Review: The Blacktongue Thief
Opening
I coincidentally had already read Between Two Fires some time back, and my friends recommended The Blacktongue Thief. The quick plot summary of The Blacktongue Thief is that an unlikely duo go on a quest together through a land recently torn apart by a war with goblins: Kinch Na Shannack, who is a member of the thief’s guild, and Galva, a stoic knight from a deeply martial cultural background. The reader’s perspective is a first person narration from Kinch.
Kinch’s cynical and snarky voice
At first I was quite annoyed at his narration. It’s a lot of cynicism, snark, and crude lowbrow humor. Eventually the first person immersion of Kinch’s personality starts to feel authentically him. I genuinely chuckled at certain things Kinch would say, or certain things Galva would respond back to him with. I like how honest Kinch is about how grimey he is, but honorably grimey:
“I’ll lie to you when it doesn’t matter, but I’ll also lie for you when it does.”
I also liked the thieving/sneak lessons Kinch has picked up along the way:
“When listening for danger, one must never mistake silence for safety.”
The cynical insights from Kinch grew to be amazing and thoughtful at times, like the one below, something I’ve often thought about even outside of monarchy and just raising kids one day:
“Monarchy is a bad system because, no matter how smart you are, you can still squirt a moron out of your plumbing. Maybe you get lucky and your son or daughter is at least half as smart as you—what about your grandchild? Probably a knob, and when they inherit the throne, everything you built falls to shyte.”
To be fair, I had recently read Herman Hesse, who is very very serious. So reading this and adjusting to Kinch’s voice after Steppenwolf took some getting used to.
Episodic pacing
The idea of two people hitting the road on a quest makes for the beginnings of a great journey and read, but I found each episodic stop where Kinch and Galva run into trouble along the way to their goal rushed. I was hoping for a bit more breathing room, but across five-ish episodes that read like a Dungeon & Dragons campaign, it’s hard to do without an extra 250 pages perhaps. I also felt that most of the episodes had no real narrative consequence or a major impact on the ending. Since the progress didn’t build upon itself in any meaningful way, most of it felt like skippable side-quests.
Galva saves more than just Kinch
The relationship between Kinch and Galva is a slight saving grace for the book. Galva as a character I enjoyed much more. I thought her tattoo magic raven was a unique and pretty badass design, and the physical sacrifice she undergoes to summon it gives it convincing stakes. Her history with the goblin war, and us living in the aftermath of it, kept me starving for more of that backstory. Positioning the story immediately after such a major and world-changing war is extremely distracting. The exposition we’d need to really settle into that history is missing, and I was left wanting more. I’m glad Buehlman released The Daughter’s War, because it might provide the closure I need to re-appreciate this book, and its main character is Galva.
The world
Overall, the world felt real and lived in, but once more it felt sparse in all its history and lore. I could believe to some degree that the Takers Guild can be manipulating events and whatnot, but not to the degree they make it seem. So a lot of idea juggling, little explanation for things like magic or other guilds (which could be fine, we don’t need to know everything). They did a decent job on Ispana culture to some level, but felt like they barely scratched the surface on Kinch’s own.
Father of Lies
The chapter “Father of Lies,” where Kinch has a conversation with a magician, Fulvir, is an intricate cat-and-mouse game of who is saying a truth or a lie. Fulvir comes from a culture where they speak truths by saying the opposite, and it completely goes off the rails when Kinch talks to him, because it’s hard to keep track of whether the conversation is a lie or a truth. It’s genuinely a masterful chapter in writing, likely overlooked by many. One of the things Fulvir tells Kinch is that he is his father, and Kinch leaves wondering: was that a lie or a truth?
Compared to Between Two Fires
Between Two Fires also had the curse of being too episodic and not letting us breathe. I think Between Two Fires was way more grim and serious in tone, and the horror was described way more memorably. Overall Between Two Fires was unique compared to this.
Final thoughts
The ending was likely the best part, things did come together, and some real interesting action started to occur. There were elements confusing enough to make me flip back and reread. However, ultimately I concluded that this was all a long setup for a sequel (The Thrice-Bound Fool).
I was tempted to call this a 2 out of 5 given all the pacing and worldbuilding complaints above, but settled on a 3 because there’s good bits I genuinely enjoyed: the raven tattoo magic, Galva’s sacrifice for it, the dirty side-path nature of the quest, and chapters like “Father of Lies” that are genuinely well done. If anything above is enjoyable to you, and you need some fantasy to read because you’ve run out of it, then I’d recommend this, otherwise, I would wait until your backlog is empty to fit this in. No need to move it up your list.