Synopsis
Return to the cozy fantasy world of the #1 New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favorite, foul-mouthed bookseller Fern. This program is read by the author.
Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!
If only things were so simple…
It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.
A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.
As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when nothing seems inevitable.
“Even nonfantasy listeners will enjoy hanging out at the intersection of coffeehouse culture and Dungeons & Dragons, and hope that Baldree fails to shake his new writing habit.” —The Seattle Times on Legends & Lattes
Review
Travis Baldree took the fantasy world by storm by creating his coffee shop fantasy novel LEGENDS AND LATTES. It was probably my favorite novel of the year and it was a beautiful antidote to all the grimdark fantasy that was my usual diet. Its not that I don’t love grimdark (shout out to Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence, Rob J. Hayes, and Michael R. Fletcher) but just as I love writing post-apocalypse Cthulhu Mythos, I also love writing silly superhero comedies. Same with my reading.
So, my review of BRIGANDS AND BREADKNIVES will come with some caveats. I absolutely loved the writing for this third volume in the series and the characters are incredibly enjoyable. There’s going to be praise for several specific ideas and quite a lot of the humor that manages to enrich the drama. This is a good book and I give it 4 out of 5 stars if I’m required to give it an arbitrary rating. But there is going to be an asterisk (no, not the elf–you’ll understand later) that needs to be addressed: this is not cozy fantasy.
A bit like how KINGS OF THE WYLD shifted from a Blues Brothers/This is Spinal Tap-esque parody of the music industry to a straight fantasy epic in BLOODY ROSE, Brigands and Breadknives is a solid humorous high fantasy novel. It’s also got multiple battles, one of the protagonists severely injured for months, and the underlying theme of depression as well as being unsatisfied with your life’s work.
The previous novel, BOOKSHOPS AND BONEDUST, received some complaints about having to deal with an evil necromancer in addition to saving a failing bookshop. However, this goes quite a bit further into an epic adventure. If the Hobbit isn’t cozy fantasy, and it most certainly is not, this is definitely around the same area of adventure versus humor. Plus, I was really hoping for a lot more Viv and this is all Fern’s show except for a cameo in the beginning and end.
The premise, after that exceptional preamble, is that Fern the bookselling ratkin, opens up a shop next to Legends and Lattes. This turns out to be a great idea financially and it is successful after a week. This, unfortunately, horrifies Fern because she turns out to be sick of being a bookseller. Getting blackout drunk, she passes out in a cart and wakes up in the back of Astryx (see the above joke) the Oathmaiden’s cart. A legendary elven swordswoman, she is delivering a goblin bounty across the countryside. The logistics of the journey don’t make much sense but it doesn’t have to with protection rackets, not so evil Cthulhu cults, and a talking breadknife that used to be a great sword.
My favorite part of the story is probably the cult of Tarim, which is perhaps the most coherent argument for worshiping an evil god of tentacles you’re ever going to receive in fantasy. More mixed is my opinion on Tullah the Orc barbarian who is an incredibly effective villain, hunting Astyrx relentlessly for destroying her brigand band and triggering decades of leveling up for revenge. Why mixed? Well, because they’re such an incredibly effective villain. I also really wish Fern had made a different decision at the end of the novel. If you know, you’ll know.
A great flagon of ale tale but sadly not a latte.
