The Wise Man’s Fear was worth waiting for. It’s about as good as this kind of fantasy can possibly get.

Lucky duck Jo Walton, author of Farthing and Among Others, appears to know the right people. Her review on Tor.com is the first of many, many reviews for Patrick Rothfuss’ The Wise Man’s Fear, a novel whose level of anticipation is matched only by George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons and Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson’s A Memory of Light.

What does Walton think of The Wise Man’s Fear?

There’s a lovely sequence of events, including some things I didn’t see coming. There are some lovely clever things. We learn a lot more about some things mentioned briefly in the frame in the first volume, like the Fae, swords, lots of things. It’s all light and easy to read and easy to absorb and be absorbed by. There are books that leave you feeling wrung out, and there are books that leave you feeling like you’ve had a vacation. This is definitely the latter kind.

[…]

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of immersing myself completely in the world and the events. It’s such a great world, and the people are like real people, and what happens is endlessly entertaining. The only caveat I have is that there’s likely to be another long wait for the third one. But…it’s worth it.

Jealous yet? There are, of course, no spoilers, but Walton’s enthusiasm for the novel is clear. After so many setbacks and rocky revisions, it’s heartening to see that Rothfuss’ hard work might have paid off. March, 2011 can’t come soon enough!

Well, we can put that one in the books! George R.R. Martin has confirmed that principal photography has been completed on A Game of Thrones, the television adaptation of his revolutionary A Song of Ice and Fire.

Martin on the next step in production:

Which is not to say the work is done. Now comes editing, special effects, scoring, and all the other behind-the-scenes stuff that makes up post production. The cast and crew get to go home for a while; for the producers, the road goes ever on and on.

And, geez… doesn’t it seem like just yesterday that we were hearing rumblings of HBO looking into the series? That casting was underway? That the pilot was written? And now the first season is done. I can almost taste the bloody show!

Yes, please.

One of the great strengths of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which was lacking in its sequels, was its sense of unabashed adventure. It never took itself too seriously, and the series really fell off the tracks once they started trying to establish a larger story and motive and the characters. It’s encouraging to see that the fourth movie looks to return to those adventurous roots and focus on just making a fun pirate movie again. Tim Powers’ On Stranger Tides is wonderful source material for the movie. Plus, more Jack Sparrow is always a good thing….

From Bullington’s blog:

This new novel, titled Hook and Cod, takes place in the Low Countries shortly after the Saint Elizabeth Flood of 1421 devastated the region and complicated aggressions between the local warring factions of the Hoekse and the Kabeljauwse–the Hooks and the Cods.

It’s wonderful to see authors like Bullington continuing to find success in taking ‘REAL LIFE’© history and turning it towards the fantastic. Fans of Tim Powers, author of The Anubis Gates, should take note. It’s being published by Orbit Books and, based on the previous covers for Bullington’s novels (like the one posted above and THIS one), I can’t wait to get a glimpse at the cover art.