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Titles that grab: 'Name of the Wind', 'The Savage Garden' |
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Written by Allen Pierleoni, MCT
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Tuesday, 15 May 2007 |
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Like choosing a restaurant or which new movie to go see, deciding on the next book to read is subjective. Every now and then, though, a title comes along that's so compelling its appeal is pretty much across the board.
Examples? OK, how about "The Little Friend" by Donna Tart (2003), "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova (2005), "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield (2006) and "The Book of Air and Shadows" by Michael Gruber (2007).
Add a couple more to that list:
 "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW, $24.95): This is Book 1 in a fantasy trilogy that's getting starred reviews and huge industry buzz. Fantasy? Yep - as in "Lord of the Rings" and the Harry Potter series, which have been global mega-sellers.
The story takes place in an imaginary world populated by ordinary folks, magicians and, here and there, demons. The protagonist, Kvothe ("a man of a thousand stories"), is lying low under an assumed identity as an innkeeper, avoiding whoever is hunting him. As the plot progresses, he unfolds his fascinating life story, from his feral childhood to his enrollment in a dangerous school of magic. He brings his tale to the present day, saving future adventures for the next two books.
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 "The Savage Garden" by Mark Mills (Putnam, $24.95): This intriguing mystery is set in a 16th-century Tuscan villa, whose labyrinthine Renaissance garden has become the summer-long thesis project of Adam Strickland, a Cambridge University art history undergraduate. It evolves that the Villa Docci's deadly past and its current mistress, Francesca Docci, aren't what they seem. Secrets abound.
Following what might be clues in the ancient garden - in the statuary and in old inscriptions chiseled in rock - Strickland attempts to solve two murders separated by 400 years. Soon he finds himself in harm's way. | Only registered users can write comments.
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