Books book recommendations

Six SFF Jobs for Teens Looking to Get Some Work Experience

From unladylike princesses to ghost hunters, we’ve got jobs for every skill set!

By Ratika Deshpande

|

Published on December 16, 2024

Art by Tillie Walden

8

Share

Art by Tillie Walden

These days, the earlier you start building your CV, the better your professional prospects will be. But with no previous experience under your belt, how are you supposed to convince anyone to take you on as an intern or apprentice? Well, if you’re willing to look beyond the usual careers and are okay with the prospect of handling swords, ghosts, and magical architecture, you might find something in the following job listings…

A Dragon’s Princess
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Are you an improper princess who is good at convincing the palace staff to teach you Latin, cooking, fencing, and magic? Are your royal parents disappointed at your unladylike interests and planning to marry you off to an annoying prince? If that’s the case, you might consider running off to where the dragons live and volunteer as their captive princess. You’ll be required to cook meals, take care of the library, and organize your dragon’s giant hoard of treasure. 

Pros: Your own living space, freedom to experiment in the kitchen and read books from the aforementioned library, and tea parties with the other dragons’ princesses.

Cons: Constantly dealing with pesky knights and princes who are convinced you’re suffering in your dragon’s service and need to be rescued.

Hotel Staff
Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor

If you don’t mind doing some cleaning and serving, you might consider interviewing to join the staff of the magical Hotel Magnifique, which appears in town unexpectedly and takes its guests—who have paid exorbitant amounts to be there—all across the world. There’s magic in every lamp, every corridor, although something darker also hides behind all the enchantments.

Pros: The work isn’t mentally taxing, the other staff is friendly, and you get to visit all the enchanted rooms that have been custom-made for guests.

Cons: Some areas of the Hotel are forbidden, your contract is unbreakable, and you might never be able to go back home again.

Ghost-Hunting Agent
The Lockwood & Co. series by Jonathan Stroud

If you’re a tween or teen in Stroud’s London, which has been grappling with The Problem for decades, there’s a chance you might have the ability to See or Hear the dead, who emerge as ghosts as soon as it gets dark. While you might train and get a certification from one of the biggest agencies in London, you’ll have better luck applying for a position at the newly launched small agency, Lockwood & Co.

Pros: You’ll work in a small team who lives together in the founder’s house, you don’t need to have a ton of experience, you don’t have to wake up early in the morning, and you get to go after more obscure and exciting cases that the bigger companies overlook. Also, unlike the other agencies, there are no adult supervisors to get in your way.

Cons: Your team occasionally messes up cases and might end up with a huge debt, you’ll be fighting ghosts who can kill you with a touch, and your charming-but-sometimes-cocky boss isn’t always great at following the rules and maintaining the establishment’s reputation (although you might come to forgive him for that).

Barista
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

If you want to try something new and exciting, something called a “coffee shop” just opened in the city. If you’re a native, you’ve probably never heard of the stuff, but trust the owner when she tells you how heavenly a drink it is. Once everyone gets a taste of it, the customers are going to pour in. So if you have any experience in working in the food industry and can juggle multiple requests at once—or even if you’re a total beginner—you might consider applying as a barista at Legends & Lattes. 

Pros: The pay is negotiable, the owner will be more like a friend than a colleague, and you’ll get to sample all the good stuff resulting from the baker’s experiments (he’s already invented biscotti, cinnamon rolls, and more!).

Cons: On some days you might be very busy and people you’ve rejected in the past might start showing up at the shop to get you to consider them again—it’s hard to avoid people when you work at a successful establishment, after all.

Building Restorer
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

For teenagers fresh out of school (or who may have dropped out), there’s an opportunity to join a little building restoration crew that travels around space in their fish-shaped spaceship. Depending on the location, your work might involve anything from patching up walls to restoring faded paintings. 

Pros: You get to work with a small group of people who will train you on the go, and you will feel a deep sense of meaning in helping preserve places lost to time or memory.

Cons: You might still not be over your past, and might feel alienated as the new kid among a crew that has been living together like a family.

Nightmare Painter
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

If you’re good at art, you might consider training to become a nightmare painter, a group of workers who banish nightmares that emerge from the shroud surrounding the city of Kilahito. It’s not very exhausting, but you’ll require intense focus when a nightmare does show up—or risk harming innocent people and yourself.

Pros: You get the satisfaction of being an essential worker and keeping people safe, and you get to move to the front of the line at parks and fairs as thanks for your service.

Cons: Sometimes people take your work for granted and aren’t hesitant to express their disappointment if you fail. You also might feel creatively limited and find yourself stuck in a rut.

If that doesn’t sound interesting, there’s an excellent noodle shop in the city that caters to the painters. You might want to ask the owner to take you on, especially if you specialize in Anthropology or Psychology; she loves learning about how humans work…

[end-mark]

The post Six SFF Jobs for Teens Looking to Get Some Work Experience appeared first on Reactor.

Books Five Books About

5 Books That Worldbuild Through Fashion and Food

By Kayla Cottingham

|

Published on November 1, 2024

Legends and Lattes cover art by Claire Bartlett

4

Share

Legends and Lattes cover art by Claire Bartlett

When it comes to fantasy novels, there are a million ways to worldbuild. Two of my favorites are food and fashion, both of which offer a ton of insights into fantasy worlds that might not seem readily apparent. For example, the types of fabrics characters’ clothes are made of can hint at things like common fiber crops in their world, socioeconomic status (a character wearing fine silks in a world where hemp fabric is far more common is likely to appear wealthier), and what kind of dye plants exist in their world. Similarly, food offers a ton of insight into things like a fantasy world’s cultural inspiration, technology (a society that cooks food over a fire is going to differ a lot from one with ovens), and edible flora and fauna. 

When it came time to write my own fantasy novel, Practical Rules for Cursed Witches, I focused a lot on both. The main character, Delilah, is a kitchen witch who casts spells using her baking. While describing tart lemon bars, smooth and chocolatey buckeyes, and flaky garlic biscuits, I was also fleshing out more details about the world. The same goes for the fashion, which helped differentiate the regions the characters hail from while also highlighting their personalities. That in mind, here are five of my favorite books that turn food and fashion into worldbuilding.

Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui

If you’re looking for a masterclass in worldbuilding through food, look no further than Delicious in Dungeon. This manga follows the adventures of a young human—or “tallman” in DiD lore— named Laios who takes his Dungeons and Dragons-style adventuring party on a mission to save his sister, Falin, after she’s eaten by a dragon. As the party enters a dungeon in search of the dragon, they encounter a dwarf named Senshi who uses monsters to create delicious meals. The manga does an excellent job of exploring the nature of various strange and exciting monsters through the food Senshi makes. The search for new monster ingredients, and the lore that surrounds them, makes creatures of legend feel more like real animals one could stumble upon in the wild. With everything from mandrake and basilisk omelets to huge scorpion and walking mushroom hotpot, Delicious in Dungeon has the perfect recipe to seamlessly blend cooking and worldbuilding into one. 

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

If you’ve ever wondered what a mashup between Project Runway and Mulan would look like, I have great news. Spin the Dawn tells the story of Maia Tamarin, a young seamstress with dreams of becoming a world-renowned tailor. Unfortunately, sexism is alive and well in Maia’s world, making it nearly impossible for her to achieve her dream. However, when Maia’s sickly father is summoned to the Summer Palace to compete in a tailoring competition for the royals, Maia elects to disguise herself as a boy to enter in his place. However, the competition is stiff, and Maia finds herself with the impossible task of three dresses made of the laughter of the sun, tears of the moon, and blood of the stars. This lush East Asian-inspired fantasy uses fashion as a powerful storytelling tool that gives form to the magic of the world. Outside of just that, it also helps paint a picture of the book’s cultural influence with stunning descriptions of fabrics, designs, and dyes. Plus, the swoony romance doesn’t hurt either.

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

Like Delicious in Dungeon, Legends and Lattes boasts a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired world, but unlike most stories in that vein that focus on grand adventures and saving the world, this novel follows a recently retired adventurer opening her own coffee shop. The main character, Viv, starts out as something of a loner, but over the course of the book, she collects a small found family that I found utterly charming. The sweet sapphic romance was also a highlight. Aside from that, though, one of the most fun elements of the book is the introduction of coffee to the people of Thune, who have never heard of it before. Over the course of the book, Viv manages to win them over as she introduces real-world café staples (iced coffee, to go cups, cinnamon buns) to this fantasy world, all while taking into consideration things like the best cups for different fantasy races’ hands/paws, dietary restrictions, and taste preferences. It’s ridiculously cozy, and Viv’s determination to serve all the residents of Thune allows something as simple as coffee and pastries to be the perfect worldbuilding device. 

