Tress of the Emerald Sea Reactions (Cosmere Edition)

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

Alright, my reaction.

It was a really good book. I loved the prose.

At first, I thought I would hate Tress as a main character. Then, about a quarter in, I began loving her as a character. 

Fort was awesome.

Can we just acknowledge the fact that "The battle of Wits" illustration was a masterpiece? I think it was the best illustration in the whole cosmere. 

Dragons are just awesome. Xisis was fun.

Aether of Night was actually really good in my opinion, and I was excited to see Aethers again in this book. 

The laptop thing was awesome though.

[Johnny Silverlight]

On 1/3/2023 at 3:41 PM, PurpurPhönix said:

All in all Elantrian magic seems very powerful indeed

Of all the magic systems in the Cosmere, AonDor comes closest to D&D arcane spellcasting in its power and wide range of effects.

[Requiem17 she/her]

I wasn't loving the crossover aspects in the main books, but I'm realizing it's because (to me, and I understand completely it's a personal problem) they felt like side paths to the main story, and maybe a little shoehorned? These crossovers were integral and I LOVED it. I'm way back on board. Really behind Hoid as a main character in endgame. Love. It. 

Artwork was stunning. I thought, "Howard you brilliant mfer" when the chapter headers changed from green vines to red spikes.

I can't decide if there's a universal Connection trick they've figured out, or everyone is using their own magic systems and coming up with ways.

Sel - AonDor can rewrite Spiritweb. An Elantrian doing this makes sense, but how was Shai doing it in TLM? She didn't have constant access to Dor.

Nalthis - Awakened tablets (bloody brilliant, and I cried when Fort got a replacement), Xisis potentially using Breaths or an unknown magic system 

Scadrial - Feruchemy Allomancy Medallion stuff, but Ulaam definitely had a different method here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grythe]

I loved the book- another Brandon that I couldn’t stop reading!
 

A quick thought about bonds… so Luhel is physical to physical.. nahel is cognitive to cognitive (I think..). Does that mean there’s a spiritual to spiritual bond (maybe the shard to share bearer is an example)? Taking it one step further.. because it’s late here and over thinking theories is fun.. does this also mean there can be a physical to spiritual/ cognitive to physical type bond?

[The Unknown Order he/him]

31 minutes ago, Grythe said:

I loved the book- another Brandon that I couldn’t stop reading!
 

A quick thought about bonds… so Luhel is physical to physical.. nahel is cognitive to cognitive (I think..). Does that mean there’s a spiritual to spiritual bond (maybe the shard to share bearer is an example)? Taking it one step further.. because it’s late here and over thinking theories is fun.. does this also mean there can be a physical to spiritual/ cognitive to physical type bond?

I think Spren is Cog/Phy, but it could be Cog/any or Cog/all.

[Captain Coffee]

I loved it. I loved Hoid's voice, and the thrown in random Cosmere stuff. I thought that it really worked for both the completely uninitiated and for people who are really Invested in the Cosmere. To a new reader, the magic was silly fun, but I kept being like, "Oh, yeah. That totally would work." I loved that Tress perceived herself as normal. I loved that Hoid called out her calmness and thoughtfulness as the things that made her a unique heroine. The Dragon negotiation was amazing. Also, even though I read it digitally, the way they used the green, red, and black ink was so cool. The book is absolutely beautiful. I will have to get a physical copy.

[lacrossedeamon]

Enjoyed it. Generally thought Hoid's voice worked well; liked it more than the other cloudcuckoolander characters we have. There were some jarring sentences or paragraphs but otherwise the prose and wordplay was good. Sure there is the issue with how the story is being transmitted/translated and some words that might not mesh well but Sanderson is not a philologist like Tolkien and I don't see him hiring one on just to create cosmere conlangs which is really the only good solution I see for this. The illustrations were amazing but severely disappointed there was no map (assumedly might be because there was no Ars Arcanum and the maps are usually in universe being acquired by Nazh). I was also generally disappointed in Hoid handwaving the mechanics of being turned into an Elantrian (but god is that overpowered for bolstering a potential armed force) nor did I specifically like how Hoid edited Charlie's curse as it seemed to treat Aons more like letters rather than logograms. The story introduced a lot of new great questions and theories though.

