DM News:Book Review: Brigands & Breadknives

[James Thomson]

I’m not sure if “cozy midlife crisis burnout fantasy” is a genre, but across the excellent Legends & Lattes series, Travis Baldree has certainly had enough characters experience it. Fern, the sweary rattkin bookseller from the previous tale, “Bookshops & Bonedust”, has moved across the lands and opened up a shop right next door to the titular Legends & Lattes cafe. She has the help and support of her old friend Viv and the local community. On parchment, it all sounds perfect, but she feels increasingly unfulfilled with the weight of this new life pressing down on her.

 

One drunken night of very much not dealing with things leads to her “accidentally” waking up in the back of the cart of a thousand-year-old elf warrior, Astryx, far away from her friends and rapidly heading in the opposite direction from them, and conveniently, also from her problems. Astryx is a by-the-book bounty hunter, also in her later years, who is escorting a goblin prisoner Zyll to face justice. Some of you may remember Zyll from the short story “Goblins & Greatcoats”, and know she is truly a force of chaos. Both Fern and Astryx have to come to terms with what they actually want to do with their lives on the journey, with Zyll being an effective catalyst.

 

Despite being set in the same world as the book that arguably popularised the whole cosy fantasy genre, this is measurably less cozy than the other two in the series, with a lot more action along the way. The first two books were essentially about running a rather familiar small business in a sword and sorcery world, and this is more of your typical epic road trip adventure. It’s also notably not really a romance either, and not queer, even though we get to see some of Viv and Tandri at the start of the book. However, keeping both of those things in mind, it is still very enjoyable, with echoes of the wonderful work of Terry Pratchett.

 

Highly recommended, even if you’re not currently having a midlife crisis.

 

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