Shadow And Claw by Gene Wolfe [1983]

One of the most acclaimed "science fantasies" ever, Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is a long, magical novel in four volumes. Shadow & Claw contains the first two: The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator, which respectively won the World Fantasy and Nebula Awards.

This is the first-person narrative of Severian, a lowly apprentice torturer blessed and cursed with a photographic memory, whose travels lead him through the marvels of far-future Urth, and who--as revealed near the beginning--eventually becomes his land's sole ruler or Autarch. On the surface it's a colorful story with all the classic ingredients: growing up, adventure, sex, betrayal, murder, exile, battle, monsters, and mysteries to be solved. (Only well into book 2 do we realize what saved Severian's life in chapter 1.) For lovers of literary allusions, they are plenty here: a Dickensian cemetery scene, a torture-engine from Kafka, a wonderful library out of Borges, and familiar fables changed by eons of retelling. Wolfe evokes a chilly sense of time's vastness, with an age-old, much-restored painting of a golden-visored "knight," really an astronaut standing on the moon, and an ancient citadel of metal towers, actually grounded spacecraft. Even the sun is senile and dying, and so Urth needs a new sun.

The Book of the New Sun is almost heartbreakingly good, full of riches and subtleties that improve with each rereading. It is Gene Wolfe's masterpiece.

Original title: The Book of the New Sun, Vols. I & II
Author: Gene Wolfe
Series: The Book of the New Sun
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Orb Books
Media type: Paperback
Pages: 416 pp
ISBN-13: 978-0312890179
Followed by: Sword and Citadel
Publication date: 1983

Reader Review

I've read some of the reader reviews of "Shadow and Claw" and come to the conclusion that the book needs an introduction. Many of the negative reviews, I think, come from readers who weren't familiar with Gene Wolfe's writing style, which is understandable. So let me say for Wolfe that you cannot by any means read "The Book of the New Sun" the way you would ordinarily read a book. This mostly stems from the fact that the book is supposed to be an autobiography, and the writer, Severian, really can't be trusted to describe things accurately. A pretty good example would be the first woman Severian becomes interested in, Agia. He tells us that she was the most unattractive woman he has ever been attracted to. Fine, but the way that he becomes somewhat obsessed with her at a glance would suggest otherwise, and the way she treats him would account for his recalling her as being ugly. This is a minor example, to be sure, because it is a matter of Severian's perspective. There were other times in the book that I got the impression that Severian was telling flat-out lies. It's confusing, but it makes the book extremely interesting to read, simply because you are able to figure out much of what actually happened. Another thing to keep in mind, as somebody said in a quote on Wolfe's "The Fifth Head of Cerberus," (I forget who, and don't really care to find out, mostly because I'm lazy) is that Wolfe is "a master of the casual revelation." Which is to say that Severian will out of nowhere mention some vital piece of information, apparently assuming that we already knew about it. And we probably would know were we from his world, as he assumes we are. The only other thing to be aware of is the vocabulary, which thankfully is not nearly as difficult as people have described it. By and large, you won't have to look up the words being used simply because while you may not what an individual word means, you can infer it's meaning from the sentence it is used in. I started out looking up words constantly, and found that they mostly meant what I had already assumed they did. This is not to say that you shouldn't have a dictionary on hand, but looking up every word used that you don't know would be excessive. If all this sounds intimidating, I highly recommend that you read "Cerberus" which will give you a better handle on Wolfe's style. It's great book, and a good place to start if you are unfamiliar with Gene Wolfe. (If you do take my advice, it would be good to note that Severian's writing style is most similar to the first novella in "Cerberus.") The main thing I want to be clear on is that you shouldn't start reading this book expecting another "Lord of the Rings." While it can be argued that the "New Sun" series is of a similar calibur in terms of greatness, these are entirely different books. "LOTR" is an entertaining story, and you don't have to read into it at all. Everything you need to know is right there on the pages. The "New Sun" series is a bit more literary (Which sounds like a cultural elitist term, but I can't think of another one. Rest assured, I don't mean to belittle "LOTR" in any way, shape or form). If you're reading purely for an entertaining story, you would probably do well to look elsewhere.