Is Design the "monster" in the drawer due to Hoid's curse acting like the Shaod would to Seons?

Is the Bone spore related to Sandmastery or Autonomy?

Are ten of the Aethers (assumedly barring Midnight and it's AoN counterpart which were seen as on a different level) analogous to the Ten Essences? What are the Crimson spikes made of? Is it blood?

Was Re-Shephir an Aether or Aetherbound before being Unmade by Odium?

Are Xisis's boons related to Cultivation's, by way of the Nightwatcher, Old Magic boons (both are from dragons, both come with a price)?

Is Xisis Foil and what does that mean for the timeline, especially in regards to the Iriali assuming the Ars Arcanum for each series is written generally around the time the series is happening?

Is Ulaam part of the 17th Shard (seemed very reluctant to interfere in things but just happened to be bad at holding to that)?

What was up with Riina's reptile man servant?

Who is taller, Fort or Rock?

How exactly does gravity work on the Lumar system?

What does naval warfare look like on the other seas?

Is Death with nails in his eyes actually Marsh or could there be another Steel Inquisitor running around causing the phrase to spread more than people like Khriss would assume?

Did Riina or the Ire (if she is even still part of them) have an ultimate purpose on the planet?

[StormingTexan he/him]

6 hours ago, lacrossedeamon said:

Was Re-Shephir an Aether or Aetherbound before being Unmade by Odium?

This was my thought as well but this would mean that the Aethers were at some point on Roshar as we have a WoB that they are all native to Roshar. 

6 hours ago, lacrossedeamon said:

Are Xisis's boons related to Cultivation's, by way of the Nightwatcher, Old Magic boons (both are from dragons, both come with a price)?

I think this is a good possibility and now makes me think the Old Magic is the Dragons innate magic. 

6 hours ago, lacrossedeamon said:

Is Xisis Foil and what does that mean for the timeline, especially in regards to the Iriali assuming the Ars Arcanum for each series is written generally around the time the series is happening?

I think this is likely which gives us a rough timeline of 300 years in between RoW and TotES depending on how long Foil was on the planet when the AA was written. Also seems too coincidental that Xisis has been there 300 years and the Iriali left 300 years ago..

[lacrossedeamon]

6 minutes ago, StormingTexan said:

This was my thought as well but this would mean that the Aethers were at some point on Roshar as we have a WoB that they are all native to Roshar. 

That WoB specifies that as Unmade they “count” as being native to Roshar. I take that to mean they were Unmade on Roshar but prior to being Unmade they could be native from elsewhere.

 

8 minutes ago, StormingTexan said:

I think this is likely which gives us a rough timeline of 300 years in between RoW and TotES depending on how long Foil was on the planet when the AA was written. Also seems too coincidental that Xisis has been there 300 years and the Iriali left 300 years ago..

It is possible that Khriss knew about Foil/Xisis being on Lumar before people on Lumar did since the mention of Xisis being known to occupy that area comes from a Lumaran source rather than Hoid which could skew the gap to be longer but I do feel that his presence their becoming more widely known is tied to the Iriali leaving, otherwise I doubt Sanderson would use the same general timeframe for the both.

[Philomath she/her]

Okay. I’ve been meaning to post a review for days now since I absolutely read the whole thing on Jan 1. I loved this book. I agree with those who have said it might be one of Brandon’s best. This was truly just a delightful read. I cannot wait to get my physical copy to see the art in person. Howard did incredible work that just added so much to the story. My only tiny complaints about the art is that it always showed Tress with her hair down instead of braided and that we didn’t get a picture of Fort. (In my head he looks like a bigger beefier version of the king from The Dragan Prince.) But honestly those are small beans that I can easily get over given how fantastic the rest of the art is. 

I can see how if you don’t love Hoid how you wouldn’t like this book. For me though, Hoid stories are some of my favorite things in the cosmere. And while Hoid is definitely manipulative and self serving, he also demonstrates a lot of compassion and empathy at times to people in situations that don’t seem to obviously bring him gain. There were so many times in this book that I took screen shots just to keep his quotes easier. 

