Where to Start with Patrick Rothfuss
- Best entry point → The Name of the Wind
- Start the Vault of Heaven #0.7 - The Sound of Broken Absolu series → Unfettered
- What fans keep coming back to → The Wise Man's Fear
- Highest rated by listeners → The Slow Regard of Silent Things (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2.5 #2)
- 1
The Wise Man's Fear
The Kingkiller Chronicle • Book 2
Narrated by Nick Podehl
★ 4.86 ABR Score (711.5K ratings)★ 4.55 Goodreads (626.1K) ★ 4.8 Audible (85.5K)More about this pick
Kvothe continues his legendary tale, traveling to court intrigue and spending time with the immortal Felurian while mastering both magic and seduction. Nick Podehl's performance remains captivating.
- 2
The Name of the Wind
Kingkiller Chronicle • Book 1
Narrated by Nick Podehl
★ 4.82 ABR Score (1.2M ratings)★ 4.52 Goodreads (1.1M) ★ 4.7 Audible (109.1K)More about this pick
Legendary hero Kvothe tells his own story: orphaned by demons, surviving on streets, then earning his way into magic university. Nick Podehl becomes Kvothe himself.
- 3
The Slow Regard of Silent Things
The Kingkiller Chronicle #2.5 • Book 2
by Patrick Rothfuss, Nate Taylor
Narrated by Patrick Rothfuss
★ 4.26 ABR Score (174.9K ratings)★ 3.86 Goodreads (161.6K) ★ 4.33 Audible (13.4K)More about this pick
Rothfuss reads his own prose poem about Auri's underground life, his voice matching the delicate, careful rhythm of her daily rituals perfectly.
- 4
Rogues
Ancient World
by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Joe Abercrombie, Gillian Flynn, Matthew Hughes, Joe R. Lansdale, Michael Swanwick, David Ball, Carrie Vaughn, Scott Lynch, Bradley Denton, Cherie Priest, Daniel Abraham, Paul Cornell, Steven Saylor, Garth Nix, Walter Jon Williams, Phyllis Eisenstein, Lisa Tuttle, Neil Gaiman, Connie Willis, Patrick Rothfuss
Narrated by George R. R. Martin, Gwendoline Christie, Roy Dotrice, Ron Donachie, W. Morgan Sheppard, Janis Ian, Molly Quinn, Rupert Degas, Iain Glen, Various
★ 3.81 ABR Score (27.5K ratings)★ 3.87 Goodreads (24.6K) ★ 4.13 Audible (2.9K)More about this pick
Twenty-one stories featuring morally ambiguous characters from fantasy and historical fiction masters. The varied cast including Gwendoline Christie and Iain Glen gives voice to antiheroes across multiple genres and time periods.
- 5
Unfettered
Vault of Heaven #0.7 - The Sound of Broken Absolu • Book 1
by Shawn Speakman, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Jacqueline Carey, Tad Williams, R.A. Salvatore, Naomi Novik, Geno Salvatore, Peter V. Brett, Daniel Abraham, Lev Grossman, David Anthony Durham, Peter Orullian, Blake Charlton, Michael J. Sullivan, Eldon Thompson, Robert V.S. Redick, Carrie Vaughn, Kevin Hearne, Jennifer Bosworth, Todd Lockwood, Mark Lawrence
Narrated by Peter Ganim, Marc Vietor, Bronson Pinchot, Jay Snyder
★ 3.83 ABR Score (7.6K ratings)★ 3.8 Goodreads (6.0K) ★ 3.78 Audible (1.5K)More about this pick
Twenty-three fantasy authors contribute stories to help editor Shawn Speakman pay medical bills, creating an anthology spanning multiple worlds and styles. Multiple narrators handle everything from epic fantasy to urban magical realism.
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How We Rank Audiobooks
Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.
Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.
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