Canailles & Couteaux

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

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

Pourtant, même sur les chemins, l'auteur préserve une certaine ambiance caractéristique, avec un vrai soin apporté à ses personnages, à leur développement comme à l'évolution de leurs interactions qui ont suscité chez moi tout autant d'affection et d'investissement que les précédents romans. L'ensemble sonne juste : les doutes et les tensions persistent, mais quelque chose se construit peu à peu, en dépit - mais peut-être aussi grâce, aux insatisfactions et aux décalages qui ne disparaissent pas magiquement. Et la plume reste pleine de sensibilité, souvent chaleureuse, tout en intégrant des moments d'action et de vrais passages dramatiques.

Avec cette troisième histoire, l'auteur trouve un intéressant équilibre pour se renouveler dans la continuité en quelque sorte, explorant un peu différemment son univers de fantasy.

An enjoyable continuation of the author's series, this time involving a different cast of characters. Fern, the foul-mouthed bookseller from a previous book, shifts her bookshop to be next to Viv, now running a successful café. But running a bookshop was really her father's dream, and she has a sense that it isn't really what she wants in life. After getting drunk, she acts on impulse and 'hitches a ride' with a renown elf on her way to deliver a bounty on a goblin with a predilection for kitchen utensils. Thus, begins a 'cozy' adventure for Fern that would change her outlook on her life.

What starts out as a way for Fern to 'get away from it all' for a while as she figures out her future, gradually turns her into a fellow adventurer with Asteryx, the elf who, having lived a long life, now seems to be going through the motions that made her a famous warrior. Zyll, the goblin, is also an enigma, since she has the opportunity to escape several times during the course of the journey, but never does. She also has the ability to hide all kinds of utensils in her coat of pockets.

Things begin to get serious when Fern discovers that other are also after Zyll for her bounty; and one has a personal reason to kill Zyll, and will not let even a famous elf stand in their way. From then on, the three adventurers begin to depend on one another to finish the journey. And in the process, both Fern and Asteryx discover their reasons for living the lives they want.

Does anyone want a “cozy” story about the grief of disappointing your friends, and the agony of saying “no”?

Maybe it's my age, but I think I can always deeply appreciate a story centered on the idea of a change in life direction--there's a job that's consumed you to the point of you making it your identity and suddenly it's taken away from you (see: Bujold's Memory), or where a fulfilling job that your family and friends all expect you to do that has lost its luster, or when you've been doing the same job for hundreds of years and who would you even be if you weren't doing that. I am just a sucker for stories about new directions.

It's not that Viv wasn't changing her life in Legends & Lattes, but she wasn't really struggling against herself: she knew she wanted to hang up her sword and open a fantasy coffee shop. It doesn't quite resonate the same way as Fern's struggle does in this book, and it makes this book much stronger. Honestly, I most appreciate that this Travis Baldree book has an answer to the "how do I change my life when it's not working" question that doesn't end directly in fantasy small business. I also appreciate that Astryx and Fern are both thematically struggling with their own relationships with their own work, and have different answers to that question.

This is still a fluffy story (and if L&L wasn't your thing, I don't know that I'd recommend this one to you), but this is absolutely the strongest book in the trilogy for me.

Additional minor rambling:

Because Zyll is an uncontainable goblin menace and Astryx is on a hopeless quest to contain her while somehow bringing her to justice, it creates a nice plot dynamic. Astryx doesn't have to be the terrible mercenary out to get a bounty on a loveable side character--it can be comic relief where Zyll escapes her bonds but then comes along anyway. It removes some seriousness, and makes it more about the relationships between the characters. And, Zyll at least gets some explanation in the end for her behavior, so it's not entirely fluff either.

(I think also you might want to have read Goblins & Greatcoats to get an introduction to Zyll and the titular breadknife. It's not that important, but it also makes that appearance of the titular breadknife even more random without that morsel of backstory.)

If I had any negatives, it's that I still squint so hard at the economics of this world. The threat in this story is that friends will be disappointed in you. There is very little worry around the fact that you (and your friends) have invested huge amounts of money in opening a bookstore business in a new town. In some ways, I feel like the small business capitalism aspect of these books undermines the cozy flavor that it's going for. I think there's just a dissonance to me where concerns about money are brushed under the rug and there's an assumption that everybody and everything will be fine without any worldbuilding or explanation for why that is.

A very strong entry in that series. It went into a different direction than I thought. It's much more of a traditional fantasy story than the previous books. Nevertheless, we still get a cozy vibe. I really enjoyed being emerged into this quirky world again. There were plenty of amusing and funny scenes and characters. I recommend it (but you should read or listen to the previous two books in the series), especially the audiobook, once again read by the author in a very entertaining way.

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

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

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

I did quite enjoy the evolution of the relationships, and Zyll the goblin was an especially interesting character, but it was hard for me at times to like Fern. Being accused of being 'chronically dissatisfied' felt apt, and I don't entirely feel like that description was ever really fixed. The ending/epilogue tied off some of the emotional loose ends, but I feel like a bit more could have been done to show Fern slowly coming into what it is she truly wanted instead.

Not at a bad read at all; not something I'll probably re-read though.