Text books are boring though.... the lack of wizards and mass murderers make them pointless.

I've read the Bartimaeus Trilogy (very good), but can you tell me if any of those books  are similar to The Way of Shadows? I've had a bit urge to read books based around a young child that grows up and becomes a badass. Do any of the books you've listed fall under that description? I'd rather not fall back on my backlog of horror novels and autobiographies if I can find a good life spanning epic to read.

True...

Almost all of those do, except for the Roman ones, the guy starts off at 17? And gets to about 26 by the end of it :p, it's about Romans invading Britain again after getting pushed out a few centuries before
Painted Man and the Pawn of the Prophecy come highly recommended to fall under your category.. :p

The Way of Shadows was the meh in my honest opinion.

I mean, what's up with the nonsensical attitudes (like a general being spared the murder of a king that way. WTF?), trying way too much to be gritty, love just for the sake of it, the fact Brent was unable to seamlessly fit curses in normal talk, and the inconsistent magical powers. I don't like reading about a bunch of supermen, specially when their powers show up only when it is convenient.

Anyways I still bought the whole trilogy, beginner writers deserve our support (meanwhile I pirate every single game! Weee!) and felt it was worthy my time at the end, the plot was good even with all these flaws.

He is far better at writing action scenes and keeping up the pace than he is at actually creating a great plot. I'll admit it's a little generic, but I think that it all flows pretty well and it's just easy to ready, fun and a badass trilogy to get through in a week. I've noticed that many current fantasy writers try too hard at creating overly difficult plots and lore that lead to a boring book and it's nice to see a few people breakout of the old high sci-fi and fantasy structure and try and create a different reading experience.

Patrick Rothfuss, Brent Weeks, Neil Gaiman, Sergey Lukyanenko, Joe Abercombie and Conn Iggulden are leading fiction into a whole new direction and it's seems like they are sprinting away from the standard 'Lord of the Rings' strucuture that many other writers have picked up.

Yeah, about time they escaped LOTR's shadow... GRRM did wonders for fantasy fiction.

Last book I read was Brokeback Mountain, I just don't have the patience for them unless it's softcore porn

I'm currently reading World Without End. Getting ready for the miniseries!

THIS! The Name of the Wind is simply amazing. What a first book!