A Dribble of Ink

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!