2022/53: Legends and Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes -- Travis Bardee

[tamaranth]

2022/53: Legends and Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes -- Travis Bardee

"...I’m also a retiree, now.”
“I, uh….”
“You’ve found a very peaceful place here. A special place. You’ve planted something, and now it’s blossoming. Very nice. A good spot to rest. My thanks to you for letting an old-timer shade under the branches of what you’ve grown.” [p. 203]

Viv is an orc, dedicated to battle and violence: but at the beginning of Legends and Lattes she leaves her squad -- taking just one fabled artifact, and a cash float -- and sets out for the city of Thune, where she plans to open a coffee shop. Coffee is not big in Thune, but Viv tasted it for the first time recently, and she's hooked ...

This is another feelgood, upbeat novel. Viv accumulates a group of ... are they friends, or colleagues? Or could they be both? A Hob carpenter, a succubus who means to subvert expectations, a rattkin pastry chef, a bard who seems to have an electric guitar (except without actual electricity), the old lady across the street, and a marvellously bolshy dire cat (mis)named Amity. Most of the novel focusses on Viv finding a property, settling in, making a success of it and acquiring all these new friends (and an old foe) along the way. And though the arcane relic beneath the floorboards may not be having the effect Viv expected, she's beginning to appreciate the ways in which things are coming together. There is some peril, but Viv refuses to take down her battlesword to deal with it: she's learnt the hard way that violence isn't the solution to everything.

The author, I learnt, is a veteran audiobook narrator, who decided to try Nanowrimo in 2021, and published this, his first novel, in February 2022. Perhaps he too has an arcane artifact lying around somewhere? I am impressed.

Comments

[muninnhuginn]

I was sceptical about this one, but curious. Not really my thing, feelgood fantasy. But it's genuinely charming, isn't it? One of thos stories where seeing the shape of the story unfolding and seeing it confirmed is deeply satisfying.

[tamaranth]

Feelgood fantasy is becoming my thing in these dark times! This one was charming, and sweet, and made me feel a little lonely :) I loved the direcat, obviously, and the theme of strangers becoming friends.