As for the characters and plot, I loved them all. Tress and Charlie are so cute. Tress is so relatable as a character feeling like just a regular person doing their best to accomplish big things. I loved the supporting characters from the crew. Even all the Dougs. And the scene with her dad networking and calling in his favors (doing advanced parenting) was so good. As were just the few lines about the Doug who died, whose actual name I now can’t recall. (It’s those little throwaway lines by Hoid that really make me like him. He didn’t have to tell us he actually knew that man’s name or what a good person he was, but he did.) I think the character that could have been developed a little better was Crow. Mostly because I don’t think we got answers to what her condition actually was and how it works. Like it’s clear her motivation is not dying. But if she was always this manipulative and nasty, how did her crew stick around before? And why did she specifically want Hoid on board? 

I would love to eventually see more of the other seas though I know coming back to this world is unlikely. But maybe someday we will get a map and ars arcanum. I also want to understand how the seas work. Why can you only get to the midnight sea through the crimson? Does the crimson fully surround it? Are all the seas just circles surrounding each other with two poles? But that doesn’t make sense with how the moons are situated. 

Oh, I am really starting to not like Elantrians right now. At least not the Ire if Riina is still involved with them. They seem like a super sketchy organization and I have questions with no answers yet. 

Anyway, this was long. The book is great. I love it. 

[Szeth_Pancakes he/him]

Thoughts:

- This book TotES has the best acronym ever.

- When Midnight Essence got namedropped, I literally gasped. Like, what? How? Why? When? Where?

- I kinda felt like I was reading an Alcatraz book (minus the considerable amount of blood), not a cosmere one. There were a couple of things that stretched my suspension of disbelief just a little bit too much (e.g. farting pancake aliens, the entire thing about Dougs, etc.)

- That said, I absolutely love Hoid as a narrator. (I also love Alcatraz as a narrator, so that’s not surprising.) I don’t mind whimsy: as you can probably tell from my profile pic, I’m a big fan of Lift

- Tress definitely grew on me as a character, though I feel her romance with Charlie was one-dimensional and more of an excuse for plot to happen than anything else. I’ll have to reread so I can recontextualize her interactions with “Huck”.

- Ideas for other moons/aethers/spores/seas: Vermillion/Scarlet, Violet, Maroon, Saffron (probably a Rose Sea court), Goldenrod?

- Probably a few good cosmemes coming out of this

[lacrossedeamon]

4 hours ago, Szeth_Pancakes said:

- I kinda felt like I was reading an Alcatraz book (minus the considerable amount of blood), not a cosmere one. There were a couple of things that stretched my suspension of disbelief just a little bit too much (e.g. farting pancake aliens, the entire thing about Dougs, etc.)

- That said, I absolutely love Hoid as a narrator. (I also love Alcatraz as a narrator, so that’s not surprising.) I don’t mind whimsy: as you can probably tell from my profile pic, I’m a big fan of Lift

I feel that on top of the Princess Bride Sanderson took a lot of inspiration from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The bit about the Dougs is almost the exact same bit from H2G2’s bit about Gin and Tonic. SP2 also feels H2G2 inspired.

4 hours ago, Szeth_Pancakes said:

- Ideas for other moons/aethers/spores/seas: Vermillion/Scarlet, Violet, Maroon, Saffron (probably a Rose Sea court), Goldenrod?

Well if AoN trunked novel is anything to go by we still have a metal aether and flesh (gross) aether (and Illuminous which might be the same as the Sunlight/Gold aether but I doubt it). Also I like the theory about the Aethers and the Ten Essences being paralleled.

[Kered he/him]

Loved the style of this book. It's still wild to me that we're now in the era of cosmere becoming center stage. I was always a bit nervous about how Brandon would execute it without it coming off as a more drawn out Avengers style thing. But with RotW, LoM and now Tress, I'm pretty confident that Brandon is going to pull of this connection storm very well. Gunna be a cosmere wide Brandalanche. 

