The Overuse of Cosy

Feb 2024 / Dec 2024
Legends and Lattes / Bookshops and Bonedust - Travis Baldree – Tor, 2022/2023
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They're so annoying. Those alliterative titles, clearly intended to evoke early roleplaying games (Dungeons and Dragons, Tunnels and Trolls, Call of Cthulhu). They're so trite and twee.

And yet.

The setting - about as generic a fantasyland as you can imagine. No history, no attempt to give character to the land in which the stories are set, barely a mention of political or religious institutions. Both books have cities with a city watch, but no indication of who controls them or how it all gets paid for.

And yet.

The peoples are standard fantasy fare, largely drawn from D&D. The characters are orcs, elves, dwarves, humans, gnomes and ratkin (Warhammer skaven). Oh and a "succubus" who from her description is actually a tiefling. There's some mild racism but otherwise very little to delineate them.

And yet.
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