The Blacktongue Thief

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Joining Galva on her quest to save a missing Queen, but with a secret sideline of his own, Kinch knows the only way out is through… If he survives at all. There are just so many things to love in this book, and the entire section involving the Towers card game was equally hilarious, breathtaking, and superbly executed. Galva, una caballera superviviente de las encarnizadas guerras contra los goblins y leal seguidora de la diosa de la muerte, está buscando a su reina, desaparecida desde que una lejana ciudad del norte sucumbiera a los ataques de los gigantes.

Beside me, Nervous cried out, “ Awain Baith,” Galtish for “death-bird,” and dropped his bow and ran, his older sister turning tail with him, leaving me the only archer in the trees. After a botched robbery causes most of the band of thieves he was working with to flee or worse, our man finds himself receiving instructions from the guild. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy books with low-key subtle magic because I do, but on the other hand I love to see the fantasy genre celebrated for its fundamental use of magic and myth, to see it revel in it. Throughout the book, the reader is sometimes left wondering what the main goal of Kinch’s journey is due to this book's pacing. 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.

No roof, logs to sit on, an altar with tallow candles and a niche where different gods’ statues will go depending on the holiday. Kinch Na Shannack is a thief-in-training with a couple of tricks up his sleeve, which might not matter much considering how far behind he is in student loans. I’m not sure yet whether I dare read his horror novels, I may venture into them one Halloween month, but I can definitely say I’m looking forward to more instalments in this fantasy series. I’d like to tell you it had belonged to my da or something, but my da was a sad bastard miner and couldn’t play the arse-horn after a quart of beans and cabbage. When you mix a fantastical surreal world, with multiple layers of humour and quirky characters, you’re onto a winning book for me.

Set in a world of goblin wars, stag-sized battle ravens, and assassins who kill with deadly tattoos, Christopher Buehlman's The Blacktongue Thief begins a 'dazzling' (Robin Hobb) fantasy adventure unlike any other. With poor Kinch having to pause life at nearly every turn so that someone can smack him across the face- it was difficult not to burst out laughing at times. The balance between humor and tension-packed conflicts was achieved splendidly, and hey, have I mentioned there’s a blind cat as Kinch’s companion? I doubt this will die down soon; many fantasy readers will be talking about this book more once it’s officially published. Part of the joy in reading the novel is how Buehlman makes all his worldbuilding seem so effortless (and breathless—this book moves).

Buehlman’s writing style also shines throughout the book with tongue-in-cheek humor, descriptive narration that does not take away from nor slow the pace of the story, and prose fuh days. Tenemos desde goblins, gigantes, alguna bruja, varios ladrones, magos, tatuajes mágicos, monstruos marinos y xD un adorable gato ciego que es una pasada. All you need to make sense of this world is embedded in the story itself and the experiences and histories of the characters.