Tress of the Emerald Sea Review 💚 || Instant Classic || Secret Project #1
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- Опубліковано 5 січ 2023
- The "Year of Sanderson" has begun. Secret project #1 has officially been released as Tress of the Emerald Sea and it is so dang flipping good. Not only is it a great addition to the Cosmere, but it is a potential amazing jumping on point for new Sanderson readers as well. Hopefully this review connects with a few people.
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Michael S Knipp
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"It's not the presence of darkness that makes a book mature."
Thank you. Thank you for this.
Cynicism does not automatically equal profundity.
Absolutely agree with this. In other books, Hoid tells stories to characters that they need to hear. With this book, it so feels like Hoid came to us, to our world, and told us a story we collectively need to hear. So delightful. I can’t wait to read it again
I’m the model for the illustrations of Tress!! I’ve worked with the artist, Howard Lyon for quite a while and this was such an amazing opportunity :)
The thing about Sanderson's prose is, he usually goes for intentionally simple as a stylistic choice. This one really demonstrated he can do beautiful prose if he deems appropriate. The book is just beautiful. I feel it's award-worthy, more so than The Emperor's Soul
I love that this is one that my kids can listen to with me on road trips. It’s whimsy, funny, a little scary, and not to heavy of subject matter.
Facts!
This book was just so wonderful. I loved absolutely everything about it. It was such a nice fairy tale vibe, and that's something I didn't know I needed within the Cosmere. An easy 5 stars, and probably a top 5 favorite Cosmere novel.
Based
I did not expect any of his secret projects to become my new favorite cosmere book. I was wrong
What a joyful surprise !
This was not my first Sanderson book, but I read the whole book the first day it was released. I couldn’t put it down!! Great book to start off 2023 with 5 ⭐️ read!! I’ve been waiting for people to start releasing videos gushing about this book!!!
It physically pained me that I couldn't binge the book faster than I already did haha! I'm so glad more people are reading it and I can gush more!
Why is no one talking about this intro??? It was brilliant!!! 🤣
Great review! Dude, I feel the same way about this book! There was a point by the end where Hoid said exactly what I needed to hear. I was listening to it in the car and I just had to smile. It isn’t super often that a book gets me to physically express those kinds of emotions! I loved it!
I totally agree with you 100%!
I loved it too! I adore whimsical stories and pirates and to have them both (plus a dragon!) from Sanderson was the best way to start the new year! Fell head over heels for the crew and the world!
YESSS
I adored this book. Sweet, poignant, funny, and smart; a breath of fresh air 🌿
YESS
Yours is the first review I've listened to about Tress, because I wanted to read it for myself first... And I may not look at others. I agree with you on all fronts. I absolutely love the Cosmere in general. The whimsy, steadfastness and genuineness of Tress has quickly made it one of my absolute favourite books of all time. I'm planning on starting a friend of mine (who tends to prefer cozier reads) to the Cosmere through Tress and I just know she'll love it too
What a charming book. I just finished it and loved every second.
This wasn't my first Sanderson book, but it was my first Cosmere book. Don't worry I am going to start on that this year.
Yay! :D :D :D
I loved the Book. Hoids narration was so awesome and funny.
YESSS Agreed!
This did feel a little more experimental. Tress had to grow on me a bit, but I ended up really enjoying her journey. I also liked the little parts where he poked fun at some of the typical protagonist stereotypes (her thoughtfulness, etc.).
Will be re-reading, for sure.
I've been waiting for your review. "Instant classic" is the reaction I was hoping for, but I came ready to fight 😝
YESSS Glad you enjoy!
I love this book so much!! One of my favorite in the cosmere!
YESSSSSS
I feel exactly the same about this book! Thank you for voicing my feelings! I loved it so, so much
You are welcome! And thank you for the encouragement!
This makes me so happy as I wait for the physical copy to get to me!
I kinda wish I had gotten the physical copy. Even the ebook is absolutely gorgeous.
@@wingracer1614 you’ll still have chances I think to get it after everyone from the kickstarter receives theirs-but yeah Dragonsteel is going all out with their art department in a really special way with these secret project books!
I can't wait to get my physical copies in the mail. It is gonna be GORGEOUS
All love for the true heroes of the book the Dougs.
Been reading a bit here and there. Just now entering the Crimson Sea. I really like it, though when I first heard the preview chapters I thought it wasn't going to be for me.
I'm glad it seems to be winning you over!
The book was perfect. A Cosmere treasure.
"make the world a better place."
It's officially confirmed! Brandon Sanderson and Judy Hopps are one and the same person (/bunny)
I haven't started the Cosmere yet and this book sounds exactly up my ally. Maybe i will start here 👀
Do it!!!!
