Tress of the Emerald Sea

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Tor Books edition cover
Author	Brandon Sanderson
Cover artist	Howard Lyon (Dragonsteel) Carlos Guimerà (Tor)
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Cosmere
Genre	Fantasy novel
Published	January 1, 2023 (Dragonsteel; available to Kickstarters) 10 January 2023 (Dragonsteel; available to all) April 4, 2023 (Tor)
Publisher	Dragonsteel Entertainment Tor Books
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book
Pages	384 pp
ISBN	978-1-25-089965-1

Tress of the Emerald Sea is an epic fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It is part of the Cosmere fictional universe and the first book of Sanderson's "Secret Projects" Kickstarter campaign. It was exclusively released on January 1, 2023, by Dragonsteel Entertainment to Kickstarter backers, released online as an ebook, epub, and pdf on 10 January 2023, and officially published on April 4, 2023, by Tor Books.

Premise

Tress is a girl living on an island in an emerald-green ocean. She was always curious about the outside world and enjoyed listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. One day, Charlie's father decides that Charlie needs a bride, and they go off to look for a princess to be his wife. Tress realizes she was in love with Charlie so she stows away on a ship and sets sail across the deadly, pirate-infested spore seas to look for Charlie who was captured by The Sorceress, making unexpected friends along the way.

Plot

Tress is a young girl who grew up on The Rock, an isolated island in the middle of the Emerald Sea. Tress acquired cups from passing sailors, forming a cup collection. One day, Tress visits her friend Charlie, the Duke's son, and bonds with him, but leaves after noticing the Duke's disapproval. The next morning, the Duke announces that he will leave with his family for an arranged marriage with the royal princess. Before they leave, Charlie promises Tress that he will return unmarried and bring her the cup for her to cherish. A year passes and the Duke's family returns, but Charlie is missing. Tress learns from the Duke's servants that Charlie was exposed by his enraged father and the King sent him into the Midnight Seas, where he was captured by The Sorceress. Remorseful, Tress decides to go save Charlie.

To get to the Sorceress, Tress must venture across the Crimson Sea and into the Midnight Seas. With help from her parents and allies, Tress boards the ship Oot's Dream posing as the inspector. While sailing across the Emerald Sea, Tress is tricked by its captain, and locked up in the cage where she befriends a talking rat named Huck. Huck reveals that the Oot's Dream is a smuggler's ship, and he was captured during his journey to the Rock. The ship is then ambushed by a pirate ship, by which Tress fails to protect the Oot's Dream, and the smugglers are killed by sprout vines. Tress and Huck escape the ship and walk across the Emerald Sea towards the pirate ship known as the Crow's Song, led by a ruthless Captain Crow. Crow threatens to throw Tress overboard but spares her after she proves herself useful by scrubbing the deck.

As Tress tends to the ship over the next days, she befriends the crew: the quartermaster Fort, the carpenter Ann, the surgeon Dr. Ulaam, the helmswoman Salay, and multiple sailors named Doug, and Hoid who was mysteriously cursed by the Sorceress. With Huck's help, Tress realizes that Captain Crow is forcing her crew to become deadrunners by converting them into pirates in an attempt to rival the King's marshal. Tress learns that the entire crew fears Crow, which prevents them from mutiny. Upon arriving at the Docks of Shimmersbay at night, Tress chooses to stay and help the crew for their kindness despite Huck's reluctance. While Crow encourages Tress to leave, Tress persuades her to let her stay as a sprouter, which Crow accepts. Tress is conflicted about accepting a post as a pirate.

Tress secretly swaps the cannonballs that contain spores, to prevent casualties. Tress tries to recruit Fort to help her rescue Charlie, but Fort explains that the Sorceress will curse anyone who ventures there, as she did to Hoid. It is revealed that Hoid's curse prevented him from speaking about his condition, or his knowledge of Charlie. However, Hoid had left a clue for Tress, allowing her to find a hidden Midnight Spore. The Crow's Song attacks a nearby merchant ship, but due to Tress' sabotage, does little damage. When they try to raid the ship, they are fired upon, but Tress successfully rebuilds the ship's hull using Roseite crystals. Crow is revealed to be a spore eater, a host that gestates a rogue verdant essence that protects her from harm and intimidates the merchant ship into submission.

