The Wise Man's Fear

Starred review from January 24, 2011
As seamless and lyrical as a song from the lute-playing adventurer and arcanist Kvothe, this mesmerizing sequel to Rothfuss's 2007's debut, The Name of the Wind, is a towering work of fantasy. As Kvothe, now the unassuming keeper of the Waystone Inn, continues to share his astounding life story—a history that includes saving an influential lord from treachery, defeating a band of dangerous bandits, and surviving an encounter with a legendary Fae seductress—he also offers glimpses into his life's true pursuit: figuring out how to vanquish the mythical Chandrian, a group of seven godlike destroyers that brutally murdered his family and left him an orphan. But while Kvothe recalls the events of his past, his future is conspiring just outside the inn's doors. This breathtakingly epic story is heartrending in its intimacy and masterful in its narrative essence, and will leave fans waiting on tenterhooks for the final installment.

February 1, 2011

A walloping sword-and-sorcery fest from Rothfuss, the second volume in a projected trilogy (The Name of the Wind, 2007).

Readers of that debut—and if you weren't a reader of the first volume, then none of the second will make any sense to you—will remember that its protagonist, Kvothe (rhymes with "quoth"), was an orphan with magical powers and, as the years rolled by, the ability to pull music out of the air and write "songs that make the minstrels weep." The second volume finds him busily acquiring all kinds of knowledge to help his wizardly career along, for which reason he is in residence in a cool college burg, "barely more than a town, really," that has other towns beat by a league in the arcane-knowledge department, to say nothing of cafés where you can talk elevated talk and drink "Veltish coffee and Vintish wine," as good post-hobbits must. For one thing, the place has a direct line to a vast underground archive where pretty much everything that has ever been thought or imagined is catalogued; for another thing, anyone who is anyone in the world of eldritch studies comes by, which puts Kvothe in close proximity to the impossibly beautiful fairy Felurian, who makes hearts go flippity-flop and knows some pretty good tricks in the way of evading evil. Evil there is, and in abundance, but who cares if you're dating such a cool creature? Rothfuss works all the well-worn conventions of the genre, with a shadow cloak here and a stinging sword there and lots of wizardry throughout, blending a thoroughly prosaic prose style with the heft-of-tome ambitions of a William T. Vollmann. This is a great big book indeed, but not much happens—which, to judge by the success of its predecessor, will faze readers not a whit.

For latter-day D&D fans, a long-awaited moment. For the rest—well, maybe J.K. Rowling will write another book after all.

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Starred review from February 15, 2011

The bartender Kvothe continues telling his story to the Chronicler, relating his years as a student of magic at the University, the scandal that forced him to seek his fortune abroad, life in a strictly hierarchical society, a dalliance with a woman of the Fae, and his ongoing search for the mysterious Chandrian, who were responsible for his family's death. In this sequel to The Name of the Wind, mysteries deepen and the characters grow even more fascinating. VERDICT Reminiscent in scope of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series and similar in feel to the narrative tour de force of The Arabian Nights, this masterpiece of storytelling will appeal to lovers of fantasy on a grand scale.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.