- by Sean Hanley

Like thousands of teenagers, I came of age with *The Lord of the Rings*. The rather ugly Bakshi movie was the first one I went to see without my parents, and the novel was virtually the first one I ever read that was not a children's book, except for Jules Verne's *Mysterious Island*. Just like many Tolkien fans, I became a lifelong devotee of the fantasy genre, and explored the more promising of the other Middle-Earths, from Lankhmar to the Dark Shore, Lyonesse, Majipoor, Amber, Earthsea and the world of the Hyborean Age.

But of all the fantasy series I ever read, the only that ever compared to Tolkien's masterpiece in my opinion was Gene Wolfe's *New Urth* tetralogy. The others were fun, imaginative, full of action and adventure, but they either failed to maintain throughout the literary and spiritual power I had found in *The Lord of the Rings* or to equal the richness of its world-building.

Interestingly enough, however different Tolkien's and Wolfe's epics might be, they share two profound similarities. First, both were written by Catholics and infused with their author's faith. With Tolkien, all the trappings of religion are evacuated from the world itself while the story is saturated with religious symbolism. With Wolfe, on the contrary, Christianity is still very present but transformed, as if through layers and layers of rewriting, into a distant shadow of itself. There is only one God, Pancreator or Panjudicator ; an almost legendary «Conciliator» walked the earth eons ago and is still venerated by the order of the Pelerines ; and priests, rituals, sacred items and guilds abound, as in the Golden Age of Christianity.

The other similarity between the two sagas is the spiritual nature of their ultimate magical item. In *The Lord of the Rings*, the object is the ring itself, each successive use of which is a step on the path to damnation - conferring power on Earth in exchange for another fraction of the user's soul, as witnessed in the various states of spiritual decrepitude of those who have succumbed to the temptation. In *The Book of the New Sun*, the most powerful item is the Claw of the Conciliator - «the most valuable relic in existence», a gem that «performs miraculous cures... forgives injuries, raises the dead, draws new races of beings from the soil, purifies lust and so on. All the things [the Conciliator] is supposed to have done himself.»

In other words, Tolkien's ring is the Devil ; Wolfe's Claw is God : an interesting symmetry.

The texture of the two worlds, however, is very different. Middle Earth seems to be set in a distant past, barely threatened by the first premises of industrialization. Urth on the other hand is our own world millenia hence, a decaying planet waiting for a promised rebirth, frozen in some static medieval social order, incapable of producing any complex artefact except by magic, and borrowing fragments of more advanced technologies from its own past or from the mysterious hierodules, elusive offworlders who only have transactions with selected individuals on Urth and seem to be guiding the world's destiny in some occult fashion.

Tolkien was obviously not Wolfe's major influence. The world Severian, his first-person narrator, so entrancingly describes seems to be a mixture of Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Peake's Gormenghast, a labyrinthine urban world rather than an enchanted primeval setting, filled with Lovecraftian horrors and filtered through the literary sensibilities of an admirer of Jorge Luis Borges.

So if you know that you will not recapture the wonder of *The Lord of the Rings* by reading any of its countless rehashes, and are seeking for an original voice of comparable eloquence, the *New Sun* cycle is for you : open the gate to the necropolis, unsheathe *Terminus Est* and come drink the analeptic alzabo.

*Shadow and Claw* brings together in one volume the first two novels in the series, *The Shadow of the Torturer* and *The Claw of the Conciliator*. It is followed by *Sword and Citadel*, the conclusion of the original series, initially published in two volumes, and *Urth of the New Sun*, which I have not read yet. Wolfe further expanded the saga with the books of the Long Sun and Short Sun, comprising seven volumes so far. And readers who have fallen in love with his universe will also be interested in *The Castle of the Otter* (1983), a collection of essays he wrote on the *New Sun* cycle ; *Lexicon Urthus*, a New Sun encyclopedia ; and GURPS New Sun, the role playing game based on the series.

- by Jean-Francois Virey 

"Here I pause. If you wish to walk no farther with me, reader, I cannot blame you. It is no easy road."

So go the extremely memorable ending lines of both books contained in this one volume.

It seems to me that this is one of those books that people are either going to love or hate.

WHAT'S TO LOVE ABOUT IT:
The storyline is extremely refreshing--when was the last time you read a story from the torturer's point of view?
The books do indeed feel like you're reading literature and not something fluffy.
The characters are very interesting--not just the main character, Severian, but the supporting characters as well, like Agia, Jolenta, Jonas, Dr. Talos, Thecla and a handful of others.
The chapters are extremely short--usually about 5-6 pages long--which make for a quick read--although not always an easy one.
The plot in general is very different from your typical "formula fantasy".

