Review: TRESS OF THE EMERALD SEA, by Brandon Sanderson

The first of Sanderson's four Kickstarter novels is out. How is it?

Last year Brandon Sanderson put Tor Books on suicide watch (ha ha! not really! but maybe?) with his $45M Kickstarter project. Four books, no descriptions, his readers could back them and buy them blind.

He’s had such a hardcore production record over the last 16 years that his loyalist fans said hell yes and nuked his most optimistic predictions by a factor of 9. The results of the campaign raised a lot of questions, most of which have been answered, except for one: are the books any good?

Well, the first one just landed at the beginning of 2023. Let’s check it out.

The Story

This takes place in the larger Cosmere, Sanderson’s huge realm of shared novels, novellas, and forest-slaughtering epics. According to the novel’s afterword, he got the idea after watching The Princess Bride with his family, and his wife remarked that Princess Buttercup didn’t take a lot of initiative when she found out Westley was missing at sea.

And so we get a Cosmere-flavored adventure where the homely love interest decides to take to the high seas in search of her beau who, supposedly, is dead. She has reason to believe he isn’t, and she’s about to find herself in the middle of a contest between some serious power-players in order to get him back.

The Characters

Tress is likeable as a protagonist. Don’t let the description of the story fool you; she’s not going to throw on pants and screeeeee against the patriarchy and declare that she Don’t Need No Man. She’s a 17 year-old girl who’s very much in love with the local prince, Charlie, and he’s in love with her, they just can’t be together because he’s royalty and she’s with them scummy working class types.

Along the way she’s going to meet a roster of rogues, like pirates, sailors, dragons, sorcerers, talking animals, and more. Stuff that pops up regularly in fairy tales, and feels natural in this Cosmere adventure.

The entire story is told through the eyes of Hoid, a traveling demigod-type guy who pops up all across the Cosmere, on various planets and in various roles. In addition to being the narrator, he’s also a character, and has a unique role to play. His voice gives it a lot of warm humor that elevates it beyond the plain occurrences of the story.

The World

We get a cool new setting where the seas are actually huge bodies of treacherous sand, inflated from beneath with “seethes” of air that come up from the deep. Seething sand can be traveled by sailing vessels, but the seethe can randomly stop and leave you stranded. You don’t want to get out and walk though, because they can just as randomly restart, and then you’re screwed.

Another danger is hydrosensitive spores that fly around on the wind and explode into vines when they contact water. Sailors have to be careful of these spores in a Dune-like way, and different ships factor that into their naval warfare methods.

As for the governance, you get a typical kings-and-princes-and-dukes structure for the nations that live on the sparse islands in the seas.

The Politics

Nothing from our world, nor any allegories. Sanderson is consistently committed to his craft for the sake of his craft, he doesn’t fart around with that stuff.

Content

PG. Some naval warfare, some monsters, some swordplay, all good and harmless entertainment.

Who’s it for?

Readers who like fairy tales, good YA adventures, and naturally, completists who want to explore Sanderson’s Cosmere.

Why read it?

Well, ostensibly because you were part of the forty-five-million-dollar success campaign. Does anyone need to tell you why to read a Sanderson book, if you’ve already tried him out? It’s good and I’m looking forward to the next one in April.