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Have you ever heard the phrase never trust a pretty face? That’s essentially the thesis statement behind The Belles. Set in a New Orleans-inspired fantasy world, this story follows Camellia, a young Belle. Belles use their magic to beautify the people of Orléans, called Gris, who are born with red eyes and gray skin. Belles like Camellia can give people any features they desire, from hair, eye, and skin color to body type, but the process is far more brutal than it initially seems. The prose in this book is extremely vivid, with intricate descriptions of delectable foods as well as fashions that help build up the veneer of perfection that slowly begins to crack as Camellia uncovers the dark truths behind her world and magic. The gruesome underbelly of Orléans—which boasts everything from torture to psychological manipulation to murder— and its obsession with beauty and perfection wouldn’t work half as well if it weren’t for the attention to detail when it comes to the lavish gowns, hairstyles, makeup and delectable-sounding sweet treats. Truly, this book plays up cognitive dissonance for worldbuilding in the best possible way. 

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

As an author, T. Kingfisher is one of my biggest influences, so it would be wrong to close this list without mentioning her delightful cozy fantasy, A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking. Funny, charming, and adventurous, this story follows fourteen-year-old bakery assistant-slash-wizard, Mona, whose magic powers are limited to controlling bread. However, all is not well—one day, Mona discovers a dead body in the bakery, and immediately she’s blamed for the attack. Now, with an assassin on the loose, it’s up to Mona to prove her innocence and save the magic users who are being targeted. Mona’s bread-based magic is absolutely delightful, and her familiar, a sassy sourdough starter named Bob, steals the spotlight. Readers also learn a ton about the world through Mona’s baking magic, including how the magic system works for individual wizards as well as how minor magic users like her are viewed by their society. Plus, who doesn’t want to read a book with a small army of magic-controlled gingerbread men?

[end-mark]

Buy the Book

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches

Kayla Cottingham

Buy Book

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches

Kayla Cottingham

Buy this book from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Target

The post 5 Books That Worldbuild Through Fashion and Food appeared first on Reactor.

Books book recommendations

Five Entertaining SFF Stories With Relatively Low Stakes

The whole world doesn’t need to be in imminent danger for a story to be compelling, as these more personal adventures demonstrate…

By James Davis Nicoll

|

Published on July 31, 2024

Legends and Lattes cover art by Claire Bartlett

49

Share

Legends and Lattes cover art by Claire Bartlett

It is no mystery why so many fantasy authors resort to high-stakes conflicts. Nothing engages the reader quite like having the entire world at stake. For proof, consider how very well The Lord of the Rings has sold for so very long, not to mention the popularity of the legions of blatant knock-offs works inspired by The Lord of the Rings.

And yet, offering nothing but world-saving is a bit like offering nothing but 100-decibel high notes. Eventually one becomes numb to what should be thrilling. Also, high stakes series raise legitimate questions about the Big Bad’s competence. If Evil launches seven different apocalypses, all of which are foiled by the same small group of high school- and college-age teens, one has to wonder if maybe Evil should consider pursuing opportunities in a different field.

Fortunately, it is perfectly possible to write works and series in which the stakes, while important to the protagonist(s), are merely personal. Regardless of what happens in the stories, the world will tick on. As long as the outcome matters to the protagonists, it will matter to the reader. Consider these five works.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (2022)

Tiring of playing meat-shield for adventuring parties delving into hazardous dungeons, Viv invests her future in One Last Job. Contrary to One Last Job conventions, not only is Viv’s One Last Job a success, it truly is the orc barbarian’s last job, at least in the field of adventuring. A new life awaits! In food services.

Viv has an entrepreneurial vision: she will make and sell coffee, which people will then buy. Can someone used to hacking her way past impediments deal with logistical and marketing challenges? Or is launching a novel endeavor in an untested market without the applicable skills doomed to failure?

Many book covers lie. In this case, Baldree’s cover promises an orc and a succubus selling coffee and pastries and the novel delivers an orc and a succubus selling coffee and pastries. Likewise, the tagline, “A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes,” is accurate. No Dread Lords to be found here. In fact, the book is so obviously an example of the sort of thing I am discussing that I am mentioning it first, purely to avoid having twenty people mention it in the comments.

RuriDragon by Masaoki Shindo (2022– onward)

Schoolgirl Ruri is nonplussed to discover that she has sprouted two razor-sharp horns in her sleep. Ruri’s mother provides a perfectly reasonable explanation. Ruri is half dragon, and the horns are a manifestation of her father’s lineage. At school, Ruri discovers that she has inherited a second draconic trait. Happily, the student on whom Ruri breathes fire is not seriously injured¹.

Ruri may be the first human-dragon hybrid. Just how her two heritages will manifest is a mystery². However, no matter how extraordinary Ruri is, she’s still a high school student, expected to juggle academia and her personal life on her way to adulthood.

One of the remarkable aspects of this amiable manga is how nonchalantly Ruri’s schoolmates (even the one she set on fire) react to the revelation Ruri isn’t fully human. It makes one wonder what else is going on in their lives that a half-dragon chum gets a “Oh, that’s kind of cool, I guess,” reaction.

Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono (1985)

Half-human, half-witch, Kiki chose to embrace her witchy mother’s heritage. At age thirteen, Kiki faces the rite of passage all thirteen-year-old witches endure: Kiki must leave her family behind and make a new life in some unfamiliar community.

Were this not sufficient challenge, Kiki is lacking in the magical powers department. Kiki has mastered a single arcane ability: flying a broom. How to parlay this knack into something that will endear Kiki to her new community is unclear. Kiki is determined to prevail.

Something that was left out of the Studio Ghibli anime adaptation of this manga: the parlous state of witchcraft in the modern world. Lacking any sort of formal system to preserve and pass on witchcraft, each generation knows less than the one before. It’s probably for the best that the manga’s focus is on one witch who does very well for herself and not on witches in general, who probably should be placed on the endangered list.

Cyrion by Tanith Lee (1982)

Cyrion’s world is full of magic and wonders. Cyrion’s world is also full of greed and scheming. Life in a world of conniving sorcerers, devious conspirators, and a surprising abundance of cursed items is never boring; it is, however, often short.

Enter Cyrion, who in another world might have called himself a consulting detective. Brilliant Cyrion wields an impressive array of skills, from deduction to disguise to rapid improvisation. As these eight stories demonstrate, it is always a mistake to underestimate Cyrion… but so many do.

Cyrion is one part Sherlock Holmes (minus Watson) to one part Batman (minus Robin). Like both characters, Cyrion is famous, so it’s weird how many villains have plans that boil down to “Outthink the guy whose schtick is that he is always, always, always the smartest man in the room.” Hope springs eternal³.

Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber (collection 1970)

Fafhrd is a skilled barbarian from the frigid north. The Gray Mouser is a talented thief and duelist, with a smattering of magical arts. Neither giant Northman nor crafty Southerner is on a first-name basis with ethics or prudence⁴. Perfect adventurers for decadent Nehwon.

Swords recounts a few early incidents in the two adventurers’ lives, as they make what were in retrospect terrible decisions, and then, however implausibly, survive them. It’s good to be series protagonists, especially in stories set early in their careers⁵.

Swords and Deviltry is a sword and sorcery work. That genre usually features fairly low stakes (at least compared to The Lord of the Rings). At one point S&S seemed to be the dominant mode for American fantasy—so I was surprised to discover how recently S&S got its name. Of late, S&S seems to be enjoying a resurgence, which I applaud.

These are but five examples of low-stakes fantasy. No doubt many of you are fond of works that I have unjustly ignored⁶, works whose absence makes you question the very foundations of Western civilization. Feel free to mention your faves in comments below.[end-mark]

1. Generally speaking, supernatural abilities come packaged with secondary characteristics needed to survive having those specific abilities. As Ruri discovers immediately after breathing fire, her mouth and lungs aren’t fireproof, at least not immediately. She does, however, have a prodigious healing ability, enough to keep her alive while she is toughening up. It makes one wonder if Ruri is really the first human-dragon hybrid, or just the first one to survive. ︎
2. There are in fact many mysteries about Ruri, not least of which is “how could a normal human female and a bus-sized dragon manage to have procreative sex?” The manga studiously declines to answer, although I imagine “very carefully” probably played a role. ︎
3. Perhaps the malefactors’ confidence is bolstered by the knowledge that Cyrion, like Holmes, died once. They should further consider the fact that Cyrion, like Holmes, got better. ︎
4. In the pair’s defense, even had they tried to be cautious, fate (also known as Fritz Leiber, Jr.) would have steered them towards adventure. To that end, Leiber provided Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser with advisors Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face, both of whom are avid plot instigators. ︎
5. Alas, the pair’s loved ones do not share the same immunity. Fridging may have been named in 1999, but it is an ancient narrative convention that long predates its formal recognition. ︎
6. If any of your examples are the five I mentioned above, you might get a hard (virtual) stare. If it is Legends & Lattes, I might yell in frustration. In all caps. ︎

The post Five Entertaining SFF Stories With Relatively Low Stakes appeared first on Reactor.

Books

Five SFF Bookstores and Libraries I’d Love to Browse

From cozy secondhand bookshops to massive multiversal libraries, here are five fictional places we’re longing to visit…

By Cole Rush

|

Published on May 31, 2024

Art by Carson Lowmiller (Bookshops & Bonedust, Tor Books)

24

Share

Art by Carson Lowmiller (Bookshops & Bonedust, Tor Books)

Readers can never truly get enough of books, and the proof is in the pages: Even when we’re reading to escape to another world, we love when we encounter the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of places packed with shelves of old and new books. Bookshops and libraries tend to make appearances in many of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy tales, and they’re always a welcome addition to any fictional world. I never pass up a chance to explore a bookshop, even when I’m right in the middle of a story!

