Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Blacktongue Thief

I enjoyed this! I was a bit hesitant about it at first, since I haven’t really been reading much fantasy lately, and I was worried I was going to discover that my tastes had changed more than I thought… but I had nothing to fear, this was a lot of “fun” (I hesitate using the word as there are lots of really horrible things that happen in this book… but as a whole, it was entertaining and “lighthearted”). I really appreciated that the author took the opportunity (often) to joke around and show that this wasn’t a story to be taken too seriously.

Thank you to Goodreads and the publisher for a complimentary advanced copy.

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nebulasaurus's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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catsy2022's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Rating: A

I didn't even write my review before I returned the damn book... I really enjoyed this one, the writing was very digestible, the world was so richly developed and the characters were endearing.

This is my first book by this author but I've heard good things about Between Two Fires as well, which I also have.

Kinch na Shannack is a thief trained by the Takers' Guild but unable to pay them for the cost of training (kpop trainee company much), so now is indebted to them. One day he and his gang choose a mark, an Ispanthian soldier who surely and promptly knocks the shit out of them and spares Kinch. He is then tasked with going on the journey with the Spanth by the guild, with an assassin-adept sent to encourage him. Along the way they also pick up some other companions.

This was a really fast-paced book, NGL. Something is always happening and it doesn't exactly feel like a waste of pages. I felt like it did really serve to build more of the world and to develop the characters. In what could have been another generic fantasy novel, there are so many unique elements that drew me in.

In the backstory of this world, humanity has been at war with the goblins for literally decades. Some nations have an uneasy truce with the goblins, who tend to live underground in big warrens, yet also can take to the sea. They remind me a bit of what darkspawn came to be in Dragon Age. In the war, horses were almost completely massacred but mostly died to a sickness (which is a bit like mad cow disease AFAIK).

There are a few words here and there in the various languages and some helpful explanations of what accents sound like. There are tonnes of poems and songs and some mystery around the pantheon of gods.

I was reading this book alongside another one about a sneaky dude, so I did get a bit confused between the two, but this does stand out as its own thing. The comedian thief has almost been done to death but Kinch has such a rich perspective with his backstory and culture giving him a funny voice. I did like the small parts where characters react to him, especially when he laughs about something he's thinking of and they all look at him like he's insane.

I seriously loved the world building in this. The first few pages have a map, calendar and year cycle to give context to the passage of time. The magic system was so so interesting with several different sub-schools and capabilities.

If there was something to criticise, the book happened to just be full of conveniences. The characters find a bunch if items and clues that are practically all utilised once in the story so you can pretty much tick off each item as coming up. Even some big mysteries from the past are solved in this book, like we are doing side quests and they play into a bigger picture...but like immediately.

Isn't that lucky? Some of the jokes didn't quite land for me and even though I like songs, we will never hear then despite the sheer number of them...

Still it seems this book will definitely scale up. I'm in for the sequel/s

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emma_em's review

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Holy moly was this was an amazing read! Right from the start I was hooked into this world of Kinch and his unexpected quest in a well layered world that I found so interesting. I loved the familiar tropes of fantasy that were turned upside down, built upon and smashed down again. Blending dark humour, bloody violence and high adventure together for a compelling and unique story with characters and scenes I won’t ever forget, especially the whaling moment with vengeful kraken nor when a character is taken by a mob hungry goblins!

I recommend this absolute bonkers journey to fans of Jay Kristoff, Terry Pratchett and Joe Abercrombie

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chilefry's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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thehappylittleelf's review

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Someone else, either on Goodreads or here, mentioned the book felt like side quests in a video game, and that very much is true. It certainly feels like someone wrote down their D&D campaign. Every scenes, I was waiting for someone to say, “Roll for initiative!”

However! It’s not necessarily a bad thing. The voice of the main character is great, as is the humor. If you like a series of small stories with a very loose overarching plot with a mouthy main character, you’ll love this.

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luckykosmos's review

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dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I would have liked more from the plot, but Kinch's voice is second to none - the only way I could describe this is 'The Name of the Wind' by way of Locke Lamora and Gideon Nav. The worldbuilding was exquisite and the ways the characters bounced off one another was divine - the main flaw was that i wanted more from all of it.

(Especially Galva. So much more of Galva, please.)

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unlikelyplaces's review

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

I have a lot of thoughts on this book…

Let’s start with the things I liked:

The world building was really solid, it felt really well fleshed out and interesting
I actually really enjoyed the plot overall, it was fast paced and kept me interested the whole way through and if it wasn’t for the negatives (which I’ll get to) I’d definitely want to be carrying on with this series
The action scenes were really well written, exciting but clear

Now for the negatives…

The characters… I am a very character driven reader and actually the snarky thief archetype are my favourite characters to read about however I found this main character just unbearably annoying and the rest of the characters were not really developed very well at all so there was just no one I felt attached to
There were just a few things to do with the writing that really bothered me. Like it wasn’t too bad overall but the author does this thing where he feels the need to end every chapter with like a LINE like the equivalent of “everything changed when the fire nation attacked” *dun dun dunnnn* and also chucks the same type of lines in throughout the chapter as well just to really try to shock you. I don’t know why this bothered me so much, it was just so repetitive…
I really hated the way this book portrays the female characters. It started with the mc constantly commenting on women’s appearances and what he would like to “do” with them and then it was like the mc was a man and all of the other characters were women that were underdeveloped and that the mc spends a lot of time ogling. And THEN the romance started and it was just cringey and at one point he describes a woman’s voice as “husky and fertile”… her voice… was fertile??… I’m not even sure what that’s trying to mean??
There is also a scene that deals with a sexual assault but I felt like the topic was not treated sensitively because the victim was a man which is not ok…
And then just a minor thing, it was marketed as like a dark fantasy/horror but like I didn’t find it that dark? Like it was a bit but not as much as I was expecting? Maybe I just have a high tolerance though.

So yeah… I was really expecting to love this book a lot because from the description it’s everything I love on a book but it just irritated me a lot throughout so… 1.5 for the world and the story but I will not be continuing this series.

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