive with the story either working out positively or not, I leave to your curiosity and viewing pleasure.
(From left, actor Matthew McConaughey, actor Jake Weber and director Jonathan Mostow on set of the Jonathan Mostow movie U-571).
The multiple moving pieces and coming of age in leadership, along with the human stories, are the successes of the movie U-571. The film performed well, though it didn’t rank among the best films of the year 2000 among film critics or general audience ratings. The film made money partly for the broad appeal of its cast couple with a decent, if not best in class, construction for this style of movie. I grant U-571 as directed by Jonathan Mostow 3.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Erik Larson struck upon many firsts with the September 28, 2021 release of the audiobook work of fiction titled No One Goes Alone. The novel is a book length novel written as a ghost story specifically in the narrated format; our meaning is that No One Goes Alone is read aloud by Julian Rhind-Tutt with the experience of ghost stories told around a campfire or slumber party from one’s younger days.
(Erik Larson wrote No One Goes Alone. This is Larson‘s first foray into fiction, an audio-only book and a ghost story).
Historical fiction reflects the focus for No One Goes Alone, written as an outgrowth of the research Larson performed for the 2006 bookThunderstruck. The premise underpinning No One Goes Alone has psychologist William James leading an expedition to a remote island where a family had inexplicably disappeared. Was there a physical explanation that could be discerned? Was there a supernatural explanation afoot? Is there something psychic that can be uncovered using a scientific and deductive reasoning approach? The story begins here.
(Julian Rhind-Tutt narrated Erik Larson‘s audio-only book No One Goes Alone).
The setting for the novel is the fictional Isle of Dorn in the northern Atlantic Ocean in the year 1905. William James leads the company as a prominent member of the so-called Society for Psychical Research, a real organization founded in 1882 to research the fine distinctions between demonstrable, provable phenomena and fake phenomena that had not yet been finely separated in the popular thinking of the time. The group assembles on the island to explore the sole cottage of the island as well as the surrounding landscape in search of a logical explanation for the disappearance of a family.
(Erik Larson wrote No One Goes Alone. This ghost story was released on September 28th, 2021).
The success to be found in the book rests in the sense of atmosphere used in the form of the telling. While the story will not rise to the level of practiced hand of Stephen King or others that I could mention, attempting to hold No One Goes Alone to such a standard that includes the best that King has to offer seems unfair. With a setting from 115-years ago, with people and life-experiences from that time, I feel there is a decent construction of time, place, and a parlor of isolated folks to render something unique, fresh and worthwhile.
(No One Goes Alone is Erik Larson‘s first work of fiction, based in history or otherwise. The audio format of the presentation is distinctive).
The mystical quality and exploration of feeling raised by No One Goes Alone offers intriguing tension. The sense of proper decorum along with a bashful yet grown narrator as character proved challenging in terms of liking the character as much as I would have wanted. The mystery in opposition to the proposed exploration began with promise that didn’t quite satisfy me as much as I had hoped at the beginning. My ultimate thought is No One Goes Alone as written by Erik Larson leaves me wanting for more, thus earning a rating of 3.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5 for its quality.
Matt Lynn Digital 