The ginormous success over the last couple of years of the Legends and Lattes series has been a pleasant surprise. For the uninitiated, the Legends and Lattes novels use many Fantasy elements, but instead of being Grimdark, gritty and visceral, are nice pleasant reads, often involving things readers want and wish to be at – food, drink, coffeeshops, bookshops. If you’ve heard of the label ‘Cosy Fantasy’, then these are the stories where the label probably started.
After three novels to date (Legends and Lattes, Bookshops and Bonedust, Brigands and Breadknives), we now have a collection of assorted loose ends, five stories involving the characters you may have met before. Two stories have been published before, whilst others are new to this collection. I’ve indicated which is which below.
We start with Goblins and Greatcoats, where Chaos goblin Zyll is involved in a case of mistaken identity during a murder investigation. I have read this one before, as it was available as a free ebook from Subterranean Press. It was nice to meet Zyll again, but it was the weakest story of the bunch for me.
In Just a Thimbleful we meet the sweet rattkin baker Thimble again, in a story set before he arrived at the Legends and Lattes coffeeshop. It is new to this collection.
Pages to Fill is a story I’ve read before – it was included in my copy of the Legends and Lattes novel, as an extra. It still rereads well, though. Set in the time when Viv was part of a mercenary group, this one showed me that Travis can write action scenes.’ It was good to read of Viv in her past role of warrior orc. I can see more stories from this time being written.
Mirograph is perhaps the oddest and saddest story in the collection. Set in a time before Legends and Lattes, young succubus Tandri assists a university professor on a mysterious project where art and science collide. Surprisingly creepy, but not excessively so. It is new to this collection.
Lastly, Cavaliers & Coffees is a story set after the events of the novels, when Viv, now the owner of the Legends & Lattes coffee shop, discovers that competition has been set up nearby. It is new to this collection.
The good news – if you like the novels, you will love these snapshots of stories before and after the timespan of the novels, focussed around some of the main characters.
Of the stories, I felt that Goblins and Greatcoats was perhaps the weakest, but I still liked it. I love Zyll, although she still makes me think of Raymond Feist’s Nakor, and his oranges…
Picking a favourite was more difficult. In the end, I’ll go with Cavaliers & Coffees, just because it is a story with the gang all reassembled.
I suspect that other readers will have other favourites.
Quick warning though – although the stories are cosy, with ‘high value and low stakes’ as the blurb goes, they are not really Young Adult. Although there’s no spice (and I expect a few fans may be saddened by that!) there are a few expletives in there. Younger readers may find the odd F-bomb an issue.
Generally though, the good thing about these stories is that they all have those elements that have made the novels so successful with details of great food, great drink and companionship that runs throughout the novels. The other key element is that all of the stories have that ‘Baldree tone’, where these elements are combined with humour that works – and I know from reading other author’s attempts to mimic these how difficult that is to achieve.
In summary, Tales From The Territory is not essential, but it is irresistible. Fans of the novels will snap this one up and be grateful for a return to Viv’s world. I found that it was just lovely spending more time with Viv, Tandri, Zyll and Thimble. My only issue with it was how much I enjoyed being back in this world, for each story to then stop. Mind you, it could be worse…
The final copy will have full-page colour illustrations. My review copy didn’t have them, but I suspect that if they are anything like the previous art, they will make it a nice little package.
And Christmas is coming….
© 2026 Mark Yon
Hardback | Tor
TALES FROM THE TERRITORY: A Cosy Collection of Legends & Lattes Short Stories by Travis Baldree
October 2026 | 224 pages
ISBN: 978 103 5083 350