Also 
 

On 1/6/2023 at 4:38 PM, agrabes said:

 

Also, Sanderson's style of "whimsy" is mostly like nails on a chalkboard to me.  I can barely tolerate Lift.  Wayne and Lopen are not tolerable in 85% of their on screen time.  I have a hard time explaining exactly why all this bothers me.  I think it's because it feels like fanservice and also kind of like breaking the fourth wall - or at least knocking on it.  Basically, it's taking the kinds of jokes and memes that SFF fans make about SFF characters, but giving those lines to the characters themselves.  I think the intent is to make it feel like a putting up a flag and having the characters recognize that the scenarios in their world are sometimes a bit ridiculous.  Some authors can pull this off really well and make it feel natural, others can't.  And it is a matter of taste too.  Sanderson's way of doing it is not to my taste, but other authors can do similar things without weirding me out.  The example that comes to mind is Jim Butcher - for me he can get away with characters bumping up against breaking the fourth wall because of his style of writing, but Sanderson can't.  At least not for me - I know there are plenty of people who enjoy Sanderson's humor and I'm not trying to say people who like it are bad or something.  But it is just not for me.

Thank you for finally helping me define my issue with those characters and my opinion on that style. 100% agree with all of that. Been trying to put my finger on it for ages. 

[ftl]

On 1/6/2023 at 3:38 PM, agrabes said:

For me - it bothered me because it breaks immersion in the world and because Hoid's voice when he's just being "him" is annoying.  Hoid has this way of being cocky that is very annoying to me.  I think it's because we're supposed to think as an audience that Hoid is cool, funny, and sophisticated because the writing is never skeptical of him (if that makes sense), but he comes across to me as full of himself.  

Huh, I've always thought that the writing was always pretty clear that Hoid IS always full of himself.

I guess I'm coming to this after rereading some Stormlight (TWoK), where basically every character that has to interact with Hoid thinks he's annoying as heck. He toys with people with his words all the time, and he is definitely tedious to those around him.

I don't think we, as an audience, are supposed to think Hoid is cool, funny, and sophisticated all the time, and I think the writing is usually skeptical of his wit, often portraying it as him having a laugh at the expense of his audience rather than him entertaining his audience.

[agrabes]

4 hours ago, ftl said:

Huh, I've always thought that the writing was always pretty clear that Hoid IS always full of himself.

I guess I'm coming to this after rereading some Stormlight (TWoK), where basically every character that has to interact with Hoid thinks he's annoying as heck. He toys with people with his words all the time, and he is definitely tedious to those around him.

I don't think we, as an audience, are supposed to think Hoid is cool, funny, and sophisticated all the time, and I think the writing is usually skeptical of his wit, often portraying it as him having a laugh at the expense of his audience rather than him entertaining his audience.

Well, I'm glad to hear your opinion on this one - could easily be that I'm reading it wrong.  I just don't see it that way.  For example in TWoK - Hoid/Wit is putting on a show - he's acting as the King's Wit and as such his role is to be kind of a jerk to all the nobles.  We as the audience (and also all the in world characters) know that.  And Sanderson makes a point that the good and wise characters don't find him annoying, but those who are immature at that point in the story (Adolin) or who are bad people (Sadeas & Co) really hate him.  And then, when he's not playing as The King's Wit, he's shown as being kind to Kaladin.  I actually really liked Hoid as he was written in TWoK, but lately he's gotten on my nerves.  He's also built up among the fans as this super cool character, the one who's in all the cosmere stories.  You see it a ton on this board, people hyped up about Hoid.  You also have to imagine he's a bit of a darling for Sanderson - the character he inserted in his first books that tied everything together as one huge cosmere shared world series.  That's my reading of it though.  I like yours better, so maybe I'll try to think of it that way next time I read through the books.

[JrNipMuc]

 

Regarding the power of Elantrian magic, remember that Elantris is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) book in the Cosmere timeline, and most of what we see is from people re-learning how to use it. Not only do we not know what Elantrians were capable of before the Shaod, but there have been centuries since then for them to refine and expand their arts. We've only seen them as side characters hinting at what they can do so we really don't have a firm grasp of what their magic allows. 

