The Moon

Tress Of The Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson, was a very easy to read book. A page turner I blew through pretty quickly. Over all the book club enjoyed this book. They found it entertaining. Enjoyed the science fiction meets fantasy features. It was well written for what it is. It seems to pose the question, what if we set The Princess Bride in an alternative reality and send Butter Cup on the adventure over oceans on a pirate ship? Interesting concept if you ask me as a bit of a feminist I see no reason women shouldn’t have adventures. I certainly had mine before settling on my small farm.

My personal issues with it might be a bit nitpicky… I too enjoyed how easy to read it was. The humor at times was spot on, but in general over time I found it more obnoxious than funny. I think it was just really over done. It truly did have it’s moments. I just would have liked more limits around the humor, for me to really love the book. I think my 14 year old self would have liked this read a lot more than my 45 year old self. It just felt a little bit juvenile. I read a lot of fantasy in my teens. I think I may have just outgrown the genre a bit. Which is more a personal failing perhaps than a failing of this book. I got a hardcover addition. I have to say, it was one of the most beautiful books I ever added to my library. For that I remain grateful. It had it’s enjoyable moments for sure. The bit with the dragon was absolutely fabulous. I also liked the zombie doctor space alien thing. He was interesting too. Those for me, were some of the high points.

The claim is made the book centers on a girl named Tress from a place called The Rock, which is an island in a green sea of dangerous spores. She loses her love to some magical sorceress with a laptop in some other spore filled sea. She sneaks onto a ship and then makes it onto a pirate ship makes friends with some overly nice pirates each with their own story. I found these characters a bit canned and kind of generic fantasy. They ate up more of the book and I felt it detracted a little from the adventure that I thought we were going on. Then comes Hoit. Hoit, is the cabin boy on the pirate ship. His brain was scrambled by the sorceress and now he can’t talk about anything related to her or his curse or some such madness. My problem was, this book supposedly centered on a female character was told through the eyes of this character who was both off his meds and stole the show. He truly was in every sense the main character which I found disapointing cuz this was a book about a woman doing in scifi and fantasy what women characters don’t get to do. Except it really wasn’t. In the end like any damsel in distress she too had to be rescued. It missed the point entirely while acting as if it was an empowerment of women. I tried to get there and to see it that way. I really struggled and I just could not do it. Good news I was the only one in the club who cared, or even noticed. Much of my issues are just matters of personal taste. 

The story had it’s wonderful points. One of them for me, was trying to understand are we on a world in outer space? ore are the spore seas set between planets and each one is kind of a place…. It was interesting to visualize it in my head both ways. I am still not sure which is right. Another one that was interesting for the book club, was the spore seas. How to envision them in the mind’s eye, always moving, but not water… I kind of envisioned them as colored sand chronically moving due to erosion or tectonic plate movement deep down. Others had other ways of seeing it. It was interesting to discuss how differently our visual imaginations interpreted the spore seas. 

Would I read more like this? Honestly, probably not. But would I recommend it? Certainly to a 14 year old. I truly believe they would love this book unless they are overly critical in their thinking in relation to feminism. I think the characters while canned are a great introduction to these kinds of rather common characters in fantasy for young people. There was nothing in the text that struck me as controversial in that I did not really understand the claims of the strong female main character as to me it felt quite clear the main character was the narator who ran away on the ridiculous in a desperate effort to be funny and with a few successful moments over all failed. But maybe my humor is just that of an older generation who simply didn’t get it?

In some respects it felt a lot like a fairy tale set in space, yet it felt like the fundimental elements of folk tale were replaced by fantasy elements. Which for me, as someone who makes a point of studying folklore in my spare time, just again didn’t rub quite right. 

Then there were the cups that the not quite main character collected, again for me…. I didn’t get it and then yes finally one of the cups gets used against the sorceress. I dunno… I liked how easy to read it was. I liked how I was able to plow right through it. I enjoyed discussing the difference in visual imagination with the book club. Some of the jokes were hilarious. The adventure itself needed more. Less of the narator would have been prefered for me anyway. This book was great for someone going through puberty. But I would just assume give someone that age The Belgariad, and call it a day. 

I love the ideas that inspired this book. The idea of a woman or girl, going on an adventure, in some fantasy realm. But to truly have that meaningfully it has to be told from her experience not some dude with a brain scrambled by a sorceress. You lose what is most important without telling it from that perspective. The feminine take. How women adventure differently than men. How their experience is different. When that is lost the point is lost. I wish he had truly done it. Because girls need stories like that. They need them so so badly. I know I do and did. The world too needs stories like this. They help to sew an idea into our consciousness that women can slay dragons not just barter with them. That women can look at themselves and take their own inventory and express their ideas and feelings and that we can all ride and identify with those feelings. For women, that stuff is a massive part of the adventure. So I loved the idea. I felt like it was step 1 in getting us to something more truly what this book was supposed to be. To acknowledge women can have adventures. It’s like admitting as an alcoholic for the first time that you have a drinking problem… It might also be the most difficult step to take. That first one. I applaud this author for taking it. But I didn’t feel as though the result captured what was intended. But to even ask the question, what would a fantasy adventure of a female main character look like, is huge. So credit to the author for even entertaining the question. 

For someone that just wants a fun fantasy read, this book will be great. For someone nitpicky, it won’t be bad. For sexist dudes, they may not like it. For women who truly are purists about the importance of the focus being the main female character they too may have some issues. If you enjoy the ridiculous and dad jokes this will be your new favorite book. If you are about 14 in early experimentation with this book, you can’t find a more youth friendly non controversial book to start with. I might feel differently had the narrator hogging the main character role a bit too much been female. Because then it truly would have been a controversial story of a girl going on an adventure and saving herself. I loved that he opened up many traditionally male character roles in fantasy in the friend department of the main character to women characters who embody those rolls… I just wish he had thought about the differences in who and what women seek in relationships with others more. Because even these rolls could have benefited from a remake not just a change of body size and shape. 

It was a wild ride. That I suppose is my final verdict. A well written for what it is wild ride. an important step in the direction of opening up the fantasy genre to woman characters. A first step, that leaves a long way to go still. But isn’t that always how it is when the door opens to a new variety of person in any capacity? Then it is is 2 steps forward and 1 step back for the next 400 years. At which point, steps forward still may be needed… That seems to just be how human beings are wired. For example, we still need BLM, even though slavery died over a 100 years ago. Things still aren’t equitable and equal. Same thing with women’s suffrage. We still need to be out there demanding equity even though women have had the vote now for some time. Change is gradual. Perhaps my hope that it would happen within fantasy writing all at once in one ground breaking book is what is juvenile. Perhaps that is the ultimate basis for fantasy with female main characters? To have the change happen perfectly all at once and have sexism brought down like the dog it is completely and in one go? Or maybe that is just my fantasy? A world in which books taking steps towards something more open and equitable are unnecessary…. But truth be told, everything is a compromise. It is good to see movement in the proper direction.

Thank you for reading
Amanda Of Wildflower Farm