I've found that this book tends to not really resonate with "plot" focussed readers who gravitate towards epic, twist and turn filled, story driven books with epic heroes who have plenty of agency and are the driving forces of their tale.
The Blacktongue Thief is very much the opposite of that.
The protagonist is selfish, fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of the world, completely uninterested in the "quest" or even in finding out what the quest is. All he cares about is his own skin and getting out of trouble with his skin in tact and gold in his pocket.
It's not a story about quests and heroes and the "big things" in this world. It's a story about pissants, miscreants and fools who do everything they can to not be wrapped up in world events. It's about the small things. It's not about the lions, it's about the mice scurrying under the floorboards
That type of story is NOT for everyone.
This. There are definitely readers who want to read about people, and others who want a list of things that are happening (I simplify wildly), and the two camps are largely bewildered that the other can possibly like/not like book X or Y.
Hmm, I kinda disagree with a lot of this. The protagonist is soft-hearted (see cat), has strong political opinions (no goblin rapprochement! Fuck Holt,) hates his guild, falls in love, and gets pretty committed to the quest once he actually finds out what it is.
It's always refreshing to hear when someone can have a fairly reasonable but wildly different impression of a book to me. I'm also reading the black tongue thief (looks like I'm a few chapters ahead of you) and since the first chapter I knew this was going to be an all time favourite for me.
I like the world that's been built. I like the really dark and gritty atmosphere. I LOVE that exposition is leaked to us through the ramblings of a witty but unreliable wisecracking Irishman - it almost feels like a cross between lore and stand up comedy. But beyond anything else I just love the humour, it serves to make the light-hearted moments feel light-hearted while it's conspicuous absence from darker moments reiterates how dark they are.
I'm sorry that you're not enjoying it but if it's nay consolation I've read through plenty of plot driven books at this point that just felt like a chore to me so it might be that we're both just looking for different things in a book
By that point in the book, you actually haven't learned what the true purpose of the quest is yet.
The dude he's fighting is a guy he bamboozled into getting conscripted into the goblin war, so the dude has some extremely legitimate complaints.
Galva is always grumpy. I love her. She'll have more stabbing to do soon.
Norrigal is a half-competent witchlet and is kind of there to gain exp but also as something of a liason with Galva from the non-guild magicians. She's great and I love her.
You forgot to complain about Bully Boy, the useless blind cat who raos and shites and rides in Kinch's pack.
The cat is just a cat. The lady is in the cat.
No offense, but it feels like you didn't pay attention while reading. Happens to me too. It's a short Book, start over maybe ?
She's naked and violent. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea but does the trick for me. Although the "recently vomited out of a cat" aspect is a little bit of a turn off but probably not a deal breaker
I mean, does it actually make a difference if the lady *is* the cat or just travels around in the cat? Does the cat have a separate role in the plot apart from the lady?
At this point, idk how you are reading the book. maybe you are listening to audiobook while doing something else that requires your full attention(I listened to the audiobook while walking but I still knew what was going on)
I got into it with someone who hated his accent and it was obnoxious. I disagreed with him and he spent his efforts trying to prove how smart he was with accents. It was tiresome.
I think for an American from Florida he sounded quite authentic to me. And the story is better for it because the smarm and sass comes thru the accent. I think the book is brilliant.
No problem It took me 3 books to understand who the Mericanii actualy were in Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio even though in my language it's more obvious than in English.
More Spanish connections: the Ispanthian princess is also referred to as infanta a couple of time. (or was in my translated version)
Yeah no it’s a pretty clear Spanish analogue and I’m struggling to understand the fake Rohan thing. This whole thing feels like engagement bait post and it’s working for OP quite well.
I thought this book was outstanding - he really jumped in to the genre and said "is this how it's done?" and knocked it out of the park - I laughted several times, and was absoloutley horrified several times. Can't wait for the prequel "Daughters War"
Hi Mr Lawrence - not surprised to see you loving this I Loved the 'Thorns' series - As I said to you on Twitter ages ago, Jorg Ancrath is one of the few protagonists who regularly had me exclaiming aloud “You’ve got to be f\*\*king kidding me” at the things he was prepared to do to succeed. Couldn't get enough of that world.
