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"The Alchemaster's Apprentice" by Walter Moers 2009

The starving crat Echo has made a contract with the alchemaster of Malsea, Ghoolion. What he has gotten out of this deal is the chance to learn all of Ghoolion's secrets, access to Ghoolion's world class cooking, and the promise of all the entertainment a crat could ever wish for. The catch is what Goolion gets from Echo unless the crat can outwit the vile alchemist with the help of his new knowledge and his friendships with the oddest of allies.

When I picked up this book, I don't know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn't this book. It kept me up practically all night reading about Echo and the completely insane characters that populated these pages. Even the most minor of characters had more to them than expected and made me think about the way I thought about things. I do not expect everybody to like this book but I did.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, 2007

Kvothe ("pronounced nearly the same as 'Quothe' "), the hero and villain of a thousand tales who's presumed dead, lives as the simple proprietor of the Waystone Inn under an assumed name. Prompted by a biographer called Chronicler who realizes his true identity, Kvothe starts to tell his life story. From his upbringing as an actor in his family's traveling troupe of magicians, jugglers and jesters, the Edema Ruh, to feral child on the streets of the vast port city of Tarbean, then his education at "the University," Kvothe is driven by twin imperatives—his desire to learn the higher magic of naming and his need to discover as much as possible about the Chandrian, the demons of legend who murdered his family. [Taken from the Publishers Weekly review on Amazon.]

This isn't a small book. I'm looking at my hard cover copy right now and it's a monster. There are 662 pages in my copy and, in my opinion, I wish it could have gone on a thousand pages more. My only consolation is that the sequel is coming out in March, but then I have another long wait for the finale of this amazing trilogy. If you don't like picking up books of an unfinished series, then I'm hesitant to recommend this book to you. Patrick Rothfuss cares about his writing, and he goes over his drafts again and again, often nitpicking at one paragraph, just to make one word fit better. At the same time, I think this is a book definitely worth reading. Rothfuss has created a world that I believe in. He's done what few authors have done for me and created a world and people who are real enough that I feel that I could turn around and see one laughing or playing pranks on each other. This is a book that I have read so many times I've memorized it. I'll stay up late reading this book over and over, and each time I'll find something new, something that I didn't see the first time. And sometimes I'll interpret parts of the story differently that the first time I read. To be honest, this book almost seems to change with each reading. I know I sound gushy and silly, but I honestly believe that this is a book that anyone who loves to read should own or at least read once.