E-ARC, 432 Pages
Adult/ High Fantasy
By: Christopher Buehlman
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
“No crown sits so sure that a knife in the dark may not topple it.”
I have seen the hype this book has been getting and after being done with it I can tell you that it deserves every ounce of hype it can get! I was lucky enough to be provided by an ARC from the publisher through Edelweiss and as usual, that does not affect my opinions on this one.
The cover is the first thing that attracted me when it comes to this book and after finishing the book I appreciate the cover more because of the details that I got post-reading it and because it reflects the good which was great too.
The story follows Kinch who is an indebted thief to the takers guild and he is in debt because of his training so now the guild basically controls him. The book starts with him and a team setting an ambush for Galva who is a knight, a follower of the goddess of death and who is looking for her missing queen. Next thing they find themselves together on an epic adventure!
“When listening for danger, one must never mistake silence for safety.”
The writing is great! It is the first time I am reading a Buehlman book and I am very impressed, to my understanding that he is known as a horror writer and it is his first time dabbling into fantasy and he nailed it. The writing is obviously from a professional with experience. The narration is exclusively from Kinch’s point of view but when you get to know Kinch, you won’t ask for another POV! I expected a much darker tone but the author gave voice to one of the funniest characters I ever had the pleasure of reading but not to the point that it gets tiring. The way things were explained and foreshadowed was brilliant and I already can’t wait for book 2!
Now Kinch is an awesome character because he is hilarious but he is also three dimensional and you can’t help it but to care about him. He is smart but also gets in lot of trouble, he is strong but there are stronger people in his world. He is filthy with his tongue and love for cursing in all languages and the tendency to be juvenile and not able to hold his own self from laughing. But he is also nice deep down inside and really care for his family and friends.
The female characters in the book were well written too, they were not sexualized and they were stronger even than the male characters.
“Only the strong, the rich, and the dying think truth is a necessity; the rest of us know it for a luxury.”
The world building is great, the story takes place in many places and there are all kind of creatures and magic types that we get to discover. I was even surprised by the fact that a large part of the story takes place in the sea which I am not a big fan of but believe me that when it comes to Kinch, he can go on describing his every day life for a year and I won’t get bored.
I gotta mention one thing that I may have not been fair with, in one of my reading updates, I mentioned some info dumping at the beginning. 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. Retrogradely, I can tell that the important parts worth remembering were clear and I did not even had to make an effort to remember them!
“I was so scared, I half wanted to piss myself, but the difference between the strong and the weak isn’t that the strong don’t piss themselves. It’s that they hitch their pissy pants up after and go through with it.”
Summary: I loved The Blacktongue thief and I am sure many will do too when it is released. I was a big fan of the protagonist, the world-building, the writing and I am already looking forward to book 2!
The book prescription 