Loved it too! Thanks for your enthusiastic review. It was as you said, “delightful!”
This is the year of cosmere for me. I’m deep diving into it in order.
This book blew me away and had just enough cosmere but enough fairy tale that multiple times I was like I cannot wait to read this when I understand the obvious references to other worlds. This book reignited my reading spark. Projects 3 and 4 are deep cosmere novels from what he said during the intro videos and I want to know the characters more.
I had mistborn trilogy(had to leave them behind when moving cross country) and have book one of stormlight and can’t wait to go all in despite it being a pretty daunting task. Stormlight is really high fantasy, mixed with his style of writing my brain can’t always keep up.
This book was so digestible, much like his reckoner and rithmatist books I read in high school, but had just enough cosmere inside to make me want more of the universe he’s made. Easily one of my favorite books. your strong desire to talk about it is reciprocated because im in the same boat, I have no one to talk about it with.
See, I absolutely LOVED how Sanderson went deep into explaining the science behind Scadrian magic systems. Its what got me absolutely obsessed with the cosmere in the first place.
Okay, this sounds like one to look forward to, even though I'm not a Sanderson superfan. The comparison to The Princes Bride is immediately intriguing.
I think he really nailed the appropriate vibes to deserve the comparison
This is the one I was least excited for. My expectations were blown away though. It was a lot of fun
Based
Oh my goodness, I’ve been waiting for my physical copy to read. For me, having a book in hand and turning and smelling the pages just adds to the experience. But I so much want to start reading it, I keep opening up the ebook. I will resist, maybe??!!!!
Fantastic review man ! Finally decided to bite the bullet and pick it up and I'm so excited to see where it goes !
You're winding me up. Now I have to read this book
Yes read it.
Dooo it!
This book was so delightful.
I can’t wait to read this! I think I’m going to wait for my physical copy to arrive, but that is becoming increasingly harder to do 😅 I basically expect to absolutely love this book.
GIVE IN TO THE TEMPTATION!
Loved this book! I haven’t read all of the cosmere, but I’m excited to dive deeper.
I backed the kickstarter and am waiting patiently to get the actual book in my hands before I read it. I am so excited to read it.
YES!!!! you so aptly described how this book made me feel! I LOVED it!
Yay! Another Tress lover! We are feasting out here.
Just finished this today. It was a very fun book, it enjoyed it much.
yes, this book made me feel things. is so good! i’m so happy to have been in the cosmere journey, experiences like this make it soooo worth itttt
YESSSSS
love the intro 💚 new here 💚 i kept getting yt recos from smaller channels since the launch of the tress of the emerald sea 💚
I really loved this. It is so whimsical and light-hearted but in a Sanderson way. I read this book in one day (like 8:30 am to 5 pm with like 1,5h break around lunch), with time to spare. It really was a genuinely amazing and wondrous way to start 2023
Also. This quote just stabbed me "She felt less like a human being, and more like a human that is merely being"
SO many good quotes! And totally agree! What a heck of a way to start off 2023!
So excited to read this book, awesome review!!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Nice video! I love how unique this book is from all other Sanderson.
Thank you! And agreed!
i absolutely love tress of the emerald sea. its just perfect.
I loved your review of this book. Will you be giving a review of the other secret projects?
Loved the intro
Thank you!
I’m about halfway through and I love it so far.
HEX yeah!
I love it too. ❤
I couldn't agree more
WE NEED MOAR! but yeah this would have been a crazy unexpected joyful suprise!
Whimsy is also one of the shards (and I'm suspicious of him about what happened in the crimson sea)
I agree with your views on this book, I honestly thought it would be universally lauded as one of Sanderson's best standalones and would become the de facto entry point to the Cosmere. (Lots of Hoid, lots of different magic systems, it's a great introduction in that "little bit of everything" way)
So I was surprised to see some people being meh about it, or disliking the humor. Like yeah there were poop jokes, but there were also excerpts that were clever and humorous on a whole new tier compared to Sanderson's regular stuff, approaching the work of people like Sir Terry Pratchett. I thought for sure it would be a hit precisely among the people who normally dislike Sanderson's humor, but I guess not. Personally I'm in that camp, like I'm not a huge fan of Wayne/Lopen style jokes, but the narration made me laugh several times in this novel.
Anyway, it's a truly great book. Sure, I have some minor complaints, Tress is good at everything, and the ending will come off as a tornado of weird soft magic deus ex machina to people who dont know much about the Cosmere, but these are minor points in my opinion. The general experience of reading this book, seeing the world through Tress and Hoid's eyes, was just wonderful.
I see those criticisms and think they are valid. I would say that for me, based on the tone of the book as a whole, it was still easy for me to handwave those elements away.
** spoiler alert ** *Spoilers*
My thoughts on Tress of the Emerald Sea
I loved it. I just finished it and immediately went on Goodreads to see what others thought about it. I saw one huge post on it from a reviewer. Although I am not that prolific I will do my best to talk about what I liked most about this book. I apologize in advance for any typos. My husband is in the middle of reading this book for a second time and asked me what I thought. The comparison to the princes bride feel is real. This book is whimsical, magical and unique.
~The magic system- he imagined this world with the emerald sea, crimson sea, and midnight sea. The moons of different colors with spores coming down. I thought the world he made was so unique and well done.
~The love story. Tress being the heroine of the story is a great take on this kind of love story. The beginning of the book shows a very basic girl falling for a duke son impersonating a grounds keepers son. He gets taken away by his father the duke and sells him to a sorceress and brings back a cousin as his heir. Tress sets off to save him. She becomes a pirate, befriended the crew and learned how to do magic with spores. After a long journey she finally gets to her love. When she sees him for the first time she feels meh. Thinks that she has grown so much in her journey and he has not. That is a like real life relationship issues. But Tress was just picking up on the fact that the Charlie the witch was showing her wasn’t the real Charlie. The reveals in this book were so good.
~The reveals - The rat, the traitor, but not the traitor. I don’t want to say more about this. I don’t want to ruin it. The reveals are a few and make the story great.
~The dragon - When I realized that there was going to be a dragon in this book, I looked in the table of contents to see when I was going to read about it. I was greatly anticipating that part to see what the author was going to do with it. I was not disappointed. His depiction of the dragon was so well written I could see him in my head. Crow (the mean ship captain) and Tress end up battling each other for the dragons favor. Crow ended up inadvertently boosting about Tress and her accomplishments and ended up losing the battle. Crow ended up reaping her bad karma and ended up scrubbing floors just like Tress started out doing in the beginning of her pirate journey. I liked how Tress asked for three things from the Dragon to help her friends.
~The witch - the witch that was more technical than a traditional witch. Good twist to the proverbial witchy storyline.
~Hoit - A UA-camr, Michael Knip, created a video gushing about this book and I showed it to my husband and he let out a very unlike him exclamation when Michael mentioned Hoid. Apparently, he has been mentioned in other Brandon Sanderson books and my husband just realized it. His aha moment was so funny to me. I can’t wait to read Brandon Sanderson’s backlist. The only other Brandon Sanderson book I read was WarBreaker. “ Hoid was a comical character and also the narrator. “Hoid, why does Tress have this strange idea that you can be savin’ her?” “Probably,” I shouted over the rush of wind and spore, “because I just realized I should take up painting! And the Sorceress will be scared of my talent!” “You are so aggravating!” Ann said. Brandon Sanderson is so witty in this book. I laughed out loud many times.
~The illustrations. I bought the digital ebook and audiobook. The digital copy had beautiful depictions of the book. I tried adding a picture here but it didn’t work.
~The audio experience - I read and listened to the book. The audio was amazing. The voices made the book more alive than me just reading it on my own. Worth listening to the book. I highly recommend it.
This book is now near and dear to my heart. I will be re-reading this many times. It is now on the level of my magical Harry Potter books that I re-read when I need a pick me up.
Honestly reading a bit of the preview chapters for this book made me think this was the boring one, but the actual book was pretty great
I don’t think it’s my favorite Sanderson, but it was really enjoyable for sure. Great review.
-T
Thank you! And I'm glad you enjoyed it as well!
I absolutely adored this! I am curious how new readers to the Cosmere will react to this. A lot of my gut reaction to the book is that as soon as the audio started I exclaimed “Hoid’s going to tell me a story!” 🥹🥰 I’m curious how those who don’t know who Hoid is react to it. This is easily top 6 Cosmere for me and favorite Cosmere standalone by miles. 🥰
I think it will be great for new readers. The only thing I worry about is the ending might seem very random and out of nowhere to someone who doesnt already know these magic systems, since it opts for not explaining them at all.
I really hope they'll like it since I loved it and might recommend it as an introduction to the Cosmere in the future
I'm super super curious to hear some people's thoughts where this is their first Cosmere entry .
I’m about halfway through. So far I really love the book. The spores are the coolest bit of magic I’ve come across in a long time. I love thé humour. I do find Hoid’s interjections to sometimes be jarring. Those are my current thoughts.
Here's to hoping you continue to enjoy it the rest of the way through!
But don't look back in anger, I heard you say.
YES! Someone noticed the outro! haha!
I loved this book so much. I feel like it would make a great movie, and am kinda sad at the idea of said movie taking years to come about, if ever, because the cinematic stuff will just take forever to catch up to the books.