[teknopathetic he/him]

3 hours ago, JrNipMuc said:

 

 

Regarding the power of Elantrian magic, remember that Elantris is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) book in the Cosmere timeline, and most of what we see is from people re-learning how to use it. Not only do we not know what Elantrians were capable of before the Shaod, but there have been centuries since then for them to refine and expand their arts. We've only seen them as side characters hinting at what they can do so we really don't have a firm grasp of what their magic allows. 

One weird thing is that the art does not show any chasm lines in the aeons. Is this an error, or do pre-shaod Elantrians not use modern Aeons? 

Edited January 11, 2023 by teknopathetic

[StormingTexan he/him]

1 hour ago, teknopathetic said:

One weird thing is that the art does not show any chasm lines in the aeons. Is this an error, or do pre-shaod Elantrians not use modern Aeons? 

Man I love this art. Actually all the art in the book is amazing. So I may be completely wrong but wouldn't the chasm line just be relevant using AonDor on Sel? I really need to re-read Elantris because it has been forever but I thought the chasm line was just added to make the location accurate. So no chasm on Lumar and no need for the line. 

[teknopathetic he/him]

4 minutes ago, StormingTexan said:

Man I love this art. Actually all the art in the book is amazing. So I may be completely wrong but wouldn't the chasm line just be relevant using AonDor on Sel? I really need to re-read Elantris because it has been forever but I thought the chasm line was just added to make the location accurate. So no chasm on Lumar and no need for the line. 

But the seons should map to a physical location. In The Lost Metal, we see an "Elantrian-ish" using new lines in order to connect with Elendel. And the Aeons of Elantris have famously been greatly changed. So is it that the Sorceress is somehow still connected to the old shapes? Or is this simply an error? Or is the "Elantrian" in The Lost Metal doing something extremely weird because of a hacked-connection to start with? So many questions! 

Edited January 11, 2023 by teknopathetic

[lacrossedeamon]

10 hours ago, teknopathetic said:

But the seons should map to a physical location. In The Lost Metal, we see an "Elantrian-ish" using new lines in order to connect with Elendel. And the Aeons of Elantris have famously been greatly changed. So is it that the Sorceress is somehow still connected to the old shapes? Or is this simply an error? Or is the "Elantrian" in The Lost Metal doing something extremely weird because of a hacked-connection to start with? So many questions! 

I wondered about this as well. Assumedly Riina has a Lumar based Aon Rao that allows her to use Aons on planet, probably connected with the mention of her island being “suspiciously circular”. I would think her (and Hoid’s) Aons would have be based on Lumar geography to work, like maybe instead of being Arelon coastline/mountain/lake it would be a pentagon for the sea and a dot for the Sorceress’s Island.

The Aons used in the art seem very deliberate though with Hoid using Edo (protection) supplemented by multiple Daa (power) while the Riina is using Shao (transformation) supplemented with a bunch of Aon that assumedly would define the criteria and restrictions on Tress’s curse. So maybe they just used the Selish versions of the Aons that the readers would be familiar with but the actual event had Lumaran ones?

[Cocoa he/him]

Got my hands on the ebook yesterday, stayed up to an inadvisable hour finishing it, etc., etc.

The Bad & The Ugly

I'm only putting my criticism up front because I have remarkably little of it for this book. I'm sure I could come up with some if I really marinated on it, but that seems like a silly use of my time.

I was disappointed that by the end we didn't learn more about what spore eaters really are, how they form and why Crow was able to last for so long and such. Maybe it'll make itself apparent as the aethers make more appearances, but I wish we'd gotten more in this book.

The humor dipped into juvenile territory a bit more often than was to my personal tastes, but, well. It's Wit.

The Good (and assorted speculations and musings)

First and foremost, I enjoyed it. That might be putting it simply, but I was engaged through the whole story and walked away feeling quite satisfied, and I think that deserves acknowledgement. The characters and plot and pacing and so on were good across the board, which is unfortunately only in that I have trouble picking anything specific to focus on and compliment. Instead I think I'll just go through the bits I really enjoyed as they pop into my head.

