fantasy
Tress has grown up on a remote island in a small mining town
where she works as a window washer. The
“sea” around her island is made up of millions of sand-like spores which are
toxic and fatal. The people in this world have adapted to these local dangers. When the boy Tress has grown to love is taken
off the island by his father and traded to The Sorceress, Tress decides to
rescue him. She sets off on an impossible mission with hardly any preparation
or resources.
This “girl saves boy” story is a refreshing twist on the
typical trope. The world Brandon Sanderson created for this novel is as unusual
and creative as his other novels. The characters are also terrific, as
expected. However, Tress of the Emerald Sea is geared towards a younger audience than I
typically enjoy reading. Don’t get me
wrong, it was fun. But it was also goofy with juvenile humor which fell flat
for me. And the spore-science and experimentation scenes didn't hold my interest, causing
me to speed up the audiobook through those sections.
I was, however, charmed by the novel’s narrator being
one of the secondary characters in the tale. I don’t believe I’ve ever read
that sort of point of view before. The narrator refers to himself in first
person and also makes side comments to his audience of readers, similar to some
movies I’ve seen where the actor steps out of his role momentarily to address
the audience. I liked that aspect.
The audiobook narrator, Michael Kramer, narrates all of
Sanderson’s novels. He did a good job
like he usually does. He had a nice variety of voices and accents which
complemented the story. I give him an A-.
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