Tress of the Emerald Sea
“Written with his usual humor and panache, Tress of the Emerald Sea is an engaging story that brings another Cosmere magic system to Sanderson’s collection of adventures.”
Most people know that Brandon Sanderson is possibly the most prolific fantasy author of the 21st century. He started with Elantris and worked his way up to finishing the Wheel of Time series helmed by the late, great Michael Jordan. To great acclaim, of course.
Sanderson has set this book smack dab in his Cosmere collection, a series of books (most notably the Stormlight Archive) set in a shared universe where magic has a specific origin and rules that vary from planet to planet.
Tress is a young woman living on a small island in the middle of the Emerald Sea, a body not made of water, but of tiny green spores that flow from one of the planet’s moons. The green one, of course. The spore sea is dangerous to sail because even a tiny drop of water will cause them to sprout instantly, and aggressively, into vegetation.
Enter here Tress’s love interest, the Duke’s son, Charlie. Although hailing from different social circles, the two love each other deeply, almost desperately. This doesn’t make the duke happy, so he sends his son away in an effort to marry him off to a woman of similar station. Eventually Charlie is captured by the Sorceress, a woman who inhabits the Midnight Sea (black spores from the black moon), who has a penchant for cursing people who cross her.
Tress comes to the decision to save Charlie and escapes from the island, only to be captured by pirates led by the dangerous Captain Crow, a woman with a perilous secret. Now a part of the crew, Tress must somehow convince Captain Crow to sail through the Crimson Sea (red spores from the red moon) to the Midnight Sea so she can save Charlie. With the help of Hoid, the narrator, and a crew of sailors with unique, sometimes exaggerated, personalities, Tress faces her fear of spores, Captain Crow and the wide world in an effort to complete her quest.
Hoid, an interstellar traveler who suffers from a horrid curse bestowed by the Sorceress, injects much tongue-in-cheek humor into the fable-like narrative. This assists the read with yet another magic system in the Cosmere Written with his usual humor and panache, Tress of the Emerald Sea is an engaging story that brings another Cosmere magic system to Sanderson’s collection of adventures.
Learning about yet another Sanderson magic system can be tedious, but once it’s explained, the reader can carry on with the story.
Sometimes the narrative is a bit bogged down by too much plot exposition, but it quickly picks back up and runs right along, practically dragging the reader from page to page, from adventure to adventure.