{"id":58491,"date":"2026-02-04T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/?p=58491"},"modified":"2026-02-04T09:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:02:17","slug":"brigands-breadknives-by-travis-baldree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/non-fiction\/brigands-breadknives-by-travis-baldree\/","title":{"rendered":"Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brigands<\/a>Which reader among us hasn\u2019t fantasised about owning a little bookshop of their own, with perhaps a built-in cafe to boot? Even the vision it conjures up in our mind\u2019s eye oozes all the cozy comfort we could wish to bottle for our forever personal use. But anyone who has actually worked in or owned their own place will tell you that, while cozy moments aren\u2019t exactly thin on the ground, the stress factor is far more than the daydream will allow us to believe.<\/p>\n

However, this reality, as valid as it is, is not usually something that is explored in a novel that claims to be cozy, at least not with any real stakes. And yet that\u2019s exactly the direction in which Travis Baldree takes Brigands & Breadknives<\/em>, technically the third book in the Legends & Lattes<\/strong> universe, but the second in terms of chronology, if Bookshops & Bonedust<\/em> (2023) is considered as \u201cground zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like relaxing work,\u201d famed ancient immortal Elven warrior Astryx says, making a seemingly casual observation to her semi-accidental drunken stowaway, Fern. \u201cEasy. Calming. Not the sort of thing to drive anyone to drink.\u201d In response, an indignant Fern\u2014the foul-mouthed, kind-hearted rattkin bookseller we met in Bookshops & Bonedust<\/em>\u2014sputters:<\/p>\n

\u201dI have spent my life<\/em> convincing people to buy blocks of paper with marks on them for more money than they want to part with. I fill a room with them and pray to the Eight that I filled it with the right ones, and that I can get them into the right hands, and I never get enough of that right<\/em>. It\u2019s like tossing fistfuls of fucking silver up a hill and hoping enough of it rolls back down that I have more silver to throw. I bet on odds that any self-respecting dice player would run screaming from, and half the time, I lie awake wondering whether I\u2019ll be able to keep at it for another week, or a month, or a year.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] \u201cI only do it, because I\u2019m stupid enough to think it\u2019s important<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s important. Then why did you run from it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI \u2026 no, I mean I \u2026 loved \u2026 it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This, in a nutshell, is the existential struggle at the core of this novel. It puts centre stage not Viv, the orc mercenary and star of Legends & Lattes <\/em>(2022), but Fern herself. When we meet her again, she is, along with her pet gryphet Potroast and their carriage driver, being rescued from a pescadine by Astryx One-Ear, the legendary Blademistress and Oathmaiden. The immortal elf makes easy work of the creature, retrieves the carriage\u2019s horses, and melts away before Fern can so much as thank her. The rattkin, we find out, is en route to a new life in the city of Thune, where her old friend Viv has been living a happy, domestic existence running her own coffee shop since hanging up her sword. The property next to Legends & Lattes awaits. (\u201cA new start. A new bookshop. The embers of an old friendship to fan. Perhaps even something she might one day call family.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Amidst the excitement and nerves this naturally engenders, a careful reader will sense immediate doubts, a certain unease, flowing underneath. Fern seems aware of this, to an extent\u2014she is desperate to find comforting, logical explanations (which she does), from nerves to hunger to the fatigue of a long journey and the butterflies of a new start; but whether they reassure her longer than a few breaths is another matter. Initially engrossed in getting the space in shape for the opening, and then in getting the various systems of a working store set up, it is much easier for her to keep kicking these increasingly gnawing worries into the next day.<\/p>\n

