I've been on a Discworld binge for the last few weeks, but I recently took a break to read Name of the Wind based on my wife's suggestion. One thing that immediately struck me was the drastic difference in the two authors' writing styles. Pratchett excels at extremely colorful but simple writing, and a lot of action is implied without ever being explicitly stated - to the point where if you're not paying attention you might not even realize something happened. In contrast, Rothfuss loves to fill his pages with a tremendous amount of detail. I personally favor Pratchett's style, but I know a lot of people love the prose in Name of the Wind for the exact opposite reason.

Here's an example from Thief of Time. The only context you need is that Soto is a warrior monk currently disguised as a beggar, and his beggars bowl also doubles as a deadly explosive weapon.

The attackers recoiled as he threw the bowl against the wall, where the hidden blades buried themselves in the woodwork.

Then it began to tick.

Soto ran back down the alley, skidded around the corner, and then shouted, "Duck!"

Unfortunately for the Auditors, alas, he was just a tiny, tiny fraction of a second too late-"

I absolutely love this passage. It's only 4 sentences long, and yet it's so vivid and filled with action. It doesn't even mention the explosion, but it's so easy for your imagination to fill in the shape of the alley, Soto diving through the air, the flying blades, the Auditor's last looks of surprise. In fact, having to spell those things out almost detracts from the action, when Pratchett can give you the whole image in only 4 lines.

Here's a contrasting passage from Name of the Wind, which I disliked and my wife loved:

From where I hid, I saw the arcanist's face change from anxious, to pained, to angry all in a second. I saw his mouth move.

A furious gust of wind came out of nowhere, as if a storm had suddenly burst with no warning. The wind struck the old man's wagon and tipped it onto two wheels before slamming back down onto four. The constable staggered and fell as if he had been struck by the hand of God. Even where I hid nearly thirty feet away the wind was so strong that I was forced to take a step forward, as if I'd been pushed roughly from behind.

"Begone!" the old man shouted angrily. "Trouble me no longer! I will set fire to your blood and fill you with a fear like ice and iron!" There was something familiar about his words but I couldn't place my finger on it.

Both the mayor and the constable turned tail and ran, their eyes white and wild as startled horses'.

The wind faded as quickly as it had come. The whole sudden burst couldn't have lasted more than five seconds" ...

"Couldn't have lasted more than five seconds". That passage takes a full minute to read and takes up almost half a page. In my opinion it's excessively verbose and makes it harder to picture the scene as a whole, instead forcing me to look at each little thing separately. Of course, a lot of people also love this style of writing.

What are your thoughts on thee different writing styles? Obviously these are cherry picked examples so feel free to share some of your own!