Here are five of my favorite bookish settings in SFF, featuring the kinds of bookshops and libraries designed to capture the imagination of any bookworm…

A.Z. Fell & Co (Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman)

Aziraphale is such a tease. He founded A.Z. Fell & Co in the 1800s as a place to store his incredible rare book collection. The problem? He doesn’t sell any of his books, so it’s essentially a massive personal library.

That doesn’t stop me from wanting to wander in through those big doors and peruse the volumes Aziraphale has found over the years. His shop has that undefinable je ne sais quoi every book lover knows. It’s a cozy, warm, dimly lit room full of comfortable furniture and natural ambiance that makes for a perfect reading environment.

While it’s a damn shame we can’t visit this heavenly bookshop in real life, RadioTimes got us close with last year’s excellent profile of the A.Z. Fell & Co set for the Good Omens TV series.

Thistleburr Booksellers (Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree)

Travis Baldree found a legion of fans with his breakout debut, Legends & Lattes. He struck gold again with Bookshops & Bonedust, a charming prequel that follows orc barbarian Viv as she recovers from a battle-related injury in a quaint seaside town.

Impatient and frustrated with being temporarily out of action and worried that her comrades won’t return for her, Viv finds solace in fixing up the town’s bookshop, run by a foul-mouthed rattkin named Fern. The bookshop starts off as a musty, ramshackle place reminiscent of many an older used bookstore, filled with dusty tomes.

Through hard work, a few grassroots marketing campaigns, and a bit of charm, the bookshop soon becomes a destination for readers of all sorts—poetry buffs, romantasy fans, and everyone in between. After it’s fixed up and finally thriving following years of neglect, Fern’s bookshop retains its homey feel. The result is a wonderful bookshop and a cornerstone of Murk, the seaside community that soon falls in love with books in a way that will be instantly familiar to any reader.

Natsuki Books (The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa)

Rintaro’s grandfather passes away and leaves him the local secondhand bookstore, Natsuki Books. The reclusive and antisocial Rintaro plans to close the shop and move in with his well-to-do aunt. When a talking cat saunters in, asking Rintaro to join him on a quest to save books, the whole plan goes awry. Rintaro becomes embroiled in an effort to “rescue” books from owners who don’t want the best for the stories within their pages.

Since I’ve written about my fondness for cats on Reactor in the past, you might be wondering whether my intentions are pure, including a book like this on such a list. “This guy loves cats,” you might say. “He just wants a talking cat to take him on a bookish quest.”

Of course I do. Sure, Natsuki Books is a charming shop full of rare and esoteric tomes containing vast sums of knowledge. But the prospect of being guided through a labyrinth of shelves and into corners of the world in dire need of help—the kind of help only a shy bookworm can provide—is just too good for me to pass up. When my quests are complete, I’ll curl up in the cozy nooks of Natsuki Books and reminisce on my adventures with my nose firmly lodged between the pages of my latest read.

The Library of the Neitherlands (The Magicians by Lev Grossman)

Imagine a library connecting all universes and collecting every single story, told or untold, within its infinite walls. If you can do this, then you have a sense of the expansiveness of the multiversal Library of the Neitherlands from Lev Grossman’s The Magicians series.

I wasn’t sure about including this one on this list, thanks to the sheer volume of knowledge in the library. It quite literally contains all the knowledge in the universe, and that’s a dangerous place to get lost in. What wonders and horrors might it hold? What might you learn about yourself, your dearest loved ones, or your greatest enemies if you could spend an hour or a day in this library? Or perhaps you would seek the answers to some of life’s big questions, whatever you deem them to be! The thought of it gives me chills both out of fear and excitement, and I ended up deciding to include the Library of the Neitherlands here because, if my safety was guaranteed, I’d definitely visit… for a while.

The Library (The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern)

Author Erin Morgenstern is no stranger to settings that overflow with magic, wonder, and whimsy. I loved her worldbuilding and descriptions in The Night Circus, and The Starless Sea carries on the tradition. The ancient underground library of The Starless Sea features mysteries and personal secrets galore, as protagonist Zachary discovers within the book’s pages.

Like the Library of the Neitherlands, this library is impossibly labyrinthine and absolutely massive. It is full of twists and turns and doors leading to odd places. And for any fans of felines who might be reading, it’s got plenty of cats. Leave it to Erin Morgenstern to take something utterly familiar to readers and turn it into a captivating and unforgettable fantasy locale. Perhaps one day, we’ll get to cross a painted threshold and see the place for ourselves…

Alright, readers—you know the drill! Please recommend your own favorite SFF bookstores and libraries in the comments below.[end-mark]

The post Five SFF Bookstores and Libraries I’d Love to Browse appeared first on Reactor.

Books fantasy

Five Fantasy Bookstores and Libraries I’d Love to Explore

From cozy secondhand bookshops to massive multiversal libraries, here are five fictional places we’re longing to visit…

By Cole Rush

|

Published on January 10, 2025

Art by Carson Lowmiller (Bookshops & Bonedust, Tor Books)

17

Share

Art by Carson Lowmiller (Bookshops & Bonedust, Tor Books)

Readers can never truly get enough of books, and the proof is in the pages: Even when we’re reading to escape to another world, we love when we encounter the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of places packed with shelves of old and new books. Bookshops and libraries tend to make appearances in many of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy tales, and they’re always a welcome addition to any fictional world. I never pass up a chance to explore a bookshop, even when I’m right in the middle of a story!

Here are five of my favorite bookish settings in SFF, featuring the kinds of bookshops and libraries designed to capture the imagination of any bookworm…

Thistleburr Booksellers
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Travis Baldree found a legion of fans with his breakout debut, Legends & Lattes. He struck gold again with Bookshops & Bonedust, a charming prequel that follows orc barbarian Viv as she recovers from a battle-related injury in a quaint seaside town.

Impatient and frustrated with being temporarily out of action and worried that her comrades won’t return for her, Viv finds solace in fixing up the town’s bookshop, run by a foul-mouthed rattkin named Fern. The bookshop starts off as a musty, ramshackle place reminiscent of many an older used bookstore, filled with dusty tomes.

Through hard work, a few grassroots marketing campaigns, and a bit of charm, the bookshop soon becomes a destination for readers of all sorts—poetry buffs, romantasy fans, and everyone in between. After it’s fixed up and finally thriving following years of neglect, Fern’s bookshop retains its homey feel. The result is a wonderful bookshop and a cornerstone of Murk, the seaside community that soon falls in love with books in a way that will be instantly familiar to any reader.

A.Z. Fell & Co
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Aziraphale is such a tease. He founded A.Z. Fell & Co in the 1800s as a place to store his incredible rare book collection. The problem? He doesn’t sell any of his books, so it’s essentially a massive personal library.

That doesn’t stop me from wanting to wander in through those big doors and peruse the volumes Aziraphale has found over the years. His shop has that undefinable je ne sais quoi every book lover knows. It’s a cozy, warm, dimly lit room full of comfortable furniture and natural ambiance that makes for a perfect reading environment.

While it’s a damn shame we can’t visit this heavenly bookshop in real life, RadioTimes got us close with an excellent profile of the A.Z. Fell & Co set for the Good Omens TV series.

Natsuki Books
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

Rintaro’s grandfather passes away and leaves him the local secondhand bookstore, Natsuki Books. The reclusive and antisocial Rintaro plans to close the shop and move in with his well-to-do aunt. When a talking cat saunters in, asking Rintaro to join him on a quest to save books, the whole plan goes awry. Rintaro becomes embroiled in an effort to “rescue” books from owners who don’t want the best for the stories within their pages.

Since I’ve written about my fondness for cats on Reactor in the past, you might be wondering whether my intentions are pure, including a book like this on such a list. “This guy loves cats,” you might say. “He just wants a talking cat to take him on a bookish quest.”

Of course I do. Sure, Natsuki Books is a charming shop full of rare and esoteric tomes containing vast sums of knowledge. But the prospect of being guided through a labyrinth of shelves and into corners of the world in dire need of help—the kind of help only a shy bookworm can provide—is just too good for me to pass up. When my quests are complete, I’ll curl up in the cozy nooks of Natsuki Books and reminisce on my adventures with my nose firmly lodged between the pages of my latest read.

The Library of the Neitherlands
The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Imagine a library connecting all universes and collecting every single story, told or untold, within its infinite walls. If you can do this, then you have a sense of the expansiveness of the multiversal Library of the Neitherlands from Lev Grossman’s The Magicians series.

I wasn’t sure about including this one on this list, thanks to the sheer volume of knowledge in the library. It quite literally contains all the knowledge in the universe, and that’s a dangerous place to get lost in. What wonders and horrors might it hold? What might you learn about yourself, your dearest loved ones, or your greatest enemies if you could spend an hour or a day in this library? Or perhaps you would seek the answers to some of life’s big questions, whatever you deem them to be! The thought of it gives me chills both out of fear and excitement, and I ended up deciding to include the Library of the Neitherlands here because, if my safety was guaranteed, I’d definitely visit… for a while.

