The Blacktongue Thief
Blacktongue • Book 1
by Christopher Buehlman
Narrated by Christopher Buehlman
Why You'll Love This
The author narrates his own book, and it turns out he's as good at voices as he is at prose — this one's a genuine surprise.
- Great if you want: dark, witty fantasy with a sardonic thief narrator
- Listening experience: brisk and irreverent, with sudden gut-punches of violence
- Narration: Buehlman performs his own work with pitch-perfect comedic timing
- Skip if: grimdark humor and casual brutality aren't your thing
About This Book
Kinch Na Shannack is a thief in debt to his guild, lying in wait on a forest road, and the first traveler he targets turns out to be a knight who could have killed him and chose not to. Now their fates are entangled as they pursue a missing queen across a world where goblins have already won one devastating war, where giants occupy northern cities, and where a thief's small magics are less protection than they seem. Christopher Buehlman's debut fantasy novel is sardonic, violent, and built around a narrator whose unreliability is part of his charm.
Buehlman narrates his own novel, and the decision pays off handsomely. His instinct for the rhythm of Kinch's voice, the self-deprecation masking genuine competence, gives the performance a quality of direct address that draws listeners in immediately. The RUSA Reading List recognition and widespread acclaim for the audio format specifically reflect a book that understands what audio can do that print cannot. At just under thirteen hours, The Blacktongue Thief is one of the most purely enjoyable fantasy audiobooks in recent memory.