In Review: Tress of the Emerald Sea
My first Brandon Sanderson book. It has been a while since I wanted to read one of his books. He’s so loved by the reading community that I was curious to understand why. Although, he’s a fantasy author. And if you don’t know by now, fantasy is not my cup of tea. He has at least one sci-fi series, but I haven’t found the will to try it out. And then, the Hardest Reading Challenge You’ve Ever Done comes into my life. It has been a hot minute since I’ve talked about it. I don’t know if you’ve heard. But one of the prompts is to read a crowdfunded book. And this was the final push to buy a Brandon Sanderson book.
Title: Tress of the Emerald Sea Author: Brandon Sanderson Series: The Cosmere – standalone Publication year: 2023 Length: 12 hours 27 minutes Genre: Fantasy, Adventure Pace: Medium Story focus: Character & Plot
Tress has lived her whole life on a small island. And she doesn’t need anything else. She helps her family, cleans windows, cooks, collects cups, and has a good friendship with the Duke’s son, Charlie. But he’s obviously just the gardener. Surrounded by a sea of spores ready to hatch to the smallest drop of water, land is the safest place. That’s until Charlie is shipped off to marry a princess and is captured by the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. His father already found a replacement for him, and no one is doing anything to save Charlie. Moved by her love for him, Tress leaves the safety of her island behind and begins a deadly adventure at sea.
Tress of the Emerald Sea is the story I was expecting to find in Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Maybe because most of the book happens aboard a ship, I felt it was more of a pirate story than Treasure Island. Tress begins her adventure on a merchant ship, which quickly turns into a dangerous endeavour. She gets captured by a pirate ship and has to quickly find a way to avoid being thrown overboard. Most of the story is about Tress discovering the pirate life and making friends among them.
Slowly, I’ve been exploring what I like and don’t like in the fantasy genre. And Tress has a lot of what I like. It’s an adventure with a sort of elemental magic to it. Although, that’s not the whole point of the story. The focus is on the challenges the characters have to face. The growth. The friendships. And a little unplanned stupidity, often confused with determination and bravery. Tress can be brilliant, but she should start thinking things through a bit more. The focus is on the characters and on Tress widening her horizons with everything she’s learning. Not only is Tress learning more about herself, but so are we. And I like her type of heroine. She wants something, and she goes after it. Even if it puts her in danger.
The magic was fun. The spores weren’t something that existed to solve any problems easily. Instead, they were what caused them. And I liked to see the characters being smart enough to use them. To turn the danger into a weapon. A lot of how the world works and how intertwined the spores are with it was smart and thought out. If the other Cosmere novels keep the magic to this degree, I’ll enjoy them. It doesn’t overpower the story and is merely a part of the world the characters live in.
I have to say Sanderson is a fantastic storyteller. The way he works with the imagination and gives this nostalgic and childlike feeling to the story was delicious to read. The book reminded me of My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman. Both give this warm feeling as if I’m being transported back to a childhood version of myself, fascinated by the world around me. It’s exciting, new, and full of potential stories to get lost in. It works the imagination that we often lose when we grow old. It’s essentially a book for adults to feel like children again.
I loved so many takes on various topics regarding human relations. The narrator sets a great tone and messages I’m thrilled to have found in a book. It’s not often your ideas and opinions line up with the ones of a character or the narrator. Especially when you read a lot about characters being bad humans like I do. And seeing some ideas being voiced by someone other than yourself is reassuring. It’s knowing that someone sees the world in the same way and that you are not alone despite the world around you seems to contradict it.
One of the great tragedies of life is knowing how many people in the world are made to soar, paint, sing, or steer – except they never get the chance to find out. Whenever one does discover a moment of joy, beauty enters the world. Human beings, we can’t create energy; we can only harness it. We can’t create matter; we can only shape it. We can’t even create life; we can only nurture it.
We all have a job. A place in this world. A function. Call it a destiny even. And not everyone has the opportunity to find it, and that’s a shame. So many great musicians, painters, athletes, writers, and so on are lost in this world because they don’t have the means to explore and give their all in the name of their craft. Even Tress found her place aboard a ship because she had the support of her family. Without them, she would never have left the island. She would never know her simple life could be so much more.
Surprisingly, for a book I enjoyed so much, it took me ages to read. I don’t know how Sanderson did it, but his pages had 100% more text than a normal book of the same size. I read it so slowly. But how? The font isn’t excruciatingly small. The text wasn’t hard to read. I would sit down, make good progress in the story, look back… and only read 3 pages. This book defies the laws of book physics. I don’t understand.
Essentially, Tress of the Emerald Sea is about the power of love. The love Tress has for Charlie which makes her leave her cocoon. The love of Tress’ friends and family, who help her on her quest. Love is what saves her. Love is what wins. And that’s always a beautiful message. Love conquers all and is a far better motivator than fear.
[…] if you ask these heroes why they risked their lives […] They did it for their friends.
