Ilona Andrews & Patrick Rothfuss

I'm looking for new fantasy books at the moment. I've found two series on amazon that seem to be quite interesting.


A. Ilona Andrews' series about Kate Daniels.

It's written by two authors, husband and wife, and the books which are out are Magic Bites and Magic Burns. The readers' reviews are quite enthusiastic and it seems that there are some tiny flaws, but all in all, it's good.
Have you read the books - and if yes, why, did you like them, is there anything you particularly loved or hated? Was it well written?
Do you know how many parts are planned for the series?

B. Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle.

There's one book out yet, The Name of the Wind (Day 1), the second one (The Wise Man's Fear (Day 2)) is coming out in April 2009.
Daphne Durham's editorial review claims that "Harry Potter fans craving a new mind-blowing series should look no further than The Name of the Wind--the first book in a trilogy about an orphan boy who becomes a legend. Full of music, magic, love, and loss, Patrick Rothfuss's vivid and engaging debut fantasy knocked our socks off."
Have you read The Name of the Wind, and if so, do you agree? I know there's already a German translation of the book, but that doesn't always mean that a book's good (after all, Rhue's The Wave got published and translated, too). And same question as for the Kate Daniels series: is the book well written?

Have you read any other fantasy books you enjoyed? Is there a fantasy author you particularly recommend?

Characters' names in HP

Clearly, Mrs Rowling was very inspired by Normandy. I don't believe she was on the train to London when she came up with HP anymore. I mean, seriously.

This is Percy.

And this is dear Vernon.

Of course, there are also villages called Le Repas (which means "the meal"), but Percy and Vernon were the ones that made me suspect something. Honestly, JKR, I'm not buying your London train story!