The Library
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Author Erin Morgenstern is no stranger to settings that overflow with magic, wonder, and whimsy. I loved her worldbuilding and descriptions in The Night Circus, and The Starless Sea carries on the tradition. The ancient underground library of The Starless Sea features mysteries and personal secrets galore, as protagonist Zachary discovers within the book’s pages.

Like the Library of the Neitherlands, this library is impossibly labyrinthine and absolutely massive. It is full of twists and turns and doors leading to odd places. And for any fans of felines who might be reading, it’s got plenty of cats. Leave it to Erin Morgenstern to take something utterly familiar to readers and turn it into a captivating and unforgettable fantasy locale. Perhaps one day, we’ll get to cross a painted threshold and see the place for ourselves…

Alright, readers—you know the drill! Please recommend your own favorite SFF bookstores and libraries in the comments below.[end-mark]

Originally published in May 2024.

The post Five Fantasy Bookstores and Libraries I’d Love to Explore appeared first on Reactor.

Then came Legends & Lattes. It sounds like a goofy fanfiction challenge: Write about an orc who quits battling and opens a coffee shop. Yet thanks to Baldree’s tenderness for his characters and unabashed optimism (plus a neatly constructed magical device justifying his cast of kind and talented people), I adored it. My one quibble was that Americanos taste so much worse than a simple shot of espresso, and that’s the first drink Viv serves her employee-business partner.

Bookshops & Bonedust is even more of a delight than its predecessor/sequel. Taking place two decades before Legends & Lattes, Baldree’s second book is a meaty slice of Viv’s backstory, so fully realized that it can be read as a standalone. Certainly, there are references that will be more fun for a fan of Legends, namely the origin of the sword Blackblood and a contentious early relationship with the gnome Gallina, but someone who’d never heard of Travis Baldree would still enjoy this adventure.

On her first big gig with Rackham’s Ravens, a respected mercenary crew, Viv goes too hard too fast and too alone, and gets stabbed in the leg. Before she passes out, Rackham himself tells her he’s sending her to the nearest safe haven to recover, promising to pick her up once his troop has finished their mission. This is how Viv finds herself trapped in the sleepy seaside town of Thune, with a bum leg and nothing to do. This does not suit her sense of self, which will be recognizable to anyone who has built an identity around a less-than-stable career. (Artists, hello!) So, Viv heads out to explore. She ends up befriending the local bookstore owner, rattkin Fern, who needs a hand with her moldering business, and learns to love reading in the process. The genius town baker, a dwarf named Maylee, takes a shine to Viv, resulting in their quiet summer romance. Viv disobeys her doctor regularly, establishes a grudging detente with the local Serpenti Gatewarden, and finds an unexpected friend in untethered fighter Gallina.There’s a poetry-reading and spouting construction worker, a reclusive author, and a necromancer that eludes Rackham’s Ravens and comes for Viv instead. Why does Varine the Pale take an interest in this injured orc? A book, of course! A book stolen from the necromancer winds up in Viv’s hands, accompanied by a mysterious skeletal servant. Without giving too much away, the ending is as neat and as satisfying as if the story were a ballad or a fairytale.

Buy the Book

Bookshops & Bonedust

Buy Book

Bookshops & Bonedust

Buy this book from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Target

Taken on its own terms, Bookshops & Bonedust excels at what it sets out to be. It doesn’t surprise me that Baldree admits in an afterword that he didn’t intend to write this book as his second offering; the organic quality of the story transmits itself through the text. The balances that Baldree strikes seem a kind of intuitive magic. He tells his story with great seriousness from the perspective of his characters, honoring them as struggling people while maintaining a light touch. The mastery and danger of the necromancer is present, but never skews Epic like so many Dungeons & Dragons-adjacent universes. The novel’s humor is tongue-in-cheek in places but never declares itself, offering readers the gift of laughing at characters who don’t know they’re being funny. Baldree even achieves a cutesy animal character that isn’t annoying: Fern’s pet gryphet Potroast. The creature is a combination of an angry owl and a short stocky dog, and gets up to all kinds of hijinks. If Potroast were a Disney sidekick, he’d probably have given me a toothache—but instead, he’s genuinely funny and expressive.

As the title implies, Bookshops & Bonedust is not only a light-hearted adventure but also an ode to independent bookstores and their staff. Fern represents every bookseller who brims with brilliant book recommendations and love for the written word. Baldree sets himself the authorial challenge of including snippets from many purportedly excellent imaginary novels, aiming to show how every book scratches a different itch. Though the stylistic similarity and general melodrama of these excerpts are the one weak point in this otherwise tight novel, their presence allows for a touching meditation on reading and how it changes us. The narrative explores how authors may not always understand everything they’ve created, and that doesn’t make the meanings readers find for themselves any less valid—the opposite, in fact. As Viv explains to Fern near the end,

“Maybe that’s what the story says in the words that got put down, but if you could read past the end? The words that didn’t get written? Maybe it ends up being something else altogether.”

Fern sums up Viv’s reflection with a phrase appropriate for a prequel: “the story past the story.”

Although I stand by Bookshops & Bonedust’s integrity on its own, I do think it benefits from reading the story past the one it holds. Read as a pair (in any order), Baldree’s two novels gain depth, offering a more powerful character arc for Viv. It’s poignant to see a time when her mercenary life was her identity, and get to know the inner fighter that prompts her to refuse to pay the local extortionist in Legends & Lattes. Seeing Viv’s early life elevates her later commitment to leaving violence behind, revealing it as the transformation of a lifetime. If Baldree’s breakout hit was the story of Viv finding her people, then Bookshops & Bonedust is the story of Viv becoming her own person. Engrossing, meaningful, and fluffy all at once, it is a charming afternoon read—perhaps alongside a cup of coffee.

Bookshops & Bonedust is published by Tor Books.
Read an excerpt.

Maura Krause is a writer and Barrymore-nominated theatrical director, currently pursuing their MFA in Writing at California College for the Arts.

The post A Warm, Well-Baked Treat: Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree appeared first on Reactor.

We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Travis Baldree’s Bookshops & Bonedust, a fantasy novel set in the same world as Legends & Lattes—publishing with Tor Books on November 7th.

Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned.

Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it.

What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?

Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine.

Still, adventure isn’t all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.

Viv lay on the floor of the tiny room. Well, almost on the floor. The place hadn’t been built with orcs in mind, and the bed was too short by at least two feet. Someone had wrestled the strawtick mattress onto the floor, and though her legs still went off the end, they’d positioned her pack so her foot was propped, keeping the wounded leg elevated.

It hurt like all eight hells.

She’d caught a fever while bouncing along in the litter behind a pack mule, coughing through all the dust it could raise. Which was a lot.

Viv might’ve been bedbound for two days, in and out of consciousness, a muddle of circular dreams and throbbing agony. The surgeon had come and gone multiple times. Or maybe he hadn’t, and she’d just been hallucinating it over and over. She half remembered the man’s face, tangled up in a shame she couldn’t identify.

Now, her head was clear. Which mostly meant she could also feel everything with complete clarity. It was a debatable improvement.

What’s more, she was absolutely ravenous.

Buy the Book

Bookshops & Bonedust

Buy Book

Bookshops & Bonedust

Buy this book from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Target

Staring around the room, the place was mostly barren. A crude bedframe and a tiny table with a lantern and a basin on it. Gray, raw wood for walls. A small, slatted window. She smelled the sea, and dry beach grass, and fish. An old sea chest sat opposite. Her saber leaned against it, alongside a crude wooden crutch. Her maul was missing. There wasn’t much else worth considering.

The building was absolutely quiet. The only sounds came from outside—the hissing of grass, the remote grumble of waves, and the occasional call of a seabird.

Viv had been lucid for less than a single hour, and she thought the view might drive her insane if she had to endure another.

Her leg was cleanly wrapped at least, splinted so the knee wouldn’t bend. Her trouser leg had been cut away. The bandages showed some discoloration where she’d oozed through, but it was a big step up from moss and a dirty wool shirt.

“Well,” she said. “Shit.”

She made it up by degrees, hauling her butt onto the bedframe and sucking air through her teeth as she swung her damaged leg around. Her left boot fit, but the right foot was so swollen, it would have to stay bare. Tottering to her feet, she made it to the basin of tepid water, where she scrubbed herself as best she could with the rag she found there. Feeling less foul, she limped toward the door, but each thud of her heel against the floor pulsed black at the edges of her vision. Gritting her teeth, she changed direction and grudgingly seized the crutch.

It galled her to admit how much better that was.

While she was there, she belted on her saber out of habit.

Unfortunately, she discovered that the room was at the top of a flight of narrow stairs. She fumbled down them, catching herself every other step with the crutch. The saber did nothing to make things easier. With every impact, she found a new, more colorful epithet for Rackam. Not that it was his fault, of course. Still, it was a lot more satisfying to curse someone by name, even if that name should’ve been her own.

She could smell the ghost of bacon as she descended, which was plenty of incentive to carry on.

