Tress of the Emerald Sea

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am of the opinion that fantasy books are great because they can represent things in slightly different ways than how our world works, and thus lets us identify and learn from the strange. To a large extent this book does that--learning how to overcome difficulties, teamwork, loyalty, how trials change us (hopefully for the better). The narration, was cute, if a little too twee at times and it was obviously in homage to The Princess Bride (although if you are going to imitate, it better be as good or better than the original, and it wasn't). But my main problem was the randomness of some of the elements of the story. Why did Tress collect cups? Why was the ocean spores? (And how did the water cycle even work then?) I feel like these are significant elements of the story, but they didn't contribute to the larger story; they weren't symbolic; they were just seemed randomly put in there for wierdness factors. Overall, it was an entertaining story with some unexpected and welcome twists.

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Heroism is often the seemingly spontaneous result of a lifetime of preparation.

people are as fluid as time is.

In the land where everyone screams, everyone is also slightly deaf.

The very journey she'd taken to find what she wanted had transformed her into a person who could no longer enjoy that victory.