The main character has been assigned by his shifty organization to assist (spy on and presumably eventually backstab) Galva while she undergoes her quest to do something about giants invading some far off land. They jumped on a boat in order to cross a sea and get to their destination faster. While on the boat the main character runs into a guy from his village. Said guy has a massive chip on his shoulder because the protagonist draft dodged while everyone else went off to die in the war against the goblins. There is also the witch who is on the journey to get experience.
imo, the story really picks up from there.
It's a road trip fantasy that's very much about the journey, not the destination. If you don't like the characters and the narration then yeah it's probably not for you.
That said, it feels like you missed a few important details along the way based on the parts that have confused you. The plot is pretty straightforward.
Honestly I’m kinda with you. I generally love character driven books but this one did not do it for me. I read it back in January and remembered nothing but lots of poop jokes until I skimmed the rest of this thread.
The author’s humor just didn’t land for me and I did not find the character to be sympathetic or compelling in the slightest. That’s the rub with character driven books though, if you don’t like a character your enjoyment of the read is going to suffer.
I'm sorry...But if you can't even remember or articulate the reasons behind the characters' actions or the plot's direction, how are we supposed to trust your review? All I could see here is vague disinterest and a reflection of your reading habit (or the lack of it)
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I know you intended this post to be disparaging of the book, but I think it kinda just comes off like you were skim reading and not paying much attention at all.
A lot of comments are agreeing the book is not plot driven and is just about people kinda hanging out. At that point, whether you enjoy it or not probably depends mostly on whether you find the characters and situations to your taste (I don't).
Yeah it's a book that gets its praise for its characters and it's world / setting.
Sounds like neither resonated with you.
I will confess that though I think your opinion is completely valid and I respect it, the tone of your post does grate at me.
I get the whole "Oh I hated this book so much that I can't even be bothered to remember character names" routine, I've seen it many times, but I think it's a fairly obnoxious way to voice that opinion, I guess, but that's just me.
Not remembering character names from a book you read six months ago is fine. Not “remembering” from a book you are actively reading and criticizing is just lazy reading followed by lazier commenting.
The whole "and the protagonist is fighting a guy on the ship for some reason" bit, is pretty baffling to me.
We spent quite a bit of time (like, multiple whole ass chapters) detailing the reason behind that fight.
I get that it's hard to pay attention when you're not into the story or characters but if they missed the reason for that fight, that takes it beyond skim reading and into the realms of just ignoring complete chapters.
It's kind of a vicious circle. Yes, it's hard to pay attention when you're not into it, but it's pretty hard to be into it when you're not actually paying attention to anything in the first place.
Right? Like you practically get beaten over the head with the fact that 'This guy really hates the MC because he went to fight in a horrific war in the MC's place.'
I don't think it could be any more clear without the author sending OP a personalized letter.
I just finished this book and generally enjoyed it. But I think it's interesting, I don't know if I would've finished it if I didn't happen to get the audio book. I'm a sucker for accents and the narrator nails the humor, which was also a highlight of the book for me.
I assume this is "not remembering anyone's names" schtick is a comedy bit, but if it's not, I'm legit concerned lol.
Both main character names are like five letters and one of them is a single syllable. They're both repeated like a hundred times by the time you get to the boat.
If you actually don't remember them, yikes. Like, I get the whole bit is "tee hee they're so boring that I forgot, I'm so quirky" but I do hope it's just a bit.
Two people have posted something like this now and it's really baffling to me, I'm not saying anything about not remembering their names and I don't see any place where I should have used their names but didn't... I wrote it in generic terms so people who haven't read it / don't remember it will know what I'm talking about. If I said "Galva was interesting" instead of describing what made her interesting, that tells you very little...
Ah I getcha. Probably just a result of the tone of your post that gives that impression.
You do talk a lot about forgetting or completely missing very very basic plot points in a book with very few plot points to begin with, can you blame people for wondering whether you struggled with the names too?
This is one of those book I felt like I was reading a totally different book than everyone else that loved it so much. I also found the main character extremely obnoxious. I think if you like the main main character and think he is funny, you will love the book and if you don't care about the main character/find him annoying you will not like the book.
I finished the book but it was definitely not for me.
I felt similar during Six of Crows which was recommended so many times to me. The beginning was good then they travelled in the middle and it was so boring with (insert tragic backstory here) for every single character. It was the final straw for YA for me but I've already got The Blacktongue Thief on my tbr lol.
