Wera's Reviews > Tress of the Emerald Sea

4 stars

“In the middle of the ocean, there was a girl who lived upon a rock.
This was not an ocean like the one you have imagined.
Nor was the rock like the one you have imagined.
The girl, however, might be as you imagined—assuming you imagined her as thoughtful, soft-spoken, and overly fond of collecting cups.”

Tress of the Emerald Sea is the first secret project released as part of the record-breaking Sanderson kickstarter. This novel, in my opinion, reaffirms that Sanderson is one of the best current working authors because the quantity of books he releases doesn't affect their quality. This is a story told by Hoid, a recurring character in the Cosmere. We follow a girl who ventures off her island in the spore seas to rescue her love from an evil Sorceress. If you enjoy nautical fantasy and fairytales, this is the book for you.

The thing that stood out to me the most when reading this book was definitely Hoid's narration. I love the way he made the story engaging, funny, and whimsical all at once. He doesn't simply tell the actual narrative, he makes jokes and small references to perhaps other Cosmere events (one's we have seen and ones we haven't). He also bring in retrospection into the story with the way he has had time to reflect on everything that occurred during its actual events. This all results in a quite different tone to his other novels, but it really really works.

The other thing I loved about this book was the setting. We are on a planet Lumar, which has 12 moons orbiting it. Under each moon there is a spore sea based on the idea of air being bubbled up through solids causing them to behave like liquids (Sanderson has a video on it on his channel with Mark Rober). However , if these spores encounter water, they produce a magical effect (a burst of air, growth of a vine, red spikes, etc). Our heroine finds herself having to sail these seas and learning about the different types of spores, how they work, and spending time in the seas was amazing.



Lastly, I'd like to touch up on the story. Although I enjoy nautical adventure fantasy it isn't always my favorite. In this case, I thought it was very well done since it was portrayed using the fairytale lens. Hoid plays into these stereotypes of a girl with her talking animal companion, the evil witch, the pirate battles, etc. cliches but it never feels like these choices were made because Sanderson was lazy; rather, there choices are there to fit the genre. That being said, I do think I prefer the more complex stories so I wasn't as shocked and invested by the end of the book as I usually am with Sanderson novels.

All in all, I think Tress of the Emerald Sea is a great entry point for the Cosmere for people who enjoy nautical fantasy or fairytales. You get to experience a fairly unrelated story to the wider Cosmere but see some reocurring faces and get acquainted with Sanderson's magic systems. I truly enjoyed this.