Having created the world of The Territories in his previous books (Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust), Travis Baldree continues to expand his setting of feel-good fantasy in Brigands and Breadknives.
In Legends & Lattes, (reviewed here) we were introduced to retired-mercenary-orc Viv, her partner Tandri, and their friends and colleagues Cal and Thimble. Together they renovated and opened the Legends & Lattes coffeeshop in the city of Thune. It’s a book filled with charm, pastries and coffee.
In his second book, Bookshops & Bonedust, Travis told a story from Viv’s earlier years, when Viv first met Fern, a sweary rattkin in the town of Murk.
This third book is set after Legends & Lattes, when we are brought up to date with how things are going in the city of Thune. We find that Viv has kept in contact with Fern and has managed to persuade Fern to up sticks, leave Murk and move to Thune, where she can set up a new bookshop, Thistleburr, next door to Legends & Lattes. At this point I was a little concerned that this would just repeat the actions of Legends & Lattes, like some form of Fantasy Monopoly, although all of this is done in the first 30 pages or so.
Where the plot takes a turn into something new is when we find that 77-year old Fern is having some sort of existential mid-life crisis. After a session involving too much brandy, she falls asleep in the back of a wagon, only to find the next day that the wagon has left Thune. “What…. What in the faithless f*ck?” says Fern, which she does a lot, by the way – the first word of the novel is her saying the expletive!
And at this point the story leaves Viv and the rest of the Legends & Lattes group and becomes an adventure quest. Fern just so happens to have fallen asleep in the wagon of legendary Astryx One-Ear, a legendary Blademistress and Oathmaiden who as an elf has lived for at least a thousand years. It is rather like finding yourself in the company of Conan, Red Sonya or Elric.
Astryx is taking an chaos-goblin named Zyll to the city of Amberlin to be handed over for a huge bounty.
Most of the rest of the book is about their journey to Amberlin, travelling though the Territory to bars and inns, villages and Taramite temples. Tension is created by the point that other mercenaries also want the bounty for themselves, and are willing to kill Astryx and Fern to get it.
It must be difficult writing a new novel having set things up for a happy ending in your first novel. Baldree manages here to introduce new characters whilst briefly connecting them to the old favourites. There’s a whole world out there beyond the Legends & Lattes coffeeshop, and Baldree (quite rightly, in my opinion) begins to show us some of it here.
As you might expect if you have read previous novels, this is a character-driven novel where the focus is less on the world around them and more on the internal and external ruminations of the characters involved. Your enjoyment will depend upon your engagement with these characters and their situation.
Generally, I found this to be not an issue. Baldree’s strengths of the first novel are still in evidence here, and the banter between the main characters is by turns, humorous, poignant and heartfelt.
Of course, this is a physical journey; but it is also a personal one. Much of the focus of the novel is on the various troubles of the group, particularly Fern and Astryx. Fern is clearly wondering what to do with her life and whether bookselling is something she wants to continue to do. The alternative is that she follows Astryx, having adventures and seeing new places.
Much of this self-guilt is shown in the form of letters Fern writes to Viv, knowing that Viv may never see them.
In Astryx’s case the self-doubt has turned to ennui. As an elf who has lived for at least a thousand years, Astryx has seen and done pretty much everything she wants to do. Consequently there is a sadness and an emotional detachment by Astryx throughout much of the novel – after all, why get to know people if they’re going to die soon, anyway? It is clear that Astryx needs a connection, a renewal to bring her back to life.
This does make the book sound rather intense. To be fair it has more emphasis on action sequences than the previous books, although this is not something to the detriment of the novel, I believe. Instead, we have an exciting and engaging novel that has all of the charm of the previous books, but with something more.
Much of the fun that balances this action comes from the antics of the chaos-goblin Zyll, whose actions and speech are a great source of amusement throughout. (I was reminded here a little of Raymond Feist’s Midkemia character Nakor here, in Zyll’s ability to both procure and produce objects almost out of thin air. Zyll has a hankering for cutlery.)
Much must also be said of the banter between Astryx’s sword and one of Zyll’s procurements. Astryx’s speaking great-sword is not the type fashioned by such as Mike Moorcock’s Elric (“Blood and Souls for Arioch!”) but is instead a plumly-pontificating Elder Blade that goes by the name of Nigel. By contrast, Zyll’s knife is named Breadlee, a breadknife that had once been a Great Blade and who clearly has something to prove. The banter between the two weapons feels like something akin to characters from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast – it is entertaining, often snarky and a lot of fun.
If I have any gripes with the book, they are generally minor. There’s a couple of plot coincidences that pushed credulity a little for me, but the general plusses of the book are so good that they are forgivable. My biggest gripe is that the ending was a little weak for my tastes, and rather nulled some of the events that had gone before. (No spoilers here, though!)
However, Brigands and Breadknives is on the whole another winner from Travis. I think that anyone who loved the first book will continue to love this world and these characters, and hopefully appreciate the broadening-out of the world Baldree has created. Brigands and Breadknives is, as hoped, a genuinely feel-good, exciting and eminently readable novel, even if you haven’t read the previous books.
Based on this, Travis is clearly the King of Cosy Fantasy, and whilst Brigands and Breadknives may perhaps be not quite as cosy as Legends & Lattes, there’s still plenty of coziness to go around, but with the added advantage of an adventure plot. I enjoyed this enormously.
© 2025 Mark Yon
Hardback | Tor
BRIGANDS AND BREADKNIVES by Travis Baldree
November 2025 | 352 pages
ISBN: 978 103 5035 946
