I recently finished the audiobook version of "Brigands and Breadknives," the third entry in the "cozy fantasy" series by Travis Baldree that began with "Legends and Lattes."
The much-deserved runaway success of "L&L" of course launched countless hopeful copycats, and from what I've heard, pretty much of all them have fallen far short of Baldree's books.
This makes perfect sense, as it seems there was quite a rush to create a whole genre (the aforementioned "cozy fantasy") around what was at the time only one single published novel. Or so it certainly seemed.
Even though I greatly enjoyed "L&L," I was rather hesitant to move on to its follow-up, "Bookshops and Bonedust." After all it was advertised as a "prequel" to "L&L," which to me, kind of signalled that Baldree was already out of ideas as to how to move his main character's (Viv the Orc) story forward.
However, I did give it a chance, and ended up really enjoying that book, too.
So, when "Breadknives" came out, I decided to read that one, too. However, I was already in the middle of some other books (see previous posts), so I waited a bit before pulling the trigger on the audio version.
I'll say right now that I wish I'd listened to the previous two books this way, too. Baldree is a voice actor, so it's no surprise that his narration is entertaining and skillful. That being said, the one element that I found a little tiresome in this latest work of his did involve "speaking." Specifically, it involved magical blades that could speak aloud when unsheathed.
Talking Swords are not a new concept in fantasy fiction, but I've always been a bit averse to the trope. In this book especially, the idea wears a bit thin, especially once there are two such enchanted weapons travelling with the main group of characters, and after a while it feels like both of them are constantly chiming in.
I will say that until I looked it up after my drive home one day, I was dead certain that Travis Baldree was the voice actor behind "Daxter" from the PS2 "Jak and Daxter" video game series. It turns out that he was not, which I guess tracks since that game series began quite a long time ago (sigh), but I am almost certain that Baldree used Daxter as the template for the titular "Breadknife's" voice.
While the overabundance of Enchanted Chattery did annoy me a bit, I was almost as entertained and charmed by this entry in the series as I was by the previous two, and that's more than enough to keep me interested in the next book, should Baldree decide to write one.
Of course, I'll go straight to the audio version next time.
As for my other reading "projects," I am about 80% finished with "Batman: Resurrection."
This book hasn't quite provided the relief from disappointment in the latest "Black Company" book ("Lies Weeping") that I was hoping for.
I'm still determined to finish it, and it's not a terrible or even slightly bad piece of work, but it does kind of feel like someone's supremely competent homework assignment.
The goal seems to be to work Clayface and Hugo Strange into the world of the Tim Burton Bat-films, and it does so rather well, but after a while, I get the sense of a watching a check-list being completed rather than enjoying and exciting Batman adventure story.
Ah, well. Better luck with the next (non-Batman tie-in) book, let's hope.
I also recently Ebay'd a complete run of the "Justice Machine" comics from Comico, including the 4-issue "Justice Machine featuring the Elementals" mini-series. I've read enough of the series before to know that what was done with the series ended up having several differences between what writer Tony Isabella (and others) decided to do with the story compared to what I've read through several times in my beloved "Heroes Unlimited" JM sourcebook, but that's fine. The sheer volume of pages of (mostly) Mike Gustovich's art will easily put a balm on those minor injuries to my head canon.
Also delivered to me via Ebay is the "DNAgents" sourcebook for the classic "Villains and Vigilantes" RPG. I never actually got to read more than an issue or two of that series back when it was coming out (or since), so this will be a fun way to "review" the material while also getting a kick out of seeing the characters' "write-ups" in good ol' V&V.
Okay, that's enough for now, I guess!
