Tress of the Emerald Sea
author Brandon Sanderson expands his Cosmere universe shared by The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn with a new standalone novel for everyone who loved The Princess Bride. Narrated by Michael Kramer. The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death? Note from Brandon: I started writing this in secret, as a novel just for my wife. She urged me to share it with the world—and alongside three other secret novels, with the support of readers worldwide it grew into the biggest Kickstarter campaign of all time. I’m excited to present this first book to you at last: a different type of Brandon Sanderson story, one I wrote when there were no time constraints, no expectations, and no limits on my imagination. Come be part of the magic.
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2recommend
3mentions
3people
2023–2025years
67% recommend33% neutral
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What Hacker News says
- For fiction I read a lot of Brandon Sanderson: the second Mistborn series, plus a few of the Secret Projects. I quite liked Tress of the Emerald Sea. Also currently reading R. F. Kuang's Katabasis which I'm really enjoying so far.
For nonfiction, I found Amanda Ripley's High Conflict to be excellent and insightful. I also finally got around to reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins; I expected it to be fine, but it far exceeded my expectations! On top of that, the edition I read also had "end notes" interspersed throughout the book with retrospectives from decades later, which only added to the book's richness.
- Fiction:
"Yumi and the Nightmare Painter" and "Tress of the Emerald Sea" - Two of Brandon Sanderson's "secret projects" that he released this year and easily my favorites of the bunch. Tress is just such a fun adventure and Yumi left me an emotional wreck by the end.
"There Is No Antimemetics Division" - I had a brief period where I wanted to read some stories about clandestine operations around odd anomalies, SCP-adjacent if you will. This, alongside "Agents of Dreamland", is rather short and great for getting through in a couple sittings. It's all about taking on an entity that you actively can't remember the existence of.
Non-Fiction:
"Letters to a Young Poet" - This is a collection of ten letters sent from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke to a younger aspiring poet in the early 1900s. As a creative that sometimes struggles with the whole "what am I doing this for?", I found this a highly inspiring and comforting read.
"On Writing" - I'm sure most of you know the book, or at the least know Stephen King. The info in here on writing (at least in the style of King) is fantastic, but I think the memoir portions are the killer part of this book. The man certainly has a storied past, for better or worse.
- Tress of the Emerald Sea is set on quite a unique world. The planet is covered by oceans of magical "spores" which react violently to water.
For example the spores in the Emerald Sea, where the hero is from, instantly grow into massive vines that destroy everything in their path. That makes sailing rather dangerous.
The story is whimsical, perhaps an adult fairy tale (or just a fairy tale?), so I don't know if it fits your taste.
