Our Take

Christopher Buehlman spent years as one of horror fiction's best-kept secrets, and The Blacktongue Thief announced his arrival in fantasy with considerable force. What makes this novel work isn't just the worldbuilding — though the world is exceptional, layered with the residue of a goblin war that feels genuinely catastrophic — it's the voice. Kinch Na Shannack narrates with the confidence of someone who knows he's smarter than most people in the room and the self-awareness to know that's gotten him into most of his problems. That combination of wit and earned vulnerability is rare.

Comparisons to Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself and Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind are inevitable and fair — this sits comfortably in the company of morally complicated protagonists and worlds that don't romanticize violence. But Buehlman's tone is distinctly his own: darker than Rothfuss, funnier than Abercrombie, and with a streak of genuine horror that shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with his earlier work.

Essential reading for fans of grimdark fantasy who want their dark served with a sharp sense of humor.