The stairs opened into a long, rough-timbered dining area in an inn or tavern or whatever they called it around here. A big, stone hearth crouched cold along one wall, yawning like a disappointed mouth. An iron chandelier hung askew, entombed in candlewax. Glass floats and storm lanterns were strung or nailed up in the rafters, alongside netting and weathered oars with names carved into them. The handful of battered tables were unoccupied.

A long bar ran along the back wall, and the tavernkeep leaned against it, idly cleaning a copper mug. He looked as bored as the place warranted. The tall sea-fey’s chin was grizzled gray. His nose was a hatchet, his hair hung kelp-thick past sharp ears, and his forearms writhed with tattoos.

“Mornin’, miss,” he rumbled. “Breakfast?”

Viv couldn’t remember anyone ever calling her miss.

His gaze sketched over her, brows rising as he spied the saber, then returned to the mug he was polishing.

“Bacon?” asked Viv.

He nodded. “Eggs, too? Potatoes?”

Her stomach grumbled aggressively. “Yeah.”

“Five bits ought to do it.”

She patted at her belt for her wallet, looked toward the stairs, and swore.

“I’ll get it next time. Worst case I climb those stairs myself.”

The man smiled wryly. “Don’t think you could outrun me, could you? You’d better fall onto one of these stools while you still can.”

Viv was so used to her very existence being an obvious threat that it was honestly startling to hear a casual joke at her expense, even such a mild one. She supposed clunking around on one leg tended to dull one’s fearsomeness.

As she accomplished the suggested maneuver, he disappeared into the back. Viv dragged another stool close enough to prop her bare foot on one of its low supports.

Drumming her fingers on the counter, she tried to distract herself by studying the interior further, but there really wasn’t much else worth marking. The sounds and smells from the back were all her mind could dwell on.

When the tavernkeep brought out a skillet and set it on the counter along with a fork and a napkin, she almost seized the hot handle with her bare hand in her hurry to drag it closer. The hash of potatoes, crispy, fatty pork, and two runny eggs was still sizzling and popping. She almost burst into joyful tears.

Viv caught him watching her devour the food from the other end of the bar and tried to slow down, but the potatoes were salty and rich with the egg, and it was hard not to shovel it in without pausing. The noises she made as she ate were not polite, but they were definitely sincere.

“Feel better?” the sea-fey asked as he slid the empty pan off the bar-top.

“Gods, yes. And thanks. Uh, I’m Viv.”

That wry grin again. “Heard when you came in. We’ve met, actually, but I’m not surprised you don’t remember. Not with all the commotion.”

She didn’t remember the commotion, but his amused tone made her wonder. “So, did the Ravens pay up my stay?”

“Hoped I’d see Rackam himself,” said the barkeep. “Still, the fellow he sent to put you up was practically a gentleman. Paid four days. Said you’d be able to foot it past that. I’m Brand.”

He held out a hand, and she shook it. They both had hard grips.

“Back to your ease then?” he asked.

“Hells, no. I’d go crazy. Um. Where exactly am I?”

His wry grin went all the way to amused. “Let me be the first to welcome you to Murk, jewel of the western coast! A very small part of the western coast. And this here is The Perch, my place.”

“Seems awfully quiet around here.” She’d almost said depressingly quiet.

“We have our loud moments when the boats are in. But if you’re looking to rest and recover, most days you’re not going to be bothered by the noise.”

She nodded and hopped onto her good foot, easing the crutch back under her. “Well, thanks again. Guess I’ll be seeing a lot of you.”

With hot food in her belly, Viv felt more herself. The thought of hobbling her way around a little of the town was a lot more attractive than it had been a few minutes ago. She rapped a knuckle on the counter. “Think I’ll take in the sights.”

“See you in ten minutes then,” said Brand.

Viv laughed, but she had to force it.

Excerpted from Bookshops & Bonedust, copyright © 2023 by Travis Baldree.

The post First Loves and Secondhand Books: Read an Excerpt From Travis Baldree’s Bookshops & Bonedust appeared first on Reactor.

Stevie Finegan of the Zeno Agency negotiated the deal with Executive Editor at Tor Books US Lindsey Hall and with Bella Pagan, Publishing Director of Pan Macmillan’s Tor imprint.

Of the acquisition, Hall remarked:

“Working with Travis Baldree and getting to know Viv the orc in her many forms through Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust has been a balm and a pleasure. In his books about orcs, dwarves, necromancy, and magic swords, Baldree also speaks to the deepest truths of humanity, centering the small but meaningful joys of life—like warm drinks, good books, and old friends—that make it all worthwhile. I can’t wait to see where his stories take us in the future.”

Balrdree enthused:

“It would be a vast understatement to say that I have been humbled and grateful for the incredible support, enthusiasm and kindness that I’ve received from Tor and Macmillan as we’ve worked together on my first two books. It has been a joy to get to know the fabulous team there. I’m beyond delighted to announce that I’ll be writing a further three books to be published by Tor as well. Thank you so much to everyone who has responded to my stories in such a positive way, and made this improbable journey possible. You have all changed my life.”

The first of the new books is planned for publication in Fall 2025.

Travis Baldree is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller Legends & Lattes, and its forthcoming sequel, Bookshops & Bonedust, as well a full-time audiobook narrator who has lent his voice to hundreds of stories. Before that, he spent decades designing and building video games like Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy, and Fate. Apparently, he now also writes books. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his very patient family and their small, nervous dog.

Buy the Book

Legends and Lattes

Buy Book

Legends and Lattes

Buy this book from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Target

Buy the Book

Bookshops and Bonedust

Buy Book

Bookshops and Bonedust

Buy this book from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Target

The post Tor Books Acquires Three New Fantasy Novels From Travis Baldree appeared first on Reactor.

Today, we turn our sights to Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes, a fascinating viral indie success that bypasses the “epic” lane of fantasy and sets off on its own road, leaving readers with warm and fuzzy feelings from dawn to dusk.

Of course, Legends & Lattes isn’t the first cozy fantasy to carve out a niche in the SFF scene. Still, the novel certainly took book Twitter and other bookish spaces by storm, scratching our collective itch to enjoy a satisfying story without dire drama or world-ending stakes.

Indeed, it often feels as if we’re swimming in grim, dangerous tales. House of the Dragon treats lives—particularly the lives of those outside of the ruling class—as disposable inconveniences. Rings of Power requires the world to be saved from an evil force of evil that is evil because it’s evil. (I’m being glib, of course, but there’s an inkling of truth to it.) At the same time, world-shaking stakes can brew intense personal stories, and I flock to them just as much as the next SFF fan.

And yet, sometimes SFF fans want to kick back and breeze through a delightful tale without worrying about what dark power lurks in the shadows waiting to destroy everything we love. Travis Baldree has treated us to such a story in Legends & Lattes, which makes the book a unique and potentially enchanting candidate for adaptation.

The Story So Far

Travis Baldree, audiobook narrator and erstwhile game developer, first published Legends & Lattes as an independent release. He completed the draft during National Novel Writing Month (lovingly abbreviated NaNoWriMo by those who follow and participate), and the final product would eventually become his debut novel.

Buy the Book

Legends and Lattes

Buy Book

Legends and Lattes

Buy this book from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Target

Legends & Lattes soon garnered the attention of reviewers, creators, and other SFF authors. Seanan McGuire praised the book on Twitter, giving it a nice boost in readership. Legends & Lattes became the proverbial talk of the town in some circles, and Baldree’s success careened into an eventual publishing deal from Tor. A new edition of Legends & Lattes just hit bookstores, and includes a never-before-published additional in-universe story.

Baldree is already hard at work on a second book. Same universe, different characters, though he promises a few cameos. Thus far, there’s no evidence pointing to a Legends & Lattes adaptation, but Baldree’s cozy fantasy deserves the on-screen treatment. I’ll tell you why in just moment, but if you need if you need a quick primer on the book itself, check out my Legends & Lattes review at The Quill To Live.

Cozy Coffee Shop Vibes

The story begins when Viv, an Orc Barbarian, hangs up her axe and opens a coffee shop. Armed with a Scalvert’s Stone (a mystical object removed from the head of a monstrous, spider-like Scalvert Queen), Viv travels to Thune and buries the Stone underneath her newly purchased lot. Placing a Scalvert’s Stone near intersecting ley lines is said to bring luck and fortune, and Viv hopes it will translate to success for her new cafe endeavor.

Viv’s business venture introduces her to helpful comrades. Tandri, a succubus, and Thimble, a rattkin baker, are among the charming cast.

Baldree’s novel follows Viv and her pals as they deal with the day-to-day operations required of a local coffee shop. There’s an overtone of humor to the proceedings because the fantasy village of Thune hasn’t ever seen, smelled, or heard of coffee… Marketing, therefore, becomes quite a challenge. A local protection racket provides a looming conflict, but Legends & Lattes smartly avoids getting bogged down in the local politics of Thune. Instead, Baldree weaves an elegant yarn about a protagonist seeking to redefine herself and reframe her ideas of success.

Legends & Lattes strikes just the right tone with the story it’s choosing to tell. It’s “a novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes,” as the original tagline states. As a limited animated series, I think it would make for perfect lazy Sunday viewing, watching episode after episode (maybe with a warm mug of coffee and some pastries to set the mood).

