James Nicoll Reviews

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

High fantasy, low stakes – with a double-shot of coffee. 

After decades of raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian is finally hanging up her sword for good. Now she sets her sights on a new dream – one that involves pulling more shots than punches. Armed with hope and a hard-earned secret, she plans to open the first coffee shop in Thune. 

To build something that will last, Viv needs a new crew. She enlists a gruff hob builder shunned by humans, and a shy baker whose cinnamon rolls are to die for. Then there’s Tandri, a charming succubus who’s determined not to let anyone assume anything about her. 

But Thune has a shady underbelly that keeps goading Viv to take up her sword once more. New enemies threaten her beloved coffee shop and rag-tag team. And Viv’s adventuring past isn’t so eager to leave her behind – or the fabled piece of loot she took with her. 

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree is a cosy, heartwarming slice-of-life fantasy about found families and fresh starts – perfect for fans of TJ Klune, Katherine Addison and T. Kingfisher.

Growing Up Weightless by John M. Ford

Out of print for more than two decades, John M. Ford’s Growing Up Weightless is an award-winning classic of a ​“lost generation” of young people born on the human-colonized Moon. 

Matthias Ronay has grown up in the low gravity and great glass citadels of independent Luna — and in the considerable shadow of his father, a member of the council that governs Luna’s increasingly complex society. But Matt feels weighed down on the world where he was born, where there is no more need for exploration, for innovation, for radical ideas — and where his every movement can be tracked by his father on the infonets. 

Matt and five of his friends, equally brilliant and restless, have planned a secret adventure. They will trick the electronic sentinels, slip out of the city for a journey to Farside. Their passage into the expanse of perpetual night will change them in ways they never could have predicted…and bring Matt to the destiny for which he has yearned. 

With a new introduction by Francis Spufford, author of Red Plenty and Golden Hill. 

Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure.