Not too long ago, I wrote a list of modern fantasy books that everyone should be reading. I considered adding Patrick Rothfuss’s first book in the King Killer Chronicles, The Name of the Wind, to the list, but I simply couldn’t justify it. The prose was acceptable but not outstanding, and the plot was interesting but not mesmerizing. However, thanks to a friend’s urging, I stuck with it, and as I’ve read the second book in the series, The Wise Man’s Fear, I find my opinion of Rothfuss’s merits as an author completely changing. I think that Patrick Rothfuss is a modern author to be read and used as a model for both new writers and modern published authors–as well as being really cool to fans who accidentally bump into him at conventions and lose all their words.
