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Coffeeshop Canon
Jul. 27th, 2023 08:43 pm
One of the only good things about this week was finishing Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree - a book I originally put on hold back in the spring, but which came in at a very opportune time (I needed a palette cleanser between my Gideon the Ninth re-read and... everything that follows)
I remember asking some folks for speculative f/f recs and someone mentioned this one. I put a hold on it immediately just based on the cover, because... come on.
This book was truly like a nice cup of coffee. Not one that you chug in the morning before work because you only got 4 hours of sleep, but one that you sit and enjoy while reading a book, a quick break where you can be still and collect yourself. It will make you want baked goods, for sure.
It's interesting that it's billed as "high fantasy and low stakes" -- on the one hand, for me as a reader that was a helpful thing to keep in mind during some of the more tense moments (there IS an actual plot, and antagonists, even though ample pages are devoted to stuff like... the invention of biscotti). With the world how it is, it's good to have some assurance that yes, the story will turn out fine, nobody is going to die, you can relax. But on the other hand, if you're Viv, trying to start over and throw yourself mostly blind into this crazy idea that you had without much experience -- I don't know if you'd consider that to be "low stakes". For her, the stakes are probably as high as the fantasy!
Even if the stakes are (supposedly) low, the emotions aren't. It's a surprisingly poignant look at trying to start over, at anxiety and doubting whether you deserve the things that happened to you. There's a bit about 3/4 of the way through that sort of gave me a shock because I realized that it was talking about imposter syndrome. and I did not expect to see that in a book where an orc is the main protagonist.
(As an aside: I don't read enough fantasy these days to know, but are there other books with orc protagonists??? Please tell me.)
Also, I didn't realize this until I read his author bio but Travis Baldree is apparently also a video game developer? Who worked on the Torchlight series???!!! Which I REALLY LIKED??? (Torchlight 2 was really really really good, everyone should play it if they haven't)
I remember asking some folks for speculative f/f recs and someone mentioned this one. I put a hold on it immediately just based on the cover, because... come on.
This book was truly like a nice cup of coffee. Not one that you chug in the morning before work because you only got 4 hours of sleep, but one that you sit and enjoy while reading a book, a quick break where you can be still and collect yourself. It will make you want baked goods, for sure.
It's interesting that it's billed as "high fantasy and low stakes" -- on the one hand, for me as a reader that was a helpful thing to keep in mind during some of the more tense moments (there IS an actual plot, and antagonists, even though ample pages are devoted to stuff like... the invention of biscotti). With the world how it is, it's good to have some assurance that yes, the story will turn out fine, nobody is going to die, you can relax. But on the other hand, if you're Viv, trying to start over and throw yourself mostly blind into this crazy idea that you had without much experience -- I don't know if you'd consider that to be "low stakes". For her, the stakes are probably as high as the fantasy!
Even if the stakes are (supposedly) low, the emotions aren't. It's a surprisingly poignant look at trying to start over, at anxiety and doubting whether you deserve the things that happened to you. There's a bit about 3/4 of the way through that sort of gave me a shock because I realized that it was talking about imposter syndrome. and I did not expect to see that in a book where an orc is the main protagonist.
(As an aside: I don't read enough fantasy these days to know, but are there other books with orc protagonists??? Please tell me.)
Also, I didn't realize this until I read his author bio but Travis Baldree is apparently also a video game developer? Who worked on the Torchlight series???!!! Which I REALLY LIKED??? (Torchlight 2 was really really really good, everyone should play it if they haven't)