The Kingkiller Chronicle is a fantasy trilogy written by Patrick Rothfuss, originally known as “The Book” in which he outlined the entire story in one long block. Rothfuss worked on the series throughout his extended time at university, then he worked some more, then in 2002 he won the Writers of the Future competition for an extract disguised as a short story. Then he did a little more work. This is a story, sanded and polished to absolute perfection. Rothfuss took his sweet time writing the series and that’s something that should be lauded, not bemoaned. This investment in quality and attention to detail has allowed Rothfuss to build a full and rich world with multiple languages, histories, cultures, beauty and darkness, all without the story becoming weighed down by stodgy exposition.

That said, it’s probably for the best he eventually chopped the story into three weighty chunks. The first book of the series, The Name of the Wind, was published in 2007 to much critical acclaim. The Wise Man’s Fear followed in 2011 and readers are waiting with bated breath for the final book of the series, The Doors of Stone, rumored to be published in 2014.

Well, fellow geeks, these books are so incredibly good, you should have your geek credentials revoked until you’ve read them in their entirety. Twice.

The epic story is told in three time streams: the present, in which the protagonist, Kvothe, is dictating his life’s story to a historian of sorts; the past, a first-person account of Kvothe’s life, and lastly, in chronologically vague parables and stories peppered throughout the books. Kvothe says the story will take three days to tell: each book represents a day of storytelling.