Profile of Patrick Rothfuss

No ordinary fantasy full of pointless quests and overblown drama. Rather, it is a finely tuned coming-of-age story, full of humor, action and the occasional dose of magic.

I was reminded of Ursula LeGuin, George R. R. Martin, and J. R. R. Tolkien, but never felt that Rothfuss was imitating anyone. Like the writers he clearly admires, hes an old-fashioned storyteller working with traditional elements, but his voice is his own. I havent been so gripped by a new fantasy series in years. Its certain to become a classic.

As with all the very best books in our field, it's not the fantasy trappings (wonderful as they are) that make this novel so good, but what the author has to say about true, common things, about ambition and failure, art, love, and loss.

"As absorbing on a second reading as it is on the first, this is the type of assured, rich first novel most writers can only dream of producing. The fantasy world has a new star."

It is a rare and great pleasure to come on somebody writing the way (Patrick Rothfuss does), not only with the kind of accuracy of language that seems to me absolutely essential to fantasy-making, but with real music in the words as well.... Oh, joy!