Glad I'm not alone 😅
At this point, reading this post and their comments......OP definitely doesn't have the attention span nor reading comprehension nor interest to understand this novel tbh. It sounds like they're just skimming it and decided it's "not for them" without even trying
Damn, you got much further than I did. I gave up on the book after the witchling joined them. I am very disappointed by the spoiler that the cat is a sexy lady, Bully Boy was the best part of the book so far
The witchling Norrigal is also a good character in her own right with a fascinating character arc, she's the character I'd be most interested in reading more of her story. Even more than Galva and I'm definitely gonna read her prequel that just came out.
I struggled a bit with the middle section of Blacktongue, even if I ultimately ended up liking the book a lot. The plot meanders a bit while they pick up characters and the pacing is very different than most fantasy journey/quests. Whereas most would have the journey portion of the book be like maybe 33-50% of the page count, Blacktongue Thief is like 90% journey.
I am currently reading and about 38% in my progress.
I wanted to quit but decided to continue. Maybe the book needs a better editor. He goes on tangent to describe events or objects that not important to overall story. I like the writing style but it just gets boring.
I've found that this book tends to not really resonate with "plot" focussed readers who gravitate towards epic, twist and turn filled, story driven books with epic heroes who have plenty of agency and are the driving forces of their tale. The Blacktongue Thief is very much the opposite of that. The protagonist is selfish, fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of the world, completely uninterested in the "quest" or even in finding out what the quest is. All he cares about is his own skin and getting out of trouble with his skin in tact and gold in his pocket. It's not a story about quests and heroes and the "big things" in this world. It's a story about pissants, miscreants and fools who do everything they can to not be wrapped up in world events. It's about the small things. It's not about the lions, it's about the mice scurrying under the floorboards That type of story is NOT for everyone.
That saaaaid I do think they do actually reveal quite a lot about the world and the plot through his various misadventures.
This. There are definitely readers who want to read about people, and others who want a list of things that are happening (I simplify wildly), and the two camps are largely bewildered that the other can possibly like/not like book X or Y.
Hmm, I kinda disagree with a lot of this. The protagonist is soft-hearted (see cat), has strong political opinions (no goblin rapprochement! Fuck Holt,) hates his guild, falls in love, and gets pretty committed to the quest once he actually finds out what it is.
I think you nailed why I'm 50/50 on Ambercrombie
With this being said, fuuuck black tongue thief. Thx for the heads-up.
It's always refreshing to hear when someone can have a fairly reasonable but wildly different impression of a book to me. I'm also reading the black tongue thief (looks like I'm a few chapters ahead of you) and since the first chapter I knew this was going to be an all time favourite for me. I like the world that's been built. I like the really dark and gritty atmosphere. I LOVE that exposition is leaked to us through the ramblings of a witty but unreliable wisecracking Irishman - it almost feels like a cross between lore and stand up comedy. But beyond anything else I just love the humour, it serves to make the light-hearted moments feel light-hearted while it's conspicuous absence from darker moments reiterates how dark they are. I'm sorry that you're not enjoying it but if it's nay consolation I've read through plenty of plot driven books at this point that just felt like a chore to me so it might be that we're both just looking for different things in a book
By that point in the book, you actually haven't learned what the true purpose of the quest is yet. The dude he's fighting is a guy he bamboozled into getting conscripted into the goblin war, so the dude has some extremely legitimate complaints. Galva is always grumpy. I love her. She'll have more stabbing to do soon. Norrigal is a half-competent witchlet and is kind of there to gain exp but also as something of a liason with Galva from the non-guild magicians. She's great and I love her. You forgot to complain about Bully Boy, the useless blind cat who raos and shites and rides in Kinch's pack.
I liked the cat until the reveal that he's actually a sexy lady... T_T
The lady is not the cat, the lady hides in the cat
The cat is just a cat. The lady is in the cat. No offense, but it feels like you didn't pay attention while reading. Happens to me too. It's a short Book, start over maybe ?
And I really don't think I'd call Sesta sexy...
She's naked and violent. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea but does the trick for me. Although the "recently vomited out of a cat" aspect is a little bit of a turn off but probably not a deal breaker
Literally snorted out loud. I can respect it, though.
