Patrick Rothfuss has a way with book endorsements…

Mr. Rothfuss has graced the front cover of Stormdancer and the back cover of Libriomancer, two of my favorite recent reads. What I love so much about his quick blurbs is how they’re not your average endorsement. Normally, you get something like “a gripping tale of heroism” or “so and so has taken the fantasy genre to a new level” or whatever, but Mr. Rothfuss’ comments are much more personal.

~

Stormdancer: “What’s that? You say you’ve got a Japanese steampunk novel with mythic creatures, civil unrest, and a strong female protagonist? I’m afraid I missed everything you said after ‘Japanese steampunk.’ That’s all I really needed to hear.”

Libriomancer: “I picked up the book meaning to read a few pages. My first thought was, ‘This is a cool concept.’ The second thing I thought was, ‘This is really, really clever.’ The third thing I thought was, ‘I should have gone to sleep three hours ago.”

~

See what I mean? They’re personal with a touch of humor. It feels more like he legitimately enjoyed the novel and wants to convince others to read it, while other book endorsements just seem flat and stale. While I would have bought Stormdancer and Libriomancer regardless of what Patrick Rothfuss thought of them, these brief quotes convinced me to add The Name of the Wind to my short list. The man seems to love the kind of books I love, and seems clever and genuine as well, so how could I not enjoy his work?

If you are somehow lucky enough to be publishing a book, do everything you can to get Patrick Rothfuss to endorse it. Then you’ll be all set!

Libriomancer

Libriomancer

By: Jim C. Hines

www.jimchines.com

(Urban Fantasy)

346 pages

“Some people would say it’s a bad idea to bring a fire-spider into a public library.”

This book has everything I love: books, magic, libraries, used book stores, steampunk automatons, except for one major thing. I hate spiders! How could I have overlooked the arachnid sitting atop the protagonist’s shoulder on the very cover of the book? I soon had to reconcile the fact that I would have to find a way to deal with Smudge the fire-spider, or give up the book entirely. I couldn’t abandon the book, so I learned to love Smudge instead.

That’s really saying something. Spiders totally freak me out, and the thought of tarantula-sized Smudge sitting on his master’s shoulder, or retreating into the web in his cage is enough to make me shudder. In the end it was his personality that won me over.

I have a thing for animal companions in books. Maybe it’s a result of too many Disney princess movies when I was young, but I’ve always liked the idea of having a whole bunch of loyal animal friends. There is something about how animal companions communicate with their human friend, whether with actual language or action, that leads to my favorite kind of character development. In Jay Kristoff’s Stormdancer, Buru made the story. Here Smudge adds a wonderful balance to the main character.

This book is so much more than fire-spiders! Who doesn’t want to magically pull items out of books? This ability makes books into weapons in a way that I haven’t enjoyed since the Read or Die anime (if you haven’t seen it, they use paper as weapons, and carry a lot of books…it’s cooler than it sounds). Now add to this Johannes Gutenberg, Ponce de Leon, vampires, madness, a threat to destroy the world, and a main character who geeks out over everything I love (Doctor Who, Firefly, etc.).

Basically, this is an awesome book, and I love where the series seems to be heading. Codex Born is already out, but it might be a little while before I get to it. Even so, I’m looking forward to it. Until next time…

Happy Reading!