TV viewers are fickle, though, and the story might require minor tweaks to make it more viable for a streaming platform. Not to worry: I have a few ideas that wouldn’t compromise the narrative’s cozy integrity…

Expanding On Excellence

For Legends & Lattes to become a screen project and succeed, Baldree must be deeply involved in the adaptation. A few expansions to the source material would make sense to bring the story to a TV audience.

First, I’d recommend juxtaposing Viv’s former life with her entrepreneurial coffee-shop journey. We get tidbits of her former life in the book, mainly in the prologue and via run-ins with former battle companions. To understand Viv’s ambitions in opening the cafe, we’d need a more extended look at her adventures in walloping and slicing up monsters.

Now, I’m not suggesting we split the show between a hyper-violent depiction of Viv’s former life and the present in which she pursues her heartwarming second career. Instead, I think the story would benefit from the occasional scene that shows us—with careful restraint—the moments that motivated the change and drove Viv to pursue her passion. We don’t even need to see the aforementioned walloping and slicing. Perhaps flashbacks to quiet conversations huddled around the campfire would do, or to a tense interaction with a rival raiding party. Baldree drops plenty of glimpses into Viv’s past in the novel. An adaptation could widen our perspective and better understand her as a character.

Beyond Viv as the central protagonist, an adaptation could further explore the Legends & Lattes cast and their relationships. (Super minor spoiler, but there’s a subtle romance brewing alongside the coffee, and the show could delve into that element of the story to a greater extent…)

More Pendry the shy bard? Cal the hob carpenter? Sign me up. A Legends & Lattes adaptation would be a wonderful opportunity to expand on everything that’s great about Baldree’s already-impeccable narrative.

Vibrant, Colorful, Animated

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I hope any eventual adaptation of Legend & Lattes will be animated. Baldree’s novel bursts with color and impressive diversity, and a strong team of animators could breathe magical life into the world it creates. Top off the brew with some top-notch voice actors, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

On the other hand, imagine the budget that would be required for Viv and Tandri costumes. Thimble would need to be animated anyway, so a live-action version seems like a non-starter. Legends & Lattes deserves an all-star animation team behind the wheel.

Outlook: It’s A Longshot

I earned my writing chops in the gambling industry, so I know when a bet is spicy. I’d say this one’s pretty dang spicy, in my opinion—but an adaptation sometime in the near future is not a complete impossibility.

At this point, I think Legends & Lattes needs some time to steep. Now that the new edition is available, I imagine it’ll find new readers and there will be a resurgence of buzz. Perhaps the expanded fanbase will pine for an adaptation, and studios will take notice… But whether or not Legends & Lattes eventually makes it to our screens, I can assure you of one thing: the book itself is absolutely worth a read. Let me know your thoughts on a potential animated or live-action version, who you’d cast, and which elements and arcs you’d most like to see expanded!

A version of this article was originally published in September 2022.

Cole Rush writes words. A lot of them. For the most part, you can find those words at The Quill To Live or on Twitter @ColeRush1. He voraciously reads epic fantasy and science-fiction, seeking out stories of gargantuan proportions and devouring them with a bookwormish fervor. His favorite books are: The Divine Cities Series by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.

The post Legends & Lattes Is the Warm, Cozy Fantasy We All Need Right Now appeared first on Reactor.

Today, we turn our sights to Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes, a fascinating viral indie success that bypasses the “epic” lane of fantasy and sets off on its own road, leaving readers with warm and fuzzy feelings from dawn to dusk.

Of course, Legends & Lattes isn’t the first cozy fantasy to carve out a niche in the SFF scene. Still, the novel certainly took book Twitter and other bookish spaces by storm, scratching our collective itch to enjoy a satisfying story without dire drama or world-ending stakes.

Indeed, it often feels as if we’re swimming in grim, dangerous tales. House of the Dragon treats lives—particularly the lives of those outside of the ruling class—as disposable inconveniences. Rings of Power requires the world to be saved from an evil force of evil that is evil because it’s evil. (I’m being glib, of course, but there’s an inkling of truth to it.) At the same time, world-shaking stakes can brew intense personal stories, and I flock to them just as much as the next SFF fan.

And yet, sometimes SFF fans want to kick back and breeze through a delightful tale without worrying about what dark power lurks in the shadows waiting to destroy everything we love. Travis Baldree has treated us to such a story in Legends & Lattes, which makes the book a unique and potentially enchanting candidate for adaptation.

The Story So Far

Travis Baldree, audiobook narrator and erstwhile game developer, first published Legends & Lattes as an independent release. He completed the draft during National Novel Writing Month (lovingly abbreviated NaNoWriMo by those who follow and participate), and the final product would eventually become his debut novel.

Buy the Book

Legends and Lattes

Buy Book

Legends and Lattes

Buy this book from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Target

Legends & Lattes soon garnered the attention of reviewers, creators, and other SFF authors. Seanan McGuire praised the book on Twitter, giving it a nice boost in readership. Legends & Lattes became the proverbial talk of the town in some circles, and Baldree’s success careened into an eventual publishing deal from Tor. A new edition of Legends & Lattes publishes this November, and includes a never-before-published additional in-universe story.

Baldree is already hard at work on a second book. Same universe, different characters, though he promises a few cameos. Thus far, there’s no evidence pointing to a Legends & Lattes adaptation, but Baldree’s cozy fantasy deserves the on-screen treatment. I’ll tell you why in just moment, but if you need if you need a quick primer on the book itself, check out my Legends & Lattes review at The Quill To Live.

Cozy Coffee Shop Vibes

The story begins when Viv, an Orc Barbarian, hangs up her axe and opens a coffee shop. Armed with a Scalvert’s Stone (a mystical object removed from the head of a monstrous, spider-like Scalvert Queen), Viv travels to Thune and buries the Stone underneath her newly purchased lot. Placing a Scalvert’s Stone near intersecting ley lines is said to bring luck and fortune, and Viv hopes it will translate to success for her new cafe endeavor.

Viv’s business venture introduces her to helpful comrades. Tandri, a succubus, and Thimble, a rattkin baker, are among the charming cast.

Baldree’s novel follows Viv and her pals as they deal with the day-to-day operations required of a local coffee shop. There’s an overtone of humor to the proceedings because the fantasy village of Thune hasn’t ever seen, smelled, or heard of coffee… Marketing, therefore, becomes quite a challenge. A local protection racket provides a looming conflict, but Legends & Lattes smartly avoids getting bogged down in the local politics of Thune. Instead, Baldree weaves an elegant yarn about a protagonist seeking to redefine herself and reframe her ideas of success.

Legends & Lattes strikes just the right tone with the story it’s choosing to tell. It’s “a novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes,” as the original tagline states. As a limited animated series, I think it would make for perfect lazy Sunday viewing, watching episode after episode (maybe with a warm mug of coffee and some pastries to set the mood).

TV viewers are fickle, though, and the story might require minor tweaks to make it more viable for a streaming platform. Not to worry: I have a few ideas that wouldn’t compromise the narrative’s cozy integrity…

Expanding On Excellence

For Legends & Lattes to become a screen project and succeed, Baldree must be deeply involved in the adaptation. A few expansions to the source material would make sense to bring the story to a TV audience.

First, I’d recommend juxtaposing Viv’s former life with her entrepreneurial coffee-shop journey. We get tidbits of her former life in the book, mainly in the prologue and via run-ins with former battle companions. To understand Viv’s ambitions in opening the cafe, we’d need a more extended look at her adventures in walloping and slicing up monsters.

Now, I’m not suggesting we split the show between a hyper-violent depiction of Viv’s former life and the present in which she pursues her heartwarming second career. Instead, I think the story would benefit from the occasional scene that shows us—with careful restraint—the moments that motivated the change and drove Viv to pursue her passion. We don’t even need to see the aforementioned walloping and slicing. Perhaps flashbacks to quiet conversations huddled around the campfire would do, or to a tense interaction with a rival raiding party. Baldree drops plenty of glimpses into Viv’s past in the novel. An adaptation could widen our perspective and better understand her as a character.

Beyond Viv as the central protagonist, an adaptation could further explore the Legends & Lattes cast and their relationships. (Super minor spoiler, but there’s a subtle romance brewing alongside the coffee, and the show could delve into that element of the story to a greater extent…)

More Pendry the shy bard? Cal the hob carpenter? Sign me up. A Legends & Lattes adaptation would be a wonderful opportunity to expand on everything that’s great about Baldree’s already-impeccable narrative.

Vibrant, Colorful, Animated

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I hope any eventual adaptation of Legend & Lattes will be animated. Baldree’s novel bursts with color and impressive diversity, and a strong team of animators could breathe magical life into the world it creates. Top off the brew with some top-notch voice actors, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

On the other hand, imagine the budget that would be required for Viv and Tandri costumes. Thimble would need to be animated anyway, so a live-action version seems like a non-starter. Legends & Lattes deserves an all-star animation team behind the wheel.

