Tress of the Emerald Sea

This is Brandon Sanderson 1st of 4 secret novels

This book is set in the greater Cosmere of Brandon Sanderson but on a new world which we have not yet visited until this book.

This story is told in hoids voice and has a much more YA feel that other cosmere books and as Sanderson has said was inspired by Princess Bride and it certainly has that feel.

This books magic system is certainly different based around these spore seas but feels more like the natural biology of the world more than magic but still having that magical feel to it, its kind of hard to explaine lol. A very magical feeling world without alot of magic

Throughout this book there are numerous cosmere referneces to other worlds, lifeforms, magic systems and technology. I would argue that this is a great introduction to the cosmere, Fans will recognized the references and new readers to the cosmere don't need to know the references

Overall I really enjoyed this book and loved it but falls short of a 5 star review for me personally

only a few complains really. Mainly that there a few references to things that just would not be in the Cosmere including things from Earth, a non cosmere world but also HP Lovecraft references which while cool and awesome as I do like HP Lovecraft, Lovecraft does not fit in with the cosmere. And I don't think Hoid our narrator would know HP Lovecraft

Full reivew coming soon to my youtube channel, will updated review with link when that goes live

Loved this book, really liked the cozy, kinda fairy tale vibe. Great characters, loved them all, especially the main character, she was so relatable and fun to read about. I also really enjoyed the narrator I didn't know what I was getting into, so discovering Hoid is telling the story was so much fun!. Really excited to get the hardcover soon and reread it!

There is something very comforting about Brandon Sanderson's writing style. TotES takes that general coziness and dials it up to 11. This is definitely the most whimsical Cosmere book I have read before, and I know that was deliberate seeing as this was written specifically for his wife. And the whole thing wears its influences decidedly on its sleeve. The Princess Bride rides strongly through this both in theming and literary styling, with some of the extra Pratchett and Gaiman whimsy thrown in for good measure. Having the whole thing structured as a tale told by Hoid allows for that whimsy to work in the setting though.

Sanderson's big strength has always been his well realised worlds and Lumar, the setting for this novel, is no exception. Every Cosmere planet has its own unique expression and Lumar is its spore seas. Each sea has a different colour spore and each colour spore has a different property. The spores all react with water to cause certain effects - the verdant spores of the Emerald Sea violently sprout vines, azure spores violently explode on contact with water. A series of clever mechanical devices are able to use these properties to create different weapons and tools. Everything here works and makes sense. And the fact that water is the main catalyst creates a brilliant sense of danger - most living things excrete significant quantities of water!

The characters here are also excellent. The growth seen feels properly earnt. This is essentially a coming of age story so that growth is so important. The characters are just engaging, the ships crew have that excellent found family element and the self deprecation that Hoid uses helps balance out having a super powerful immortal hiding in the story.

Considering this story was written as a bonus secret thing for his wife this is hugely impressive and probably one of the best things to come out COVID... Extra bonus stories should not be allowed to be this good.

this might be my favorite Brandon Sanderson book that I've read so far. please read it.

the narration. the setting. the imagery. the story. the magic system. tress herself. huck/charlie. hoid. ullam. the main crew (oh gosh I loved them so much). I literally fell in love with all of them and their little payoffs, their stories and details and quirks and arcs and they felt so alive. and holy crap the physical special edition. if you have a chance to read one/get your hands on one, do it. the added colors, the added art pieces, the chapter headers and accent colors, the freaking endpages evolving to match the story. *chefkiss*

Wow. I'm a huge fan of what I've read of The Stormlight Archives (edgedancer is whats stopped me from finishing), yet I never had tread into the rest of the Cosmere. I truly wish I had now. The way the novel started had me questioning whether I would enjoy it but that very quickly changed and I loved the whole journey. It is another beautiful world brought to life by someone I won't insult by calling talented. I can feel the years of practice in this writing. I'm someone who reads on E-Readers, but this will be joining my sparse shelf of books I love enough to buy physically.