I loved the various mental images the story conjured of the spore seas.

I think Brandon did a good job of offering counterpoints for more "traditionally heroic/adventurous" tropes, even lightly ribbing them here and there, without being mean-spirited about it, as I've known some people to do when attempting a deconstruction. There's plenty of room in the world for stories about people who start the story off braver than anything and who want to get away from their small towns and who sneak away in the middle of the night without telling anyone. This is not one of those stories. On that note, Tress' parents supporting her quest (with some healthy apprehension) was incredibly sweet. "After she went upstairs, Lem retrieved his cane, put on his coat, and went out to do some advanced fathering." is going to live in my head rent-free for months.

The comedic irony of Tress and co. going through that whole production to get her off the Rock as the Inspector, only for her to get locked up because she picked a smuggler ship, was fantastic. It was like watching someone execute an Olympic gymnastics routine perfectly, then slip on a banana peel.

I felt very called out when Hoid got to talking about rain. very called out indeed. Mostly because, a dozen or so chapters earlier, I specifically paused to ask myself "Huh, I wonder how the seas react when rainstorms roll through." Hoid knows his audience and has no mercy.

Dragon! I know we've seen Cultivation already, but her being a Shard overshadows most everything else, so this is our first time getting a look at "just" a dragon. Despite this being more of a fairy-tale-esque story than high fantasy, the sheer weight of this is an ancient and powerful creature, be afraid still manages to come through loud and clear. The trick with Tress trading Crow was a delight to read and just the sort of fairy-story cleverness I was hoping would play out at some point, and in that regard I certainly got my money's worth. Tangent, but there was a moment when Hoid mentioned dragons leaving behind metal when they die (coupled with the physical description) where I wondered if they were either a source of silver (possibly explaining its supernatural properties), or maybe if their bodies naturally produce silver to make use of its magic. And then I remembered the name of Brandon's elusive Master's thesis and also the entire Cosmere publishing company and suddenly felt very, very dumb.

The reveal of Huck's true identity was, if not an obvious one, at least one that slid neatly into place. I didn't sniff it out right away when he first appeared, because hey, maybe there are talking rats on this world, but I made the connection about the time that they stopped to trade their captured goods and was watching him from the corner of my eye from that point onward. The endearingly boring (and I say this as a compliment) way he focused on the bells and the flowers and the paving stones was far too familiar to overlook, which I suppose says a lot about Brandon's grasp of character voice. Plus, we're talking about a story where the heroine is trying to rescue her captured love interest from a sorceress who curses people for fun. A small, lone animal who befriends her who has an inexplicable capacity for speech? Why he's almost contractually obligated to be the prince duke's son in disguise. As such, my reaction when it finally got confirmed was an excited and vindicated "I knew it!"

In contrast, the reveal that the Sorceress was an Elantrian earned a self-deprecating "oh, duh." I'd spent the whole story trying so hard to work out how the aethers work that I'd completely skipped over the possibility that she was exploiting offworlder magic systems, even though we already knew about Ulaam and Fort's board. (I'm not counting Hoid as a point in favor of offworlder influence. Hoid is special. He's coarse and rough and irritating and gets everywhere.) Also, while we did know it was versatile, Aon Dor is terrifying in a way that never really hit home until just now, especially since Riina and Hoid at least apparently have access to a hack that gets around the geographical restriction. Riina cursed Hoid. She turned a person into a rat. And not only that, she was able to put conditional functions on the curse that took advantage of things like true love (presumably we're looking at a particular application of Intent, maybe Connection). These are the sorts of things I'd expect from the Old Magic, which is only a step down from direct Shardic intervention, and the fact that a "mortal" is able to toss them around in an almost casual-seeming way turns a lot of my understanding of the Cosmere's power balance on its head.