WHAT MIGHT TURN YOU OFF: As I mentioned before, this book is like literature. If fantasy were more popular in the late 1800s/early 1900s, it would read somewhat similar to this. The pages probably won't be flying like that page-turner you took to the beach last summer.
There are lots of real words that are so seldom used as to falsely lead one to believe that they are fantasy words (e.g. Sabretache, which is actually a little pouch). The writing is not florid however.
However, there are also made-up words, usually for units of time and currency, and although there is an appendix, it is inconveniently at the back of the book.
Gene Wolfe's writing style can take some getting used to. There were a few times I had a hard time visualizing what was going on and had to reread a paragraph or page to figure things out.

OVERALL:
If you're up for a challenge, then I'd definitely give this series a try. If I had to rate the books individually, the first book I'd give 4/5 and the second I'd give 3.5/5. The first book is more linear and makes for an easier read, while the second is more complex and unconventional.

- by EMAN NEP

I Am J by Cris Beam [2011]

Growing up, J (born as Jennifer) always thought of himself as a boy stuck in the body of a girl. In elementary school J shunned his mom’s attempts to stick him in dresses and preferred the rough-and-tumble play of boys on the playground. Now, as a teenager, J’s Puerto Rican mother and Jewish father want him to think about his future and one day start a family, a possibility that makes J feel misunderstood and anxious about what lies ahead. So after an argument with his best friend, J strikes out on his own. He starts classes at a school for transgender and gay teens, but the complications resulting from who he is and who he wants to be prevent J from truly connecting with anyone. Fed up hiding inside layers of oversized t-shirts, J decides to explore testosterone treatments and embarks on a path that will test his patience, maturity, and commitment. Author Cris Beam’s extraordinary understanding of this often overlooked population shows in J--a complex, conflicted character whose emotional journey will resonate beyond the final page. Equally impressive is Beam’s vivid dialog, which illuminates relationships and situations that any teen who has felt isolated will easily relate to. Thoughtfully researched and written, I Am J is ultimately an inspiring novel about deciding to lead the life one is meant to--no matter at what cost.

Author: Cris Beam
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Media type: Hardcover, Kindle
Pages: 352 pp
ISBN-13: 978-0316053617
Publication date: 1 March 2011

Reader Review

I Am J is a moving look at a teenager's gender transition and coming of age. J has known he was meant to be a boy since he was little, but hasn't had a way to truly articulate that or figure out how to make it an actuality until the time this book takes place, when he's 17. He wants to share the news with his best friend, Melissa, but being a little bit in love with her, or at the very least, having a major crush, he has trouble expressing exactly what it is he's feeling. He is also just discovering the ways he can actually turn himself not just into a boy, but into a man, and he hits a lot of stumbling blocks along the way.

His family is one of the biggest stumbling blocks, and trying to stay close to them when they don't understand what he's going through is a theme that crops up throughout the book, something he continues to navigate. J starts to create a new "family" when he starts at a new school and starts to meet fellow transgender people. He meets Blue, one of the most fascinating characters in the book (and not just because she has blue hair and paints exclusively in shades of blue), who becomes his girlfriend.

I didn't always like everything J did, but I thought he was a fascinating character, and as he matures, he figures out how to have empathy for those around him, like Melissa, and seek out the help he needs to be the man he wants to be. He realizes that his transition is extremely important to him, but that photography is also his passion, and that entirely abandoning his previous life wasn't necessary to lead him on the path he needed to be. Beam doesn't try to paint J as the "perfect" trans teenager (is there such a thing?) but as a human one who is figuring out who he is, who his role models are, and where he fits in at school, home and in the world.

- by Rachel Kramer Bussel "Cupcakes Take the Cake blogger, author, editor"

I was a little scared of this book. I knew that Beam had it in her to realistically portray the transgender experience, so my expectations were super high. I also knew that a book like this has the potential to be filled with well-meaning stereotypes in order to present the most inclusive picture: of trans folk, of Puerto Rican New Yorkers, of the dream of being a "real boy," and more. But my fears were unfounded; I loved this book. J really rang true to me as a character and as a transguy, and his experiences, though not universal (thankfully not everyone has to move out or change schools in order to transition, though some undoubtedly do), were realistic. I Am J was everything I hoped it would be.

