Tress of the Emerald Sea [Audiobook]

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?

Tress of the Emerald Sea is a novel-length story written in Hoid/Wit's voice - not unlike The Dog And The Dragon or Derethil and the Wandersail - except 100,000 words long. He's telling the story in-world to someone. Readers might be able to pick up some of the context of who he's talking to, but it's not meant to be explicitly obvious. That said, this isn't written to the reader, but is instead meant to be him telling the story to someone in the cosmere listening.

In this case (unlike some of his stories) he's chronicling actual events in the cosmere. Meaning, Tress is a real person from the cosmere, and her world is an actual place: neither are Hoid inventions. He takes a few liberties in the narrative, but mostly, this is canon. Though the story isn't about him, he has a role to play in it, and readers will find out why he's there through the course of the book.

This slightly fairy tale vibe is intentional, but the author doesn't personally consider it to be a children's book. It's meant to be something more like the Princess Bride. As one gets further into it, the fairy tale vibe fades a little (but not completely) into an epic fantasy - though one filtered through the prose and voice of a storyteller sitting down to tell about one of his adventures.