The Blacktongue Thief

“I was about to die. Worse, I was about to die with bastards.”

These first words of The Blacktongue Thief provide a pretty good idea of the nature of this wonderful book. Kinch Na Shannack is the speaker of these words and he’s the narrator of this tale. He’s a Galt thief, who owes a massive debt to the Takers Guild. He also has a bit of magic, which isn’t exactly common knowledge. Kinch is offered an opportunity to reduce his debt and is asked to either accompany or follow Galva, a Spanth he and his associates attempted to rob earlier. The task is supposed to take him to Oustrim but he’s not given much more information than to be there by a certain date.

Galva is an elite fighter, a hero in the Goblin Wars and she’s got her own fighting corvid to assist her in battle. In fact, her corvid was quite effective at repelling Kinch and co during their recent encounter. Of the group, it was only Kinch who got a single shot on target. For that, Galva has some respect for Kinch, and after some persuasion, they do set off together on the journey to Oustrim.

The adventure gets them into all sorts of tight places and situations and they acquire a few new members to the party along the way. Through it all, Kinch remains a steady character, with a bawdy mouth and a propensity to good luck. He’s also fond of a bit of verse and quotes it readily throughout. Not to mention he plays the fiddle a bit and is quite the entertainer. You wouldn’t call him a hero, exactly, but it’s his character that drives the story.

This book was a lot of fun and quite an easy read. It’s broken into many chapters, most of which are short enough for the reader to decide it might be okay to go for another one. The worldbuilding is quite immense, with attention to paid to the language. In some ways it’s reminiscent of Tolkien in that regard but just a bit less serious. KInch may not be a hero, but he definitely follows his own code and is serious in his worship of the God of Mischief. And there’s even room in his heart for a bit of romance. I mostly enjoyed the humour, which in some ways reminded me of Terry Pratchett, just on a different plane and with a filthier mouth. Speaking of which, if that sort of language is a problem for the reader, this book many not be a good fit. As for me, I found it fit the character and seemed as realistic as a fantasy character could be.

Overall this is a delightful read and I can see it will be worth rereading in the future, especially as the next books in the series are released. I give this 4.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for sharing an advanced reader arc in exchange for a fair review.