2.5

This was a miss for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ll admit that I was sceptical about this even before I started, because although Brandon Sanderson has written some of my favorite books, I know that he’s not a guaranteed win (at least for me).

The way I see it, it seems like he doesn’t write as well for books that are not part of a series that he’s committed to continuing. In Tress, I found that he put a lot less effort into the atmosphere and characters, making most of the book feel superficial. I usually found it difficult to imagine myself in the current setting because of the meagre descriptions and dialogue-based progression. The characters mostly felt like cardboard characters, and although it makes sense since this is a short, fairy-tale like book, I couldn’t properly connect to or care about any of them except for Tress. If I’m being really harsh, the book all in all felt like a random jumble of ideas and Cosmere references with an underdeveloped plot and only the spore ocean-world to ground it as something unique.

One thing I got tired of was the quasi-philosophical intermissons showing up in basically every chapter. While most of them were just cliché and uninspiring, some downright didn’t make sense (like the one about humans not being able to make matter or life, only light…?). I guess it comes down to me not enjoying the narration by Hoid (who I know from another Brandon Sanderson book), and I know it is my personal preference to hate the combination of a goofy/witty/unserious style and the presentation of moral lessons. I’m unable to take any of the «deeper content» seriously when I’ve just been exposed to jokes falling completely flat and my expression is set to