Tween Fantasy: The Invisible Order Rise of the Darklings by Paul Crilley

2010/ 332 pages

About the Book: Emily and her brother William a thrust into the middle of a war between different factions of fairies, and discover that thier fate may have been written centuries ago.

Andy's Thoughts: Well, I love fantasy, but I am not a fan of fairies. I picked this book up because it was on a list of books that could be the next Harry Potter. I believe that I can safely say that this series is no Harry Potter. The characters are weak, the story is kind of a fantasy steam punk mashup, and all and all this book was a bit of a yawn. I would give a 3 out of 10 and that is being generous.

The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed by Pat Rothfuss, illustrated by Nate Taylor

2010/68 pgs

About the Book: The story of a princess, told in three parts.

Andy's Thoughts: This book was weird but I really enjoyed it. Very funny, very original, and very true the Mr. Rothfuss's style that I have seen in the KingKiller Chronicles. I would give it a 6 out of 10, because it is definitely not a book that would appeal to everyone.

Adult Fantasy: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

2011/994 pages

About the Book: What happens to legendary heroes when they grow tired of saving everyone? How do you motivate a hero? How does someone go from being an ordinary, albeit talented child to being the greatest hero in a generation? The Wise Man's Fear is Day Two of the back story of the legendary hero Kvothe.

Andy's Thoughts: Again relayed mostly through a series of flashbacks, this story continues to be fun fast paced and exciting. Rothfuss reclaimed his wonderful writing style and again the voice clearly changes when he is writing in the past versus writing in the present. Kvothe is flushed out much more as a character, but his story takes a darker and more dangerous turn. Adult relationships flourish in all of their complexity. While there were a couple breaks in voice as the book went on, for the most part Rothfuss quickly brought the story back to where I expected it to be. My biggest problems are that the middle of the book is a sexual romp in a fairy realm and the story seems to be progressing too slowly. I can handle sex in a book, but it seemed like 200 pages of the book was devoted to sex, it just kind of dragged on and on. The other problem with progressing too slowly is this. In the present, Kvothe is around 30 years old. By the end of the second book, he is not even twenty in his flashbacks. That means in the next book he has to cover 10 years worth of back story and I am not sure how he is going to do it.

Since this series is called The KingKiller Chronicle, I am hoping that the series will be longer than a trilogy. I have not heard how many books this series is scheduled for, but I image it will take at least 2 more.

Overall this book was very good and had a much better ending. Rothfuss has won me back and I well be impatiently awaiting the next book. I give it a 7 out of 10.

Adult Fantasy: The Way of Kings By Brandon Sanderson

2010/1007 pages

About the Book: Roshar is a world dominated by weather. Powerful, enchanted Highstorms sweep across the land with such fierceness and regularity that the plants have evolved to retract into the ground to avoid them. The energy of the storms provide powerful magic to Roshar's citizens and captured Stormlight can be used for everything from adding value to money to making legendarily powerful weapons and armor.

Kaladin is a brilliant soldier betrayed by his commander and sold into slavery for knowing too much. Shallan is a minor noble and talented artist who can capture a scene with a glance and duplicate it hours later, who's family no longer has enough money to survive, has a daring plan to steal a powerful magical item to try to save her family. Following the assassination of the king, and six years of war with the people who sent the assassin, Kaladin and Shallan must each risk everything just to stay alive.

Andy's Thoughts: This book is massive, over 400k words and over 1000 pages. It is the first book of a ten book series, but it is amazingly written and the story is masterfully crafted. The characters are vibrant and leap off the page even if the background is more sparse than one typically finds in fantasy. The setting reminds me of the seafloor just without the water.

Part Lighting Thief, part Ben-Hur there is a lot of action and adventure. While not quite the page turner that Goodkind's Sword of Truth was for me, this book is definitely one of my favorites and I will be eagerly awaiting each new addition to this series. I have not spotted any major flaws other than perhaps its length, and a desire to see a few of the background characters flushed out a bit more particularly, Wit and Szeth. (of course assuming that the rest of the books will be just as large, Mr. Sanderson will have plenty of time to flush out these characters). I have had the ARC of the book for about a year and just never made the time to get to it, but now that I have I am drooling over the next one. I give it an 9 out of 10. Oh, and the audiobook is awesome too!

