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A review by jitsumi1221
The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
5.0
** I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is scheduled to be published on May 25, 2021 in the US. **
Possible Triggers:
Violence | Death | Gore | Crude Language
Characters:
This story is told from a single point of view (Kinch Na Shannack) the entire book. This is the first book in a planned trilogy.
Kinch Na Shannack: Our quick fingered, somewhat foul-mouthed, horribly indebted thief and main protagonist of the book. I adore him. There are so many things to dislike and like about him that on the scale you never know quite where he stands. I really enjoy his weirdly optimistic outlook on most of the crap that happens to him. I love the little quirks that make him a more detailed character.
Galva: I connect to this character on a deep deep…. personal hygiene type of level. I loved her sense of honour! I loved that she had a deep loyalty to many of the other characters in the book. I adored that she would step in with some witty amusing thing but in such a dry and humorless tone at the perfect moments. Personally, I think she was one of the coolest characters in the book and I can't wait to see if we learn more about her in the coming books. The best kind of knight - like a Paladin that you don’t want to strangle for being overly paladin-y (insufferable) in a D&D campaign.
Positives:
+ From the very first page there was already a delightful sense of humor running through the book. I was INSTANTLY hooked. First page, you got me. I need more.
+ I don’t generally enjoy first person POV, but this was expertly written. I loved slipping into a few hours of reading and for a while becoming Kinch Na Shannack. It was great being able to ride along his feelings through all the adventures (misadventures) he went through. I absolutely shed a few tears at some of his lows and was laughing in delight at many of his quips and smugness at succeeding at things unexpectedly.
+ I LOVED the use of magic in this book. Holy heck this is what i imagine a D&D campaign might read like if it was told by an awesome player character with way more of an imagination then i will ever possess. There were cantrips! Magic Items! Magically created beasties! So much more that i want to talk about but it starts getting into spoilery territory! I really adored all the magic users we got to meet in the story as well. Where can I get some of these magical tattoo’s btw?
+ You know when a fantasy story has lovely little snippets of songs or poems in it FROM that world? Sometimes you are lucky and they are amazing and give wonderful insight into the world - consider yourself very lucky to get to read these little nuggets of awesome in this story.
+ Completely unrelated to the actual story content (this is aimed at the acknowledgements) . . . SCARBOROUGH FAIRE? HECK YES SIR!
Final Thoughts:
Goblins! Giants! War corvids! Magic! Devious plotting! This book is a non-stop rollercoaster of action and laughs, mostly by way of sheer luck and crude wisecracks. I tore through the last 40% of the book like someone was threatening to light the book on fire (don’t light this book on fire, you will be upset you hadn’t finished it). If you have ever played a D&D campaign (or I guess listened to one on a podcast) then the magic in the books will seem familiar, as will the magic users. I loved this book. The characters were fun, the plot was interesting, and the action was intense! There were several creatures that I have heard of before but it was fun to see them take more of a front and center stage in this book, with a bit of history and culture all their own. How many other books have you read with strongly featured goblins; I can only think of 1 *waves at Katherine Arden*. This is absolutely going on my shelf of favorite thief characters, right next to Scoot Lynch’s Locke Lamora. While I won't be reading any of Christopher Buehlman’s horror works (I’m so sorry. I am a chicken, I can’t handle horror), I am so excited to read the following books in this series and hope that there will be many more fantasy works down the line. If you like “The Lies of Locke Lamora” or “King’s of the Wyld”, I strongly suggest this book (i suggest it even if you don’t).
Possible Triggers:
Violence | Death | Gore | Crude Language
Characters:
This story is told from a single point of view (Kinch Na Shannack) the entire book. This is the first book in a planned trilogy.
Kinch Na Shannack: Our quick fingered, somewhat foul-mouthed, horribly indebted thief and main protagonist of the book. I adore him. There are so many things to dislike and like about him that on the scale you never know quite where he stands. I really enjoy his weirdly optimistic outlook on most of the crap that happens to him. I love the little quirks that make him a more detailed character.
Galva: I connect to this character on a deep deep…. personal hygiene type of level. I loved her sense of honour! I loved that she had a deep loyalty to many of the other characters in the book. I adored that she would step in with some witty amusing thing but in such a dry and humorless tone at the perfect moments. Personally, I think she was one of the coolest characters in the book and I can't wait to see if we learn more about her in the coming books. The best kind of knight - like a Paladin that you don’t want to strangle for being overly paladin-y (insufferable) in a D&D campaign.
Positives:
+ From the very first page there was already a delightful sense of humor running through the book. I was INSTANTLY hooked. First page, you got me. I need more.
+ I don’t generally enjoy first person POV, but this was expertly written. I loved slipping into a few hours of reading and for a while becoming Kinch Na Shannack. It was great being able to ride along his feelings through all the adventures (misadventures) he went through. I absolutely shed a few tears at some of his lows and was laughing in delight at many of his quips and smugness at succeeding at things unexpectedly.
+ I LOVED the use of magic in this book. Holy heck this is what i imagine a D&D campaign might read like if it was told by an awesome player character with way more of an imagination then i will ever possess. There were cantrips! Magic Items! Magically created beasties! So much more that i want to talk about but it starts getting into spoilery territory! I really adored all the magic users we got to meet in the story as well. Where can I get some of these magical tattoo’s btw?
+ You know when a fantasy story has lovely little snippets of songs or poems in it FROM that world? Sometimes you are lucky and they are amazing and give wonderful insight into the world - consider yourself very lucky to get to read these little nuggets of awesome in this story.
+ Completely unrelated to the actual story content (this is aimed at the acknowledgements) . . . SCARBOROUGH FAIRE? HECK YES SIR!
Final Thoughts:
Goblins! Giants! War corvids! Magic! Devious plotting! This book is a non-stop rollercoaster of action and laughs, mostly by way of sheer luck and crude wisecracks. I tore through the last 40% of the book like someone was threatening to light the book on fire (don’t light this book on fire, you will be upset you hadn’t finished it). If you have ever played a D&D campaign (or I guess listened to one on a podcast) then the magic in the books will seem familiar, as will the magic users. I loved this book. The characters were fun, the plot was interesting, and the action was intense! There were several creatures that I have heard of before but it was fun to see them take more of a front and center stage in this book, with a bit of history and culture all their own. How many other books have you read with strongly featured goblins; I can only think of 1 *waves at Katherine Arden*. This is absolutely going on my shelf of favorite thief characters, right next to Scoot Lynch’s Locke Lamora. While I won't be reading any of Christopher Buehlman’s horror works (I’m so sorry. I am a chicken, I can’t handle horror), I am so excited to read the following books in this series and hope that there will be many more fantasy works down the line. If you like “The Lies of Locke Lamora” or “King’s of the Wyld”, I strongly suggest this book (i suggest it even if you don’t).