Fiction Reviews
Legends & Lattes
(2022) Travis Baldree, Tor, £9.99, pbk, 325pp ISBN 978-1-0350-0732-5
Before getting on with the story, a little about the publication of this book. It was first self-published on Amazon’s KDP site in 2022 and the author thanks those booksellers who ordered his print-on-demand book and put it on their shelves. It received its first mainstream publication from Tom Doherty Associates (since renamed as Tor Books), also in 2022. My copy is the 2023 paperback imprint from Tor UK and this contains an additional short story. The author has since produced a prequel, Bookshops & Bonedust, which I greatly enjoyed.
Our heroine is Viv, an Orc mercenary. She is very good at her job and has many scars to prove it but, well, her back aches more these days and perhaps the excitement has faded somewhat, and so she decides it is time to retire to a quieter life rather than follow the usual Orc retirement plan of dying in battle. In the Prologue, Viv reaches the end of her final mission; she fatally plunges Blackblood, her mighty greatsword, into the skull of a monstrous Scalvert Queen and removes the stone that has grown within it. Leaving the rest of her group to share the untold wealth stored within the walls of the creature’s cavern, Viv takes only the stone and retires from a life of adventure.
And so Viv arrives in the city of Thune. Her intention is to open a coffee shop, which will be an interesting challenge as nobody in the city has ever heard of coffee. With the aid of a witching rod purchased from a thaumist scholar, she sets about finding a suitable location and eventually it leads her to a decrepit, long-unused livery stable. Having bought the place at a knock-down price, she secretly buries the Scalvert’s Stone under a cobble as this should guarantee her success. First she has to clear out the mess and clean the place up, which is no mean task. Then she will have to make considerable repairs followed by the necessary adaptations and improvements to turn it into her place of business. Needing the services of a skilled carpenter, she heads down to the docks in search of a good shipbuilder or the like and after some time comes across Cal (short for Calamity), a hob (a little smaller than a human) who is quietly spoken and of few words. None the less, he agrees to work for her - and proves to be very good indeed. Although reserved, Cal is very practical and before long provides all sorts of really useful suggestions about how the coffee shop should be built and equipped if it is to run efficiently and well.
She will also need an assistant and is soon joined by Tandri, a succubus, who is keen to know more of this coffee which is being advertised. Tandri will soon become a very good friend, and ultimately more. And when a customer suggests that it would be nice to have something to nibble whilst enjoying their coffee, Viv adds a baker to her crew, a quiet rattkin called Thimble. To their surprise, Amity, ten stone of local dire-cat and easily the size of a wolf, decides to drop in from time to time and just sprawl comfortably wherever she wants to. Add to the growing list of regular customers a thaumic student and a folk singer, and business soon booms - not bad for a city that has never heard of coffee!
But things do not all go to plan of course - there will be problems and setbacks, ‘battles’ to be fought, and disappointments. The Madrigal, for instance, expects a monthly ‘contribution’ for ensuring that nothing untoward happens but Viv is not inclined to make such payments - she has spent far too long fighting such injustices.
The story was a delight. Nothing especially exciting happens, all the big, bloody battles were back in Viv’s past, but yet I found it engaging throughout and the pages turned readily as I gently made my way through her trials and tribulations. Apparently, this sort of story is called ‘cosy fantasy’, and that is a very good name for it.
The story runs to 265 pages but there is also a short story, neatly titled ‘Pages To Fill’, in which we learn of Viv’s first thoughts about retirement and how she discovers coffee. In addition there are three pages of Acknowledgements, a four-page interview with the author, and an extract from the prequel. Oh, and there is a recipe for Thimblets, one of Thimble’s creations to enjoy with your latte; it looks suspiciously like a variant on biscotti - and I do so love a biscotti with my coffee.
Legends & Lattes won the Astounding Award for Best New Writer in 2022 and was short-listed for both the 2023 Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel; it won neither but I can understand why it got so close. This novel and its prequel can be read in either order as neither depends upon the other. I found both delightful and nicely enjoyable and I hope that somehow the author will manage another cosy fantasy with these very pleasant characters.
Peter Tyers
See also Mark's review of Legends and Lattes.
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