But then, when everything settles into an easy rhythm\u2014the bookshop is flourishing and she can tell that it belongs<\/em> in the building, the neighbourhood, the city\u2014she can no longer ignore the \u201chollowed-out feeling of dissatisfaction that had steadily eroded her center for the past few years.\u201d Nothing seems to matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t supposed<\/em> to feel this way,\u201d she confides in the steady hob carpenter Cal, whom the readers of this series already know and love. \u201cWho says?\u201d he challenges. He listens to her detail the emptiness she feels, the nagging feeling that somehow, somewhere, she took a wrong turn, without knowing what it was or when\u2014and, more importantly, having no clue about the solution\u2014and tells her to open up to Viv. After all, Viv\u2014who has been through a similar dilemma in her previous warrior life\u2014would understand better than anyone how it feels to not belong in an old life, and what it means to figure out what a new one could look like. But Fern had thought that a change of scene, an old friend, and new acquaintances would be akin to \u201ca fresh breeze in a stale room\u201d: \u201cI leaned on the kindness of others to get here, it didn\u2019t fix what I wanted fixed, and now I\u2019m ungrateful<\/em> to boot.\u201d How can she face her old friend while wrestling this grief and guilt, how can she admit she wants something more, something different, but has no idea what that could be?<\/p>\n

A drunk Fern, armed with her cloak and a battered leather satchel filled with her parchment, quills, and current reads that used to belong to an old friend (just in case), sets out, with a book as an apology, to cross the few yards between her bookshop and Viv\u2019s coffeeshop before deciding that a walk first might clear her head. Said walk leads her to a cart parked under a streetlamp, and to Astryx One-Ear tying up the tarpaulin before disappearing into another alley. Fern wonders whether bumping into a legend twice is coincidence, or \u201cmaybe a sign.\u201d At this point, she has her bearings and could easily trace her footsteps back to Viv\u2019s. But something has her moving to hide under the tarpaulin\u2014and then, even as she debates the mad decision and decides whether to get out, Astryx comes back, and Fern\u2019s stuck waiting. Until she falls asleep, and the rest of the decision is made for her.<\/p>\n

This passivity, it seems to me, is a deliberate move by Baldree: Fern, at this point, is scared to make any decision, even though she knows she must, for fear that it will be the \u201cwrong\u201d one\u2014and also for fear that she doesn\u2019t actually know what she wants. Her choice here becomes another almost-unconscious means of letting someone else make a decision for her, so that she won\u2019t be responsible. In this context, letting her guard down and falling asleep almost becomes a challenge to the universe.<\/p>\n

It turns out that Astryx is travelling with a bounty in tow (an enigmatic red-haired chaos goblin named Zyll) who has to be delivered to the city of Amberlin halfway across the Territory. Fern understands a handful of goblin swearwords, and manages to convince Astryx that she\u2019d be useful as a translator\u2014at least until they reach the next big city, where Fern can buy passage back to Thune. But a series of incidents later, and our intrepid bookseller is accompanying the duo (with their two sentient weapons, known as Elder Blades, and the best horse ever) to their final destination.<\/p>\n

Now, I understand the argument levelled at Legends & Lattes<\/em>: famously, about \u201chigh fantasy and low stakes,\u201d about its lack of forward narrative momentum (though it was a story I still thoroughly enjoyed, I might add). But I\u2019d also argue that its prequel, Bookshops & Bonedust<\/em>, actually both set the stage and paved the way for Brigands & Breadknives<\/em>. It existed between the cozy (what\u2019s more comforting than books and bookshops and the restorative and transformative magic of reading?), the adventurous (a dangerous necromancer with powers of osseoscription), and the existential (a lack of mobility through injury, suddenly thrust upon Viv in her fighting prime and necessitating compulsory rest). The new novel takes this even further by not only eschewing the comforting elements, but also raising the question of what happens when those once cherished elements\u2014that comfortable, cozy life\u2014start to feel stifling. What happens when you can recognise the worthiness of your old purpose and even believe in its importance, but it\u2019s not enough anymore? Where does that leave you, who<\/em> even are you without this thing you\u2019ve done for a quarter of a century?<\/p>\n

