Brigands & Breadknives

So, here we are again. Travis Baldree books are cosiness personified. What lovely, kind people has he been writing about this time?

The main character is Fern, the bookstore-owning ratkin who was the star of Bookshops & Bonedust. But the book is set after the events of Legends & Lattes. A shop has become vacant next to Viv’s coffee shop, and she has persuaded her old friend Fern to up sticks and move cities to take it. Fern, who is suffering something of a midlife crisis, has agreed, but the move does not solve her feelings of restlessness.

Thus it is that Fern ends up falling into a drunken sleep in a wagon belonging to a legendary elven adventurer called Astryx One-Ear, Blademistress and Oathmaiden. And when she wakes up she’s off on an adventure with no turning back for many days.

Astryx is hundreds of years old and very world-weary. The examination of the feelings of very ancient elves is one of the more interesting aspects of the book. Astryx also has a magic sword. It is not called Stormbringer, or Excalibur. It is called Nigel, and it is a bit of a diva.

As is a requirement for Baldree’s books, pretty much everyone we meet is excessively nice. This extends even to the monastery run by the followers of the god Tarim, a one-eyed, tentacled monstrosity who wants to destroy the universe. His clergy, rather than being mad cultists as they would be in a Lovecraft story, have dedicated their lives to persuading His Terribleness to delay the destruction of the world for just a few more days, pretty please.

I never really got to grips with Fern’s motivation and fairly constant self-pity, and I suspect that the book might have bored me to tears had it not been for the other principle character, Zyll the goblin. Zyll is Astryx’s prisoner. There is a massive bounty on her head, and these days Astryx makes her living as a bounty-hunter. Quite what awful things Zyll has done to warrant this bounty are not clear, but we can she that she is very capable, and owns a multi-coloured coat full of pockets each of which appears to be a bag of holding containing all sorts of useful things.

It soon becomes clear that Zyll is way smarter than Astryx and Fern, and indeed could escape any time she wants. Clearly she does not want to do so, yet. This is setting us up for a twist ending which I think Baldree pulled off brilliantly. In the meantime Zyll manages to provide some fine comedy moments.

Clearly these books are very popular, and if what you want to read is something warm and fluffy with only mild peril they are probably the best thing going. Personally I prefer books that give me a little more to think about.

Title: Brigands & Breadknives
By: Travis Baldree
Publisher: Tor
Purchase links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Bookshop.org UK
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