The Blacktongue Thief

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A proper trade town at a proper crossroads, it had an Allgod church crowned with a bronze sun, a huge tower to Haros topped with wooden stag horns, plus temples to a dozen other divinities scattered here and there. adds useful facts and opinions to the narrative as the narrator sometimes dips in and out of the action. Then there was the humour, the cleverly written turn of phrase, the outright absurd scenes, and even one harrowing scene.

There is a back story of political brinksmanship going on in the background that ties off the story really nicely, leaving us open for more installments. I had a fine fighting knife on the front of my belt; in a tavern fight, it would turn a geezer inside out, but it was useless against chain.

Some traditional fantasy fans may not like how dark and horrific it gets (I've read Abercrombie, Martin and Cook and the like… and this one is one of the darkest). As for the Spanth, she was off down the road like nothing happened past a scratch and a bloody shirt, but something had happened. If not for the brilliant use of humor to show depth (somewhat reminiscent of Abercrombie’s Glokta, but a bit more jovial) I think I would’ve lost patience with him early on. Buehlman surprised me at every turn, even shocked me on occasion, the originality I found in this book was extremely gratifying to see.

I was only a month in with this group, and we had robbed wagons with too few guards, kidnapped stragglers off groups with too many, and even sold a merchant’s boy to a group of crooked soldiers who were supposed to be chasing us. This allows for a more chaotic mix of magics with lots of imagination and excitement, and a real sense of awe/potential. Whether what follows after was the work of ill-luck, fate or forced by unseen hands is questionable, but our poor Kinch lands himself in more trouble than he ever bargained for. And now it was likely off to be sold for next to nothing and the two shytes who will have taken it so far ahead of me I had little chance to catch them.

Only that instead of being the hilarious, darkly delicious, fast-paced tale Evil Overlord is, The Blacktongue Thief is boring as fish, packed with useless blah blah blah blah, and slow-paced as shrimp. I blame myself for that because there were many new terms and I thought that I needed to remember everything but it was mostly part of Kinch’s humor and I just could not take things more simply. The Blacktongue Thief is fated to steal a lot of reader’s hearts with its charm, humor, intensity, and unrelenting fun; I look forward to seeing future readers enjoying this novel. This is a book of journeys, entertaining in and of itself, but also leading to an inventive conclusion. Some of my most favourite parts early on in the novel consisted of interactions between the Knight Galva, and Kinch.

Those statues will be carved from ash or hickory, with generous breasts on the goddesses and unthreatening pillicocks on the gods, except Haros, who will be hung like the stag he is, because everyone knows he screws the moon so hard she has to sink beneath the hills and rest from it. It bit at the glaive’s head twice, easily avoiding Pagran’s jab and not seeming to notice my missed arrow—these things don’t move predictably, and at twenty paces, an arrow doesn’t hit the instant it flies. Of course, when you have witches you also have magic and spells, and this book is full of them, and really cool ones too!The Blacktongue Thief was one of my favorite fantasy novels of the last few years - epic in scope, funny, and nail-bitingly tense. The author reads the audiobook and gives a fantastic performance, even though the audio quality isn't so good. A few sheepherders and root farmers faithful to the gods of sour frowns held down edgeward tables, talking low about rain and weevils, their never-washed woolens insulated with decades of hand-wiped meat grease.

The day a magicker peeks into the thought of commoners for some thin-skinned duke or king will be a bad day.I've touched on the humour and the fantasy elements which are both well-worked throughout, but it's absolutely worth noting that some of The Blacktongue Thief's standout moments are horror-tinged sections that play on the mind long after the eye has read those chapters. What makes these characters stand out is Kinch's relationships with them throughout the adventure that ensues after the novel's beginning showdown. Chock-full of wry wit, foul language, and characters who arrive on the page with savage, sordid pasts hot on their heels.