 If this brand comes out with another flavor of chip, I will probably eat that bag as well. I care precisely not at all. If this is gonna sound really strange, and it's gonna sound like it doesn't make any sense. Hey guys, it's Liana, and I'm here today to talk about The Black Tongue Thief by Christopher Buhlman. Do I recommend this book? Kinda. So I picked this up because I heard pretty much nothing but amazing things from everybody. And I actually haven't looked at the back of this book until right this second, but it's blurbed by you name them, Glenn Cook, Brent Weeks, Anthony Ryan, Nicholas Eames, Django Wexler, Jonathan French, A.K. Larkwood. And I heard a lot of book reviewers also who had early copies of it praising it. So I expected nothing but fantastic things. Also the premise of it, for once I did actually read the synopsis for a book. The way that I summed it up was that it's like grim dark about student debt, which it kind of is, because in this main character, studied for the Thieves Guild how to be a thief, but now he owes the Thieves Guild how a money and has to like figure out a way to pay them back. Otherwise they're gonna come for him, which that's literally student debt. Did I like it overall? Yes. Would I recommend it? Maybe. I ended up giving this book three stars because I sort of felt like the pros and cons kind of like balanced out at a three. I've said before that I don't tend to do standalone book reviews for books that I give a three star rating to because not because I have any against that or anything, but because I typically film standalone book reviews for books that I have a lot to say about. And I typically only have a lot to say about something if I really love it, so five stars, or if I really hate it, one star. Usually I have to feel very strongly, either positively or negatively, but very strongly in order to feel like a standalone review is warranted or that I even have enough to say to fill one. So why am I doing a standalone review? For the black tank thief, when I gave it three stars. Well, I feel very strongly about the positives and I don't feel super, super strongly about the negatives, but nonetheless, they made me dock two whole stars. So, to whom would I recommend this book? I guarantee you have no idea what I'm about to say. I would recommend this book to fans of Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Angela's Ashes was my official favorite book for a long time, like the one that I would name if someone said, what is your favorite book? Now, I can't really, I don't have an answer for that and I prefer not to have an answer for that because I don't think you can have, maybe you can. All I have to say, I really, really, really, really love Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, which is a memoir. It's not fantasy, it's not even fiction. The memoir of Frank McCourt is miserable, impoverished childhood in Ireland. That's what this reminds me of the most out of anything. It feels like Frank McCourt, but placed in a grim dark fantasy where he's a thief and there's like magic and monsters, et cetera. But the vibe, the tone, the humor, the character, it's himself, the main character, Kynch Nishanak screams Frank McCourt to me. And so for that alone, like the full three stars is basically for that. I felt precisely zero investment in the plot and even less investment in any of the side characters. I was, there was kind of a lot going on all the time and I wasn't really, I neither cared nor did I super clearly understand what was going on or what was meant to be going on or what I was meant to care about or whatever. I just so thoroughly enjoyed being in the headspace of this character and just going along with him and his voice and his humor. And if you listen to the audiobook, which I recommend, if you're gonna pick up this book at all, I highly recommend you experiencing it as an audiobook because it is narrated by the author himself, which is a very hit and miss. A lot of authors should never even consider narrating their own books. But some authors do it very well. Neil Gaiman does a very good job narrating his own books when he does it. I know there's someone else that does this. Oh, well Joe Abercrombie, he read one of the short stories in sharp ends, but I mean, Steven Pacy, who is the majority narrator for first law is the greatest of all time. But anyway, basically an author narrating their own work is not necessarily a recipe for success. In this case, there might be other narrators that could have done a good job as well, but this author did a very good job narrating his own book and it's written with a lot of slang and jargon and dialect that is very reminiscent to me again of Frank McCourt. I read Angel Satches as a physical book and then I also went and listened to the audio some years later and that is actually read by Frank McCourt as well. I tend to think it is a good idea if the book is a memoir because this is a person telling their own life story. So them reading it is not too dissimilar from them just telling you their own life stories if you're sitting down and having a drink with them. So Frank McCourt, the way he narrates his own book, it was very similar to me to how Christopher Buhlman narrates Black Chang Thief. It's this very thick Irish bro. There's again a lot of slang and jargon and it just flows sort of melodically and I feel like it would be much more difficult to get into this if I was reading the physical book and I didn't have that sort of like lyrical Irish accent in my head and just like looking at it now. I mean, yeah, it's written in a way with again, a lot of slang, jargon, dialect. And the thing is because this is told in first person then that dialect isn't only present in dialogue because basically this whole book is like dialogue at you, the reader, this character talking to you, telling you this story. So even the parts that are not dialogue are in this kind of flowing dialectical style. So again, audiobook, that's how to experience this. And I watch a lot of British TV. I watch a lot of movies and end shows that have heavy accents, Cockney accents, posh accents, Irish accents. I don't have, like my ears, it tuned to that already so I didn't have trouble understanding it. I did see some people complaining that it was hard to understand what the author is saying in the audiobook because of the