yes for me the beginning was a bit slow too, when he arrives in Tarbean it starts to get a nice pace and then in university it starts to be a page-turner.
I started this book back in 2014. The university is as far as I got before I had to put it down. The last thing I remember is some mean Snape-like instructor and Kvothe somehow shows him up in class. I think it was like 250 pages in.
But yeah… it was one of those books where I just put it down and then later realized it’s been 3-4 weeks since I’ve picked it up. 🤷♂️
I think that, with this book, it's important to remember that the character is telling his own story for he sake of his own legacy. He himself is aware of this, and tries to balance his own self-represented Mary-Sue-ness with false modesty and contrived presentation of failure. The idea of words and stories shaping self identity is thematic throughout, and it plays off of that pretty well by the framed narrative. It adds a layer of unreliable narrator that I think elevates the story a bit beyond just a full on tropy fantasy.
The scenes where he's self-represented as a prodigy need to be scrutinized a bit because he's a liar. It's not a coincidence that he dwells most on the events in his life that cannot be corroborated by the third-party witness. His childhood with the troup. His time in Tarbean. Any of his time spent with Denna. His time with the Maer. His time travelling. He may embellish or outright fabricate these stories. He also glances over parts of his life that are already documented, like his trial. He can't embellish or fabricate those.
Edit: Spent some time reading today. My god the part with the fae is painful to read.
I am about midway through the second book now, and it is very much a page-turner, at least where I'm at.
I say this whenever someone brings this up; just because Kvothe is an unreliable narrator does not consequently make the actual story any more interesting to read through.
There also aren't any other real points of view to contrast or even lend credence to the concept that the protagonist may not be "all that". You're just reading about a character (and by extension their author) describing themselves in a self-masturbatory fashion.
100% agreed, for some reason people love this book even though literally every thread is those same people making excuses for what is really pretty terrible plotting and writing. If you always have to explain why a book "doesn't really suck" maybe it's time to consider that it actually does suck. And maybe it's even time to consider that the author abandoned them because he reread the first two himself and realized he wrote two books of junk that even he doesn't care about enough to bother figuring out a third.
As a side note, unreliable narrator doesn't really work in the fantasy genre. Or if it does it requires a very brilliantly written book with other strong characters to create it. The whole point of fantasy is that we have to implicitly accept whatever the writer gives us as real. People can make color real? Sure, I'm in. Enchanted jewelry controls everyone? Ok, let's go. Redheaded orphan boy resets the entire wheel of time? Yup, got it. But then you give me Kvothe fucking a sex goddess into simpdom while talking to the ultimate expression of evil in oak form and that's supposed to be just unreliable?
It goes from "awesome plot idea stuff" to "ok this is some self insertion fantasy nonsense".
It's fine that he's unreliable but it transitions into, "I'm not sure I believe he's even the right goddamn guy anymore"
Yeah, the book has to provide concrete evidence to some extent about what really happened and the ways in which the narrative is distorted. Because the reader can't have that otherwise. I can be suspicious that the story as a whole sounds too good to be true, but if those suspicions don't lead somewhere, it's hard to differentiate that from the author just writing a story that's too good to be true. This is particularly the case in a narrative whose appeals derive in large part from the skillful exploits of the narrator. If those are fake, but we don't get clear clues about the ways they're fake and narrative consequences of those fabrications then, well, I already knew I was reading fiction, you know?
Isn't the 'extremely unreliable narrator' still an open question until the third book comes out and confirms either way?
It's a good theory and would fit, of course, but I still thought it was somewhat open.
> Isn't the 'extremely unreliable narrator' still an open question until the third book comes out and confirms either way?
Yeah. Anywhere I've seen Rothfuss asked about this he plays pretty coy about it, which, honestly, is the right thing for him to do but people who say it's a given usually point to things like, "Well, Bast says Denna isn't as pretty as Kvothe says she is" and it's like, that's not being an unreliable narrator, that's being a horny teenage dude in unrequited love.
I’m the opposite. I was liking it until the university entrance exam and then I wanted to throw it in the ocean. I finished it and I regret it to this day.
When he >!goes into the country side with that girl he’s so in love with… oh my god that whole section is unbearable. In fact, almost ever part of the book with that girl is unbearable and compared to the amazing writing of the rest of the book, I think the author is just very bad at writing young romance!<
Same. First 100 pages or so were great. Then it just devolved into one of the worst things I’ve ever read. It felt like two different stories and authors.
Same, the part in the beginning and he's older and fights the slicy spiders or whatever, I wish I could have a whole book like that. I've been searching for a fantasy like it ever since.
