The Name of the Wind

This could very well be the best performance I've heard of an audiobook. It could be that it's a three- and not really a four-star book, but the performance was so good that I can't help but give it four.

I used to read a lot more fantasy than I do now. Some of it I've revisited as an educated adult and found rather poor - David Eddings' Belgariad etc., Terry Brooks' Shannara books, books that I really enjoyed as a late teen / early 20-year-old. The only fantasy that I really still enjoy has been A Song of Ice and Fire and my old favourites, the rather unwieldy and somewhat turgid Thomas Covenant Chronicles.

So it was rather a delight for me to be drawn so much into a new fantasy novel. Okay, so it is somewhat formulaic, but that didn't really matter. I found it to be well written and well plotted, with a really strong main character and excellent supporting characters. It's not the type of novel that I'd read more than once, as I have done with TC and ASoIaF, but it's not quite throw-away entertainment either.

I wonder if there are more fantasy books other there along these lines?