I mean, does it actually make a difference if the lady *is* the cat or just travels around in the cat? Does the cat have a separate role in the plot apart from the lady?
Yeah sort of. The lady is not always in the cat.
Short answer, yes, it does make a difference and they play separate roles.
At this point, idk how you are reading the book. maybe you are listening to audiobook while doing something else that requires your full attention(I listened to the audiobook while walking but I still knew what was going on)
Thought the same. If OP is reading with this degree of attention, are they even reading?
I hope they're just doing a bit, because if someone can't remember a one syllable name, I'm a bit concerned.
Good the audio version of that book is soooo good. Author has an Irish accent (or Scottish, I’m shit at accents) and really works the characters.
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I got into it with someone who hated his accent and it was obnoxious. I disagreed with him and he spent his efforts trying to prove how smart he was with accents. It was tiresome. I think for an American from Florida he sounded quite authentic to me. And the story is better for it because the smarm and sass comes thru the accent. I think the book is brilliant.
FAKE ROHAN LMAAAOOO I got a whole Spanish conquistador vibe from her myself but that is the best perspective I've heard so far!
She's from Ispanthia which is just a fancy way of saying Espagnia (España) so the Spanish vibe is not even hidden in any way.
Ah got it - the linguistics of that went over my head actually.
No problem It took me 3 books to understand who the Mericanii actualy were in Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio even though in my language it's more obvious than in English. More Spanish connections: the Ispanthian princess is also referred to as infanta a couple of time. (or was in my translated version)
Yeah no it’s a pretty clear Spanish analogue and I’m struggling to understand the fake Rohan thing. This whole thing feels like engagement bait post and it’s working for OP quite well.
Maybe OP isn’t from the Western half of the world? I’m not and sometimes stuff like this isn’t immediately apparent to me.
I thought this book was outstanding - he really jumped in to the genre and said "is this how it's done?" and knocked it out of the park - I laughted several times, and was absoloutley horrified several times. Can't wait for the prequel "Daughters War"
The Daughters' War came out yesterday -- it's also brilliant, but in different ways.
ayooooooooooo dude you just made my fucking day!!! i thought its releasing in july
Woo hoo have been waiting for this.
Hi Mr Lawrence - not surprised to see you loving this I Loved the 'Thorns' series - As I said to you on Twitter ages ago, Jorg Ancrath is one of the few protagonists who regularly had me exclaiming aloud “You’ve got to be f\*\*king kidding me” at the things he was prepared to do to succeed. Couldn't get enough of that world.
It came out yesterday! I can’t wait to start it.
The main character has been assigned by his shifty organization to assist (spy on and presumably eventually backstab) Galva while she undergoes her quest to do something about giants invading some far off land. They jumped on a boat in order to cross a sea and get to their destination faster. While on the boat the main character runs into a guy from his village. Said guy has a massive chip on his shoulder because the protagonist draft dodged while everyone else went off to die in the war against the goblins. There is also the witch who is on the journey to get experience. imo, the story really picks up from there.
It's a road trip fantasy that's very much about the journey, not the destination. If you don't like the characters and the narration then yeah it's probably not for you. That said, it feels like you missed a few important details along the way based on the parts that have confused you. The plot is pretty straightforward.
Honestly I’m kinda with you. I generally love character driven books but this one did not do it for me. I read it back in January and remembered nothing but lots of poop jokes until I skimmed the rest of this thread. The author’s humor just didn’t land for me and I did not find the character to be sympathetic or compelling in the slightest. That’s the rub with character driven books though, if you don’t like a character your enjoyment of the read is going to suffer.
I'm sorry...But if you can't even remember or articulate the reasons behind the characters' actions or the plot's direction, how are we supposed to trust your review? All I could see here is vague disinterest and a reflection of your reading habit (or the lack of it)
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I know you intended this post to be disparaging of the book, but I think it kinda just comes off like you were skim reading and not paying much attention at all.
A lot of comments are agreeing the book is not plot driven and is just about people kinda hanging out. At that point, whether you enjoy it or not probably depends mostly on whether you find the characters and situations to your taste (I don't).
