Review
Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path.
But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.
Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.
Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch now finds his fate entangled with Galva’s. Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on an epic journey where goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford.
Synopsis
I’m rereading both The Blacktongue Thief and The Daughters’ War in time for the upcoming The Thrice-Bound Fool; Buehlman’s magnificent book of goblins, krakens, crafty thieves, cantrips, and war corvids gets better every time you read it. I laughed, I cried, and I had a lot of fun.
Kinch Na Shannack is a thief and a trickster, trained by the Taker’s Guild – so he’s indentured to them and must pay off his impossible debt. When he meets Galva, a Spanth warrior with a horse-sized war corvid as a partner, he then gets embroiled in a plot to find a princess. To say this book is fast-paced would be an understatement; Kinch does not spend too much time in one place. So by half-way through the book, you’d have already seen your fair share of fights, bull-men and krakens. It’s a plot that shares the same wit and adventure as your favourite D&D campaign (but is probably better still).
The writing is confident, and Buelhman is deft with his word choice and an all around master of prose – it’s an absolute pleasure to read on the page; it’s one of those books that I can sit down on an afternoon and not put down until it’s finished. It reads extraordinarily well.
My favourite thing about this book is all of the nods to fantasy staples like the Witch that resides in a tower, or the Wizard that has created twisted mutants from bull and man, and then you have giants, goblins, cantrips and magical tattoos. There are items you’d recognise from D&D or any number of RPG games, like the Ring of Thunder or the Ring of Catfall, and a number of magical items like swords, gorgets, etc. For anyone who really loves tabletop RPG, console or PC games, or just general classical fantasy themes but put together in an original way, you’re sure to find something to love here.
Set after The Thresher’s and The Daughter’s Wars – wars where Kynd (they can’t call it mankind anymore because of how many men they lost to the goblins (as many as 9/10 men perished)) – goblins, or at least their lore and history, are a big feature of this book. Though there’s an incredibly original spin on them, they are born asymmetrical and have a hook for pulling on only one hand, or despise anything that was made symmetrical, pulling down corners of houses, etc. It all speaks to the ingenuity in world-building of the author.
Overall, I will always love this book, and I often come back to read it again; it features a lot of themes and characters you might find in any fantasy staple or TTRPG, but presented to you in a uniquely voiced and incredibly original book.
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