Audiobook Review – The Blacktongue Thief (Blacktongue, Book 1) by Christopher Buehlman (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Humor
Length: 12 hours and 26 minutes
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: May 25, 2021
ASIN: B08JGLBXWG
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in The Blacktongue Thief series
Source: Borrowed on Audiobook from Library
Rating: 5/5 stars
“Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path.
But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.
Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.
Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch now finds his fate entangled with Galva’s. Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on an epic journey where goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Blacktongue series. I borrowed this on audiobook from my library.
Thoughts: This was an absolutely blast to read. Lots of action and adventure and laugh-out-loud funny. I loved the quirky characters here, the well thought-out world, and all the adventure and magic. If you love swords and sorcery reads or books that read like an extra sordid Dungeons and Dragons adventure, I would highly recommend checking this out.
Throughout the story we follow Kinch Na Shannack, a crass-mouthed thief who owes a lot of money to the Takers Guild that trained him. When he tries to rob the wrong person he ends up coming face to face with Galva, a handmaiden of the goddess of death. Galva wants to restore her queen to the throne, the Takers Guild doesn’t want the queen restored. Galva hires Kinch to help her and the Takers Guild tells him to prevent the restoration of the queen. What follows is a crazy adventure across giant and goblin infested lands.
This was one wild ride of a story. I think it’s been tagged as horror a lot because the battles and injuries etc are described in incredibly gory and crass detail; which is honestly darkly hilarious. The whole story is highly entertaining and the turns of phrase that Kinch uses will have you wincing and laughing out loud all at once.
The characters are a huge part of the story and all quirky, dangerous, and hilarious in their own right. I loved them all even though they were all incredibly gray in their morals and deeds.
There’s a lot of adventuring here and it is loads of fun; you never know what crazy thing are characters are going to happen upon next. The world-building is comprehensive and well done; with a whole history of goblin wars and gods. We also get some fun asides to listen to folktales from various parts of the world.
I listened to this on audiobook and it was excellent. The author is the narrator and he does an amazing job. I could have done without all the parts where he sings songs. He doesn’t have a bad singing voice, it was just that the singing really jars you out of the story.
My Summary (5/5): Overall this book was an absolute blast to read and I definitely plan on continuing the series. I loved the world, characters, adventure, and humor throughout. Just be aware that descriptions can get pretty gory and no stone is left unturned when it comes to bad sexual jokes (or just bad jokes in general). This was a riot and I can’t wait to read the next book. Highly recommended to those who enjoy swords and sorcery fantasy with a lot of action, adventure, and humor.
