Review:
Tress has spent her entire life on the small island where she was born, baking, collecting cups brought by sailors from all over the world, and spending time with Charlie, her best friend. She and Charlie both generally try to pretend that Charlie isn't the duke's heir, and that they aren't in love with each other, but that becomes impossible when the duke decides to send Charlie off to be married.
Charlie's plan to avoid becoming married involves being the most boring person ever anytime he's introduced to an eligible young woman and, for a while, his plan succeeds. Unfortunately, eventually the duke and the king deal with Charlie by sending him to be captured by the Sorceress in the Midnight Sea. Realizing that no one plans to help Charlie, Tress decides to rescue him herself, however impossible that may seem.
I read this for a book club. While it was nice to read something that was generally hopeful and light, I struggled with this a bit because it felt like a lesser imitation of Terry Pratchett. The narration was going for witty, dryly humorous, and insightful, and instead of being able to sit back and enjoy it, I found it mildly grating and wished I were reading a Discworld book instead.
Which isn't to say that this was a bad book. I found the world itself, with its spore oceans, to be fascinating, and I particularly enjoyed it when Tress started experimenting with the various spores, figuring out how they worked and how their effects could be used together. I've only read one of Sanderson's works before, Mistborn: The Final Empire, and I remember feeling much the same about the magical system in that book.
All in all, this was a decent enough read, even though the narration felt like it was trying a bit too hard to be clever.
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