Just as Hoid arrives, Tress asks him about the Sorceress and decodes that a familiar or talking animal might be able to mediate a discussion of the curse. Tress attempts to persuade Huck to help her, but Huck pleads with Tress for her safety. Salay suspects Tress of the sabotage, but reveals she is planning a secret meeting to overthrow Crow. As Huck refuses to spy on Crow, Tress uses the Midnight Spore to sneak into Crow's office and read her journal. Tress discovers that Crow plans to venture into the Crimson Sea to find the dragon Xisisrefliel, who can cure her illness. Huck severs Tress' connection to the spore. Tress meets Fort, Ann, and Salay and explains her sabotage. The group agrees to persuade Crow to travel to Crimson Sea, and Tress does so, with Crow reluctantly agreeing. Tress learns that Xisis can cure Crow if he finds a servant capable of maintaining spores.

Three days later, Tress orchestrates her plan to leave the ship and continue her mission to rescue Charlie. Crow, however, goads Tress' efforts and reveals the dangers of the Crimson and Midnight Seas. With Huck's encouragement, Tress invents a flare gun that summons the spores. Huck informs Tress about the Sorceress' liar and the dangers she is unprepared for her journey. To confront the Sorceress, Tress must surpass all three trials: the Midnight Essences, giant golden statues, and a fortified tower. As Tress tests the flare, she overcomes her fear of vines. While sailing towards the Crimson Sea, Tress bonds further with the crew. As two rainstorms approach the ship, Tress uses the spore mixed with the water barrel to create a giant sporadic tree, protecting the ship.

Tress, Fort, Ann, and Salay discuss their plan to remove Crow, but Crow exposes their schemes via midnight spores. Crow's cannon master, Laggart, ambushes them and shoots Salay, and Crow injures and takes Fort and Salay hostage to force Tress to comply. Crow takes Tress into Xisis' lair and tells the dragon to heal her in exchange for taking Tress as a servant. However, Tress outsmarts Crow by counter-arguing for servitude and convinces the dragon that she is willing to confront the sorceress on her mission to save Charlie. Convinced, Xisis apprehends Crow and decides to free Tress and offers her repayment, which Tress uses to acquire gifts for Ann, Fort, and Salay. With Crow removed, the crew chooses Tress as their captain and supports her mission to venture into the Midnight Sea.

Tress introduces Huck to the crew and promotes him as her valet. She also revealed the Midnight spores that help them sever the monsters controlled by the Sorceress. However, in his paranoia, Huck secretly uses Hoid to sabotage the ships' food supplies, which causes Tress to distrust and cage him. Tress is unsure of how to defeat the sorceress, but Ulaam reveals that Hoid's magic can outmatch the Sorceress' magic. Tress plans to take Hoid to the Sorceress's lair by venturing alone at Midnight and decides to take Huck for his expertise. As Tress tries to test her theory of taking control of the Midnight Essences, the Essences ambush her and counteract her attempts. Just when the creature looks as if it is about to attack her, Huck orders it to stop and take them to the Sorceress.

With Tress now held captive by the creatures, Huck admits that he lied about his motivation and he mostly belonged to the Sorceress. They arrived at the island with Huck able to surpass the entire security system while meeting the Sorceress. The Sorceress is unimpressed with Tress' motives but agrees to release Charlie in exchange for two cups. However, Tress grew suspicious of Charlie's personality and why Sorceress changed her mind so quickly. Tress returns and realizes that the Sorceress has cursed Charlie and transformed him into a rat, revealed to be Huck. Tress finds out that Huck stammered whenever she tried to get him to talk about the island because he was cursed. She realizes that the only way to break the curse would be for her to come to the island, but Charlie still tries to keep her away. As Tress and Charlie embrace, the Crow's Song crew attack the island.

Meanwhile, Fort successfully takes control of the Midnight Essence and persuades them to help. Tress communicates with Fort due to the Sorceress's hacking his board and instructs him and Salay to bring Hoid to the tower before being captured by the Sorceress. Ann defeats the guard with Laggart's support. As Tress distracts the Sorceress, Huck opens the door, allowing Fort and Salay to bring Hoid inside. When the Sorceress attempts to curse Tress, Hoid, now free from the curse, steps in and halts the Sorceress, forcing her to surrender. Hoid admits that he allowed Sorceress, named Riina, to curse him as part of the bet. As Riina releases Tress, Tress orders her to leave Lumar for all the trouble she has caused. Riina reluctantly departed her planet while the crew celebrated. Before she left, Riina explained she could not undo Charlie's curse once the terms were made. However, Hoid reveals that he can change the curse's parameters.