accent. If that's the case for you, listen to it more slowly because it's a wonderful accent and it adds a lot of flavor and a lot of color to the characters and to the story. There's also a lot of songs in it which looking at the credits for the audiobook, the voice is similar enough to where I thought that was Christopher Buhlman singing and I was quite impressed with the singing voice but it's actually not him singing, someone else is singing it but it still has this like Irish accent and it's a very, the timbre of the voice is very similar to Christopher Buhlman's so it's not jarring or anything. It's not like Christopher Buhlman's voice and then someone else singing and then Christopher Buhlman's voice and someone else singing. It, I thought it might be him singing. But yeah, so the plot, it feels kind of like I don't actually play very many video games, I don't play any video games but it kind of feels like a video game where there's kind of generally speaking like a quest and end goal and there's a lot of stuff that comes in the way and a lot of people you meet along the way that give you some information or join your quest or give you a thing and then some big beastie gets in your way and then this other problem present itself and I guess I could say that about any fantasy plot. You could describe any fantasy that way I suppose. That's really all that's going on. Like I didn't feel any great depth to the character relationships. I didn't feel like a great overarching thing was really happening, although I guess this is the first in a series. It really just kind of felt like hanging out for a few days with, what's his name again? Kinshna Shannak, just hanging out with this super fast talking Irish speaking fellow and going on this merry adventure and the adventure itself, yeah. At no point was I like super needing to know what would happen next or how it would end or where this would go or would it be resolved? I didn't care really at all. This is gonna sound really strange and it's gonna sound like it doesn't make any sense. I apologize but I can't explain it any other way. I thought the world building was excellent but I cared not at all about the world building which is to say the world building felt extremely fleshed out and organic and lived in and nuanced in that way where when it would come up, when we would be encountering things, the way they would be described to us had this, this, I don't know how to explain it but there was enough flavor to sort of where this came from and how people regard it and it didn't feel like an encyclopedia spewing like this is how this thing works and these are the rules for it. It felt very lived in where like describing how the coins look and why you like one versus another and how people regard these coins and how they are used and why one looks like this and one looks like another and just the way that people would talk to each other and the narrator would explain to you sometimes why this joke works or how this people does a thing and then they would do that thing and it felt very real for that reason. All the little bits of lore that would like get peppered in because they would be serving the purpose of explaining this article of clothing, this coin, this, the name of this place. Like there would be these little moments which were kind of reminiscent to me sometimes of footnotes and other fantasies but they weren't footnotes. They were just kind of, it feels like if you were suddenly in this world and the person guiding you through this world is Kinshna Shanak. I keep forgetting his name, Kinshya, Kinshna Shanak and if like you were going to town in this foreign land with Kinshna Shanak and he's just gonna kind of tell you about like, oh well you know of course there was the war of this and then this lady did that and this noble said this and it ended up going down like this and that's why you have this one tavern called this but we didn't go to that one. We went to this other tavern which is called this and like it just felt very lived in which is what I've said like 10 times now. And so I appreciated that. It felt very organic, the Irishiness, the jokes, the colloquialisms, the idiomatic expressions, the insults, the weird idiosyncrasies of how these like different people to interact with each other and like the sort of the comedic opportunities presented by that. The songs themselves were beautiful and very amusing. They felt sort of like Irish tavern songs that have sign of like kind of a body humor and a double entendre is mixed in. And so I just, I had a really great time just kind of diving with this character in this world kind of like going to the Renfair where I'm just like loving the atmosphere, loving the vibes but the story, the plot, the world other than the incidentally idiomatic organicness of it I don't care about at all. If at any point during the book I had to stop I wouldn't be like gagging to know what happens next. And I guess this is the beginning of a series but I can't say, I mean, I'll probably pick up the next one if it's narrated again by Christopher Buhlman because I'll wanna vibe with it again but I didn't feel any great need to know what, where this goes now, what will happen to our heroes. I care precisely not at all. It's a really good time, which is all I can say. Like it doesn't really stick with me. I didn't feel any investment in it but I had a great time while I was gone along with this character in this world. So would I recommend it for a good time? Yes, this is like a bag of chips which would I recommend for just enjoying and finding tasty? Yes, would I recommend because you get any nutritional value from it because it's a meal that you'll remember for a long time that you'll recommend other people that you would give five Michelin stars to? No, but you know, a great bag of chips that I enjoyed while I ate it. Enjoyed a whole heck of a lot. If this brand comes out with another flavor of chip I will probably eat that bag as well. So let me know in the comments down below if this was helpful to you at all. If you agree or disagree with me if you've read it or if I've now inspired you to pick it up or to not pick it up, whatever you wanna let me know. I post videos on Saturdays, other random times as well but definitely Saturdays, so like and subscribe. Join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you. Bye.