Fiction Reviews
Brigands & Breadknives
(2025) Travis Baldree, Tor, £18.99, hrdbk, 325pp, ISBN 978-1-035-03594-6
Oh goody, a third novel in this delightful series of cosy fantasies.
In Legends & Lattes we met Viv, an orc, now at the end of her successful career as a mercenary. She had retired to the city of Thune, where she intended to open a coffee shop - an interesting challenge given that nobody in Thune has ever heard of coffee. It was not quite that easy and there were a few adventures as she got to grips with her new life. In the prequel Bookshops & Bonedust we again came across Viv, but this time at the beginning of her mercenary career. She had been seriously injured due to an unfortunate moment in a battle, causing her to spend several weeks recuperating in the city of Murk. Amongst others she met there, she formed a friendship with Fern, the rattkin who owned the local bookshop. There were, of course, adventures whilst she was there, despite the medical instructions to take it very, very easy.
I felt that the world in which Viv lived could hold more stories and hoped that the author would write them. It seemed to me, though, that Viv’s tale was told; the time between the two stories probably consisted of little more than battles, battles, more battles, and even more battles, with probably a lot of hearty drinking in between. A new story would require a new character, but hopefully one that fitted nicely with the world already established. It seems the author thought so too.
Brigands & Breadknives opens with Fern on her way to Thune. It is a tense moment as her coach is under attack by pescadines but fortunately the elf Astryx One-Ear, Blademistress and Oathmaiden, is passing and repels the creatures (permanently). We soon learn that Fern had decided that she needed a change, had sold the old bookshop in Murk, crated up her stock, and is on her way to a (now safe) arrival in Thune.
Viv has found her a new ‘shop’ - the building next door to her coffee shop. OK, it requires a lot work, but Cal the carpenter (a deep and thoughtful hob) is on hand to help with such matters. She also gets help from Viv’s wife, a succubus called Tandri, and a goodly supply of baked goods from Thimble, another rattkin. Soon the bookshop comes together and there is a successful opening. A bookshop right next to a coffee shop - who would have expected the combination to work so well?
But all is not well. Fern had hoped that a new beginning would invigorate her but she soon has to admit to herself that her growing despondency will take much more than that. After a meaningful chat with Cal, involving not a little whiskey and the admission that running a bookshop just is not the meaningful life that it used to be, she decides to confide the truth in Viv but instead accidentally stows away in a cart, though passing out in it would be a more accurate description. When she finally awakes, with a terrible hangover, she finds that she is a day and half away from Thune and she has no money to pay for passage back (she was only popping next door!).
She finds, somewhat to her horror, that the cart belongs to none other than Astryx and the elf’s task is to take the goblin Zyll to the distant town of Amberlin and claim the sizeable bounty. Fern has a choice: she can walk back to Thune (nope), stop off somewhere and hope to earn enough money to pay her way back (not much chance of that, either), or stay with Astryx for the ride and see what happens when they finally make it to their destination. She is greatly torn; returning is almost impossible but she is racked with guilt that Viv and co. will have no idea where she is or why she had gone, or even if she is still alive. She writes a desperate letter of apology to Viv, one of many as the weeks go on, but somehow they rarely get sent because she rarely knows what to say without sounding pathetic and awful.
And so she stays on the cart, travelling with Astryx and the prisoner Zyll. The goblin is strange; she keeps disappearing as if she has escaped, but then she returns, as if she had merely taken a bit of a wander. For one that has such a bounty on her head, Zyll seems remarkably quiet and well behaved. Mind you, it transpires that she causes chaos wherever she goes, and they soon find out that she collects cutlery, especially spoons, that mysteriously disappear from wherever they are and reappear in the many pockets of her pocket-strewn coat. Like all great warriors, Astryx has a special sword, Nigel, an Elder Blade, inhabited by an old spirit (an opinionated one at that). Later we find that one of the many cutlery items in Zyll’s pockets is an apparent bread knife, Bradlee (or Breadlee as Zyll insists on calling him), an Elder Blade who was once a greatsword but is now ‘reduced’, to use a polite expression.
And so this odd group continues their journey, having various adventures and meeting many people, not all of whom are friendly. The orc Tullah is particularly keen that Zyll should die nastily at her hands, and will go to considerable lengths to achieve her aim. Although this is cosy fantasy, it is not as cosy as the two previous volumes; there is more adventure, more fighting, and the story is further reaching. But all this might just be what Fern needs.
As with the previous stories, I found it very enjoyable. Whether the author can conjure up a fourth story in this world is another matter, but I hope so.
Incidentally, the main story is followed by the opening few pages of each of the previous novels, should you wish for tasters.
Peter Tyers
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