Book: The Name of the Wind
Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Reviewer: Jason Raitz, Business and Technology Applications Technician, NCSU Libraries

I loved this thick, fantasy novel about a young, precocious boy who undergoes continuous tragedies in his pursuit of love, music, secrets, magic and revenge. It’s full of song, hardship, tragedy, magic and longing.  There is a Harry-Potter-esque magic school, but it plays out a good bit differently and is not really the focus of the entire story. I love the various female roles as well. So many fantasy novels give women such predictable and often sexist roles. Some epic fantasy is hard to continue reading day after day; I was surprised when I reached the end of this one.  Rothfuss is a great new author and I also loved the sequel to this one, called Wise Man’s Fear. Warning, this is an unfinished trilogy which the author has decided to start finishing as part of NaNoWriMo.