Emerald in the Cosmere

Illustration by Howard Lyon

On a rating of 10 stars being  "I must own" to 1 star being "boring and a waster of time", I give 8 stars to Tress of the Emerald Sea. It was beautiful book, and I very much enjoyed every moment of the book, and I am glad I purchased it before reading it.

The following are the categories on how I ended up giving this novel 8-stars:

Emotional Impact – How the book made me feel while I was reading it.

Characters – How did the protagonist and supporting characters develop on their journey

Plot – How did I enjoy the plot, was it unique?

Dialogue/Prose – How did I enjoy the writing

Worldbuilding/Magic System – how unique is the world from standard fantasy worlds.

Emotional Impact: 8 stars
Tress is searching for her loved one and its emotional the journey she goes through to find him. One of my favorite parts is when she rescues Charlie and realizes that she has changed so much during the journey that she is not the same person she was while living on the rock.

To me this has great emotional impact, but since it mimics a fairy tale, I didn't feel emotional attached as I have with other books.

Characters: 10 stars
The characters are the best part of the story. I love that they have desires, and they have trails, but they are not traumatized like most characters the Sanderson writes.

I would say most characters are 2 or 3 dimensional characters. The cast has their own motives. The 1-dimensional characters were Dougs who was comedically made to be 1 dimensional. The other would-be harlie's father, but he has only two scenes.

Plot: 6 stars
I enjoyed the plot I admire how Brandon Sanderson takes well known plots like a traditional fairy tale story with a talking side kick and changing it to be unique. I like how Tress progresses in the story and how her passions change while rescuing Charlie.

Dialogue/Prose: 5 stars
The Dialogue for me was average for Brandon Sanderson. The Narrator of the book is Hoid and even though I enjoy him as a character I found his interjections in the story to be distracting at times. At other times I found it humorous.

Most memorable line: "He was six and a half feet tall and had a jaw so straight it made other men question if they were."

Worldbuilding/Magic System: 10 stars
This is one of the best worlds in the Cosmere in my opinion. It might be because of the artwork by Howard Lyon, but I thought it was unique magic system that fits well for pirates. There are twelve moons and the sea (spores) come from the moons. Each spore has a different color which causes the environment to change. Also, Different spores have different effects when given water.

 

**Spoilers**

 

 

Images by Isaac Stewart