The Blacktongue Thief

The Blacktongue Thief (2021) is a grimdark fantasy novel by American author and comedian Christopher Buehlman. Known for his work in the horror genre with novels such as Between Two Fires, Buehlman brings his performance background to the witty, first-person narration of his protagonist. The novel, which is the first in the Blacktongue series, follows Kinch Na Shannack, an indebted thief whose guild coerces him into accepting a dangerous mission to accompany a knight named Galva into a land overrun by giants. Kinch’s journey explores themes such as The Necessity of Moral Compromise in a Brutal World, Finding Loyalty in Unlikely Alliances, and The Strategic Concealment of Identity. The novel received significant acclaim, winning the 2022 Dragon Award for Best Fantasy Novel and becoming a finalist for both the Locus and World Fantasy Awards.

This guide is based on the 2022 Tor Paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain depictions of graphic violence, physical abuse, animal cruelty and/or death, enslavement, sexual content, sexual exploitation, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Kinch Na Shannack, a thief from Galt who has been trained by the larcenous Takers Guild, is now deeply in debt due to his years-long education in thievery and minor magic. (His Guild has branded his cheek with a tattoo of an open hand: a sign that when he visits a tavern, one person can slap him and receive a free drink in exchange. The Guild considers this an effective form of encouragement for debtors to pay what they owe.) Over the past decades, the human civilization has engaged in several devastating wars against the invading goblins, who like to kill and eat humans. In the aftermath, the Takers Guild has secretly gained control of almost all commercial human endeavors, recruiting many young men and women like Kinch into its ranks.

To earn enough for his latest payment to the Guild, Kinch joins a band of highwaymen. They attempt to rob a lone traveler. However, their endeavor fails when their target, an Ispanthian (“Spanth”) warrior-woman named Galva, uses her giant war corvid to defeat them easily. Impressed by Kinch’s marksmanship, Galva spares his life. Later, in the nearby town of Cadoth, Kinch wins money in a card game called Towers and is publicly slapped due to his debtor’s tattoo. In retaliation, he pickpockets a valuable ring and sells it. He then reports to the local Guildhouse, where he is given a deed of indenture: He must follow Galva on her journey west to the giant-invaded kingdom of Oustrim; someone from the Guild will tell him the details of his full mission later in the journey.

Kinch tracks Galva to her inn and persuades her to accept him as a traveling companion. Soon afterward, news spreads that Hrava, the capital of Oustrim, has fallen to giants.

In a dark alley, Kinch is arrested for rescuing a blind cat, Bully Boy, from cat-catchers. He escapes from goal and reunites with Galva, only to find that the blind cat is following him. Galva reveals that before going to Oustrim, they will first visit a powerful witch named Deadlegs. During their journey, they meet passersby and learn of a dangerous “mixling”—a magically created animal-human hybrid named Hornhead—who has been terrorizing the region. Kinch and Galva then arrive at Deadlegs’s magical tower.

Inside, they meet Deadlegs and her great-niece, Norrigal, a young witch-in-training who joins their party. Deadlegs provides them with aid, gifting Galva a magical staff that can transform into a clockwork horse for one hour. She also warns Kinch about the Guild’s far-reaching power and expresses her hope that he will one day turn away from them.

As Galva, Kinch, and Norrigal travel west, they discover the bodies of charcoal makers who have been murdered by Hornhead. They attempt to track the gang, but Hornhead and his crew ambush them. During the fight, Galva reveals that her war corvid—a giant, deadly bird named Dalgatha after the Ispanthian goddess of death—is contained within a “sleeper tattoo” on her chest; Galva can release the bird into the world or return it to her body at will.

After killing Hornhead and dispersing the gang, the party travels to the port city of Pigdenay and secures passage on a Molrovan whaler, the Suepka Burney. When Kinch bids farewell to Bully Boy, intending to leave him behind, an Assassin Adept of the Guild, Sesta, abruptly emerges from her magical hiding place within the cat’s body and insists that Kinch take the cat—and her—on the sea journey. She explains that Kinch’s real mission from the Guild is to smuggle her into Oustrim so that she can fulfill an unspecified task. She also warns him that she may be forced to murder anyone he tells of her presence.

Onboard, Kinch is confronted by Malk Na Brannyck, a soldier from his village. Malk, a veteran of the Goblin Wars, despises Kinch for dodging his military service. Later in the voyage, Kinch and his group are pressed into service for a whale hunt, but after they kill a whale, a kraken attacks their hunting boat, killing several sailors before being driven away. Over the following days, tensions escalate, and Malk eventually challenges Kinch to a duel and vengefully throws Bully Boy overboard. Kinch fights Malk bare-handed, but the battle is interrupted when the vengeful kraken returns and sinks the Suepka Burney.

