Title:

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Author:

Brandon Sanderson

Category:

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

March 18, 2024

ll of the Brandon Sanderson books that I have read have been good, and some have been excellent. Tress of the Emerald Sea is one of the excellent books. In the postscript, Sanderson tell us that the origin of this novel came from a conversation he had with his wife about The Princess Bride. Why did Buttercup get to do so little in her own novel? Sanderson wondered what would happen if Buttercup had gone off after Westley when he was on the ship attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts. And so Tress of the Emerald Sea was conceived. Yes, there are pirates and impossible feats of derring-do and lots of adventure and talking rats and perhaps a dragon - Tress is the heroine in the thick of it all.

Tress is the best part of this novel. Her real name is Glorf, but everyone calls her Tress because the of wild and unruly locks of hair that spring from her head. (When I picked up this book, I first thought that the title was Tess of the Emerald Sea). Tress isn't secretly of noble birth. She doesn't have any powerful magical artifacts. There are no prophecies predicting her success. Tress is an ordinary young woman who does have resourcefulness, courage, wits, and determination; plus an extra-sized helping of loyalty. Tress is from an impoverished family; she works as a window washer and a baker. She often trudges up the hill to the Duke's palace to clean the windows, there she frequently encounters lonely Charlie the "groundskeeper". Charlie looks and dresses remarkably like the son of the Duke, but both Tress and Charlie pretend to believe he is just an ordinary worker, which allows them to banter and tell stories and maybe even share a picnic.

Charlie's father, the Duke, is bitter man who decides that his only son must marry nobility and produce an heir. So the Duke and Charlie sail off on the Emerald Sea (yes, it really is green, because on this world, the "seas" are made of vast tracts of spores). Charlie writes Tress a letter from each stop, explaining how he has bored each prospective bride to tears with long-winded soliloquies of mindless drivel. Surely no woman will ever wish to marry a bore such as him! Then the letters stop. Word comes that his ship was captured and that Charlie has been taken hostage by the dread Sorceress who lives in the dangerous Midnight Sea.

Tress resolves that she must free Charlie. Tress has no skills, no money, and no idea what she is getting into, but she is certain that if the Sorceress had captured her, then Charlie would come to her rescue. But before her quest can even begin, Tress must find away off of the bleak little island she lives on - only the nobility and officials in the royal service are allowed to leave the islands.

Tress concocts a scheme to sail away. Besides the delightful characters created by Sanderson, I was impressed by Sanderson's plotting in this novel. There are several surprising plot twists. The story unfolds with unexpected elements, but there are none of the dreaded "deux ex-machina" devices, where the author invents unrealistic and unbelievable escapes to rescue their heroes. Tress gets into many tight situations, and there are some fantastic adventures, but it is mostly Tress's resourcefulness rather than luck that allows her survive.

The novel is a weird mix of science fiction and fantasy. There are advanced technology objects and visitors that come from off world, and yet there are also powerful characters who clearly wield magic and cast spells and curses. I am not sure that this mix worked entirely well for me.

Tress's world is orbited by twelve large moons, each of a different color. Each of these moons rains down spores onto the planet surface. If any of these spores touches water, it will erupt into a new form - the green spores that surround Tress's island explode into giant strangling vines if they are watered. The crimson spores expand into huge red crystals. There is no explanation for this. It seemed to this reader that the moons are actually space factories that somehow went awry with tragic consequences for the home planet. Although there is no history hinting at that explanation, the more Tress encounters these deadly spores, the more it seems that they were once meant to be useful.

Once the reader learns that the deadly spores are activated by contact with water, the question will arise: what happens when it rains? I certainly had this question. Sanderson does provide an inadaquet answer later. Without rivers and oceans, where does water come from to evaporate to form rain clouds? How does the aquifer on Tress's island get recharged if it never rains there? Without water, there won't be enough plants to maintain oxygen in the atmosphere. Sanderson usually imagines unique and interesting fantasy environments, but his world building in Tress of the Emerald Sea is the weakest part of the story.

Tress of the Emerald Sea is apparently one of four books in Sanderson's "secret writing" series - where he writes a story without any constraints or considerations with regards to marketability. I didn't quite grasp why a best selling author like Sanderson felt he needed a kickstarter campaign to publish this book (and presumably the next three "secret" volumes). This story seems complete in a single volume; Tress' tale seems finished, but perhaps Sanderson has more stories to tell (Tress only visits three of the dozen spore "seas") about this odd planet. Those twelve moons raining spores upon the planet could use an explanation. Sanderson is supposed to be writing his massive ten-volume Stormlight Archive series, so how he has time to write secret books is beyond me.