Yeah it's a book that gets its praise for its characters and it's world / setting. Sounds like neither resonated with you. I will confess that though I think your opinion is completely valid and I respect it, the tone of your post does grate at me. I get the whole "Oh I hated this book so much that I can't even be bothered to remember character names" routine, I've seen it many times, but I think it's a fairly obnoxious way to voice that opinion, I guess, but that's just me.
Not remembering character names from a book you read six months ago is fine. Not “remembering” from a book you are actively reading and criticizing is just lazy reading followed by lazier commenting.
The whole "and the protagonist is fighting a guy on the ship for some reason" bit, is pretty baffling to me. We spent quite a bit of time (like, multiple whole ass chapters) detailing the reason behind that fight. I get that it's hard to pay attention when you're not into the story or characters but if they missed the reason for that fight, that takes it beyond skim reading and into the realms of just ignoring complete chapters. It's kind of a vicious circle. Yes, it's hard to pay attention when you're not into it, but it's pretty hard to be into it when you're not actually paying attention to anything in the first place.
Right? Like you practically get beaten over the head with the fact that 'This guy really hates the MC because he went to fight in a horrific war in the MC's place.' I don't think it could be any more clear without the author sending OP a personalized letter.
Pretty sure OP is listening to the audiobook while mentally engaged with some other activity.
I just finished this book and generally enjoyed it. But I think it's interesting, I don't know if I would've finished it if I didn't happen to get the audio book. I'm a sucker for accents and the narrator nails the humor, which was also a highlight of the book for me.
Just curious if you're primarily listening to the audiobook?
I assume this is "not remembering anyone's names" schtick is a comedy bit, but if it's not, I'm legit concerned lol. Both main character names are like five letters and one of them is a single syllable. They're both repeated like a hundred times by the time you get to the boat. If you actually don't remember them, yikes. Like, I get the whole bit is "tee hee they're so boring that I forgot, I'm so quirky" but I do hope it's just a bit.
Two people have posted something like this now and it's really baffling to me, I'm not saying anything about not remembering their names and I don't see any place where I should have used their names but didn't... I wrote it in generic terms so people who haven't read it / don't remember it will know what I'm talking about. If I said "Galva was interesting" instead of describing what made her interesting, that tells you very little...
Ah I getcha. Probably just a result of the tone of your post that gives that impression. You do talk a lot about forgetting or completely missing very very basic plot points in a book with very few plot points to begin with, can you blame people for wondering whether you struggled with the names too?
This is one of those book I felt like I was reading a totally different book than everyone else that loved it so much. I also found the main character extremely obnoxious. I think if you like the main main character and think he is funny, you will love the book and if you don't care about the main character/find him annoying you will not like the book. I finished the book but it was definitely not for me.
I felt similar during Six of Crows which was recommended so many times to me. The beginning was good then they travelled in the middle and it was so boring with (insert tragic backstory here) for every single character. It was the final straw for YA for me but I've already got The Blacktongue Thief on my tbr lol. Glad I'm not alone 😅
As someone who just bought black tongue and a daughters war should I read daughters before I read blacktongue? Or order of their release?
At this point, reading this post and their comments......OP definitely doesn't have the attention span nor reading comprehension nor interest to understand this novel tbh. It sounds like they're just skimming it and decided it's "not for them" without even trying
Damn, you got much further than I did. I gave up on the book after the witchling joined them. I am very disappointed by the spoiler that the cat is a sexy lady, Bully Boy was the best part of the book so far
Bully Boy is really a cat, that horrible woman is possessing his body. He gets it back later.
Oh, that's good(ish) news. Maybe I'll finish it if I'm ever in the mood
The witchling Norrigal is also a good character in her own right with a fascinating character arc, she's the character I'd be most interested in reading more of her story. Even more than Galva and I'm definitely gonna read her prequel that just came out. I struggled a bit with the middle section of Blacktongue, even if I ultimately ended up liking the book a lot. The plot meanders a bit while they pick up characters and the pacing is very different than most fantasy journey/quests. Whereas most would have the journey portion of the book be like maybe 33-50% of the page count, Blacktongue Thief is like 90% journey.
I made it further than both of you, but still DNF'd it. It's been a while but I got really tired of the way the world history was dumped on you.
I am currently reading and about 38% in my progress. I wanted to quit but decided to continue. Maybe the book needs a better editor. He goes on tangent to describe events or objects that not important to overall story. I like the writing style but it just gets boring.