The survivors—Kinch, a weakened Galva, Norrigal, Malk, and a harpooner named Gormalin—escape to a desolate island. The cat, Bully Boy, mysteriously reappears, with the Assassin Adept still concealed within him. Their ordeal worsens when they are captured by a passing goblin ship. While the group lies imprisoned in the hold, Norrigal reveals Galva’s true quest: to find Queen Mireya, the rightful heir to the throne of Ispanthia. (Mireya had been displaced by her uncle, Kalith, who killed her father and then married her off to distant kings to keep her out of the way. In the intervening years, Mireya became the queen of Oustrim and used her witch-powers to expel the Guild from the country entirely.) Overnight, Sesta poisons the goblins’ salt supply, killing the entire goblin crew. The party is rescued by a Middlesea fireship.

In the Middlesea city of Edth, the harbormistress coerces them into accepting a reward for salvaging the ship rather than reporting the goblin attack, as such intel would ignite a new goblin war. While in Edth, Kinch and Norrigal enter a “moon-marriage,” a traditional Galtish union that only lasts for one month. Sesta emerges from the cat and reveals her true mission: to use Kinch to get close to Galva and Miraya. She threatens Kinch’s family to ensure his compliance. To protect them, Norrigal performs a dangerous spell, transforming Bully Boy and the assassin within the cat into a magical “sleeper” tattoo on Kinch’s arm, trapping the assassin within his skin. However, she warns Kinch that the assassin may escape if a bolt of lightning strikes nearby.

The party, now joined by Galva’s formidable swordmaster, Yorbez, continues west into Molrova. Their journey leads them to Grevitsa, a city with a goblin quarter, where they acquire a map of Oustrim’s capital city, Hrava. Their contact also mentions that a thief named Ürmehen, who is not beholden to the Guild, lives in Hrava. Later, Malk is goaded into engaging in a ritual tug-of-war with a goblin. He is pulled into the goblin quarter and killed.

The grieving party presses on, visiting the legendary and eccentric magicker, Fulvir, who provides them with cryptic aid and insists they take three strange musicians with them. (He also hints that he may be Kinch’s biological father, but this point is left ambiguous.)

Upon the group’s arrival in Oustrim, Kinch is tasked with locating Ürmehen and finding any word of Mireya. He eventually finds Ürmehen, who reveals that the Guild provoked the giant invasion and has captured the Queen Mireya. With Ürmehen’s intel, Kinch tracks the Guild’s trail through a hidden tunnel that leads to the countryside, then calls the rest of the group to him with magical means.

As the group follows the Guild’s trail in search of Mireya, they are attacked by giants, who break both of Norrigal’s legs. The musicians reveal their magical nature by slowing the giants with their music, though two of the musicians are killed in the process, transforming into mice.

After the giants are slain, they group carries the injured Norrigal to a nearby cave. There, they find Queen Mireya and a wounded giantess named Misfa. Misfa explains that the Guild kidnapped her, magically shrank her, and tattooed her, then smuggled her to this cave. When the shrinking spell broke, she killed her captors and caught their animate, magical book in her hands. Kinch realizes that the book is the Book of the Full Shadow, a grimoire containing the Guild’s darkest secrets, written in the deadly Murder Alphabet. As a Cipher, a person with a natural gift for written languages, Kinch can read it. The living book releases a magical creature, which Norrigal destroys with a magic ring that casts a lightning bolt. The resulting magical backlash frees Sesta from Kinch’s arm.

Sesta attacks, killing Yorbez, mortally wounding Norrigal, and breaking Galva’s back. As Norrigal lies dying, she instructs Kinch to cut her throat. The act triggers a spell that swaps her with Deadlegs, who appears in her place. Deadlegs strips Sesta of her magical tattoos, allowing Queen Mireya to kill the now-powerless assassin. Deadlegs then heals Galva’s injuries. To secure their freedom from Misfa’s giant kin, who have now arrived, Deadlegs guides Kinch in a spell to release a living stallion from one of Misfa’s tattoos. (Due to horse-killing plagues spread during the goblin wars, no one has seen such a creature for decades.) Upon speaking with Deadlegs, Kinch realizes that she is a much older version of Norrigal, but he does not quite understand the magical mechanism that makes this timeline-defying feat possible.

Deadlegs and Mireya then depart on the horse to rally the Ispanthian army. Galva is tasked by the queen to accompany Kinch, who now carries the book that can destroy the Guild. As fugitives, the two head west. As Kinch drapes the purring Bully Boy over his shoulders, he resolves to one day find Norrigal again.