Bookshops and Bonedust

Prequel to Legends and Lattes

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This is good! Like with Legends and Lattes, part of what makes this a good story is the diverse cast of characters. This one includes Gallina, the knife-wielding gnome, Fern, the rattkin bookshop owner, Maylee, the dwarf baker, Iridia, the tapenti Gatewarden, Potroast, Fern’s gryphet, Satchel, the bone homunculus, and Varine the Pale, the necromancer baddy. Having so many characters of various races is clever as it really does add dimension to the story.

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Before the pink of predawn, the storm blew itself out at the same time as the fire in her leg, and the straining muscles of her body collapsed into a tremorous unconsciousness. She slept hard. She slept late. And when she woke, she wanted to eat the whole world.

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This book is mostly about self-discovery and relationships but it has plenty of fight scenes and tense moments. Mr. Baldree’s prose is easy and straightforward and the love scenes are chaste which makes this a good book to read to kids. Especially because one of the through-lines is a love of reading.

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There are adult themes in this (like loneliness, physical pain, saying goodbye to people we love, the fear of being left behind, etc.) but the author deals with them in a way that can be understood by anybody.

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Potroast trotted into view, promptly leapt onto the chair, and curled against the gnome’s leg.

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“Aw, who’s this?” Gallina stroked the feathers between the gryphet’s eyes, and Potroast snuggled even closer. Viv was more nettled by that than she would ever admit.

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“That little gentleman is Potroast,” said Fern.

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Gallina made a face. “What’d he do to deserve that?”

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The rattkin laughed. “His real name is Pallus. My father named him after the Great Gryphon in The Fourth Wish as a literary joke, but I was little and couldn’t say the name right, so . . .”

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“You deserve better,” the gnome stage-whispered to Potroast.

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I like how the author tied things up at the end. It wasn’t obvious, and it was done cleverly and cleanly. I also appreciate the epilogue. I hope there is a third book the covers the ground hinted at in the epilogue.

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In the acknowledgments at the end of the book, the author says that the first book was written in a month, while this one was written three times. His original idea for this book, which he thought was great, turned out to be formulaic and was abandoned 20,000 words in. Thankfully, he kept going, eventually pulling characters and ideas out of the rubble of the first two attempts.

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When they had passed beyond the first line of oak, Viv called a halt and unslung the leather bag. Setting it on the ground, she fished inside for one of the bottles, popped the cork between her teeth, and dusted Satchel’s bones with a few gentle taps of a forefinger. As she resealed the phial, Satchel assembled himself in a pearlescent rush, flushing with crisp blue light as consciousness bloomed in his eye sockets.

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This is a solid cosy fantasy book that isn’t challenging in any way, but is a fun read.

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