Side note: spaceship. Are we looking at Era 4 here, or is there something else at play? I seem to remember that Sel is under the influence of heavy time dilation due to how Invested its cognitive realm is. Could they have reached the space age under their own power? Nalthian tech has certainly made leaps and bounds since Warbreaker, but it's place in the timeline has always been a bit nebulous, not helped by the fact that Vasher and Nightblood are immortal while Vivenna could easily become so with enough breath. What about "[the kandra have] all been getting weirder ever since Sazed released them."? Is this just about the Catacendre, or are we getting a sneak peak at a future event? If Sazed (and note his Shard name isn't used here) ever finally makes the split/flip to Discord, I can see him freeing the kandra from his service if controlling them goes against his new Intent.

Oh, and "Fate" was capitalized and referred to as a "her" partway through the story. Could easily just be a narrative tool, personifying the abstract and all. But I wonder...

I think that Brandon's done a better job of handling Cosmere elements in this book than in The Lost Metal. I actually quite enjoyed the fanservice we got in that book, but sadly, I also think that its identity as a Wax & Wayne novel suffered some for it. I'm not entirely certain what makes this one different. Maybe it's that a lot of the exposition is coming to us through Hoid, whereas the characters (rather sensibly, given their position) just lump all Investiture that's not the spores together as "magic."

Maybe the most charming moment to me, out of the whole thing, was that Charlie did wind up making good on his promise to rescue his fare maiden if she was ever captured, not-so-shining armor and all. Even if that armor took the form of an old pewter tankard.

Oh, pewter! I nearly forgot! Iron and steel attract and repel aether growth, right? I wonder if zinc and brass (or maybe pewter and tin) would cause aethers to grow more/less vigorously, like how they affect the responses of spren in fabrials.

The more the Cosmere gets fleshed out, the more I notice that certain characters have shades of earlier ones worked into them. Fort is the proverbial lovechild of Rock and Rysn (though I can't say he inherited any of the former's cooking skills). Tress is a girl that Shallan could have been if the Davars hadn't been dysfunctional. The ship's crew are outlaws (though admittedly, less by their own choice) desperate for someone to tell them that there's a way back to the people they used to be, much like the shattered plains deserters. This repetition isn't a bad thing, though I'm not certain it really needs to be "good" either. Just a neutral-if-interesting observation on the repetition of stories and character traits, and the patterns that form when you look at the Cosmere on a large enough scale.

[Ati16 he/him]

I finished Tress today (1:30 AM) and thought it was great. There were very little battles in the book, but I still enjoyed it as much as every other Sanderson book. It was cool to glimpse at the space age of the cosmere and the "magical seeing board that let her watch events outside and occasionally play a mystical card game to pass the time" was awesome. Also, did anyone else figure out that Tress was going to trade Crow to Xisis? I thought that who else wasn't afraid of spores on the crew and then it hit me that Tress could just offer Crow to Xisis when they went to his domain.

[Edema Rue she/her]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH I just finished it.

I wonder if this planet has chouta yet.

[SingleSoul he/him]

I really loved this book. It was great having a full length Hoid story. The worldbuilding and magic was fascinating, and the characters worked very well. Tress is a great main character and fits the story like a glove. I absolutely got the fairy tale feeling that Brandon wished to convey. I also think it shines through that he had lots of fun writing this book.

The wider Cosmere-stuff was great. I liked this way of doing it better than what was done in TLM. There the crossovers felt a little brutal or forced. I think TotES was more elegant with this. I also had a lot of the ...wait... what...? - moments, like others here have mentioned. I was not at all annoyed by the reference to laptops and such. "Mystical card game" - that's just great. 

A thing I noticed. Hoid refers to Kelsier by saying “a push for every pull an old adversary of mine always says.” Does the use of present tense “says” mean that Kelsier is still around at this point in time? (I am not a native English speaker, so I may misinterpret the significance.)

[teknopathetic he/him]

I was very surprised Brandon wrote: "...since Sazed released the Kandra".

Why wouldn't Brandon obfuscate a huge Era 1 spoiler about Sazed by just saying "Harmony"instead. But then it hit me that maybe Discord has taken over and Brandon CANT say Harmony anymore.  

Edited January 17, 2023 by teknopathetic