Young Adult Fantasy: The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

2009/506 pages

About the book: The story focuses on two main characters, the headstrong princess Raisa and a teenage former thief and gang leader named Han. Set in an area of the Seven Realms called The Fells and in its capitol Fellsmarch, Han must learn how to provide for his mother and sister after giving up the leadership of a street gang which had previously been his means for provision. Meanwhile, Raisa is quickly approaching her 16th birthday at which time she will be eligible to be married. Raisa desperately wishes to escape the meaningless confines of fashion, propriety, petty court intrigue, and marriage to learn useful skills that will help her become a good and wise queen like her heroine Hanalea, the warrior queen who defeated the Demon King and saved the world. After a powerful magical item is stolen and the High Wizard begins to grow in influence with the Queen, Han and Raisa each begin adventures that could change the future for everyone in the Realms.

Andy's Thoughts: I am not entirely sure what to say about this book. I did enjoy it, but I don't think it is something that will I come back to after I finish the trilogy. The characters are likeable enough and the series seems to have a very strong story arc overall, but I felt that this first book was little more than a setup for the rest of the series. I thought it was fairly obvious what was going to happen by the end of the book after reading the first few chapters. On the other hand I was very impressed that Ms. Chima did not seem to give much away about what would happen in the rest of the series. But since this review is about the book itself and not about the series as a whole I have to give it 3.5 stars. I did like the writing, I did not have any major problems with the character developement, but I thought the plot was a little predictable. Perhaps I am judging this book too harshly, but I had been hearing how great it was supposed to be for over a year. I came in expecting so much that perhaps there was no way that this book could live up to the hype. I will continue reading the series because the overall story arc has me engaged and the characters are interesting. I just cannot give it the rave review that I was hoping to give when I started the book.

Adult Fantasy: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

2007/722 pages

About the Book: What happens to legendary heroes when they grow tired of saving everyone, no matter what the cost to themselves. How do you motivate a hero. How does someone go from being an ordinary, albeit talented child to being the greatest hero in a generation. Kvothe already has most of those answers, but the answer he needs the most is the one that he cannot seem to find within himself. Maybe a chronicler who is asking about the past, a plague of demon attacks, and a worried magical friend will help him discover the passion he needs to reclaim who he used to be.

Andy's Thoughts: Relayed mostly through a series of flashbacks, this story is fun fast paced and exciting. Rothfuss has a wonderful writing style and the voice clearly changes when he is writing in the past versus writing in the present. Kvothe is a vivid interesting character, who you cannot help but want to know more about. I had this book highly recommended to me and after reading a bit about it I was excited to read it. I was really enjoying it so much so that I actually turned off playoff football. (granted the game was out of hand and so I did not feel bad about turning it off, but still I turned off football!) My enjoyment of the book was not to last however, as the ending was perhaps the most disappointing end that I have read recently (well, excluding Mockingjay). It was like Mr. Rothfuss lost his voice with 70 pages left to go in the story. One moment he was writing a riveting story with a past and a present voice, then suddenly it switched into a slow boring monotone. Furthermore, the ending was soft and the climax seemed sudden and disjointed. It seemed like this book was cut from a larger book and definitely could not stand on its own but had to because the full book would be too long. Kvothe is a strong enough character that I want to keep reading the series to find out more about his past, but so much of the book is dedicated to Kvothe's past that I am not sure that unless the series goes for 6 books or so that there will be enough pages to tell the rest of the story of the present and the future. The other major flaw of the book is that we are told that Kvothe is a legendary warrior and hero and we are told that there are legendary stories about him. However, since the reader has yet to hear these stories and since references to the stories are frequently made in the story, I felt frustrated that I could not use these stories as reference points the way that many of the characters could. The flaws are not enough to stop me from reading on, unless Mr. Rothfuss cannot find his voice again. I give this book 5 out of 10, which is disappointing because if the story had continued as strongly to the end and it was in the beginning and the middle it would have been an 8 or a 9.