“I’ve been lying to you,” Brandon Sanderson declared last year in a viral YouTube video, “and it’s time to admit the truth.” Loyal fans of the best-selling LDS author didn’t know at first what to expect from this sudden confession, but the tone of the video quickly turned gleeful, even comedic: Sanderson, a known workhorse of the fantasy scene, revealed that he wrote multiple novels in secret to cope with the pandemic lockdowns. Since he wrote them outside of his usual editorial contracts, he could independently publish these novels through his own company, Dragonsteel Books, and ship them to readers months before they hit conventional bookstores. The “Year of the Sanderson” Kickstarter, which allowed fans to order premium editions of these books and other themed goodies straight to their doorstep over the course of 2023, shattered online pledge fund records with a whopping 41 million dollars.

The first of these four novels, Tress of the Emerald Sea, released to backers in January. The story follows a girl living on a fantastical planet where the oceans are made not of water, but rather magical technicolor spores. When the love of her life goes missing abroad, young Tress sets out to find him, facing pirates, dragons, and dangerous magic along the way. While this novel can be read as a standalone work, longtime fans can enjoy many winking references to Sanderson’s wider Cosmere fantasy universe.

Brandon Sanderson’s family loved The Princess Bride, but they were frustrated by the passivity of its heroine. In response, Sanderson wrote Tress, flipping the gender dynamics on their head while still emulating the whimsical narration of the original novel. The result? Some of the best prose and laugh-out-loud gags of his career to date. — Peter Bushman (The commercial edition of Tress of Emerald Sea, published by Tor Books, releases in April.)