Read All The Books Aaaaaah! discussion

Please be good!

So this is the new model for the cosy fantasy genre, and it's about an orc warrior who decides to quit adventuring while she can and retire to a town and open a coffee shop in a place that has never known coffee. (In this world, it's a gnomish drink.) It's definitely a coffee-lover's book, full of descriptions of the characters enjoying the smell, taste, and atmosphere of coffee.

Unlike a cosy mystery, which tends to get to the murder pretty quickly, this one is very leisurely-paced, with most of the book up until now concerned with buying supplies and property and renovating a livery into a café with a single hired hand. Aside from him, there's only been a compulsively-sweeping neighbour, and a brief run-in by a representative of the local organised crime boss, come to sign her up for their protection racket. But she's just put out an ad to hire a barista, so I assume the other character on the cover will be introduced soon (a bit late, around 20% in).

On the matter of the protection racket, she's very dismissive of it at first, being a seasoned adventurer, until her hired hand reminds her that it's the property she should be worried about, as it's not fireproof. Don't know if this means she'll be paying the extortion at first or not, but there's probably a confrontation to come at some point.

I like it so far despite the slow beginning. There's a low-key mystery about this special stone she extracted from the final monster she fought in the very brief prologue. Don't know what it's for, but she's keeping it safe and hidden, and we get reminded of it every so often.

Her hired hand is skeptical about the coffee, calling it "bean-water", which is amusing enough, except I think she probably should have pointed out what he should have been able to see for himself just by looking at them, that they're not actually beans at all, but seeds. Also, her explanation of how you turn these "beans" into a drink is a bit awkward considering brewing tea is common in this place, and she doesn't compare it to tea-brewing at all, nor does he recognise it as similar.

Little nitpick here, when she's pouring water into the coffee machine:

She filled a kettle from the water barrel, opened another door along the top, and carefully decanted water into the reservoir.

Unless that water has dirt or mud in it, "decanted" is the wrong word. Decantation is pouring off the decantate (the lighter liquid at the top) without getting any of the heavier sediment or precipitate that's settled on the bottom. Decanters (such as for liquor that contains bitter sediments that settle to the bottom) are designed to make that process easier. It's not just a fancy word for "poured".

Nice book of a sort that I've read before, like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, or some of the Discworld books where characters introduce a modern technology or service to their fantasy world. Here, they're introducing coffee, cinnamon rolls, biscotti, automatic fans, and now chocolate-filled croissants, and Tandri has an orgasmic reaction to the tastes, like in some anime I've seen.

More nitpicks, though. I mentioned the "beans" before when referring to coffee, and although that's the English idiom, would people really want to try a drink that someone says is made out of roasted beans? Coffee is the dried, roasted seeds of the coffee cherry, not beans.

And don't use the word "bemused" when you mean "amused". Bemused means confused.

And please stop using the word "decadent" to describe food. That's just disgusting. It literally means full of decay. It became associated with rich things by social critics because rich things are supposedly the product of a civilisation in decline and decay, like the Roman Empire, and the people who indulge in them are supposedly gluttonous. It was meant pejoratively, and there's nothing positive about it.

The town's beloved coffee shop goes up in green magic flames -- obviously malicious arson -- and though the authorities speak to her about it, we hear nothing of what they say or ask her.

And no one lifts a finger to help when Viv spends at least an hour walking back and forth from the well with a bucket to put out the remaining smoulders so she could try to retrieve her magic good luck stone in the ruins. No explanation why no one helped, when there had been a crowd of people there who liked her shop. I guess the author just didn't want to have to write a scene of her shooing them all away once the flames were out so she could get her treasure privately.

The crime boss here is called The Madrigal, which seemed strange for a non-oligarchy. The only madrigals I know are medieval songs designed to be performed by multiple singers working together, not a single singer.

But I looked it up and found that it was derived from matricale meaning "maternal", which makes sense, since this Madrigal is a motherly woman.

Good book! I enjoyed it quite well despite the nitpicks, and despite the fact that Viv and even her old crew decide to just let that arsonist get away with his crime (and nearly killing Viv and Tandri in the fire, as they were trapped inside and had to break their way out) and his theft of the Scalvert’s Stone, just assuming that he wouldn't come back since he got what he wanted, and leaving it to karma to let him get what he deserves. The town authorities were never mentioned again, even though one would expect there to be some kind of investigation. I get that the whole theme of the story is an orc putting aside her violent lifestyle and settling down, but I think that pushes pacifism a little far. Really, I think it might have been better just to not have a violent crime like that in the book at all.

Anyway, what we end up with is an ideal found family and an improved and expanded modern cafe/bakery/electric guitar music venue, and Viv gets a live-in girlfriend. I'd read more like this.