Tress of the Emerald Sea: A Cosmere Novel (Dramatized Adaptation)

Secret Projects, Book 1

By: Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by: full cast, Bradley Foster Smith, Crystal Lee, Natalie Van Sistine, Christopher Walker, Eva Wilhelm, Shanta Parasuraman, David Cui Cui, Chris Davenport, Wyn Delano, Torian Brackett, Gabriel Michael

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson comes a rollicking, riveting tale set in the Cosmere universe—a standalone adventure perfect for fans of The Princess Bride.

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?

Adapted from the novel and produced with a full cast of actors, immersive sound effects and cinematic music!

Performed by Chris Davenport, Crystal Lee, Torian Brackett, Wyn Delano, Eva Wilhelm, Natalie Van Sistine, Shanta Parasuraman, Bradley Foster Smith, Christopher Walker, David Cui Cui, Gabriel Michael, Keith Richards, Ken Jackson, Matthew Pauli, Mike Carnes, Morgan Dalla Betta, Nick J. Russo, Scott McCormick, Stephanie Németh-Parker, and Yasmin Tuazon.

©2023 Dragonsteel, LLC (P)2024 Graphic Audio LLC

Utterly charming!

This book caught me by surprise and the dramaticized version was my first experience. I couldn’t stop listening to this story! The narration was excellent, the story whimsical and charming. A wonderful listen!

The story's great for a dramatized adaptation!

After listening to many Brandon Sanderson novels narrated by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer, I was hesitant to try something new. I'm now a few hours in and am quite enjoying the immersion of the full cast, music and the sound effects! Absolutely worth a shot if you love B. Sanderson novels or this is also a great entry point! Kudos to the entire team on the project! Hope to hear more in the future! Honored to leave the first review on this project :)

Obsessed - the Princess Bride meets Dr. Who

Best book I’ve read in a long time. It’s rekindled my love of stories. I will for sure be reading all of this author’s books!!!!

Fun characters

Loved the witty narrator. The heroine was naive, but not annoyingly so. She actually learned as she went instead of making dumb mistakes over and over.

Surprisingly delightful

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was a little unsure with the first chapter or so but was so happy I kept listening. From the characters to the adventure, it kept my attention and kept me laughing. It was surprisingly delightful and the cast did a wonderful job. This is my first dramatized audio and I was very pleased.

Excellent treatment of a good story

Full cast is great in this version of Tress. Graphic Audio doesn’t always mix and balance audio well; but the sound effects and background music are very well executed in this title.
They excised the story of the tosher and the potatoes in this abridged movie in your mind. Not sure if there are other missing pieces.
If Graphic Audio continues to put out this level of audio quality I will definitely listen more.
The story: definitely a gem for the cosmere fan, and also a decent standalone fairy tale. Features some decidedly silly and goofy bits, some simple characters, and some predictable plot. As with most fairy tales, there are some logical gaps.
That said, it’s a charming story and a fun adventure.

Delightful

This book is playful and fun! I was genuinely (and pleasantly) surprised by the dramatic change in tone from other Sanderson books.

It’s difficult to make me laugh out loud, and even more difficult to get a laugh out of my husband, but we both found ourselves chuckling- especially in response to specific characters.

Hopefully Mr. Sanderson writes more stories like this one. I will gobble them up as quickly as he can churn them out.

Amazing Cosmere Story

This story is a masterpiece in world building, foreshadowing, and payoff. Each element that gets introduced usually gets some kind of payoff later and it's wonderful. The story stands alone, but is even more fun if you have several Cosmere novels under your belt. Especially knowing WHO the narrator is, it makes it more fun and enjoyable to listen to his often wise or humorous off-comments.

The production and voice team did an amazing job of performing and mixing together the audio and sound together. It was so cool to hear a door open, or a ship bump a dock, rather than the narrator say "the door opened" or the "ship bumped the dock". I enjoyed every minute of listening to this book and production. Well done!

Great story, great performance!

I love a really good stand-alone book, and that’s what this is! The characters are all interesting/dynamic, and I really enjoy the narration style. The end felt a tad rushed given how well paced everything else was. This will definitely be a story I listen to again in the future!

Empowering, Feel-good Adventure!

It was a funny and meaningful adventure with lots of characters with character. I enjoyed it immensely and appreciated how different it was from other of Sanderson’s works. The only criticism I’d give is with the actual voice actors chosen for all the female characters. In my opinion, there was not enough voice differentiation (accents, tone, etc.) and would have enjoyed more diversity in vocal range or type