Tress and the Emerald Sea - By Brandon Sanderson - Discussion
Just finished this book this morning and wanted to do my usual jump to reddit to read what others have said/are saying about it. But as I have decided to leave reddit indefinitely, I have come here!
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Any Cosmerenauts on Tilde yet that are anxious to discuss the implications of the book?
Personally, I enjoyed the book, but found it very quick and convenient in terms of plot and structure. It bothered me a tiny bit, at first, until I read the postscript and saw that he was going for a "Princess Bride" structure, and suddenly the whole book reframed itself in my mind. It wasn't convenient, it was a bedtime story. Every chapter being 3-5 pages, and being a non-stop string of events, that was its strength now.
From a cosmere perspective, it's interesting that this book is obviously very late future compared to most cosmere books. I'm not wise enough to know exactly where, but the mention of Spaceships landing on planets indicate we're not in Kansas any more.
Few small glimpses into Hoid, which was interesting, if nothing revelatory.
How did you all feel?
I'd definitely call myself a Sanderson enthusiast, to the point of running a podcast where my sister and I drag our friends through the Cosmere (Always Another Podcast if you're curious).
Tress definitely took a bit to warm up - I loved the narration tone at the beginning, but it started to wear just a bit in the middle of the book. Right as it was starting to overstay its welcome, though, we got some more serious bits ("I know what I believed that day") and I was back onboard with it.
I'm really curious to see more Aethers and sprouting later - hopefully with Tress herself. I really liked the mood of "I have to figure this out for myself or we're really in trouble", and I'd love to come back later on and see what she's managed to figure out.
Also, the physical edition is stunning - Howard Lyon was already a Magic artist I was a big fan of, and he did an amazing job with the illustrations.
I assume since you have that beautiful hardcover you read it physically?
I listen to audiobooks and Tress worked so well as one. Really nailed the storybook mood.
I do all my Sanderson as physical read first, then audiobook. His narrators are such good performers.
As a budding Cosmerenaut, I have no clue what the implications of this book are. The more of Brando's books I read the more I realise the real discussions and "implication" learning actually happens in WOB or forums like the 17th Shard.
Anyway as for the book, I enjoyed it a lot. I had watched The Princess Bride for the first time a few weeks before this. So I was really happy to have that style of narration from Hoid in this book. I thought it was charming really, and it was refreshing for me, cause I read it just after finishing Mistborn Era 1. Which was suuuper gloomy.
I know this is a bit late to be replying, but I think this might be useful since there's very little Cosmere discussion on Tildes to begin with.
I really enjoyed Tress. I think Brandon’s experiment with writing in a different style paid off. I know he is trying to find Hoid’s voice but I mean more than that - the more gentle, whimsical, fairytale style worked very well.
I am halfway through SP3 and it’s fine (the world is really interesting and the story is doing it’s job). I enjoyed the Frugal Wizard but it doesn’t stand out compared to his other works. I think Tress does stand out so it is a clear favourite of the secret project books so far.
Also, I’m glad that Cosmere readers are here on Tildes, since I’m not planning on checking Reddit any more either. If you are not either, you might have missed the announcement by the Sanderson mods that they are setting up a Lemmy instance as an alternative place for discussion.
If you don’t want to check Reddit for their updates on this, they also have a blog describing that that are doing.
I really loved the story, and having Hoid as a narrator was very fun. But what really stuck with me was the "lesson" that, sometimes, you need to let go of your concern that you are inconveniencing someone and just ask for (and accept) help. It came at a turning point in my own life where I was making decisions about responsibilities I'd taken on years ago and really needed to take a break from, and I give this book partial credit for helping me internalize that it was ok to do so.
Not sure if anyone else commenting did, but I listened to the Tress audiobook.
I think the narration style lent itself really well to the format, and was a blast to listen to. It was a very fun book with a distinct flavor, albeit semi-predictable. However I think that's most a consequence of the Princess Bride inspiration so I don't really fault it.
I only started in the cosmere last August, but have since read everything except the other secret projects, so I did listen to this after all of Storm light. Maybe the lighter style was a better pace change for me.
I went back and forth between audio and the pdf. It felt like a story very suited to the audiobook format, but I was quite disappointed by the narrator - they did this big thing about asking for narrator suggestions only to fall back to their default alright-but-not-amazing narrators. Especially after hearing that they were in talks with David Tennant I feel robbed. Nevertheless it was a good experience - but do make sure you're not missing out on the artwork! The book is gorgeous!
With Tress, you have to try and accept that it's not one of the regular books but merely a novella (by Brando's usual length). So it does feel little quick. Once I got over that, I really liked it. Story is relatively simple but I found that refreshing too.
Also, as an audiobook only "reader", I knew it was Hoid narrating the story in less than a minute. That was very exciting. Michael Kramer made sure we got it instantly.