A long-awaited homecoming: The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss

I'd forgotten what a joy it is to read a new Rothfuss story.

I had read part of “The Lightning Tree,” the story upon which The Narrow Road Between Desires is based, but neglected to finish it. So I went in mostly blind to how this story would go.

TNRBD begins mundanely: Bast, trickster fae extraordinaire, is trying to avoid chores from his Reshi. In some ways, that's the entire book.

And not it at all.

In the course of a single day—precisely, midsummer’s day, the reference to A Midsummer Night's Dream not accidental, I think—Bast woos and has his way with several men and women, berates and aids children in their amusing plights, and… saves a family.

There is care put into every word, every scene, every turn of phrase. I was delighted when, some ways in, I noticed Bast would begin thinking or speaking on rhyme and meter. How many writers take the care to include such a subtle detail? One that, in some way, shifts our understanding of the character and book?

But there I go, gushing. Well gush I must, for I have nothing nasty to say about it. TNRBD was everything I could have wanted from this story.

I can't wait until I get another one from this master of the written word.