Outlook: It’s A Longshot

I earned my writing chops in the gambling industry, so I know when a bet is spicy. I’d say this one’s pretty dang spicy, in my opinion—but an adaptation sometime in the near future is not a complete impossibility.

At this point, I think Legends & Lattes needs some time to steep. After the new edition hits shelves, I imagine it’ll find new readers and there will be a resurgence of buzz. Perhaps the expanded fanbase will pine for an adaptation, and studios will take notice… But whether or not Legends & Lattes eventually makes it to our screens, I can assure you of one thing: the book itself is absolutely worth a read. Let me know your thoughts on a potential animated or live-action version, who you’d cast, and which elements and arcs you’d most like to see expanded!

Cole Rush writes words. A lot of them. For the most part, you can find those words at The Quill To Live or on Twitter @ColeRush1. He voraciously reads epic fantasy and science-fiction, seeking out stories of gargantuan proportions and devouring them with a bookwormish fervor. His favorite books are: The Divine Cities Series by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.

The post Legends & Lattes Would Be the Warmest, Coziest Fantasy Adaptation Imaginable appeared first on Reactor.

Thankfully, fantasy writers and creators give us these spaces in droves. The genre brims with comforting, often whimsical cafes, and many of them make me long for a real-world equivalent. I’d love to nestle into a corner booth at all five of these fantasy cafes with a good book, basking in the ambiance and sipping on whatever delightful brews the owners have on offer…

Charon’s Crossing — T.J. Klune’s Under the Whispering Door

It may be a waystation for spirits passing into the beyond, but I’d prefer to visit Charon’s Crossing while I’m alive and well, thank you very much. If my dishes move around a little, jostled by a friendly ghost who has yet to move on? So be it. I’d feel safe and warm in the embrace of proprietor Hugo and his coffee shop companions.

Klune’s fictional cafe may be a bridge between worlds, but it serves a second purpose: comforting those impacted by loss. Family members of loved ones who passed away are drawn to the cafe and to Hugo, specifically, seeking solace and peace in the face of tragedy. It takes time, but Hugo and reaper Mei always find a way to help. Meanwhile, ghostly companions Nelson, Wallace, and Apollo learn valuable lessons as they observe the goings-on at the tea shop.

It’s not all heavenly at Charon’s Crossing, but Hugo does his best. The result is a much-needed refuge: a kindhearted, accepting have where the living to take solace in an aromatic brew while the dead learn to cope with moving on. I long for a visit, even for just an hour, to revel in the warmth that radiates through Charon’s Crossing.

Dex’s Tea Cart — Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Dex had a day job, and they were pretty proficient at it. But it didn’t quell Dex’s need for interaction and exploration, so they quit. Dex’s corporate colleagues wished them well, and the monk set out to purchase a tea cart and roam the land offering tea and advice to strangers.

What I’d give to be one of the strangers welcomed into Dex’s cart… The monk earns a modicum of microfame, their arrival eagerly anticipated and welcomes by the communities they visit. Dex becomes a therapist and tea matchmaker of sorts, lending a patient ear and proffering wisdom as best they can.

Sure, the promise of a tea selected just for me is alluring, but I’d cherish a visit to Dex’s cart for the conversation, the explorations of humanity’s troubles and my own struggles. Dex tailors their tea-cart experience to each visitor, showing appreciation for the individuality of their patrons. What advice might they give me? What problems would I discuss and how would Dex recommend I overcome them?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I’m sure answers would start to arise after a few sips of Dex’s tea and a few moments of conversational contemplation…

Legends & Lattes — Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes

Travis Baldree’s debut release came out mere days ago, and already it holds a special place in my heart. Legends & Lattes follows orc barbarian Viv as she quits adventuring in favor of opening a coffee shop in Thune, a city populated by all sorts of magical species. Leaving the barbarian lifestyle behind, Viv must surmount the challenges of opening a new business: advertising, hiring a staff, building a menu, renovating a storefront, and convincing Thune’s denizens that coffee is a tasty treat.

The final product? A charming cafe, the titular Legends & Lattes, complete with regular performances from a local bard, fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, and tasty coffee drinks. Viv and her comrades create a space that’s wholly unfamiliar to the typical Thunish resident, but the customers quickly come around thanks to the love and care the barbarian puts into the shop.

Imagine the tales told within the walls of Legends & Lattes as people from Thune and beyond stop in for a rest and a refreshing caffeine boost. I’d happily grab a seat at one of the tables constructed by Cal, the hob carpenter, and enjoy pleasant conversation with whoever happened to wander in.

The Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop — Avatar: The Last Airbender

This entry should come as no surprise if you’ve read any of my previous lists. Of course I’d find my way to the Upper Ring’s premier tea shop, were I to visit the Earth Kingdom Capital.

Let’s be real: this place would be my first stop during any trip to Ba Sing Se, just edging out the tree on the hill where Uncle Iroh quietly mourned his fallen son.

I’d stroll right up to The Jasmine Dragon and find a table with a view out of the structure’s wide-open doors, observing the bustle of Ba Sing Se. All the while, I’d happily allow Iroh to replenish my cup with more of whatever delicious concoction he has on the menu.

Who else could I trust to brew my tea with the delicious leaves and flowers of the white dragon bush instead of the poisonous white jade leaf?

The Eolian — Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind

Let’s cap things off with an epic finale, shall we?

Yes, yes: the Eolian is technically more of a tavern than a cafe, but I think it serves the same purpose. It may be more of a nighttime watering hole for students and staff of The University or the locals from surrounding towns, but in my mind it has that distinct coffee-shop flair, filling the same key role as a communal gathering spot.

I imagine myself as a mildly successful student of The University, scraping by on my rudimentary knowledge of Sympathy. After a day of classes and a brief sojourn to the library to cram a bit more knowledge into my brain, I’d make the walk to Imre, settle into a table with some friends, and enjoy a few games and drinks.

After a while, the place would quiet, and pipe-bearing bards would regale the crowd with song and pageantry, capping the evening off with entertainment.

The Eolian isn’t just some ho-hum open mic at your average local coffee shop. It’s a place for musicians to test their mettle, to live or die by the response of the audience. And I, for one, would be tickled to be in that audience for just one evening, listening to the musical mastery of the various performers. Should a certain redheaded bard arrive to pluck a tune on his lute and sing a haunting melody to an enraptured audience, well—that’s just a bonus to an already great night.

Originally published March 2022

The post Five Fantasy Cafes I’d Love To Visit appeared first on Reactor.

I cannot fully explain how ecstatic I was to be proven wrong.

[Spoilers ahoy]

What cinched it for me was how well Jim’s storyline was handled. Although I knew the actor playing Jim is nonbinary (the incredible Vico Ortiz), I also knew that Western media loves doing the “girl who crossdresses as a boy to become a pirate” storyline. So when Jim was revealed to be not-a-man, I was prepared for disappointment. And then, to my utter shock, the crew switched to using they/them pronouns. They did it as if it was perfectly natural and normal. No discussion, no debate, no transphobic remarks or internalized transphobia. In all honesty, I burst into tears. Not because I was upset, but because it was so unexpected and inclusive that I didn’t know what to do with my emotions.

We—queer and trans/nonbinary people—rarely get queercentric narratives in mainstream movies and television. I don’t mean we don’t get movies or TV with queer main characters or storylines, but that when we do they often center cisallohet people. Queerness is shown as alternative or deviant. It’s something non-queer characters constantly comment on or is used as worldbuilding or plot devices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFE8ASwxmpA

Bigots, racism, and internalized queerphobia exist in Our Flag Means Death, but those are framed as the deviant experiences. Inclusivity, diversity, and acceptance are the default. With Black Pete, Lucius, Oluwande, Jim, Stede, or Ed, we never have any big coming out scenes or discussions forcing the queer characters to convince the non-queer characters of the validity of their identity. The closest we get is Jim explaining that they aren’t a mermaid, a fabulous twist on the traditional Coming Out Story. The characters get to be queer without any qualifiers or push back. When Stede tells Mary he’s in love with Ed, he isn’t consumed by an identity crisis and she doesn’t guilt him about their marriage or recenter his revelation back onto herself. She just smiles and hugs him. I cried at that scene, too. (For a show this funny, it made me cry a lot more than I expected!) Every chance the show has to focus on cishet characters or wallow in The Struggle, it instead chooses to be unambiguously and joyfully queer. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being grateful for that.

As of this writing, we still don’t have official word of a season two, but HBO would be foolish to not renew one of the most popular shows on television. In the meantime, if you, like me, are craving more “the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one”, queer joy, and cozy acceptance, here are some Our Flag Means Death readalikes to tide you over.

Greenhollow Duology by Emily Tesh

Despite the lack of pirates, this series is probably the closest readalike to OFMD, tone-wise. You can’t get much grumpier than Tobias or sunshinier than Henry Silver. Tobias is a literal monster from legend and Henry is the charming love interest who sees through the gruff exterior to the kind man underneath. And there’s also the sinister Bad Boy lurking in the background waiting to mess things up for ol’ Tobias.

