The Blacktongue Thief

“The thing about a crown though – if you lay it down too long, someone else'll pick it up.”

This book was such a fun read in a genre that's been kind of a letdown for me in recent years. After giving this the cautious “is this another YA fantasy” sniff test, I can tell you this is decidedly not a YA fantasy book, and if you like dark, gritty fantasy with a healthy layer of gallows humor along the way, this would probably be up your alley as well.

A down-on-his-luck thief (er, Taker) named Kinch Na Shannack is just trying to scrape enough cash together to pay back his debts when he runs into Galva, a knight on a quest to save a queen, on the road. He gets swept up in guild politics, gets sent on a secret quest to follow Galva, and has a host of misadventures along the way. Oh, and there's a cat. Don't forget Bully Boy. Rao.

There's lots, lots of worldbuilding in this book, from different races, different languages, different sayings, phrases, mannerisms, and a whole host of historical events and god/goddess stories. I never felt bogged down in any of it either, which I sometimes do when you're beat over the head with infodumps of lore in some books. There's also quite a bit of irreverent humor since this book is from the point of view of a thief, but not so much that it feels like you're going from quippy one-liner to quippy one-liner. Finally, there's some interesting magic here involving tattoos that I thought was a neat touch. And war crows.

I guess if I had to put my finger on why this isn't a 5-star book (because I really enjoyed this one), I think it's because there's very little change in the characters along the way. Things feel a little flat to me when there's no character development, and who these guys are at the beginning of the book is exactly who they are at the end of it. So while the entire thing felt an inch deep in terms of depth, the worldbuilding, humor, and overall style of the book made it a mile wide and incredibly engaging.

Highly recommend this one if you're looking for a little something different in the fantasy genre today, a little something grimdark, a little something gallows humor.