I’ve seen this book talked about for almost a year now (writing this as of 10/23/20) and it still has seven (7) months to go before it is released into the world.

Fantasía cínica para adultos en un mundo con personajes detallados, matizados, intrincados y que comienza fuerte. Part of this is due to the nature of their quest (which I'll not reveal here), but there's a lot of "You know what would be fun? Another favourite of mine was the witch Deadlegs, who I can’t wait for everyone to meet because, well… you’ll see!At my back, I had a nasty spike of a rondel dagger, good to punch through mail, but against that sword in that woman’s hand, not to mention the fucking bird, it might as well have been a twig. In only a few pages, The Blacktongue Thief will introduce an entire secondary world, establish the current cultural fallout in the wake of several goblin wars, and detail the varieties of a civilization’s coinage.

We follow the action in The Blacktoungue Thief in the first-person perspective through the eyes of Kinch as he is relaying the tale at a later date. The Spanth would have to stand to meet their charge, and when she did, I would stick her through the knee. Of course, when you have witches you also have magic and spells, and this book is full of them, and really cool ones too! I’m singling it out because not only can it serve as a standalone story on its own, but I also think it’s a good microcosm of what this book can do a reader. To say I was hyped for this book would be a complete understatement, for several months I’ve been desperate to get my hands on an ARC to discover just what all the early furore was about.Buehlman brings an incredible voice, tone, style and dry humor to thief first person POV that will endear you almost from the beginning. I was so scared, I half wanted to piss myself, but the difference between the strong and the weak isn’t that the strong don’t piss themselves. La ambientación es la típica medieval de arcos y espadas, sin armas de fuego, y con varios reinos para dar variedad a personajes y culturas. This world feels vast and historic and is filled with ancient history and creatures such as goblins, witches, giants, HUGE birds, an interesting magic system and more. Spanths don’t take threats well—I was all but sure if we moved, it would be to kill, not intimidate.

I found myself laughing out loud many times and I love that blind cat even more, after I heard the narrator's "Rao. Anyway, this was fun and often funny as hell, with some great invented swear words and ways to swear. If those two things improve even a little in the next book while maintaining the elements I loved, I could have a new favorite on my hands. Alas, I owed the Takers Guild so much money for my training that I found myself squatting in the Forest of Orphans with these thick bastards, hoping to rob somebody the old-fashioned way. Lleno de magia, humor y una trama política de ebullición lenta, esta entretenida historia pues es una historia de pipas, sofa y cerveza.Buehlman gives us tattoo magic, multiple languages, several songs, giant birds, assassins that can live in your skin, witches and krakens and pirates, and yet he keeps everything lean, the novel never feeling overstuffed or buckling under She also gave me a mouthful of wine from her wineskin, good thick, black wine, probably from Ispanthia like she was. Notably absent were Mithrenor, god of the sea—nobody much bothers inland—and the Forbidden God, for obvious reasons.