December Books 9) The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
I don't think of myself as someone who likes the big fantasy trilogy, having bounced off several of the more celebrated examples recently; but I really loved this as much as I loved the first volume, perhaps even a little more. Our hero, excluded from university studies because his brilliance makes him the object of supernaturally expressed jealousy, wanders off to find several different sets of adventures which would each be worth a novel in themselves, as courtier, mercenary, lover of the fae and initiate of a warrior cult; and gets back to find that the plot still needs to be resolved. Meanwhile the framing narrative gets a bit darker as well. Excellent stuff, and I will be among those getting the third volume the day it is published.