Tress of the Emerald Sea

by Brandon Sanderson

Well, this isn’t the part of the story where you ask questions. So kindly keep them to yourself.

they supposedly had golden hair. Like yours, the color of sunlight.” “My hair is not the color of sunlight, Charlie.” “Your hair is the color of sunlight, if sunlight were light brown,” Charlie said. It might be said he had a way with words. In that his words often got away.

Lem was not a poor man. Now, you might say to me, “Hoid, this entire story has shown me the opposite. Lem’s family is always scrimping to survive.” And I would reply, “Please stop interrupting.”

Yes, that’s me. No, I don’t want to talk about it.

That man is a few eggs short of a dozen—and he doesn’t realize the other ten he collected are actually rocks.”

“Doug” is the naming equivalent to convergent evolution. And once it arrives, it stays. A linguistic Great Filter; a wakeup call. Once a society reaches peak Doug, it’s time for it to go sit in the corner and think about what it has done.

Also, no, he’s not the corpse. Well, he’s a corpse. But he’s not the corpse on the ship. There’s another. Try to keep up.

Salay, however, was a little like Captain Crow—in that she was the opposite of the captain in the way that only someone very similar could be.

Even small actions have consequences. And while we can often choose our actions, we rarely get to choose our consequences.

This one wasn’t funny I just liked it

All right, I was wearing black slacks with bright white athletic socks. There. You know my shame.

The more meteorologically inclined among you might be wondering about the planet’s weather patterns and water cycle. If you’re one of those to whom these things are extremely important, you have my sympathies. It’s never too late to develop a personality. Maybe go to a party. But try to avoid topics like weather patterns and water cycles.