The Sword and Laser discussion

**Minor spoilers**
I finished a few days ago and have been mulling over why I'm not as taken with this book as the majority in the group. (Full disclosure: I'm not a coffee drinker.)
I think I've come to the conclusion that I just don't know enough about Viv or the world she lives in.
Lots of things are hinted at but I could really use some more backstory. She was an adventurer. Regale me with some tales.
I understand wanting to start the story at her entering Thune but how about some interstitial flashback chapters with some backstory. Just some vignettes in italics would do.
Flesh out the bonds with Gallina and Roon. Foreshadow how dangerous Fennus can be before he returns. Tell me of Viv's life changing first taste of coffee. Help me understand why Viv *cannot* fail in the new venture and go back to that life.
And when the scene arrives where the hero tells the prospective love interest 'You don't know all the terrible, awful miscellaneous things I've done...' I confess, without some examples, I eyerolled at that point.

I know the tag line is "High Fanstasy & Low Stakes" but for me the low stakes meant low engagement. I need to be a bit worried for Viv, and for that I need to know enough about her to care what happens to her.
I felt like brave Sir Robin begging Travis Baldree for just a little bit of peril and him dragging me onwards shouting 'No. Definitely not. Don't become attached to my protagonist. Don't acknowledge her flaws. That's much too perilous.'

Also at no point does Thimble wear a hair net in the kitchen and that's just a public health nightmare.
3 Stars.

The short story on Travis Baldtree's website is a Viv back story.
Pages to Fill: A Legends & Lattes Short Story
https://travisbaldree.com/pages-to-fill

The next book in the series is also a Viv back story.
It will be about Viv recuperating from battle injuries in a Bookstore.

Synopsis:- (Book Blurb) (view spoiler)[When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn't always what we seek.

Set in the world of New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.

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.

(hide spoiler)]

I felt similarly about the book, tbh. There just wasn’t enough of a sense of the world and the backstory to get me really invested. It reminds me of a coffee shop alternate universe fanfic story, where the author assumes that all the readers are already familiar with the characters and setting so they don’t bother to describe them in any detail.
(For those unfamiliar with the coffee shop au, check out this article that describes their huge popularity in the fanfic world: https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/mille...)

Wow. That’s a fascinating little article about a genre I never knew existed. It explains a lot about this book.

Tassie Dave wrote: "The short story on Travis Baldtree's website is a Viv back story.
Pages to Fill: A Legends & Lattes Short Story
https://travisbaldree.com/pages-to-fill "

The prequel short story was included in the book I had, which is probably why I didn’t have a similar reaction to Pumpkinstew.

Do even books come with day one patches now?

Pumpkinstew wrote: "Do even books come with day one patches now?"

Hm...it's been a decade or so but I recall my wife reading a day-one release of a Percy Jackson book (or spinoff, memory is dim) that was so full of typos that Amazon sent an email telling people how to re-download.

I rounded up a 3/5 stars to 4. & the short story at the end of the audiobook that Trike mentioned & Dave linked to had a lot to do with it. I felt like if the novel were a movie it would've been rated PG if they cut the few f-bombs out. I prefer my books to be a bit more rated R. I did enjoy it, though. I don't know how much the excellent narration had to do with it. I thought a male narrator was an odd choice, but he's the author (I just realized) & he was brilliant! I'll happily read more Travis Baldree, but cozy fantasy is not a genre I plan to seek out.

Pumpkinstew wrote: "Do even books come with day one patches now?"

Yes. And some books are published with different content for to certain stores. When I pocked it up, Barnes&Noble had an exclusive edition that included Pages to Fill. Same price as the non-exclusive edition.

Jasper Fforde's website has long had upgrade kits (errata) available for his Thursday Next books. It's a fun in-universe way to add information and corrections.

Do those who wanted some backstory like huge books? It's not uncommon among fantasy readers/authors, but I thought being dropped into the story at this point made sense. I think a lot of the backstory just relies on the fact that there are a lot of ways a fantasy reader could be familiar with Viv's past life as a sword-wielding orc in an adventuring party. Whether that's other books or DnD or videogame RPGs or whatever, I figure there's enough to Viv to have the reader build a perfectly serviceable backstory.

Seth wrote: "Do those who wanted some backstory like huge books? It's not uncommon among fantasy readers/authors, but I thought being dropped into the story at this point made sense. I think a lot of the backst..."

I thought there was plenty of backstory in the book itself, but the short story flashback filled out the impetus for her to start her own coffee shop without being unnecessarily wordy.

I’m constantly railing against books being too long, so I’m not one who prefers doorstops. If the short hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have missed it, but it was nice to have. I kind of wonder if he wrote the scene and then removed it, replacing it with the brief prologue.

I'm slowly reading the book, and not really feeling much excitement about it. The low stakes are just not giving me any impetus to keep reading or find out how the story ends. Everything, so far, gets resolved in a quick, simple way, except the relationship. That feels like it is dragging on for quite a while.

I do love coffee but find the pace of explaining how they come up with modern expressos and cafe americanos too quick. It took many years and many people to come up with the modern coffee tropes we take for granted, but it just takes on genius ratkin or mechanical-inclined gnomes to add those advances in a day or two. I find this book more an eye-rolling experience for me.

This cracks me up. Hey, it's a fantasy so we're okay with Orcs, Dwarves, Succubi, Gnomes, Medieval raiding parties / bounty hunters, but coffee? That's a cup too far!

I think asking for a backstory with violence or whatever misses the point a bit. Viv is completely fleshed out early on in the book. She’s tired. She doesn’t want her old life back. She barely even wants to talk about it. It’s really the perfect starting point for what this is.

And it honestly surprised me. I’ve never read one of these “cozy fantasy” stories before. I dig it. I wanna know what other low risk things happen to these characters.

The short story at the end goes back to their old battle days.

Seems to be very much a book that hits differently depending the "doors" you prefer when reading...

I realy loved how light and fluffy and not very deep or complex it was. Maybe that means I am mostly an "atmosphere" or "mood" reader (if that's even one of the doors)...

It's very much character driven and the characters are enjoyable.

I'll read more in this universe.

Don't mess with my coffee! I want my coffee with half & half, no sugar, and historically accurate! :-)

Half of what and half of what?

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "Half of what and half of what?"
It's half milk and half cream.

Blended coconut milk and maple syrup in my coffee normally. I also use the same keurig grinds twice to cut down on some caffeine.

Cut down on caffeine?

@Richard

I agree to a certain extent. Rolling SteamPunk into the world and blaming it all on gnome artificers just doesn't work for me.

Several years ago I was diagnosed with a heart condition and cut out caffeine completely. One odd side effect is that I changed from a night owl to a morning person:)