A Charm of Magpies series by K.J. Charles

This fantasy romance is darker (and more sexually explicit) than OFMD, but OH MY GOD it’s so good! In the first book, The Magpie Lord, we meet Lord Crane, aka Lucien, an exiled gadabout returning to England to claim his inheritance, and Stephen Day, a prickly magician cop. They’re pulled into each other’s orbits unexpectedly but inextricably. The tone is darker and more serious, but it’s also sexy and entertaining and is everything I love about K.J. Charles’ romances.

Kingston Cycle series by C.L. Polk

Another good match to tone is C.L. Polk’s excellent trilogy, particularly the first book, Witchmark. Set in an Edwardian-esque fantasy land, this series explores what happens in the fallout of a war led by a nation founded upon oppressing its magical citizens. It isn’t as funny as OFMD and spends more time on discussions on exploitation, abolition, and colonialism, but the romances—between Miles and Tristan, then Grace and Avia, and lastly Robin and Zelind—will hit many of the same beats as Stede and Ed, Oluwande and Jim, and Black Pete and Lucius.

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Ten years and one trans identity later, Peter returns to Neverland. His old rivalry with Captain Hook starts up again, this time with some heat under it. Queer pirate romance? Check! Becoming your true self regardless of what society has to say? Check!

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

If your favorite parts of OFMD were the ones where the audience hangs out with the crew as they tell ghost stories or have a flag-making competition and you’re longing for slice-of-life fics, Legends & Lattes should satisfy. A barbarian orc, Viv, takes one last job before retiring to open a cafe. In her new life, she gains a found family and a lovely slow burn romance. This is an action lite and charm heavy book.

In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens

This YA fantasy has an adorably fraught romance between a prince yearning to break free of his family’s low expectations and a merman with a dark past. Prince Tal and merman Athlen get a nice slow burn romance with plenty of emotional constipation, angsty feelings, and misunderstandings that lead to heartbreak. Like all of F.T. Lukens’ YA fantasies, this breezy read is as sweet as cake.

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Let’s switch to some science fiction, shall we? Both Shizuka and Lan could fill the “grumpy one” role, but they make such a great pairing that I can’t complain. Light from Uncommon Stars spends a lot of time on the transphobia directed at Katrina and her own internalized transphobia. However, Ryka Aoki still keeps the story centered on Katrina and her feelings. As Shizuka says, “you can’t control how people see you. All you can do is accept it, right?…if you feel that strongly about your truth, then there is no reason to worry about your existence at all.” If that isn’t the TL’DR of Stede’s queer journey then I don’t know what is.

Aetherbound by E.K. Johnston

Set mostly on a space station in the distant future rather than a pirate ship in the early 18th century, Aetherbound isn’t the most obvious choice. But hear me out. Pendt, like Stede, lives an unfulfilling life she desperately wants to escape. When she finally does, she stumbles into a queer found family that give her the validation and support she always wanted. She gets to fight back against oppressive Powers That Be while also learning how to be a caring leader.

The Kindred by Alechia Dow

Kindred is another that doesn’t have an obvious connection. This is also YA sci-fi, although it’s set in Florida in the present day. Joy, who grew up destitute but dreaming on her oppressed alien homeworld, is the serious one while Felix, the rich playboy alien, is the reckless one. But after they’re framed for murder and crashland on Earth, these two cute, queer teens build a found family out of trust and honesty. They help each other to grow and see their own potential.

Alex Brown is an Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post The Queer Joy of Our Flag Means Death appeared first on Reactor.

Thankfully, fantasy writers and creators give us these spaces in droves. The genre brims with comforting, often whimsical cafes, and many of them make me long for a real-world equivalent. I’d love to nestle into a corner booth at all five of these fantasy cafes with a good book, basking in the ambiance and sipping on whatever delightful brews the owners have on offer…

Charon’s Crossing (T.J. Klune’s Under the Whispering Door)

It may be a waystation for spirits passing into the beyond, but I’d prefer to visit Charon’s Crossing while I’m alive and well, thank you very much. If my dishes move around a little, jostled by a friendly ghost who has yet to move on? So be it. I’d feel safe and warm in the embrace of proprietor Hugo and his coffee shop companions.

Klune’s fictional cafe may be a bridge between worlds, but it serves a second purpose: comforting those impacted by loss. Family members of loved ones who passed away are drawn to the cafe and to Hugo, specifically, seeking solace and peace in the face of tragedy. It takes time, but Hugo and reaper Mei always find a way to help. Meanwhile, ghostly companions Nelson, Wallace, and Apollo learn valuable lessons as they observe the goings-on at the tea shop.

It’s not all heavenly at Charon’s Crossing, but Hugo does his best. The result is a much-needed refuge: a kindhearted, accepting have where the living to take solace in an aromatic brew while the dead learn to cope with moving on. I long for a visit, even for just an hour, to revel in the warmth that radiates through Charon’s Crossing.

Dex’s Tea Cart (Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built)

Dex had a day job, and they were pretty proficient at it. But it didn’t quell Dex’s need for interaction and exploration, so they quit. Dex’s corporate colleagues wished them well, and the monk set out to purchase a tea cart and roam the land offering tea and advice to strangers.

What I’d give to be one of the strangers welcomed into Dex’s cart… The monk earns a modicum of microfame, their arrival eagerly anticipated and welcomes by the communities they visit. Dex becomes a therapist and tea matchmaker of sorts, lending a patient ear and proffering wisdom as best they can.

Sure, the promise of a tea selected just for me is alluring, but I’d cherish a visit to Dex’s cart for the conversation, the explorations of humanity’s troubles and my own struggles. Dex tailors their tea-cart experience to each visitor, showing appreciation for the individuality of their patrons. What advice might they give me? What problems would I discuss and how would Dex recommend I overcome them?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I’m sure answers would start to arise after a few sips of Dex’s tea and a few moments of conversational contemplation…

Legends & Lattes (Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes)

Travis Baldree’s debut release came out mere days ago, and already it holds a special place in my heart. Legends & Lattes follows orc barbarian Viv as she quits adventuring in favor of opening a coffee shop in Thune, a city populated by all sorts of magical species. Leaving the barbarian lifestyle behind, Viv must surmount the challenges of opening a new business: advertising, hiring a staff, building a menu, renovating a storefront, and convincing Thune’s denizens that coffee is a tasty treat.

The final product? A charming cafe, the titular Legends & Lattes, complete with regular performances from a local bard, fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, and tasty coffee drinks. Viv and her comrades create a space that’s wholly unfamiliar to the typical Thunish resident, but the customers quickly come around thanks to the love and care the barbarian puts into the shop.

Imagine the tales told within the walls of Legends & Lattes as people from Thune and beyond stop in for a rest and a refreshing caffeine boost. I’d happily grab a seat at one of the tables constructed by Cal, the hob carpenter, and enjoy pleasant conversation with whoever happened to wander in.

The Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

This entry should come as no surprise if you’ve read any of my previous lists. Of course I’d find my way to the Upper Ring’s premier tea shop, were I to visit the Earth Kingdom Capital.

Let’s be real: this place would be my first stop during any trip to Ba Sing Se, just edging out the tree on the hill where Uncle Iroh quietly mourned his fallen son.

I’d stroll right up to The Jasmine Dragon and find a table with a view out of the structure’s wide-open doors, observing the bustle of Ba Sing Se. All the while, I’d happily allow Iroh to replenish my cup with more of whatever delicious concoction he has on the menu.

Who else could I trust to brew my tea with the delicious leaves and flowers of the white dragon bush instead of the poisonous white jade leaf?

The Eolian (Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind)

Let’s cap things off with an epic finale, shall we?

Yes, yes: the Eolian is technically more of a tavern than a cafe, but I think it serves the same purpose. It may be more of a nighttime watering hole for students and staff of The University or the locals from surrounding towns, but in my mind it has that distinct coffee-shop flair, filling the same key role as a communal gathering spot.

I imagine myself as a mildly successful student of The University, scraping by on my rudimentary knowledge of Sympathy. After a day of classes and a brief sojourn to the library to cram a bit more knowledge into my brain, I’d make the walk to Imre, settle into a table with some friends, and enjoy a few games and drinks.

After a while, the place would quiet, and pipe-bearing bards would regale the crowd with song and pageantry, capping the evening off with entertainment.

The Eolian isn’t just some ho-hum open mic at your average local coffee shop. It’s a place for musicians to test their mettle, to live or die by the response of the audience. And I, for one, would be tickled to be in that audience for just one evening, listening to the musical mastery of the various performers. Should a certain redheaded bard arrive to pluck a tune on his lute and sing a haunting melody to an enraptured audience, well—that’s just a bonus to an already great night.

***

Now that I’m refreshed, caffeinated, and done writing on my laptop amid a sea of fellow patrons, it’s your turn: Which fantasy cafes would you most like to visit? Let me know in the comments.

Cole Rush writes words. A lot of them. For the most part, you can find those words at The Quill To Live or on Twitter @ColeRush1. He voraciously reads epic fantasy and science-fiction, seeking out stories of gargantuan proportions and devouring them with a bookwormish fervor. His favorite books are: The Divine Cities Series by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, and The House In The Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.

The post Coffee, Tea, and Camaraderie: Five Fantasy Cafes I’d Love To Visit appeared first on Reactor.