But I did have a couple of problems. I found it hard to believe that J, who has been looking around on the internet for information and support since he was eleven, hadn't heard about T (testosterone injections) or a (chest) binder until he was seventeen. I'm willing to let that go as it allows the reader to learn about these things at the same time that J does. I don't think it would have been such a problem if the book wasn't so obviously written by someone who, like J's support group leader, "talk[s] about the 'gender binary' and 'those of trans-masculine identification' as easily as reciting the alphabet" (243).* Beam is a very very knowledgeable woman, as evidenced by her previous work of non-fiction, Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers. She seemed to have a difficult time balancing her wealth of knowledge with the naiveté of her narrator.

This may look like more criticisms than praise, but it's really not! I loved I Am J, and I applaud Beam for taking on the issue of transitioning in the context of cultural and familial expectations, and the fallout from not meeting those expectations, in an accessible and authentic way. Not to mention that she wrote a pretty great story of a teen trying to find his direction and place in the world, regardless of all the issues that J has to deal with. I think this is a must buy for libraries serving youth; it's Luna for the guys.

Book source: ARC provided by the publisher.

*Quotes and page numbers are from an uncorrected proof and may not match the published copy.

- by Lawral Wornek

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of I Am J by Cris Beam. I did not receive any compensation for my review.

This is a very intense and engaging read about a bi-racial teen's gender transition. Beam's story provides great insight to life a transgender teen. This is an issue that prior to reading this book I did not know much about. Fortunately, as well as writing an engaging story, Beam also takes the time to explain the issues.

However, I was puzzled about why J, who has known since a small child that he is a boy born with girl parts, waited until he was 18 to seek support. All in all I found this to be well written, with well developed characters. Though the main story deals with J's life as a transgender teen, it also covers all the usual challenges of just being a teen - including difficulty getting a long with parents. J's parents are not very likable. Not only do they not understand J, they seem incapable of giving him any support. Perhaps this lends to the authenticity of the story, as teens are often misunderstood by their parents.

This is a good read for not only teens but parents as well. Not only is it entertaining, but it provides some valuable insight as well.

- by Beverly L. Archer "Booklady123"

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss [2011]

The Wise Man's Fear continues the mesmerizing slow reveal of the story of Kvothe the Bloodless, an orphaned trouper who became a fearsome hero before banishing himself to a tiny town in the middle of Newarre. The readers of Patrick Rothfuss's outstanding first book, The Name of the Wind, which has gathered both a cult following and a wide readership in the four years since it came out, will remember that Kvothe promised to tell his tale of wonder and woe to Chronicler, the king's scribe, in three days. The Wise Man's Fear makes up day two, and uncovers enough to satisfy readers and make them desperate for the full tale, from Kvothe's rapidly escalating feud with Ambrose to the shockingly brutal events that mark his transformation into a true warrior, and to his encounters with Felurian and the Adem. Rothfuss remains a remarkably adept and inventive storyteller, and Kvothe's is a riveting tale about a boy who becomes a man who becomes a hero and a killer, spinning his own mythology out of the ether until he traps himself within it. Drop everything and read these books.

Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Series: The Kingkiller Chronicle
Genre: Fantasy novel
Publisher: DAW Books
Media type: Hardcover
Pages: 994 pp
ISBN-13: 978-0756404734
Preceded by: The Name of the Wind
Publication date: 1 March 2011

Reader Review:

If, like me, you were so impressed with The Name of the Wind that you neglected all but the most pressing business until you turned the final page, you may have decided to give it a quick re-read in anticipation of the sequel. If you did, you probably spotted this quote in Chapter 43: "There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man."

After a long but worthwhile wait, we now have the second novel in The Kingkiller Chronicle, and its title refers directly back to the quote: The Wise Man's Fear. (And by the way, if you didn't feel like rereading book one, Patrick Rothfuss posted a wonderful web comic recap on his blog.)

Saying that the level of anticipation for The Wise Man's Fear was high is an understatement, especially given that The Name of the Wind was only Patrick Rothfuss' debut. It's not as if this is the concluding volume of a long multi-volume saga, decades in the making. The Name of the Wind struck such a powerful chord with many readers that, before long, messages started popping up left and right, complaining that things were taking too long and couldn't he write a bit more quickly?

Well, merciful Tehlu be praised, Patrick Rothfuss took his time, polishing and refining his manuscript until it stood up to his own standards. The result is The Wise Man's Fear, a novel that for the most part fulfills the promise of The Name of the Wind. You'll find the same sweeping prose, deft characterization, rousing adventure, emotional highs and lows, and just plain and simple gripping reading of the "I couldn't put this book down even if my house caught fire around me" variety.