In the prequel, by helping Viv discover parts of herself she never knew existed, and want things she never knew she wanted, Fern rediscovered her life\u2019s purpose, why she did what she does, rekindled a dream inherited from her long-gone father. But what if that was not a permanent fix, just a small piece of something bigger?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like I can see what I loved\u2014still love?\u2014about it, but it\u2019s behind thick windowpane. I can\u2019t feel it or smell it or taste it, and I don\u2019t know that I\u2019ll ever be on the other side of that glass again.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fern was a wonderful supporting character in Bookshops & Bonedust<\/em>; here she makes an equally sympathetic protagonist. Baldree supplies her with her own supporting troops, each a capable, well-fleshed out character on their own, and\u2014in this out-and-out adventure story with lots of swordfights, chases (on account of Zyll\u2019s considerable bounty), and yes, blood\u2014we get to traverse much more of the diverse Territory with them than in the other books, in which we were only in Thune and Murk, respectively. Fern\u2019s dynamic with Astryx is different from hers and Viv\u2019s, but equally compelling, and watching the two rub off on each other for the better\u2014despite the often frustrating and frictional nature of their at-odds conversations\u2014was all kinds of lovely.<\/p>\n

There was even a surprising, but welcome, narrative side thread involving Astryx\u2014about heroes and legends, responsibilities and covenants, and how stories can be shaped and reshaped. Fern, her own life still in shambles, helps the ancient warrior come to the realisation that, after a thousand years of doing the same thing, she is allowed to deviate from what she has always done, without anything falling apart. Later, Fern wonders\u2014a little guiltily but not for long\u2014whether she\u2019s responsible for turning Astryx into less of a legend but more of herself.<\/p>\n

The book manages the balance between Fern\u2019s external and internal battles well, and as a reader we get to live the journey with her, not knowing until she does what the ending is going to be. At one point early on, Fern notices a \u201cpainful tearing in the very center of herself, like a sapling being slowly peeled apart down the middle [...] an aching growing tension that would either snap back together and resolve itself, or split forever into something unrecognisable.\u201d She carries this split in her through the course of their journey, trying to shine light on what it might be telling her, and getting no closer to an answer even as Amberlin approaches: \u201cI feel a dreadful anticipation, like unbelievable possibilities lie ahead, if only I say the precise magic word required [...] but I don\u2019t trust myself to recognise it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer when it arrives isn\u2019t perfect or permanent, nor is it fully voiced, but it makes sense for Fern, just as it must for many others.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes anyone [even] want a \u2018cozy\u2019 story about the grief of disappointing your friends, and the agony of saying \u2018no\u2019?\u201d the author asks in his acknowledgements. He describes how much longer this book took to wring out of him than anticipated. \u201cWould readers be okay with Viv taking a backseat to Fern for the story I wanted to tell?\u201d Baldree explains that, while he didn\u2019t have the answers to his anxious doubts, he also didn\u2019t want to write the same story over and over. He didn\u2019t want to pretend that fantasy small-business ownership is the answer to all of life\u2019s woes. The solutions for every challenge are not the same for everyone, nor are they neatly resolved (not to mention, they don\u2019t always stay<\/em> resolved), and he wanted to reflect that.<\/p>\n

Brigands & Breadknives<\/em> is a brave book to write, a cozy fantasy novel that acknowledges the hard, the messy, the jagged, and the wrenching bittersweet, while simultaneously advocating for hope and belief in an essential goodness. It\u2019s a book that\u2019s all the stronger, more beautiful, and more emotionally resonant for its messiness and vulnerability, and nobody embodies this complexity better than Fern.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways remember, although the unimaginative see life as a thread stretched from one point to another, birth to death, a life truly lived is a glorious tangle. One is never lost. And if one is lucky, one is never found, either.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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What happens when that comfortable, cozy life starts to feel stifling?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":58492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-fiction","category-reviews"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/brigandsandbreadknivescover.jpg?fit=978%2C1500&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82q22-fdp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58550,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58491\/revisions\/58550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}