“The Blacktongue Thief” First Impressions *No Spoilers* > Likes and Comments

Come talk about your initial, general impressions!

Please save all discussion of particulars, details from the story, character choices, plot questions, etc. for the full spoiler thread.

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I liked this book a lot but the reasons will need to wait for the spoiler thread

Already read it and thoroughly enjoyed it, I need to catch up on Daughter War before I get my hands on the sequel coming up.

Looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks!

I tried to read this a few years ago and just COULD NOT get into it, and ended up DNF'ing out of boredom/disinterest.

I'll be giving it another try for the BOTM read, and here's hoping that it works out better for me this time. (It worked with Ninth House, so it's entirely possible it'll happen again! Though The Shadow of the Wind went the opposite way... so who even knows. )

I read this one a couple of years ago and quite liked it, and I'm here to heartily recommend the audiobook. Buehlman narrates it himself, and as he spent years as a ren faire performer he's got an excellent sense of timing and use of his voice to tell a story.

I read this one a few weeks back and really enjoyed it. I'm going to go back for a quick re-look before I leave a note in the "spoilers" section. One quick additional note about this as a developing series: The Daughters' War, which was written a few years later as a prequel, is, I think, even better and Galva as the POV main character in that is fantastic. It's worth reading both books.

My hold for The Daughters' War just came in!

Nicol wrote: "My hold for The Daughters' War just came in!"

I hope you really enjoy it!

The start of the book has been up and down for me - the tone sometimes grates a bit, but as soon as I start to get annoyed, he comes up with something interesting to say or share about the world.

Becky wrote: "I tried to read this a few years ago and just COULD NOT get into it, and ended up DNF'ing out of boredom/disinterest.

I'll be giving it another try for the BOTM read, and here's hoping that it wo..."

I read it a few months ago but remembering anything about it doesn't compute!

Michelle, that's a cracking tip about the author narrating it himself. Does the performer background really come through in the audio, or is it more subtle than you'd expect?

Kaa wrote: "The start of the book has been up and down for me - the tone sometimes grates a bit, but as soon as I start to get annoyed, he comes up with something interesting to say or share about the world."

That push and pull between a narrator who irritates and a narrator who suddenly says something sharp about the world is, I suspect, exactly what a voice-driven first-person fantasy is meant to do; the abrasiveness is part of the character, and the worldbuilding tends to arrive as asides rather than set-piece explanation. It will be interesting to see whether the tone settles for you as the story widens, or whether it stays a mild grate throughout; either way, noting where the world-detail won you back each time seems a useful way to judge it.

Happy reading, Lars

The Blacktongue Thief is the journey of a thief who initially wants nothing more than to escape his debts and troubles, only to gradually find himself caught up in events far greater than his own life. The story reminds us that being a hero does not require innocence or fearlessness; sometimes, taking a step in the right direction despite being afraid is the greatest act of courage.
My review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...