Review: Brigands & Breadknives, by Travis Baldree

Description

Return to the cosy fantasy world of the #1 New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favourite, 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 surviving on inertia, 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 there isn’t a job to get in the way.

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My Review

I have multiple copies of this book and fully intend to get more. There are different editions and bindings! So far I have two different hardback editions and the audiobook. I was going to hold off reading until the paperbacks came out, but then I remembered I’d started the audiobook, so, after finishing Tales From The Territory, I started listening to the audiobook again. I needed to know what Zyll was up to. Zyll is the chaos goblin in the first short story, and she’s a main character in this book, along with Fern the bookseller from Bookshops & Bonedust, and Astryx, the elf-maiden, a famous hero of adventures in the Territory.

Fern moved to Thune as part of her midlife crisis, only to realise that she doesn’t actually want to sell books anymore. She gets rat-arsed and falls asleep in a wagon. Waking up with a nasty hangover, she realises she’s accidentally stowed away with Astryx and Zyll. Zyll is technically a prisoner, but she’s not very good at being one. She keeps escaping, then turning back up whenever she wants.

Astryx agrees to carry Fern to the nearest town so she can get a lift back to Thune. Along the way, they deal with carnivorous chickens and other bounty hunters desperate for the massive bounty on Zyll, and develop a friendship. Fern remains with the pair after sending a short and unhelpful letter to Viv, and they travel onwards. After multiple attacks, betrayals, monsters, Fern meeting an attractive rattkin who wants her to join him, Asteryx almost dying several times, meeting penitent monks, and then a showdown with an orc and her gang, the three (plus Nigel the sword and Breadly the breadknife) arrive at their destination. Zyll is surprisingly helpful at the bounty office, and that’s all I’m going to say.

I enjoyed this novel immensely, and getting to hear Travis Baldree narrate it was fun. He’s got a funny accent but he does do the voices well. Especially Nigel’s posh sword voice. Unlike some audiobooks I’ve listened to recently, he doesn’t make the female voices sound unnaturally squeaky. They are distinct for each character.

The emotional and character development in Fern and Asteryx is very satisfying to read, and to watch develop over the course of their journey. While they both return to where they started – Fern in Thune with Viv, Asteryx on the road – they are internally changed, and they don’t stay where they were.

Spoilers: Fern goes on to meet up again with her rattkin friend, write books and secretly sign them, and Asteryx starts to hang around after her missions, getting to know people.

The descriptions of the Territory they move through is quite poetic at times, Baldree is good at describing enchanting landscapes and moving scenes. He’s equally good at the emotional elements, describing Fern’s complicated feelings and difficulties. I cried, lots, when Asteryx asked Fern to ride with her, and when Fern apologised to Viv. I am emotional, sorry, I love a happy ending, especially when it’s friends finding each other.

Overall, I’m happy I got my three different editions, and this will join Legends & Lattes and Maps, Magic, & Mischief on my cosy fantasy comfort rotation.