Travis Baldree - Legends & Lattes

 

After a long wait, I finally got hold of the e-book for Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes. Apparently it's viral on TikTok or something? But for once it's not a romance between an emotionally-stunted boy and a girl with low self-esteem, so yay.

And wow, Legends & Lattes was the double-shot pick-me-up I needed after some rather unenjoyable reading: Dr Moreau, Jean Brodie, and A Room of One's Own. Not to disparage these titans of Classic Literature, but they really were pretty dry. I got a huge rush entering the fantasy world of Thune, and following Viv on her mid-career switch journey.

Viv is an orc and former sellsword/mercenary/barbarian-for-hire. Tired of her meaningless work, she decided to save up her gold and fund her dream: to settle down somewhere and open a cafe.

Problem is, coffee was unheard-of in Thune despite it being pretty cosmopolitan (stone-fey, elves, rattkins, orcs and succubi live cheek-to-jowl here). So Viv had to come up with some creative ways to get people hooked on the gnomish beverage. 

Along the way, Viv finds partners in her business: Cal, a reticent hob carpenter; Thimble, a talented rattkin baker; and Tandri, a stereotype-busting succubus. And of course some enemies from Viv's past break into her life and destroy what she's built, but it's the friends you meet along the way, right? Not everything can be destroyed, that is the message.

It's a wonderful book. I got so much joy watching Viv and friends brainstorm their way around obstacles and my heart cheered when business picked up.

Although it's quite easy to dismiss Legends & Lattes as a frothy, escapist confection, its story of self-reinvention touched me deeply. It wasn't too much of a stretch to read her mercenary work as the equivalent of high-paying but morally-devoid jobs. Of course I rooted for her as she took a chance on a dream to live more simply. The work was harder and paid less, but one can exert oneself more honestly and happily this way.