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and_so_it_goes 's review for:
The Blacktongue Thief
by Christopher Buehlman
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If you like this book, you like it because it feels like a DnD campaign. If you don’t, you’ll list the same reason. I can understand someone ranking this a good 4 stars or even loving it, and I can also understand DNF-ing this and never picking it up again. This book is clearly a product of its influences. When I read the acknowledgment and saw the author was inspired by Patrick Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie, and George R.R. Martin, I was unsurprised. The plot is so chaotic and there are so many “side quests” that I could sense the invisible dice rolls. The author tries for the classic wise cracking male main character and doesn’t add anything to make him unique. There are hints of something there like the guild threatening his family , but they never go anywhere. I never got the sense that we were exploring a selfish and unreliable narrator with a heart of gold, only that this was another thief rogue that a college DnD campaign cooked up.
Worse are the side characters. There is a scene that is literally never explored at all whereGalva is implied to resent Norrigal for not fighting in the war. As well as many others not liking Kinich for the same reason, but that was minimally explored at least. Everyone has the same crass sense of humor. I can understand for the soldiers but why does Norrigal also have to have those moments? Literally no one has a different style of humor? I had to read the words “wreck your womb” from the main character and I wish I didn’t.
The romance lacked chemistry. I could care less.
This is also a grim dark that doesn’t want to be too adult. I am glad there aren’t copious descriptions of boobs and the world is less dark because of its main character’s humor, but it also makes the book a lot more stupid when piss is mentioned nonstop. I only kept reading because the worldbuilding had an explanation for the brutal world and the harsh characters, especially the parts about the Daughter’s War. Every nation had to be introduced with its signature cuss words and I could tell them apart by the various fantasy stereotypes Kinich recited a thousand times. I don’t need an incredibly detailed tax policy or new species in a fantasy book, and I liked that it played to its strengths. The magic tattoos were super cool.
Also, the entire scene with the Towers game andKinich selling his body was never mentioned again despite the horrible implications and felt like an excuse to info-dump a fantasy card game. It felt like a very baffling side quest that didn’t contribute anything to the plot. Like most of this book.
Worse are the side characters. There is a scene that is literally never explored at all where
The romance lacked chemistry. I could care less.
This is also a grim dark that doesn’t want to be too adult. I am glad there aren’t copious descriptions of boobs and the world is less dark because of its main character’s humor, but it also makes the book a lot more stupid when piss is mentioned nonstop. I only kept reading because the worldbuilding had an explanation for the brutal world and the harsh characters, especially the parts about the Daughter’s War. Every nation had to be introduced with its signature cuss words and I could tell them apart by the various fantasy stereotypes Kinich recited a thousand times. I don’t need an incredibly detailed tax policy or new species in a fantasy book, and I liked that it played to its strengths. The magic tattoos were super cool.
Also, the entire scene with the Towers game and
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, War
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Blood, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Racism, Rape