Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

Publisher – Tor

Published – Out Now

Price – £16.99 Hardback £7.99 Kindle eBook

High fantasy, low stakes – with a double-shot of coffee.

After decades of adventuring, Viv the orc barbarian is finally hanging up her sword for good. Now she sets her sights on a new dream – for she plans to open the first coffee shop in the city of Thune. Even though no one there knows what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the past behind her, she can’t go it alone. And help might arrive from unexpected quarters. Yet old rivals and new stand in the way of success. And Thune’s shady underbelly could make it all too easy for Viv to take up the blade once more.

But the true reward of the uncharted path is the travellers you meet along the way. Whether bound by ancient magic, delicious pastries or a freshly brewed cup, they may become something deeper than Viv ever could have imagined . . .

Expectations when reading are always an interesting experience. The uncertainty over a new author; the warmth of a favourite who always delivers; the disappointment when something you want to enjoy…. just doesn’t work. Reading is a melding of an author’s writing and a reader’s own tastes and experiences. I know my tastes are a little more towards darker tales with unlikeable characters and a touch of horror is always welcome. I like chewy stories with themes and get me thinking so the phrase ‘cosy’ isn’t necessarily one to bring me to the table, but reading is also sometimes about checking out the unexpected and seeing what impact it has on you. Hence with a couple of hours to kill I read and for the most part enjoyed reading Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes a short fantasy novel that evokes a very familiar path of someone finding their true path within a fantasy setting. I both enjoyed it and found it very much did all I expected to and nothing more.

Viv a orc warrior with decades of experience fighting and being a hero (of sorts) does one last job with her crew, takes a certain piece of treasure and walks away from the only life she has known. She ‘s been craving a different experience for a while. An unusual drink from one of her travels has given her an idea which her new treasure may assist with. In the city of Thune a dilapidated horse livery will become the location of Thune’s first ever…coffee shop. Viv slowly pulls together a group of people from their ordinary lives and a bright new business starts to unfold. But Viv’s past and Thune more unusual criminal enterprises are now showing an interest and danger may bring Viv back to her old life.

So, I enjoyed the delivery of this because it did what I expected it to do. The story is a certain plot you can find in lost of genres. A character finding out what they are good at and crucially enjoy doing it too. Here the fantasy city’s first café, lattes and cinnamon buns are all discovered and appreciated (as they should be). You can find that kind of tale in Pratchett’s Rock Music, various movies and for this tale Christmas TV movies come to mind. Now I enjoy those things because the formula of that sub-genre a bit like a decent tune needs us to follow a formula and make it pay-off. Two lovers finally realising their feelings for one another on a late night walk works because it speaks to our souls as humans. People being shown to be kind and not cruel is something we all deeply want to see. Give me some sentimentality in a film and my heart will warm and I’ll feel my eyes water it happened here too – provided that’s delivered well and what Baldree can write emotional beats really well. When describing Viv’s loneliness and need to fit in; a burgeoning romance with her succubus barista Tandri and the found family of bakers, builders and bards brings the warmth. Slice of life moments delivered very well and importantly doing what you expect with good execution. It was a pleasant read.

Now reading is a pleasure and I can appreciate a good pop song as much as these days as a sorrowful ballad – there is skilled technique to both in getting the emotional reaction and less difference between them in that than my teenage self would ever have admitted. But the other side of me is reading this and I’ll be honest it does exactly what I expected and that does dampen my reaction to this. The characters are good archetypes, and the dialogue works but I’ve no real sense of who anyone is. Viv we are told has a dark past and wants to move on – why and how these changed is not really explored in any detail just for a moment at the end to add danger. Tandri wants to move on too from being a standard Succubus but what drives her to do that? Baldree doesn’t really delve into the characters, and I will say that’s a bigger issue in the story for me. Everyone does what they need to do as that is what the plot requires and you never really get any explanations behind it. A big initial threat is dealt with by simply a chat and little explanation and the final threat appears more manufactured to give us a classic rebuild the set scene. Everything feels easy. I still enjoyed the story as this a well told story following those beats but a small mid-west town in this century; a BBC comedy drama and various movies would all have done the same bar only a few tweaks to cover the location.

Delivering on basic expectations is always good and Legends and Lattes does that and the two hours it took to read flew by. I had moments of joy and mild amusement. These are good things. I can see a certain time and place I could tempt someone to read it. But speaking for myself when I read, I want a little bit more than this delivered what I expected it to. In fantasy and science fiction I want a bit more imagination in world, characters and stories that make an impact and I know within a few weeks this one will fade away in my memory just like all those films and tv movies blur into one. Not a series I can see me returning to but one I can say like a latte may give warmth when reading it but I’m not sure a lasting one.