Quaint Creatures
Magical & Mundane (Sideways Tales)
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Quaint Creatures
Narrated by:
Andrew D Meredith
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Narrated by:
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Andrew D Meredith
About this listen
When a city councilor comes into Quaint Creatures and asks veterinary doctor Norrik Softstep to investigate the magical crate confiscated by his customs agency, the entire staff of Quaint Creatures will need all their skills and knowledge to unravel the troubles threatening the relatively peaceful city of Brightfall.
From liches seeking city approval for their public adventurer dungeon, to strange goings on at the pet food factory, no problem is too magical nor mundane for Rik and his friends.
©2024 Andrew D Meredith (P)2024 Andrew D Meredith
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Great narration, and quality story telling
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Quaint Creatures: Magical and Mundane is a charming little book about a giant named Rick with his magical elvish wife who run a pet shop and vet clinic together. The book focuses on small adventures they have of running a business, incidents around town and slowly a larger plot comes into focus as odd occurrences around town are more connected than they seem.
I loved this book. I didn’t know if I would, but this was really delightful. As with his Needle and Leaf books, Meredith knows how to pace his stories well and doesn’t push them farther than they can go.
At the heart of this story is relationship between Rick and his wife Eavalyn. They don’t have a perfect marriage but they have a very good marriage and it was nice to see a relationship so normal and blossoming in a book like this. Seriously I can’t emphasize how much I enjoyed this part of the book. They have disagreements and differences they have to work through, being different races of creatures and all, but they’re very compatible with each other.
Also Ricks assistant in the vet office is the dwarf Hamitch. (A criminally underused name in fantasy if you ask me.) Their banter back and forth was amusing and if I’m being totally honest, Hamitch reminded me of some grumpy coworkers I’ve had.
The plot works as more of a series of vignettes that collage together to make a bigger story. This is exactly what you think you’re getting, with one big exception. Personally I didn’t find this book to be sentimental. My assumption about cozy fantasy books was that they would be syrupy sickly sweet “marshmallows on my maple syrup covered honey slathered chocolate bar” sentimental. Gross. And this book isn’t. While it doesn’t have dealthy demons or quizzical quests, what it does have is the nobility of an everyday life. There is an honor, unglamorous though it may be, in working a normal job, taking care of a family, and loving those around you. This is a good thing. (Think Our Town by Thornton Wilder) Rick tries to do the right thing, tries to love his wife, and helps out those around him. Even if that doesn’t involve slaying damsels or rescuing dragons (….wait a minute….) it does deserve our attention, even if only for two hundred pages.
The book is also quirky and funny. It feels like fantasy zootopia with the sheer variety of creatures and kinds, many of which are colorful and creative. There’s a good bit of culture that’s developed between different races in small but meaningful ways. To be honest, this reminded me of parts of the Dresden Files with the quirky fantasy creatures being dealt with in amusing ways.
I really enjoyed this. I didn’t think this would be my favorite Meredith book (full disclosure I didn’t plan on reading this one, but I thought I’d try something different) but I’m glad I did. Well worth the read and if you give Meredith the $5 or $15 for this book, he won’t waste your time. He will very much make it worth it. This is probably my favorite book I’ve read so far this month.
I don’t like cozy fantasy, but…
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Coziest of Cozy Fantasies
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