Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

I’m writing this blog two months before its publish date because I just finished a fantastic book. I was already a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson’s work. His books can be a little dark, but his world-building skills are complex, consistent, engaging, and believable (literarily, not literally). But what a joy to find all of his genius in a happy fairy tale!

Tress is the heroine, a young woman who stows away on a ship in order to find her beloved Charlie. Charlie had been discarded by his father—sacrificed to the powerful enchantress across the Midnight Sea. Most of the story takes place on the spore seas because the seas aren’t made of water in her world. Each sea is made from different types of spores which are deadly when exposed to water.

Tress bumbles through her journey, aided by kindness, determination… and by people overestimating her abilities. Though ignorant in the beginning of the story, she turns out to be clever enough to survive smugglers, pirates, spore weapons, treachery, powerful magical beasts, and curses gone wrong. Sanderson’s well of creativity runs deep.

While all of the interlocking details have the potential to be tedious, the complexity of Tress’s world is told as she learns about it. The reader learns about it with her. I had a hard time setting this book down once I was in it, and as a fantasy writer, I found it useful to have a solid example of that narrative draw.

NOTE: the first chapter didn’t give me a reason to commit to such a blatantly alien world, and I almost stopped reading. That’s another lesson for all writers everywhere. Get your readers through the setup somehow. Or be Brandon Sanderson.

Finally, I like that Sanderson blatantly breaks all of the writing rules. For example, the narrator often references himself and compares things to our contemporary Earth-bound reality. He also uses adverbs and yet somehow a ton of people love his books anyway. While craft is essential and not something Sanderson forgets, it’s okay to ignore rules you need to break just because you like your story better that way.