THE BLACKTONGUE THIEF by Christopher Buehlman – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
Series: Blacktongue #1
Published by Tor Books on May 25 2021
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 416
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A bawdy, irreverent and joyful adventure, The Blacktongue Thief is an excellent start to an exciting series.

When listening for danger, one must never mistake silence for safety.

Color me surprised and delighted by Christopher Buehlman’s traditional fantasy debut! I wasn’t sure what to expect but I did not expect this. Buehlman takes a familiar fantasy trope—the hero’s journey—and twists it in new and exciting ways. You can’t tell by looking at the cover, but this book is hysterically funny in places, and I enjoyed every bit of it. However, The Blacktongue Thief is by no means a fast paced story, which might deter some readers. There is plenty of action to be found, but Buehlman takes his time introducing the world and characters, and the pace slows down at times as he delves into the details. But if you love stories that are full of fantastical beasts, magic, bloody fights and unusual relationships, I think you will love this too.

The story is told by Kinch Na Shannack, a Galt thief trained by the Takers Guild. Like many such thieves, Kinch is deep in debt to the Guild and he’s been branded with a tattoo on his cheek that will remain there until the debt is paid off. But now the Guild has a job for him: embark on a secret mission and the Guild will pay off his debt. Once he arrives at the far off city of Oustrim, he’ll be given further instructions, but Kinch will not make the journey alone. Joining him are a Spanth woman named Galva who fought in the Goblin Wars and is protected by a magical war corvid, and a witch named Norrigal whose beauty and strong magic capture Kinch’s heart. Galva has her own mission—to find a missing queen and restore her to her rightful place, thus crushing the ever powerful Guild.

But their journey will not be easy. The threat of goblins and giants dog their every step, and a hidden assassin seems to be controlling all of Kinch’s choices. Kinch will do anything to escape the Guild, but what chance does he have against such an all powerful entity?

The Blacktongue Thief is packed with impressive world-building, interesting characters and plenty of surprises. Kinch is such a great character, he’s smart and resourceful and quite the smartass as well, and even though he hates the Guild he’s beholden to, he also feels a sense of duty to pay off his debt once and for all, no matter how hard that turns out to be. There are many different gods in this world, and Kinch’s god is Fothannon the god of mischief, represented by a fox, and I love the way he continually bargains with him during the story, especially when his luck runs out. Kinch’s people, the Galt, are born with black tongues, hence the title of the book. Kinch has all sorts of cool quirks, and one of my favorites is his love of a particular coin called a Gallardian owlet (the story is full of people from many different cultures and places, and each one produces their own types of coin). Every time Kinch finds one—or steals one off a dead body, as is often the case—he’s like a kid on Christmas morning!

I really loved Galva’s character as well. She’s more of an enigma than Kinch and has several secrets she’s trying to keep hidden. I’m very fond of the “mismatched group of characters join forces and go on a journey together” trope, and Kinch and Galva couldn’t be more different, and yet they develop a grudging respect for each other along the way. We also meet a whaler named Malk who has an old grudge against Kinch, and their relationship is shaky to say the least. But eventually I came to really like Malk, especially when he ends up joining them on the journey to Oustrim.

The world-building appears to be your standard fantasy fare—at first. Readers will recognize such elements as magic, witches, goblins and giants, magic tattoos and more. But Buehlman has some interesting tricks up his sleeve, like the way the Spanth’s beloved horses were killed off during the Goblin Wars, and how rare it is to see a horse these days. In the beginning of the story, Kinch saves a blind cat and names it Bully, and Bully turns out to have some surprises of his own. I loved the complex relationship Kinch has with the Guild. Because of his debt, he has a tattoo of an open hand on his cheek, a tattoo that can only be seen by firelight. The gist of this tattoo is that the first person to spot it in a tavern can slap Kinch on the face and get a free drink, sort of a weird drinking game. Despite the fact that Kinch must abide by this rule, he still goes into taverns on a regular basis and tempts fate, which says a lot about his personality. There’s also a really cool card game in the story called Towers, and I wish it existed in real life because it sounds like so much fun!

At one point, Kinch and his travel companions must cross the sea during their journey, and so they buy passage on a whaling ship. This was hands down one of my favorite parts of the story, and it reminded me a little of R.J. Barker’s The Bone Ships. I love a good seafaring story, especially when you have a character like Kinch who tends to make enemies whenever he opens his mouth. Kinch, Galva and Norrigal are forced to help the crew of the Suepka Buryey kill a whale—which is not what they signed up for, by the way—and their monotonous sea journey turns deadly very quickly, especially when an uninvited guest shows up.

And I can’t finish this review without mentioning Buehlman’s wonderful prose. It seems as if the author had so much fun writing this story! The vivid imagery and detailed world-building simply leap off the page, and combined with the hysterically funny dialog, it was a joy to read. At times the story takes on a theatrical feel, as if it had been written for the stage (which doesn’t surprise me because Buehlman has written and performed for Renaissance festivals), and I imagine this would be an excellent audio book as well.

The action in the second half of the story is relentless, as the characters face bigger and bigger dangers along their journey, and a few shocking surprises are revealed at the end. Like many of my favorite stories, some things are resolved and some aren’t, and that’s OK because this is only the first book in the series. Let’s just say that Kinch’s journey isn’t over, and I can’t wait to see where he goes next.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.