Format: 352 pages, Paperback Published: November 7, 2023 by Tor Trade ISBN: 9781250886101Â (ISBN10: 1250886104) Language: English
When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn’t always what we seek.
In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, New York Times bestselling author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.
Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned.
Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it.
What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine.
Still, adventure isn’t all that far away. A suspicious traveller in grey, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.
My Review
Viv the coffee selling orc returns, but twenty years younger, and with less enemies. Injured in a raid, she’s left in Murk, a seaside town, while her crew, Rackham’s Raven’s continue hunting for Varine the Pale, a necromancer and her hoard of wights. Bored, Viv takes a chance visit to bookshop and discovers a love of reading. In time, she makes friends, falls in love with a dwarf and deals with an undead problem. She meets a famous romance author and a bony homunculus called Satchel in the process. She also meets Galina, the gnome we first meet in Legends & Lattes, in Murk, as a young, untired mercenary.
I have several copies of this book, a hardback special edition from The Broken Binding, a standard Tor hardback, and this Tor US paperback. I have the UK paperback on order for next year. I am a completist with my books, especially when I like them. That’s why I have multiple copies of the Burningblade & Silvereye series (UK and US editions), and many, many editions of The Lord of the Rings.
I really enjoy Travis Baldree’s cosy fantasy novels. That’s why I spend the money to get The Broken Binding special editions, as well as the standard hardback and paperback. Isn’t it glorious? I love the artwork!
There’s the cosy bakery, a dank bookshop that needs modernising, and a gnome with a chip on her shoulder as big as she is. It’s all so delightful. I loved the use of a bookshop – Viv dives in to helping her new friend in return for being given the joy of books. The spread the joy by sharing books with other people and bringing in innovations in bookselling (at least they’re innovative in Murk). Between that, falling in love with a baker, and saving Murk from the undead hoards, Viv has a lot going on, as she impatiently waits for the return of Rackham’s Ravens. Her stay in Murk is a temporary one, she hopes, and dreads both staying and leaving by the end.
This story is about books. It’s a book about stories, too. Mostly. It’s about what books can do for you, about how books, and stories, can explain the world and help us through difficult times and turbulent emotions, by acting as mirrors. It’s about finding the story after the end of the story. In LOTR, Sam talks about how they’re characters in a story, that one day, their great adventure will be another part in a greater story. Viv, Fran, and, Maylee say it differently, but it’s the same concept: we’re all stories, our story streams become part of the greater river of stories that all join each other in the sea of history.
Oh, great, I’m getting metaphorical and poetic!
I was deeply affected by this book, which might sound daft, considering characters include a gryphon-dog hybrid, a cake baking dwarf, a snake-person who runs the town police force, a rat-person who runs a bookshop, a homunculus that need dusting with bone dust to form, and a poetic orc. Then there’s the romance writing elf, who is wildly popular with everyone but a bit of a recluse, until Viv and Fran visit with cakes from Maylee’s bakery. I loved the characters, they’re so squishy. I could cuddle them all day. That’s what I enjoy about cosy fantasy, everything turns out fine in the end, even if the ending is a bittersweet one. The main character leaves wherever they are better than they found it and people’s lives better for their presence. It’s soft and cosy and just the thing for a winter’s evening.
Once again, Travis Baldree has written a cracking good book. The epilogue promises more to come, and I’d definitely read more about Viv’s adventures in between the events of L&L and B&B.
Paperback, 305 pages Published February 22nd 2022 ISBN13: 9798985663211
Blurb
High Fantasy with a double-shot of self-reinvention
Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen.
However, her dreams of a fresh start pulling shots instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners and a different kind of resolve.
A hot cup of fantasy slice-of-life with a dollop of romantic froth.
My Review
This book arrived on Monday and to be honest it didn’t make it to the TBR pile. I took it upstairs to add to the pile and instead spent two hours reading. I finished it today. Didn’t have the energy yesterday after work, but I’m okay today. Not going to the Wellbeing Hub at the leisure centre on Monday might have something to do with that. I’m disappointed in myself and my body that a fairly gentle exercise routine two days a week and working one afternoon a week results is enough to knock me off my feet for two to three days. It’s ridiculous.
But ignore all that, you’re not here for updates on my dodgy health and energy levels, you’re here for the book review.
Viv is an orc adventurer, sick of all the travelling and killing. After one final mission she settles down in the town of Thune and opens a coffee shop, an utterly unheard-of venture. Making friends with a giant cat, a succubus in a sweater, a rattkin baker, a hob carpenter, Arcanist (wizard but with scientist overtones) who refuses to drink hot drinks and a musician who invents soft rock, Viv finds a home. She also has to cope with the local crime family demanding protection money and an old companion who thinks her good fortune is unfair. Their friendship sees them through trials and tribulations, and Viv finally finds love.
I enjoyed this novel. The plot is not new. Lots of cosy romances have a similar plot, but none I’ve ever heard of involve fantasy creations. I don’t read romance much, but if you add it to a fantasy setting and don’t make the romance overwhelming, I’m fine with it. I found the characters fun and realistic. The worldbuilding is really good. It’s not heavy handed, but there’s enough detail added as colour, like mentions of far off places and organisations that it comes across as a complex complete world. It was easy to read and I rooted for Viv and her friends.
I had a read of the acknowledgements. It looks like Baldree wrote this book for NaNoWriMo 2021, and somehow managed to publish it by February 2022. The press, Cryptid Press, looks like it’s the author’s own press, so I assume it’s self-published. I also looked briefly at the author’s website https://travisbaldree.com/ which seems to confirm it. It’s well edited. The benefits of having a proper editor and plenty of beta readers. Having tried something similar, without those benefits, I can only doff my overly large hat to Baldree. Nice work.
If you want to try a fantasy that is light and fun, with high fantasy elements, I recommend this novel.