posted
I'm curious what you folks think of Patrick Rothfuss. Or more specifically, his two Kingkiller novels.
The largest issue I had with Name of the Wind was the Mary Sue nature of his main character, Kvothe.
Wise Man's Fear, his second novel, alleviated some of that concern for me. I really felt like he worked in that book to humanize Kvothe somewhat, to show that Kvothe wasn't a master of all things. Just most.
Posts: 94 | Registered: Jul 2012
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I enjoyed both books. Frankly, he had me at the three silences.
My only complaint (apart from the fact that it's not finished) is that for me, the university parts start to drag a bit after a while. I like it better when Kvothe is out in the "real" world.
How many years do you think it'll be before the third volume comes out? I haven't even seen the title announced, yet.
Posts: 4633 | Registered: Dec 2008
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Note: This post has some potential spoilers if you haven't read Wise Man's Fear.
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Everyone still just seems to be referring to the next novel as Day Three. If there's a hint of a title out there, I haven't heard it.
I'd wager that the third book will be released in 2015.
The fact is, he can get away with taking the time to write it. The third book is going to be, in some ways, the culmination of his life's work. It's reasonable to expect him to huddle over his manuscript and fiddle with it for a few years. He runs the risk of letting a lot of fans down if it's not great. That's got to be intimidating.
Regarding the silence of three parts: hate is a strong word, so I'll just say I really don't like that part. It's not very accessible. Honestly, I have no idea what Rothfuss is doing there. About all I get is that Kvothe is waiting to die, and maybe the hint of some vague connection to lost music, and lost naming. I don't know. It strikes me as self-indulgent. I don't particularly know what a patient cut-flower sound is, nor what it has to do with a man waiting to die.
Pat's novella sounds like it's turning into more of a novel. His original expectation of 20k words seem to be shifting up to 60k -- at least, according to him in his interview with Terry Brooks.
I'm torn between Kvothe's time at the University and his time in the real world. I can appreciate it when he gets out, but there are times where I feel like some of the events meander around a bit too much for my taste. (Bandits to Felurian to Cthaeh to Inn to Adem -- there was some great stuff mixed in there, but I felt like I was missing an anchor along the way. I also felt like his return was anticlimactic considering the incredible change he went through.)
I also think the criticism of Kvothe as a Mary Sue character is very real, especially in Name of the Wind. Again, the events of Wise Man's Fear make me question that. Therein, Kvothe admits to knowing nothing about alchemy, gets repeatedly beaten by his Adem trainers, and fails to defend himself (in the frame) against the bandits that Bast hired. I look at that stuff, and wonder if Rothfuss' growth as a writer is compelling him to slowly remedy some of Kvothe's Mary Sue problem.
Of course, all of this being said, I believe Pat is an amazing writer. His novels are deep and intriguing on many levels. I recommend them to just about everyone.
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My guess is that this is ultimately an event tale, a Campbellian journey. Kvothe initially refused his call to action by living destitute on the streets of Tarbean. We have in Felurian either the goddess figure, or the temptress. (No idea what role Denna plays in the end.) We have the gift given in the form of the shadow cloak. Maybe we're just waiting to find Kvothe's dark father, possibly in the form of Haliax.
posted
Would you just like people's opinions who made it through the first book?
The number of Dustin pet peeves he violated made me return the book to the library after only a few chapters.
Can't please everyone...
Love his personality, based on the various things I've read from him directly. So, I suppose to answer your initial question, yes, I like Patrick Rothfuss.
quote:Would you just like people's opinions who made it through the first book?
The number of Dustin pet peeves he violated made me return the book to the library after only a few chapters.
Can't please everyone...
Love his personality, based on the various things I've read from him directly. So, I suppose to answer your initial question, yes, I like Patrick Rothfuss.
I'm open to all opinions on his writing, absolutely. Pat's a pretty amazing phenomenon in the fantasy genre. I'm sure we all know this. His first book was published even though it was 250k words, it won the Quill award, and it made it onto the New York Times best seller list. Pretty impressive for a guy's first time out. I'm trying to understand what happened there: what he did right. And to an extent what he did wrong, and why the wrong things didn't stop him from succeeding.
What are Dustin pet peeves? Me no familiar.
Posts: 94 | Registered: Jul 2012
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- a very interesting, very broad world. The world has an interesting history/myth that I'm dying to know more about. Various cultures that are interesting, a religion, and the fae realm.
- the magic system is logical and balanced. I can extrapolate to what is possible (unlike Harry Potter *cough*). Naming is certainly unbalanced (too powerful), but it's also very hard, so that hasn't been an issue yet. In fact it adds to the epic nature of the world history/fae connection/legendary people.
- his "voice" in very good. I love the poems/rhymes/songs.
- good characters. Good mix of minor and major characters and a good variance. We have old and young, powerful and powerless, various cultures, friends and foes and love interests.
- and then there's Kvothe. Yeah, he's a little Mary Sue in the first book, but he earns it. Most importantly he's likeable. He helps the underdog. He experiences real tragedy. He's scrappy and irreverent.
All of that adds up to something that is extremely enjoyable.
Posts: 222 | Registered: Jan 2013
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posted
I've gotten about an hour or so (on audiobook)into Name of the Wind, and am not feeling compelled to continue. I found the opening slow and the characters not terribly interesting. Then it sort of started moving and I started to think I'd like to find out what's going to happen. At that point, the character says, okay, I'll stop and tell this guy my life story... Which of course meant I wasn't going to find out much about the thing I'd just barely gotten interested in for a long time. My commute ended at this point and I haven't gone back to it since. It felt like a bait and switch. To be honest though, if it weren't a novel that had so much buzz around it I probably wouldn't have given it as much time as I did. Maybe I'll get back to it one day, maybe not.
Posts: 1993 | Registered: Jul 2009
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posted
Wow, Genevive, you've just summed up my feelings on this book as well. I think I quit at about the same spot.
I may get back to it someday because so many people love it, but then again there are just so many books I want to read and so little time to read them.
Posts: 1102 | Registered: May 2009
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I guess it's been two years since I last read (listened to) the first book, but I vaguely remember being ambivalent early on. I'm somewhat a completionist, so stopping never really crossed my mind.
Now that I think about it, all of the things I really care about are introduced well into the book. Those first characters aren't interesting and neither is the current state of Kvothe's world. And that long opening, don't expect any resolution to that in the first 100 hours of audiobook.
So why start the story there instead of with Kvothe's childhood? I think you'll find it's a great first part of a 2000 page (or whatever) journey, even though it's not a great opening when you first start reading.
13 lines? Rothfuss has a thousand lines before anything interesting happens. And he was essentially unknown before the first book (despite 1st place for a quarter in WoTF). But some people read the book all the way through and they told others who told others which, I think, made a lot of people continue through the drab beginning. And a lot of them felt richly rewarded despite the large investment Rothfuss requires.
I think there's a lesson there.
Posts: 222 | Registered: Jan 2013
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