Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by Hoid, a character well-known for his storytelling acumen, the book just reaches a new high with his witty humor, personal interjections, and the ability to use whimsy to tell a story to keep the audience gripped. While the book has Brandon's hallmark key strengths, we get to see him tackle a different side of prose than the one we usually see him using for most of his stories.

In fact, the narrator's funny quips usually interjected within brackets reminded me greatly of the footnotes in the Discworld books. I have been on a Discworld binge recently, and I could see some glimpses of Pratchett-Esque humor in the story. It has been years since I last read or watches Stardust, but the whimsical nature of this story greatly reminded me of it. It starts a bit like The Princess Bride but then undergoes a role reversal, which Sanderson confesses in the postscript to be his intention while writing this story. This book feels as if it is the lovechild of 'The Princess Bride' and 'Stardust'.

I went in blind and was pleasantly surprised with what the book had to offer. Although I knew its name, I had refrained from reading the preview chapters when Sanderson released them earlier last year. 'Tress of the Emerald Sea', also dubbed as Secret Project #1, marks the beginning of the Year of the Sanderson.

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson