Review: Dryads and Debtcollectors
By: Mike Roberti
Travis Baldree has carved out a niche in the fantasy community with his fantasy stories Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust. These cozy stories feature fantastical characters in everyday settings and have challenged the way many of us view the Fantasy genre. This upheaval of the status quo is no more present than his newest book—Dryads & Debtcollectors.
It would be easy to pan Dryads as another cute book about innocent romance and self discovery. It isn’t. Not just that you shouldn’t pan it as that, it literally isn’t that. At all. This is a book that makes you take a long hard look at yourself (and your spending habits) and no amount of marvelous fantasy trappings can really change that. It’s kind of terrifying, actually.
First of all our debt-laden protagonist, Zeila the dryad, receives a lot of magical phone calls. Sure, they are mostly from unknown numbers, and she can choose not to answer, but there are a LOT of them. And then once she starts receiving ethereal whisper mails from Narkanan the Devourer asking about her outstanding late payments? Honestly, I had to put the book down for a while.
Then there are the several chapters where Zeila just kind of sits around at work, not really sure who to talk to about her situation. Sure, her work is guardian of an eternal forest and there are great side characters like Little Pip the baby displacer beast. But it really doesn’t detract from the somber tone of the book. For example:
“Why Zeila is sad? Pip!” said Pip.
Zeila sighed and looked down at the 13 missed calls on her wooden phone.
“I’m in trouble, Pip,” she whispered.
“I can help! Pipip!”
Look at that. There is nothing cozy about that. Eventually Zeila tries to make other money sometimes through traditional means—like her stint as a tree house cleaner—and other times through less savory methods—like her attempt at running an OnlyFauns account.
Later, Zeila has to move forests with a tearful farewell where she is forced to confront her parents and explain how she found herself 13627 gold coins in debt.
It turns out she has been taking out loans and making bad investments on Robinhood and Acorn. I’m not sure if Mr. Baldree was trying to be cute there and just didn’t realize those are already investment apps, but you know what? It didn’t really break my immersion.
There’s a lot of self reflection and staring out windows as it rains during this part of the book, and ultimately I guess the solution was satisfying? Like in the way declaring bankruptcy is satisfying? Because that’s what happens. That’s how it ends. And literally, I don’t really know that Zeila learned that much from her situation.
So I guess the question is, would I recommend this book?
No.
No I would not.
(Editors Note: After extensive research, it has been determined that there is not (and never was) a book called Dryads and Debtcollectors. This article must be the result of a collective fever dream of authors… nay an entire population of fantasy lovers.)
Mike Roberti
From the time he was young, Michael loved books and words.
Born in Maryland, and living there until 9, he found an early love of books and poems, and the librarians of Laurel, Maryland knew him by name. Later, after moving to Florida, he has fond memories of ignoring teachers’ lessons and pillaging classroom libraries instead.
Eventually, forming a punk band with his best friend, they put out a few EPs and even did a full Florida tour. As the lyrics writing bass player, he eventually got the confidence to become the vocalist. When the band eventually broke up, Mike did the only two things he could think to do: learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons and go to college.
Over the last 10+ years, Mike found his way to North Carolina and has been: teaching, getting married, having two kids, and playing tons of DnD. Most importantly, started writing the world of Aithe.
*All Porridge Report articles are satire and should be taken with humor in mind. If offense is taken, please let us know in the comments and we will rectify.
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