Incredible, hilarious, heartfelt, oh my god what a journey. Not new to Sanderson, but blown away nevertheless.

Lovely story about a dangerous world and a couple in love. It also involves pirates and a sorceress' curses. The aether oceans were clever and I love seeing how Tress learned to use it. I also enjoyed seeing how Tress grew through her adventure. I really enjoyed spending time in this world.

A fun, enjoyable read. It has the contours of “The Snow Queen”. I have the Kickstarter edition, which is an absolutely beautiful volume.

maaan what a fun story and entry to the cosmere. the cast of characters were very lovable, as was the motive for this books creation. if you like adult fairy tales a la The Princess Bride and Good Omens, READ THIS BOOK.

This is possibly my favourite ever Sanderson book. I loved the whole thing with the spores and how Tress wasn't scared and so was able to learn so much more than anyone else about them. But mainly I just really loved the characters. I wasn't really an immense fan of Hoid before but his narrating made the story really lovely and funny. And his references to the rest of the Cosmere delighted me. 

But also just Tress and Charlie were both great as well as all the other crew members on the ship. I usually love all the characters in Sanderson books but this one especially has a collection of such amazing ones. It is like the ultimate feel-good book to me, especially the ending. 

A very good read, can't wait for secret project 2.

I think I will just need to read this another time. I've tried twice and I just can't get into it. The tone is so different from Sandersons other books. Maybe it's the narrator? I don't know. The magic is great. The premise is great, I just can't get into it.

DNF about halfway through this time. A quarter of a way through the first time.

The most whimsical of Sanderson's works so far. It feels personal like most others do not, and I like it.

Before writing the review, let's take a step back to the whole story of the year of Sanderson (for me, Sandy), shall we?
this is just an excuse to share my excitement and feeeeels

I remember watching his video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a-k6eaT-jQ) while coming back home from work. At first, I fell for it and thought poor Sandy was so negatively affected by the pandemic that he would take a break from writing, understandably. But after a few seconds, I was so excited about what he did and planned to do. I showed that video to my bf and after we talked about it, we decided to support his kickstarted campaign. we would have loved to receive the hardcovers, but the shipping to Europe and import taxes made up the price of the book itself, so we went for the ebooks. For me, backing his project was about trust. Not all of his books work for me despite their being very original and well-written. I still have the trust that I was about to like whatever he would write.

Now, let's move onto this first project.
...even though I dont know where to start, because this book was so different from all other books from Sandy that I still have to figure out how I feel about it.

The setting
This book is set in the Cosmere and takes place on a planet named Lumar. Its magic is based on aethers which are also mentioned in the Lost Metal which explode in contact with water. For me however it was not clear how the Investiture worked in relation to spore control.
We dont get a map, sadly, but it looks like this planet is rich in sea with scattered islands, as I imagined it. The sea is not quite what we imagine but it's composed of spores and boats float on it. Sandy based this mechanism on fluidification. There's a video on his channel that explains it best.
Each sea has spores, colour and behaviour different from each other.

I enjoyed the original magic system and setting. However, there are still some aspects that are not clear to me and wished they were better explained.

The story
The story is narrated from Hoid's point of view and follows Tress, a girl living on a very small island named Rock, who is in love with Charlie, and sets on an adventure to rescue him.

The narration was fun, but kind of strange. I enjoy the narration type, but the humour and the metaphors did not really meet my taste. I didnt laugh or sometimes i didnt even understand their meaning, probably due to english not being my mother tongue. I also found myself never fully enjoy Hoid's whimsy.
The story had continuously twists, which I didn't see coming. The end felt too rushed and in the middle the pace felt a bit too slow. Overall, even if i dislike pirate stories, I liked this one. I felt for Tress and Huck (the talking cute rat) throughout the whole book. I loved Tress's growth, too. She has changed a lot by the end. Last but not least: the illustrations were gorgeous!

This felt like acute and cosy love and adventure story that i feel recommending to everyone!

No suelo abandonar los libros a medio leer, pero este me est?? costando mucho. Llevaba ya una tercera parte y a??n estaba esperando a que llegara un punto en el que me enganchara. En fin, supongo que Sanderson no es para m??.

Absolutely delightful read

A terrible idea executed brilliantly has to be better than a brilliant idea executed terribly. I mean, look at pelicans!

Tress of the Emerald Sea was my first taste of a Brandon Sanderson book and what is apparently the Cosmere Universe(?) and I have to say I am very happy with this as an entry point. Im already a sucker for pirates, One Piece is my favourite story of all time, and the absolute coziness I felt reading this was great!

Tress and the crew that we follow here are all great. Tress herself is an optimistic and naive joy to follow early who slowly grows into a more capable leader to this ragtag bunch. For the crew itself, Fort is an easy standout with how much I loved the guy and his big brother energy as he supports Tress through his trades.

The world that's built up here I found really interesting with how much was done with a simple "what if ocean but spore" idea. The different colours of ocean and spore were fun to learn about and there interactions with water made for fun ideas like not being able to cry tears of joy on deck for fear of growing the spores, just a bunch of fun little ideas.

I was instantly sold on the relationship between Tress and Charlie at the beginning so was a bit sad to see them separated for so much of the book but what we did get was still good. Hoid i’m split on though, I enjoyed him as a tongue-in-cheek narrator but any time he was in the story I was just annoyed at him and his humour fell flat for me.

This felt like it was written for me.

SPOILERS

Fluidized seas of spores that explode in crazy ways when hydrated, strong female lead who doesn't truly realise how special she is until she has her own loyal crew of pirates insisting on helping her, curses that prevent the cursed from informing others of ways to help lift the curse.

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did

I love this Book. The story was fun, the world building as always intriguing and catching. The cast of Characters felt great, everyone was different with their own goals and resolution at the end. Hoid our narrator sprinkled a lot of great and funny phrases into the mix which made it a well rounded book that I would recommend to everyone to give it a shot

I was a bit skeptical about what to expect from the first of four books Sanderson wrote in a year for a Kickstarter campaign, but I don't know why I ever doubted him. Sanderson said this book was inspired by two of my favorites: The Princess Bride and Good Omens. For Cosmere fans, it's narrated by Hoid and features Hoid prominently in a supporting role, and there are a few other references and species scattered throughout. But it still holds up as a standalone story on yet another new world with yet another compelling new magic system—deadly fluidized spore oceans! Enjoy.

3 or 3.5 stars. It's a fun story, but nothing spectacular. There are some cool cosmere tidbits that I enjoyed.

Michael Kramer does an excellent job with the narration as always.

I really tried to like Tress of the Emerald Sea. No, really, I did. Brandon Sanderson can craft narrative in his sleep, and the underlying story of Tress is fine. In fact, I'd say I liked it. Despite that, I just couldn't get into the novel, and that's because of, at least in my opinon, its fatal flaw: the writing style.

As someone who got hooked and binged through all of Brandon Sanderson's work last year, I can say that I was once a Sanderson fan. However, as soon as I branched out to other authors, it became painfully clear to me that Sanderson's writing style isn't particularly good. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. Many people enjoy his basic style. However, in a book that is obviously aiming to be witty and whimsical, Sanderson's weakness shines through. I never once that the book was poetic or whimsical, but I frequently got the impression that it was trying its hardest to be poetic and whimsical.

The problem was amplified by the tone not being consistent. The prose switches between Sanderson's typical prose-albeit slightly more playful-and attempts at Pratchett, Adams, or Rothfuss.

I give this 4.5/5, but only because I gave The Lost Metal a 4/5, and this is better.

Wow what a great book! So cozy and whimsical. I loved the dialog, the narration style, the world building. Tress was such an amazing character! One of my top books this year!

Narrated by Hoid. I dislike Hoid. But I like everything else about this book. It's just SO MUCH Hoid.