The Blacktongue Thief Paperback – 12 May 2022

I thoroughly enjoyed The Blacktongue Thief—what a wild, clever, and darkly funny ride! The world is rich and imaginative, the characters are unforgettable, and the writing is sharp and full of personality. Every page kept me hooked. Easily one of the most entertaining fantasy novels I’ve read in a long time!

I really enjoyed this book. The world is bleak in many ways but very entertaining and well constructed. All the characters are flawed, memorable and entertaining to read about. There were places where I personally felt that more 'showing' would be good, for example in the beginning there is a very tense scene that suddenly goes from showing to telling. But I did really enjoy this book.

Oh wow! I loved this book. It's the first I have read by this author, and I shall certainly be reading more. A great story, engaging characters right from the start. Beautiful and fun use of language. A fully fleshed, universe with depth and breadth, and characters who behaved in a coherent way. More please!

Solid storytelling with good character's, sorry author but may have been said once or twice before but looking forward to the next

A sense of place can transform a novel. Making full use of settings can transport the reader and put them front and centre in what the characters experience. Of course, if you are making up an entire new landscape, this task becomes far more demanding. And creating new words and weapons to inhabit this world is another Herculean endeavour. For those reasons alone, I think authors of fantasy novels have to go above and beyond in delivering a novel that ticks readers’ boxes. The Blacktongue Thief does that with panache.My favourite scenes were those set on the high seas, but with mythical beasts and sorcery, you are never far away from losing yourself in the latest trials and perils.This is a long book and the sort of dizzy heights that some of the fight scenes attain cannot be maintained in every chapter. But, there is so much to enjoy here and it’s very much a case of enjoying the journey. I certainly did.

At times brilliant. At times very annoying – like a chatGPT remix of Lies of Locke Lamora and Name of the Wind: a coin-loving musician/magician/thief whose life is ruled by debt. There's even a hand-sign language (a la Wise Man's Fear). And lots of female pirates (a la Red Seas Under Red Skies). Being this derivative is a bit shameless, and the narrator's voice just tips over into grating too often. When everything comes together well, it's legitimately superb – the book ended really well, I thought, and much of the world-building (magical tattoos, the horse plague) is well done. But it's so patchy I couldn't recommend it, and so unoriginal I think the author should be a bit embarrassed.

Enjoyed this a lot. Hard book to describe, throws everything into the mix. Its partly Tolkein-esque fantasy with giants and goblins etc but also has bio-engineering, minotaurs, 'grimdark' grittiness mixed with some almost Pratchett-esque humour and some elements seeming pulled direct from D&D. It sounds like a mishmash but it works and I really enjoyed it. Very different from most fantasy out there at the moment, in a good way

I really liked this book. At first, I wasn't too sure but it quickly became one of those 'unputdownable' books you're sometimes lucky enough to stumble across.I found it a refreshing take on the often tired fantasy genre. The breadth of imagination and downright weirdery was, I found, most welcome and exciting. Brutal, crude and marvellous.Only realised afterwards that it's the same author of two other books I'd read.He's fast turning into one of those rare authors for whom I eagerly await more, more, more!