I’ve read a lot of books by a lot of different authors and I can confidently say that Brandon Sanderson is one of my favourites. His prose is approachable, he inlays humour into his characters and he weaves an element of something grander always happening in the plot. Tress of the Emerald Sea is the first standalone from him that I’ve read and, despite still being excellent, left me wanting for a little more.
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Tress of the Emerald Sea is a standalone from Brandon Sanderson focusing on the story of Tress. Tress lives in a very small island and when one day one of her friends (probably a romantic one) is taken from the island to sea somewhere, she decides to set out and go and find him. Along the way, she boards a very specific ship, meeting people like whom she’s never met before. These people and her experiences change her as a person, causing her to change the very world around her.
Tress of the Emerald Sea plot – 4.25/5
Usually with Brandon Sanderson’s stories there’s a lot of scope and depth to them. However with Tress of the Emerald Sea, I would have to say this is where the book fell short just a little bit. For the first third of the book, I knew what Tress was trying to achieve but it never really felt like she had a direction or a purpose – it felt like she was just stumbling about learning about all of these new things.
Now, this is fine as an idea and makes logical sense for all of the new things she’s experieicng – however, for someone who loves plots where you want to know what’s coming next or even where you know where it’s heading and you want to get there – this made it a little hard to get through the initial stages.
However, once it found its footing and once I personally knew what Tress now had to do to get her friend back, it felt like the book picked up.
In typical Brandon Sanderson fashion, an element is introduced that involves a little bit of science. Sanderson loves to introduce magic into his books that give a set rule as to what the magic can do but also allows for the expansion and discovery of how to break these rules. Without spoiling too much of the plot, I’d argue this aspect was one of the strongest things about this book.
My one hot take with the plot, along with the slow start, is that it all felt a little bit like it lacked something grander. With his other stories much more is at stake, much larger consequences are to be had and you know there are often sequels to bring even more into the world. However, with this I couldn’t help think that I wanted more and thus finished it feeling a little underwhelmed.
Tress of the Emerald Sea characters – 4.5/5
Over the recent years, Sanderson has really started to let his sense of humour come out and flow into the characters in his books. As he’s become more comfortable with writing, it’s become evident how much better his character-writing has become. And that’s at its very peak in Tress of the Emerald Sea – Tress herself is a great main protagonist, filled with confidence but curiosity, offering a great vessel through which to guide the story.
Supporting characters are where Sanderson books are always the highlight though. Due to the nature of the setting, there are some really wacky and wonderful characters in this book filled with huge personality. As well as this, there’s your usual “this being is from somewhere much bigger than his world but we won’t talk too much about that” which I always absolutely love.
Another really unique aspect is that the story is told from the point of view of this almost god-like creature who is a supporting character throughout the book. it’s a really interesting take as 99% of the book is essentially about Tress but this character refers to themselves as “I” – adding humour by giving the true version of events in certain incidents or clarifying something that may make them look inadequate for example. It was a fresh take that, with the right humour, were some of the best moments of the book.
Tress of the Emerald Sea final rating – 4.25/5
Tress of the Emerald Sea is a brilliant Sanderson’ standalone – it features some hilarious characters, a unique take on a narrator and a plot that, once it gets going, has enough intrigue to keep you interested. It is let down slightly by the aforementioned slow start and the fact that it felt like it left me wanting more, but other than this, it’s yet another absolutely solid piece of work from arguably my favourite author Sanderson! If you’ve read his other bigger series, you can expect his usual fantastic formula here but also expect to possibly feel like it leaves you wanting more – and not necessarily in a good way.
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