This is an extraordinary book. Comparisons with Tolkien are unfair: Rothfuss is better. 
 It's the sort of book that you'd have to think twice about before recommending to young, aspiring authors: on the one hand, it will teach them what it looks like to create characters that are both heroic and believable, a romance and love story that isn't informed by patriarchal undercurrents of male domination and virgin fantasies, good and bad guys who are not simplistic black and white, and an underlying philosophy that is deeply thought-provoking. On the other hand, reading this might make any realistic aspiring author give up, knowing that they can never write anything that approaches Rothfuss's tale. 
 If I've interpreted Rothfuss's Goodreads.com author page correctly, it appears that the man slaves away for paltry pay at some midwestern university. Do they realize what an extraordinary writer they have in their midst? Why hasn't some place like Princeton snatched him up to teach one tiny seminar a semester and write the rest of the time, ala Joyce Carol Oates? 
 I can't thank Sophie enough for recommending this. Best book I've read in the past 5 years - at least.