REVIEW: Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes) by Travis Baldree
Return to the fantasy world of the #1 New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favorite, foul-mouthed bookseller Fern
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.
Dear Mr. Baldree,
So, no I haven’t had a chance to go back to the original book in this series but after enjoying “Bookshops and Bonedust,” I was delighted to find that this book would feature “foul-mouthed” Fern, the little rattkin bookseller.
A new life awaited her there. A new start. A new bookshop. The embers of an old friendship to fan. Perhaps even something she might one day call family.
Also, she was clearly fucking insane.
Fern has been living someone else’s dream for decades and not letting herself think about whether or not it’s her dream as well. When a change of scenery and new friends don’t boost her spirit, after a night of drinking and while trying to confess her feelings to her orc friend Viv, Fern finds herself having an adventure which gives her a chance to discover what she really wants from life.
The hollowed-out feeling of dissatisfaction that had steadily eroded her center for the past few years was still there. In fact, it seemed to have grown.
Fern is having a midlife crisis road trip of self-discovery. And there are some interesting travelers and events waiting for her. First she has to recover from a whiskey hangover and grab at any reason why a thousand year old Blademistress and Oathmaiden would allow Fern to keep going on Astryx’s journey. Well, Fern doesn’t actually lie about knowing how to speak Goblin but she does imply that she knows more than the goblin oaths that she does.
Fern fidgeted with the calcified bread, and then blurted, “It’s just . . . I’ve read books about you. The Flight of the Silver Hawk? You’re a living legend! And this . . . kind of makes you sound like a postwoman? Is this really what you mostly do?”
Astryx sighed, and for the first time her placid expression became something Fern recognized. Something a little weary. A little hollow. “Everyone always wants it to be exciting. For it to be worthy of a song. To buy you a beer and hear about a thrilling escape or a fierce battle or a vanquished demon. To write a book about it.”
“But those are all things that happened, right?” asked Fern, hopeful.
“After ten centuries of doing this, do you want to know what’s really exciting?” asked Astryx, ignoring the question. Her gaze was direct, and almost hungry.
Fern nodded.
“Dry socks.”
Astryx is hauling Zyll, the goblin with a penchant for others’ cutlery, in for an eye watering amount of bounty. It’s not that Astryx is doing this for personal reasons, it’s just business. After a thousand years of this and having countless stories written about her – as well as three books, all of which Fern has read – Astryx is just doing the job that gives her something to do. Astryx is also a bit lost but for different reasons than Fern.
“I only do it,” she continued, “because I’m stupid enough to think it’s important.”
Astryx returned a considering look. “So, it’s important. Then why did you run from it?”
Fern blinked. “I . . . no, I mean I . . . loved . . . it.”
“I can tell from the impassioned defense.” There wasn’t a hint of mockery in the elf’s reply, though it was clear she hadn’t missed Fern’s use of past tense.
Fern’s often done what she thinks others want her to do or think best for her. Now she’s got to find out what she actually wants to do with the rest of her life. Asteryx has been turned into a legend in her own time but what if this is all rote now? What if she’s lost the driving reason for doing what she does?
“We goes when is time to be somewhere else,” said Zyll.
Buckle up readers because this is a fun, but also fraught at times, road trip with a horse named Bucket, a dissatisfied bookseller, a doer of good deeds, and an absolutely fabulous character who is far more than she at first appears to be. There are also lots of other characters – the rattkin penitents at the monastery, especially the abbess, are particular favorites of mine – who round out the journey.
“What the fuck am I doing?” she mumbled to herself, with an unhinged giggle.
Fern wants… well, she’s not quite sure but she does know that life as a bookseller isn’t it anymore. Fern feels terrible for disappearing in the night and not telling anyone so she writes endless letters to Viv, apologizing for what she did and trying to explain why and what’s going on though she only sends a short, four word letter saying “I’m alive. I’m sorry.” Fern’s hero worship of Asteryx fades a bit as the realities of the elf’s life and attitude after this many years of being a hero becomes obvious. Fern does ask some pointed questions at times. Meanwhile Asteryx is as befuddled as Fern is about Zyll – I love Zyll though I wouldn’t want her near my cutlery drawer.
But resolve had nothing to do with it. Her reasons had more to do with something Astryx had said to her in the monastery stable.
You belong, if you want to.
And maybe she did want to.
Hardly a feeling she planned to share with sentient silverware, though.
As Fern faces danger and the limitations of what a rattkin sized creature can do in the face of an angry orc – among others, she realizes what she can do. No, Fern doesn’t end up whirling a (smaller sized) Elder Blade at those after them but the diminished blade she has is used well even if that means Fern has to live with Breadlee’s snark. Yes, there are sentient blades in this book.
“Gods, am I glad to be out of that pocket,” gasped a new voice, wheezing like it had only just escaped suffocation. Then, sharp and annoyed, “Hang on, are we talking about Sandrum? Because, you’ll have to forgive me, that guy was a complete asshole.”
Nigel gabbled, apoplectic, and Fern realized with astonishment that the voice was coming from the knife.
“Another Elder Blade?” Her mouth dropped open.
As Asteryx does what she does, fighting all kinds of baddies, a little of what Fern asks her – why are you doing this and what do you get from it? – begins to emerge and be rediscovered.
Astryx laughed with less reservation than Fern could recall, and looked . . . comfortable, despite her wounds and abrasions. Not a storied legend, but the fascinating aunt who’d traveled from one end of the Territory to the other, and slyly implied that you might one day, too.
I will admit that I didn’t quite cotton onto what choice Fern would make. I did see one thing coming but yay for Fern knowing not to jump again at something new without taking her time to be sure this is really what she wants. This is my idea of a good cozy fantasy with enough stakes but maybe not the entire world riding on the line. Life is full of choices, some painful and taking a while to figure out but the book ends on a high. As an older reader, I was delighted with our middle-aged Fern questing for purpose and (in terms of age) elderly Asteryx fighting ennui as they, and maybe Zyll though who knows what’s going through that goblin’s head, find friendship and comradery on a journey in a book that basically reads itself – though I wish there’d been a bit more of the malicious poultry. B+
~Jayne
“She made me see what it was that I cared about. The thing I forgot when I was only going through the motions.”
BUT WAIT – I hear people saying. You didn’t say much about Zyll. Well, I think this FREE short story might show why I like her character so much.
“Goblins and Greatcoats” from Subterranean Press.
A goblin with too many pockets and a disturbing affinity for cutlery, a rain-soaked night, four adventurers, a pair of corpses, a junk-drawer knife, some unfortunate taxidermy, and a beleaguered Gatewarden…
These are the primary ingredients in a locked-room mystery that can only be solved by the Territory’s most unlikely detective.
Her name is Zyll.
Her eyes are keen, her teeth are sharp, and the chaos of her passing leaves no murder unsolved.
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Thanks for the review – I’m slightly more interested in reading this after your review. Do you think I have to read Bookshops and Bonedust first? I read Legends and Latte and enjoyed quite a bit, but didn’t feel the need to read the prequel.
@cleo: No, I don’t think you need to read “Bookshops” first. I read that one without reading “Legends” and did fine and I think you could jump in here not be lost. Baldree seems to do a good job making each book individually accessible.