Also, there's much more of it, in terms of sheer length. Weighing in at about 1,000 pages, The Wise Man's Fear is a heftier tale with a much broader scope. Where most of The Name of the Wind was set in and around the University, the sequel starts off there but soon has Kvothe venturing out into the world. As a result, some of the blank spaces on the map start to get filled in, giving this fantasy world a welcome new level of depth. Make no mistake, Kvothe is still front and center, but the details of the world's geography are starting to come into focus, as well as its history, with the central mystery still being the exact nature of the Chandrian and the Amyr.

And Kvothe... is still Kvothe. One of the most memorable characters to appear in fantasy in the last decade, he again carries the tale easily. Let's not forget that The Name of the Wind's blurb, as well as the title of the series, seemed to spell out several major plot points: anyone who read the back cover of The Name of the Wind knew the edited highlights of Kvothe's life even before opening the book. How often do you see that, and even if you did, how often did it actually succeed?

Here, Patrick Rothfuss makes it work purely on the strength of his main character. Kvothe, telling his own story to the patient Chronicler, has so much sheer panache that his personality has the same effect as a minor tsunami on the people around him. In some ways, he's like a taller, more musically gifted version of Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan. Sure, when he describes a noble as being as "self-centered as a gyroscope", you can't help but think that this could easily apply to him too, but his charm, brilliance and inexorable forward momentum easily make up for it.

Then -- next brilliant trick -- to forestall those readers who might get annoyed at an impossibly brilliant and already semi-legendary character, the framing story shows us a much different present-day Kvothe, now going by the name Kote, who seems to be a shadow of his former self: a small town innkeeper with the lowest of profiles and the gentlest demeanour. The fact that we still don't know exactly how we got from Kvothe the high-flying warrior-arcanist-singer to Kote the soft-spoken innkeeper creates the tension that makes these novels so powerful. Evil is abroad, war is coming, and Kvothe, so different from how he describes himself in his story, hints that he is somehow responsible -- and, to top it all, we still don't know exactly how and why. Maybe most disturbing (or exciting, depending on your perspective and amount of patience): if Kvothe is recounting his past to Chronicler in three days, does that mean that the real conclusion of the story, describing the current and future state of the world, will only follow in books 4, 5, 6... ?

Regardless,The Wise Man's Fear is another excellent novel. Just getting to read more about the young, brilliant Kvothe at the University is a pleasure, although it did feel as if the first few hundred pages of this novel moved a bit more slowly and actually could have been part of the first book, with Kvothe's eventual departure making a perfect starting point for the sequel. Then again, we know this is meant to be one long tale split across three days of narration by present-day Kvothe to Chronicler, so it makes sense to think of these books as one big story with somewhat arbitrary cut-off points. (And oh, I don't think it's a spoiler to mention that the ending of this novel is once again of the somewhat anti-climactic "and then they all went to sleep to continue the story the next day" variety.)

Patrick Rothfuss's prose is still a pleasure to read. He does high comedy as expertly as heart-breaking tragedy. He occasionally throws out a sentence that's so perfectly on point, it's not hard to see why his book-signing events draw such huge crowds: "Hespe's mouth went firm. She didn't scowl exactly, but it looked like she was getting all the pieces of a scowl together in one place, just in case she needed them in a hurry."

If the plotting is sometimes a bit transparent, with the timing and sequence of some events being so convenient that it flirts with improbability, it's all easy to forgive because -- and this is really all that matters, in the end -- The Wise Man's Fear is more sheer fun to read than most fantasy novels I've read since -- well, since The Name of the Wind, come to think of it. Plus, we finally get to read the bit about Felurian...

If you're looking for solid, character-driven, consistently entertaining but occasionally quite dark fantasy that has more heart than several other series combined, you couldn't do much better than Patrick Rothfuss' KINGKILLER CHRONICLE. And now the long wait begins for book 3...

-- by Stefan Raets "Stefan"

I have been waiting for years for this book. I love Patrick Rothfuss - I loved his first book, I love his blog, I love hearing him speak in person, I love his charity work... I'm just a huge fan all around.

That said, I was disappointed by this book. It was a good book - but not nearly the quality of The Name of the Wind.

