Tress of the Emerald Sea

I picked this up because it was described as something akin to The Princess Bride. I don't agree, and the only similarity is the narration feels similar-ish to how the movie was presented. And even then, it's a stretch. However, that's not a mark against the book, and more against the marketing.

The book, honestly, felt like a Pratchett book. I wouldn't call the writing as good as Pratchett (that's a high bar), but the feel of the book was right. It definitely kept me reading. The world is complete, thoughtful, and consistent. The narrator has a kind of colorful commentary that I enjoyed. And, most importantly, it took a lot of ideas on how things should be and sort of made poked fun at how that's not how things work. I really like Tress, and how she interacted with the world. She was a take charge kind of person that didn't realize she was a take charge kind of person. Which made for fun moments to read.

I kind of saw the twist at the end coming, but that didn't keep the story from being an enjoyable read and a moving ending.

Halfway through I was ready to chuck it in, the world building was great - and for Cosmere nerds there's the "I get that reference" game - but the style was odd. I'm not quite sure who this style is for. It's hard to describe, but it's like it's written so adults can feel like they're reading a childrens book. It's not for kids but it reads like it is. Which isn't necessarily bad, but the balance isn't quite right. I can see how it was trying to be The Princess Bride, and it gets close, but tonally doesn't quite hit the mark. To be fair, it's really hard to nail that style of tongue in cheek, ironic yet warm humour.

Having said that, he knows how to keep up the pace in his books, so it's easy to push through and get to the part where Sanderson shines; well executed and highly entertaining endings.

"You see, I've discovered that it's all right to need help. So long as you've lived your life as the kind of person who deserves to be rescued."

I'll be honest and say I didn't know what to make of this when I first started it. Aside from being aware that it was a Cosmere book, I went in basically blind, ready for a twisty whirlwind epic fantasy adventure. Instead, I got something a bit more thoughtful, a lot more tongue-in-cheek, and perhaps more fairy tale than epic fantasy. Temper your expectations accordingly; this is more like Sanderson-writes-Princess-Bride rather than 1000-page-Sanderson-Epic-Fantasy. Tress grew up on a small spit of rocky land in the middle of a green spore sea. No seawater, all green pollen that reacts violently when exposed to water. In the case of green spores, you get a wild vine explosion that can be rather, well, deadly if the water ends up being human water (of which, we have a lot of). There's different colored spore seas, and each of the different spore colors reacts differently when given water. So, content with her life, her crush ends up getting himself kidnapped by the Sorceress of this world, who resides all the way over in the Midnight Sea. What follows is Tress's quest to save the one dear to her, and all that she learns about herself, her resourcefulness, and the larger world she never knew along the way.It's a bit of a slow burn and took me a bit to get drawn in. I generally don't read a lot of light-hearted stuff, so when I first started this book, I thought I'd have to force myself through. Turns out, given the space and the time to tell a story, this is actually a really good one. The book is told, not from Tress's point of view, but from someone witnessing the whole thing (and who is familiar to anyone who reads Cosmere books), and we get some side commentary from them about the whole thing that I appreciated. It does read very much like The Princess Bride, but with a different take on the story (and that's mentioned in the afterword). I was really into seeing how Tress would get through her next scrape, and my only real minor complaint is that maybe the tongue-in-cheek humor is laid on a bit thick in some places for my personal tastes.Still, this ended up being a really enjoyable read, and even though I guessed a part of the conclusion, there's still a lot there to be discovered. Highly recommend for Sanderson fans.