Legends & Lattes And Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

    Remember last year when Cozy Fantasy was the rage?  Now it seems that Romantasy has taken the "Latest Fad" crown. Which is fine, but I have to admit I DNF the #1 example of Romantasy The Fourth Wing. However, the #1 example of Cozy Fantasy, Legends and Lattes, I absolutely loved and the recently released Bookshop and Bonedust continues that love affair, The main protagonist and the first-person narration is Viv, a war weary orc in Legends & Lattes and a young warrior looking for fame and fortune in Bookshop & Bonedust. 

    First let me give a shout out for the fabulous cover art by Carson Lowmiller for both books. I do love a cover that gives you an image of the characters. These are characters are familiar to any serious fantasy reader. Still, it nice to see an artist rendering to help with your imagination. 

        What both books have in common is excellent pacing and plot development.  And a love for Baked Goods. And the importance of Friends.  

       

Decided to try to Learn the Thai Language, wish me luck!!!!

 

     As if learning a new language is not hard enough, trying to learn Thai is a real challenge as it will require rote memory in a brain where that is not its strong suit at this stage in by life.  The main killer is the 72 characters in the Thai alphabet. The second killer is there are no spaces in written Thai. So, a sentence is written out as one continuous Thai characters stream. What you see in the picture is a phonetic version of the Thai sentence, as I learned in my first two Thai language class, which I signed up for in attempt to give my life a little bit more structure. 

     Yes, I began to feel like my life had become a bit unmoored.  I fell into the "Staying up Late and Sleeping most of the Day" like I was back in my 20s, not like my true old man age of near 67. (Oh, it hurts type that!)  

    So, when I found a Thai language course that I could easily afford that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 90 minutes, I thought to myself there is my anchor. It helps that the teacher, Ms.Jom, is entertaining and informative, and not afraid to correct you when your pronunciation is off.  

  My fellow classmates are all young, in the range of 20 to 30.  One of the easiest visas to get for person under 50 is an Education Visa for 15 months. The two main options are a Language or a Muay Thai Boxing school. Either one will kick your ass. I am the only old guy in the class, but everyone is super nice. 

   So, what are my goals? To be able to do easy tasks without the use of Google Translate and have short breezing conversations with the local community.  Don't think I will be reading any books in Thai, but I hope signs should be an easy goal to attain. As it is I figured out the " buy one get one" thanks to a local clerk at the Big C, my local market. Hope by the end of the year I will be able to read instead of guess sale signage. 

 

Penric & Desdemona- One of my Favorite Novellas Series

 I will start off by helping those not into the literary world as much as I or many other readers with the official description of the Novella.  I myself spent many decades not knowing, throwing everything into the Novel/Short Story duology. A novella ranges between 10K to 50K words, or roughly 100 to 199 pages, just long enough to sink your teeth into and finish in a weekend. 

     Which brings me to the Penric and Desdemona Series.  The world this novella is set in is the same as Lois McMaster Bujold's World of the Five Gods Trilogy, which starts with The Curse of Chalion. The good news is you can read the Penic stories without reading the novel series. In the now 12 novellas stories, the world is explained as needed to flesh out the story.  

    From the get-go I fell in love with main character, who in Penric's Demon ,  the reader will met a young man not too happy with his life prospects.  Then a happenstance changes everything for Penric. There is a bit of the very reliable "Fish out of Water" trope in the first novella but is the succeeding novellas each one employs a different plot device to add to the reading enjoyment. 

Here is the Penric and Desdemona in order, 12 so far: 

“Penric’s Demon”
“Penric and the Shaman”
“Penric’s Fox”
“Masquerade in Lodi”
“Penric’s Mission”
“Mira’s Last Dance”
“The Prisoner of Limnos”
“The Orphans of Raspay”
“The Physicians of Vilnoc”
The Assassins of Thasalon
“Knot of Shadows”

 “Demon Daughter” 

    All are priced at the $3.99 price point, which for a novella is the sweet spot of price point.  Nothing gets my blood boiling then the $11.99 price point for a novella. 

     The latest story in the series, Demon Daughter is as delicious story as they come. One that tugs on the heartstrings and makes the reader feeling better for the rest of the week, if not the month, after reading it.