Five months later, Tress, Charlie, and her crew arrive at the Rock aboard a new ship named Two Cups. They have been pardoned by the king and obtained a writ allowing people to leave the island. Charlie is cured, as Hoid has changed the curse so that he would be cured upon returning Tress to her home. She and Charlie sail off with her family and the rest of the crew, toward other adventures.

Characters

• Tress: The story's main protagonist and heroine. Her actual name is Glorf, which she considers to be a very unfortunate name. Everyone in the story calls her Tress, after her unruly hair. She is fond of cups and has a small collection (courtesy of Charlie and his many expeditions as the duke’s son) which she carries around everywhere she goes.
• Captain Crow: The ruthless ship captain of the Crow's Song. She has a symbiotic relationship with Verdant Spores (a condition colloquially known as being a “spore eater”) in which the spores protect her from harm in exchange for increasing amounts of water. This condition is fatal, but she has already lived past her expiration date, making her nihilistic and overconfident, and therefore dangerous.
• The Sorceress/Riina: the main antagonist of the story. She came to Lumar because she believed it to be the most vulnerable planet in the Cosmere. She then cursed anyone she met, making hers a very feared name indeed. In the story we meet two people she cursed, one being Hoid (expanded upon in Hoid’s entry) and the other being Charlie (expanded upon in Charlie’s entry)
• Ann: The ship's carpenter. She loves guns, but has horrendous aim, to the point of comedy.
• Salay: The ship’s helmswoman. Her goal is to find her father.
• Fort: A deaf quartermaster who uses a Nathian board for translation. He was the first member of the crew to be nice to Tress.
• Charlie: The Duke's son. He is most fond of stories and adventures. He is Tress' love interest. His curse from Riina turned him into a rat.
• Ulaam: A Kandra from Scadrial who was called to Lumar by Hoid (presumably before Hoid got cursed). After seeing Hoid’s state, Ulaam chose to remain with Hoid to keep an eye on him. He now spends his days as the ship’s surgeon.
• Hoid: A Worldhopper and storyteller, the narrator of this story. Known as Wit, the Drifter, Cephandrius and a myriad other names, Hoid is known have a major role in the overarching story of the Cosmere. He appears in every Cosmere book, nudging the main characters in the right direction. This was not one of his brightest moments, as he was pretty much incapacitated for most of the story due to Riina’s curse, which made him lose his Wits. He wasn’t even capable of forming coherent sentences. In rare moments of lucidity he still tried to help Tress and nudge her in the right direction.

Setting

The story takes place on the planet Lumar, a desolate world with twelve massive geostationary moons. These moons continuously pour spores, which conglomerate into twelve distinct 'seas'. Each of these seas is characterized by a different color, based on which type of spore it is made out of (e.g., verdant, zephyr, and midnight, among others). The dry, sand-like spores act somewhat like typical water seas, making them sailable, due to the fact that fluidization occurs. This is described as a sea-wide churning, bubbling motion caused by large quantities of air being expelled from vents on the sea floors. This air periodically stops in events called "stills," which halt all ship movement and cause the spores to act solid (in this state, it is possible to walk on them).

The spores making up the seas are treacherous, as coming into contact with water causes most types to explode with growth (midnight spores behave uniquely in this regard). Even the smallest quantity of water causes intense and rapid sprouting, meaning that even a few inhaled spores leads to death.

None of the shards have ever settled on Lumar and the religion system is based on the twelve moons.

Publication

In spring 2022, Brandon Sanderson announced a Kickstarter campaign of "Secret Projects" to publish four secret and brand-new novels written during the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign reached its goal within a day, and accumulated a total of $41.7 million. Tress of the Emerald Sea is the first of the Secret Projects and is part of Sanderson's fictional Cosmere universe. The novel is inspired by William Goldman’s 1973 novel The Princess Bride and is narrated by Hoid, a recurring character who had appeared in multiple Cosmere series novels and whom Sanderson always wanted to have a book centered on.

Kickstarter campaign backers received premium editions of the novel published by Dragonsteel Entertainment on January 1, 2023 and a standard hardback edition published by Tor Books was officially released on April 4, 2023.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews called the novel "a fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit", and praising it for the engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters and sense of humor.

Lyndsey Luther of Tor.com called the novel "fascinating and completely unlike anything I’ve seen in any other fantasy novel". She described the novel as "a fairy-tale Cosmere adventure filled with fun characters" and said "Sanderson’s gift for creating unique settings really shines".

David Wiley of Open Letters Review praised the novel for its "punchy pacing, witty humor, vibrant characters, and fascinating magic systems", yet he criticized the narrative and too many Cosmere-related subtleties added to the plot.