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Author Travis Baldree\u2019s coming back to Texas, and he\u2019s bringing the latest installment of his bestselling cozy fantasy series with him. After enchanting crowds with 2022 debut novel Legends & Lattes and its 2023 sequel, Bookshops & Bonedust, the former Texan\/current PNW-er became synonymous with this specific fantasy subgenre \u2013 the poster child for creating comfortingly ordinary situations in extraordinary worlds. Now celebrating the third installment in that world, Brigands & Breadknives, Baldree will be at BookPeople this Sunday, Nov. 16<\/a>, to speak about the series and sign copies.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m grateful to be associated with a genre,\u201d says Baldree. The \u201ccozy fantasy\u201d label made sense after Legends\u2019 release as it\u2019s a comforting tale of reinvention and community collaboration. Each page neatly packed the dream of reliable neighbors alongside mouthwatering descriptions of baked goods. For readers, the novel\u2019s hope for a collectivist culture could be felt as keenly as a craving for each exquisitely described cafe cinnamon roll.\u00a0<\/p>\n Baldree knew it\u2019d be easy to stay in that niche and keep writing books spotlighting new businesses in a world of orcs and rat-kins, elves and hobgoblins. Instead, he noticed his writing getting \u201cincreasingly meta\u201d about his personal fears around crafting new materials. Playing into that discovery, Breadknives moves further away from the tiny towns of his previous works. Main character Fern leaves behind her bookshop and sets on the road, all the while worrying about disappointing the friends she left behind. The story hits close to home for Baldree as he steps further into adventure-based plots and away from workspace slices of life. \u201cIt\u2019s not cozy,\u201d he admits, \u201cbut it\u2019s real.\u201d<\/p>\n This novel\u2019s not the first time he\u2019s ventured into the unknown. Before Baldree used a COVID-era NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to craft Legends & Lattes, he\u2019d been a lauded audiobook narrator. And before that? He was just another Seattle software developer. Granted, it was video game software for his own company, Runic Games, but there was always that storytelling connection. With Runic, he released the dungeon crawler games Torchlight and Torchlight II, but eventually Baldree branched out: \u201cIt was toxic \u2026 brutal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He started recording audiobook narration in his spare time \u2013 with equipment originally benchmarked for game voiceover \u2013 and found solace reading aloud tales of fantastical worlds for series like Charles Lamb\u2019s Alex Rogers Adventures trilogy or the increasingly popular Dungeon Crawler Carl saga. He\u2019s now done thousands of character voices, sampled and organized for the 300-plus books he\u2019s worked on.<\/p>\n Baldree\u2019s narrated characters carry weight, full of the small decisions he makes to help people imagine the world. His complex vocal choices became a little legendary after he went semi-viral with a 2023 video<\/a> comparing the stiffness of AI narration to his own nuanced takes. Even now, when AI seems more sophisticated, Baldree\u2019s not on board.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s trash,\u201d he says, \u201cmechanical and non-creative.\u201d He firmly believes AI misses the \u201clittle tells of humanity\u201d and can\u2019t replicate how the audience hears in real life. Microchoices are what make characters real. To him, \u201cideas are cheap. The only thing that matters is the expression,\u201d which human narrators create and is what makes people truly identify with the text.<\/p>\n Connection spurs loyal readers, as it definitely has for fans of the Legends & Lattes series. Once Baldree turned his creative attention to his own crafted worlds, the positive response was shocking. All in all, Baldree is just appreciative. In the past, especially when working in the tech field, Baldree says he always felt like an alien and different from others. But people reaching out after reading his words? \u201cIt makes me feel seen when people connect to [the books],\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brigands & Breadknives might be less cozy than previous entries Legends and Bonedust, but it continues the tradition of intense, character-focused storytelling Baldree\u2019s embodied so far. \u201cI\u2019m still concerned with persondom,\u201d he admits. \u201cNormal stuff is worth our time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n BookPeople Presents: Travis Baldree \u2013 Brigands & Breadknives<\/p>\n Sunday 16, BookPeople<\/p>\n bookpeople.com<\/p>\n