Brigands and Breadknives

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Travis Baldree: Brigands and Breadknives (2025, Pan Macmillan)

320 pages

English language

Published 2025 by Pan Macmillan.

ISBN:
978-1-0350-3594-6
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reviewed Canailles & Couteaux by Travis Baldree (Légendes & Lattes, #2)

Canailles & Couteaux

J'ai pris du plaisir à renouer avec l'univers de 'Légendes & Lattes'.

Avec cette troisième histoire, Travis Baldree inverse en quelque sorte le concept qu'il avait décliné dans les deux premières : alors que ces dernières offraient un quasi huis clos de cosy fantasy avec un cadre délimité qui lui donnait une identité (le café, la librairie...), 'Canailles & Couteaux' entreprend de faire emprunter une trajectoire inverse de celle de Viv l'Orc à sa personnage principale rateline. Sal abandonne en effet le cocon qu'était sa librairie pour basculer dans un quotidien autrement plus tumultueux et dangereux dans le sillage d'une célèbre guerrière elf, d'une gobeline déroutante et d'épées parlantes qui n'ont pas leur langue dans leur fourreau (du moins quand elles sont sorties !).

Pourtant, même sur les chemins, l'auteur préserve une certaine ambiance caractéristique, avec un vrai soin apporté à ses personnages, à leur développement comme à …

reviewed Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree (Legends & Lattes, #2)

Could be summarised as a cosy DnD lite, solo player adventure

Not as comfy as the previous books, but then again it would be difficult to write a fresh book without re-iterating old stuff, as the author himself contemplates in the acknowledgements.

The protagonist's struggles, with life in her older days, was too relatable and lost the comfiness in the beginning for me. It took a while but then it was picked up again, somewhat. The resulting adventure felt like a slow, solo game excursion back to comfortableness. I enjoyed the slow and easy pace, the fun quotes from the talking swords, and how it all ended in a nice way with a little but unexpected twist (heh).

Pleasant Enough

I really waffled between giving this 3 stars or 4. Consider it a 3.5.

There were parts of this book I really enjoyed, and there were parts that felt like misses. I will say the ending felt very solid and I was actually pretty happy with it. The world building was very good, and I wish there had been a bit more of it.

Some of the prose felt a little stilted. Other parts felt heartfelt and beautiful. It's hard to quantify any particular areas as being weaker than others, it was just a feeling that cropped up from time to time while reading.

I did quite enjoy the evolution of the relationships, and Zyll the goblin was an especially interesting character, but it was hard for me at times to like Fern. Being accused of being 'chronically dissatisfied' felt apt, and I don't entirely feel like …