As others have mentioned, the story just isn't as tight as NOTW. The "worst" part of NOTW was the trip to Trebon to and the killing of the draccus, if only because it seemed to drag on far too long. Each of the segments of this book have a smiliar quality to them. The University segment was long, but that moved along at a good clip. The time in Vintas dragged, as did the hunt for the bandits. The time with Felurian also seemed to drag on and on... and then, the time with the Adem. The part that made each of those segments difficult to chew on was the fact that Kvothe did not progress as a character. At the end of WMF, he knows how to make love and he is a decent swordsmen (not nearly as good as the legendary people who trained him). That's all that could be accomplished in 1,000 pages? Really?

If this was to be a 4-5 book series, I could buy this as a decent book two. I can't fathom how the series will end with one more book. Either Kvothe isn't as cool as the NOTW made him seem, or book three is going to get about 85% of the series' action in it. Too much of the story remains untold.

This is not to say the book isn't a pleasure to read - Rothfuss' skill as a wordsmith ensures that the story remains interesting (or I probably would have put the book down). Perhaps the buildup to WMF was too great - perhaps I cared a little too much about a literary character. However, I can honestly say I was disappointed - it reminded me of my disappointment at reading A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin a few years back - a good book, but a letdown after A Storm of Swords.

Let's hope Pat Rothfuss and Kvothe recapture the magic in Doors of Stone (or whatever the title ends up being).

-- by D-Rock

When I reviewed Patrick Rothfuss's debut novel, The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1), I called it "the best debut novel - the best fantasy novel - in years." I was particularly excited because unlike some other seemingly unending series, Rothfuss said in his blog that all three books were written. Almost four years later, we finally have book two. Was it worth the wait?

"Wind" was such a strong first novel that it set very high expectations for the sequels. In particular, Rothfuss's writing, his use of language, was astonishingly good for a debut novel. If he didn't hang out in the Sci Fi/Fantasy ghetto with the rest of us, he'd be getting rave reviews from the New York Times Review of Books. "Wise Man" is equally well written. It's not better writing, but then that would be a difficult task, given the high benchmark.

This is projected as a trilogy, and the second novel of a trilogy is always challenging to write. Think of J.R.R. Tolkein's The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings. Often the middle novel is nothing more than a bridge between the setup in the first book and the conclusion in the third. Rothfuss made his task a little easier by telegraphing parts of Kvothe's life story in "Wind," but the technique gave him challenges as well. His success in writing a compelling middle novel varies on the narrative thread involved. Recall Rothfuss is telling three different stories: Kvothe's biography to The Chronicler, how Kvothe lost his powers, and whatever crisis is looming the background.

The tale to The Chronicler is well-told. Rothfuss seems to derive as much pleasure as Kvothe in reveling in that tale. The tale of Kvothe's lost powers is less well advanced. A certain rash pledge - Kvothe makes many rash pledges - may be the key, but it cannot explain everything. And the tale of the impending crisis is not advanced at all. It's barely mentioned. In a very real way, much of the narrative is not advanced, and that's a bit disappointing.

Rothfuss's gift for characterization is on full display: each of the characters with whom Kvothe spends significant time is well-developed, and the Felaurian is particularly well done. None of them are stock fantasy characters; they aren't the cardboard cutouts that plague so much of fantasy writing. And with one new character he has created a sense of ambiguous, poorly understood doom that is the equal of any recent fantasy writing.

All of which leaves us waiting for the third and final novel in the trilogy. First, I am a bit doubtful that Rothfuss can cram a conclusion to all three threads into one novel, even one longer than "Wise Man"'s 1008 pages. Certainly the pacing will have to be changed. The failure of "Wise Man" to advance critical elements puts more of a burden on the third book. If Rothfuss can bring it off and preserve the high level of writing, including the pacing, then we have a genuine superstar. The temptation to force the pace, compress events or resort to a narrative trick will be great.

Second, "Wise Man" is bracketed by careful descriptions of three kinds of silence. It's effective in the context of the narrative, but I sincerely hope Rothfuss isn't telling his readers to gird themselves for another four year wait to have the conclusion.

As a stand-alone novel, five stars, if only for the quality of the writing. As the middle novel of a projected trilogy - and recognizing that it's hard to judge without the conclusion at hand - just three stars. Brilliantly written, vivid characters, fine pacing. This is an exceptionally pleasurable read.

But now we are back to waiting.

- by James D. DeWitt "Alaska Fan"