scijessreads

My review in a nutshell: Echoes of Stardust and The Princess Bride. Where our girl Tress does extraordinary things by being her “ordinary” self. Fantasy with a hint of the cosmic, and a world uniquely its own.

My review, a little more long-winded: What happens when the girl goes on the adventure to save her love? What happens when, at every turn, the decent goodness and desire to keep going ends up gaining you friends and followers, and a renewed sense of purpose? What happens if you dare to step off the known path and out into a world that is filled with danger (very real danger), and magic, and even more unanswerable questions?

What we get is a fairy tale that is reminiscent of The Princess Bride and Stardust. One that takes every single trope of the genre and gives it a little shake, breaking loose something both familiar and new and utterly enchanting?

The writing is lyrical, taking you by the hand and inviting you along to wonder at the seas just as Tress does. It gives you bits of humor and commentary in equal measure. It makes you giddy with nostalgia.

Some of my favorite quotes:

• “People who collect stamps are weird, Tress. That man is a few eggs short of a dozen—and he doesn’t realize the other ten he collected are actually rocks.”
• “Er, yes. Are you angry at me?” “Anger is in line right now,” Tress said. “It’s seventh down, sandwiched between confusion and fatigue.”
• It might be said that Tress had a way with words. In that her words tended to get in her way.
• One of the great tragedies of life is knowing how many people in the world are made to soar, paint, sing, or steer—except they never get the chance to find out.
• Even small actions have consequences. And while we can often choose our actions, we rarely get to choose our consequences.
• Because “life,” as a concept, is a human construct. We define it. Nature doesn’t care; it sees everything as a chemical process. It couldn’t care in the slightest that a bunch of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen one day decided it would really prefer to sit on a sofa rather than a bench.
• If you want to create heroes, don’t give them something to fight for. Give them someone to fight for.
• It doesn’t matter how powerful a person is, if they believe they are slightly more powerful than they truly are, there’s room between those margins for big errors.