Totally agree
Yaaaas Tress is SO GOOOD. I want to reread it whenever the physical book comes in because I already want to go back on this adventure. You should have just been shouting at me on Voxer I finished it day 1 lol and don't you mean this could be the Spore that gets them explosively sucked in to the Cosmere? lolol
Noted: Expect random and rambly Voxer messages in the near future hahaha
@@QuestLegacy yaaaas 🙌🏻🤣
Sanderson does whimsey…. Sold. I need to read this.
I haven’t finished the video yet so apologies if this was already answered but to appreciate the story and characters do I need to have read so much of the cosmere? (Because I’ve only read the first mistborn book yet)
Edit: finished video, newbie friendly 👌
I do want to actually state that if you HAVE started Mistborn and haven't finished era 1, there is a reference to a big spoiler in that series that could be extrapolated. If you hadn't started mistborn it probably wouldn't mean anything, but it might be something to know
I didn't know this was out! Websites say it's due to be released in April.
It's out for everyone tomorrow I think!
It was so good! I think I'm with you saying it's one of my favorite Cosmere novels.
Edit. I also agree it probably would be a good place to start. It does sort of spoil Mistborn era 1, but I think it's subtle enough that not knowing anything about it you probably wouldn't realize it had been spoiled until later.
Yeah, I pretty much agree. I did see someone say something to the effect that it'd probably be best if they hadn't started Mistborn at all, as opposed to having read book 1 or 2, but hadn't finished the series. That does make a kind of sense.
My girlfriend literally just finished The Final Empire and is very curious about where the story is going, so there's no way she'd miss that line or dismiss it as unimportant. So for her I think it's best to wait until she finished HoA.
But for almost everyone -- basically everyone who is not *currently* reading Mistborn era 1 for the first time -- the book has no easy to spot spoilers and is a great entry point to the Cosmere IMO.
Izzy makes a great point. Elliot Brooks stated it best where she clarified that exact point.
People often ask what reading order they should begin Sanderson's work. And we now have the absolute best 1st book to read.
I think I agree!
Agree 100% I love this book so much. I think my almost ten year old could really enjoy it too! I love that about it! And he shocked me i think people enjoy less when they see plot twists
I saw some but not all of the plot twists and it didn't bother me. I saw the Charlie related one for example.
I did find bits of it predictable but the journey was still so fun!
Nice Video :D
Thank you very much!
@Michael Knipp how dare you be so handsome and adorable❣️
Thank you very much good sir!
I really like the change in tone Tress has compared to his other books, the poetic storytelling made it feel very distinct and magical. With that said, it was a little jarring whenever Hoid comes on screen and starts babbling nonsense. Tress and her experimentation with spores felt very familiar (classic Sanderson science lesson) as well and kind of clashes with the more poetic style the rest of the has. Really my only complaint though, a very strong start to the secret projects.
It was quite a nice book... just wish he'd left Harmony's name out of it.
Na the best short example will always be the Emperor's Soul
Random - please, more singing!
I don't think I loved it QUITE as much as you did Michael Knipp. Though that was only because you seemed to LOVE this book. I only loved it. :)
I did enjoy it quite a bit. It was nice and fast paced with enjoyable characters. I will say I figured out stuff about Charlie perhaps 2/3rds of the way through, but that wasn't a problem per se.
Haha! Well I'm glad you loved it regardless! I also figured out the plot twist, but I was just along for the ride honestly
Spoiler:
so we all agree that The dragon was the shard Whimsy ?
Honestly I hadn't even considered this... Now I have something else to ponder.... hmmm.
I want to read this book, but I don't like fantasy and I hate magic 😂
Some of us haven't got their copy yet. Some of us don't want to know anything including the title. Thanks for spoiling that.
How could you read the preview chapters?
...Brandon narrorated them himself
My only criticism is that the video should have ended with a Wellerman cover.
You don't know how long I considered it bruh
Can't watch. Sanderson noob who only just started with Mistborn.. now plan to buy all in paperback and hardback if can
I don’t have my copy yet and you’re getting me too hype, Michael. You better quit lol.
#CantStopWontStop
I read the free chapters and I have to say the prose is just as bland as always. It might have more humor, but Sanderson has obviously spent very little time engineering his sentences to simultaneously sound pleasant while conveying his message. It's very direct and to the point. To each his own, but the mention of prose feels like those parents who brag about their kid being smart for upping their grade to a C-, improvement is great, buuuuuuuuut,....
That's too bad it didn't work quite as well for you. I will admit to laughing at your comparison hahahaa
I can’t barely stand Hoid nor anything he says. So knowing he tell’s the story is more than enough to keep me away from this book.