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Because right things happen at the wrong time.
2023. Bought for $3.17 at Mythcon 53 on 8/4/24 after reading Legends and Lattes with considerable enjoyment. Reading this one for Rivendell Discussions on March 15, 2025.
A Mythopoeic Society Award for Adult Fantasy 2024 finalist.
https://www.mythsoc.org/news/news-2024-05-28.htm
The author on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CozyFantasy/comments/w5cu9k/im_travis_baldree_author_of_legends_lattes_ask_me/
“the noises she made were not polite but were definitely sincere.”
“the ghost of bacon”
Reading: “She was absorbed. She was transported. She was elsewhere.”
A nice sense of place. Normally I prefer fantasy in a recognizable world, like New Orleans in The Ballad of Perilous Graves, or any novel by Victor LaValle, but this one works though it’s completely made up.
The cover illustrations are intriguing, and the Chapter illustrations in lieu of titles are Cute and informative. I would love to see some illustrations of the characters and places described in the book. Where is fandom?
Sea-fey, stone-fey, dwarf, human, orc, ratkin, gnome, elf, goblin, ortheg, spineback, necromancer and her wights and thralls, whatever Balthus and Satchel are, rocktoads,
Town, town walls, shops (bakery, bookshop), The Perch, sea-side, piers, wharf, boardwalk, - also a map would be nice.
“A diamond with two branches like horns.”
Viv described as a “kid” - how young is she?
Similes that are completely imaginary, like a dog barking underwater, walking a tightrope after drinking a tumbler of brandy, pond scum by way of raw lye, a voice with “a sound like sand and syrup,” “Like ridin’ a horse made out of rocks,”
lassy bun = molasses bun (Newfoundland?)
magestone - power bolts and other powers
cantrip -
Satchel is a sort of first contact story, asking, is it (he) sentient? Has he free will? “How much is he like us, really?” ch. 22. Sci-fi trope in a fantasy novel.
Chapter 35, 2 new cool characters introduced with lots of humor. I like that. Berk LNU, and Zelda Greatstrider: “Her feet were bare, and she occupied all the space she deserved.”
“The story past the story,” at the end - “if you could read past the end?” Ch. 41 p. 327
“About books and mirrors and that perfect moment of feeling seen.”
“You’ve all read [Bookshops and Bonedust], and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We’re here to talk about it together.” Ch. 40 p. 319.
Dramatis personae:
Viv the orc maiden with tusks, or is that fangs?
The Ravens: Rackham, Lannis, Tuck, Sinna, and Malefico
Varine the Pale, a/k/a White Lady, a necromancer
skeletal revenant, Varine’s minions.
Brand the hosteler publican landlord of The Perch
Highlark the elf physician
Pitts the stone-faced orc
Iridia the tapenti Gatewarden
Potroast the gryphet at Thistleburr
Fern the ratkin bookseller at Thistleburr
Maylee the Sea-Song Bakery dwarf, former mercenary, traded her mace for a rolling pin; romantic object for Viv, very slow burn
Gallina the feisty gnome, wannabe mercenary
Balthus a former (human?) minion of Varine
Luca the dwarf prison guard
Satchel the bone-homunculus, servant of Varine (bound not to divulge her secrets) AND Viv AND Fern, activated by bonedust, talks with no larynx or vocal chords; reads a whole page at a time; has a droll sense of humor. When told he can choose, he chooses to clean and help organize the bookshop
Berk LNU, and Zelda Greatstrider
Nancy liked this
Viv,
Varine the Pale’s
Rackam’s Ravens,
the necromancer
She yanked her maul from its loop and went to work with both hands, crushing and shearing through the skeletal ranks with hammer and sword.
Simile double
skeletal revenant
Rackam
Viv
Haha
Rackam’s
Simile
the earth underneath was a churn of mud and blood.
Younger is always dumber, and wising up takes blood and time.”
Haha wisdom
No scars? Then it’s even odds that the first one they get kills them.”
her?”
the necromancer
kid.
Haha
Haha
Viv
Someone
Haha
She smelled the sea, and dry beach grass, and fish.
Haha
the ghost of bacon
Simile
tall sea-fey’s
Haha
Haha
Haha
the Ravens
Rackam
Haha
Brand.”
Murk,
The Perch,
Haha
Viv
Haha I can just see it.
THE PERCH
An old stone fortress wall surrounded most
Murk
marching uphill, with the town tu...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Uneven boardwalks stitched them together, and old, sparsely cobbled roads wound between, sifted over with sand in places.
Simile
Haha
A sudden, powerful sense of being left behind swamped Viv.
a troublesome kid.
She gritted her teeth and wrestled that feeling back down into the dark.