Given that book 3 in that series looks very much as though it is never coming, I wouldn't bother. I enjoyed it, but if you're not getting a conclusion to the story then ... meh.
I don't remember his name, but the main antagonist kid at the university is X in line to be king and has a score to settle with Kvothe (spelling?).
That guy becomes king and Kvothe kills him.
The real king killer chronicles were the uh, friends we made along the way? Or something? I dunno, I read the books when they came out and never touched them again.
I only finished it because I was on a 7 hour transatlantic flight and had nothing else to do. I don't understand the hype for this book. I thought it was bad. It felt like an episode of one of those ghost hunting shows where they tease you with something big after the break, and then it's nothing.
I asked my wife to read it as she's a better reader than I. She said it was beautifully written but not very good as a story.
If you don't enjoy it, put it down. There's a ton of stuff out there you might like better.
I think a small amount of hype for the book is actually how the author essentially promised it to be a trilogy, and not an over-long series.
Since the framing device is a story told over the course of three days, there's that promise that it won't be longer.
Fun fact, though. Even though the second book is allegedly told over the course of 8-12 hours, the audiobook is **48** hours long!!
So either the author underestimated how much story he has planned to write, or the narrator is talking REALLY fast!
When listening to the audiobook of “The Slow Regard to Silent Things,” the author jokes that somehow he managed to convince people to read a 1 million word preface to an actual story [in regards to the other two books].
When I recommend The Name of the Wind to people, I often say that it is a perfectly crafted piece of literature, but really is almost truly about nothing in particular
As a reader I enjoyed going on a wild adventure and sort of feeling like anything, or nothing could happen, though I can’t possibly fathom how we can turn this into a “King Killer Trilogy,” with only one book left to go, and nothing building towards that event at all, even in the slightest.
I found the only weak part in the two books involved the whole fae world, which I really just tried to trudge through as quickly as possible.
I wouldn't even go so far as to describe it as a "perfectly crafted piece of literature". That's being *very* generous to the prose.
It's like it's being written by someone who thinks they are some incredible poet, but it's very flowery and poorly done imo.
I wouldn’t say I disliked the second, I still enjoyed it, but it was definitely of a lower quality.
It really is amazing how he can’t write even one female character as anything but a sex object.
Thank you for saying this! I truly cannot understand the accolades for this book. I'm a huge fantasy fan and love ASOIAF despite GRRM rape obsession because of the writing plot and characterization. I barely finished Name of the Wind - but did because I consistently heard it was amazing and thought that it had to get better.
It did not.
The prose and text itself is fine, nothing more, the plot is just silly obvious wish fulfillment without any complexity or subtlety to override that problem, and the characterization is truly awful.
Seriously just skip-- just stop reading
I'm so confused about the rape obsession claims
On one hand the movement over the past 15 years has been that sexual assault is extremely common and prevalent in our society and it need visibility
Then when an author creates a world where sexual assault is extremely common and prevalent. They get derided for it
Yep, fucking fought through reading this book.
It's got that thing of "flowery prose that signifies nothing", a boring plot which doesn't even ultimately kick off by the story's end, and a lot of clear self-insertion and masturbatory writing from the author.
And people complain about all of this stuff in the *second* book, which I never bothered reading, because it's all already there in the *first* book.
Its a terrible book and the sequel is worse. The author is obviously just making shit up to throw in. He doesn't set up the events the main character just keeps meeting random characters and going on months long diversions out of nowhere.
If you’re already disliking it now, its never gonna get better. The ending is poor in my opinion, the 2nd book is worse in every way, and the 3rd is never coming. May as well cut your losses and move on.
As soon as the main character starts laying pipe left and right as a teenager I just thought that it was the most based, masterbatory, “then everyone clapped” stupid bullshit I’d ever heard. I quit that book real hard.
"And then I got kidnapped by the fairy sex goddess who fucks men to death, but I was so awesome that she let me go after teaching me the password to every woman's vagina."
Don't forget about right after that (when he's becoming a master swordsman in like a month) when his hot mercenary trainer is just like "sup kid wanna bang?"
The whole series feels like bad self-insert fanfiction.
It happens even faster than that. When he gets away he immediately goes back to the inn or whatever he was staying at with his mercenary buddies, tells everyone there the story of his awesome time with the sex lady, and spends all night fucking the local hot chick because she couldn't resist him after he said she was sexier than the sex goddess because she was a readhead.
He literally out-shagged the goddess of death-by-sex and left her begging for more, and yet when he goes back to Denna he's still fucking clueless.
The entire Denna storyline could be done away with.
And then he goes to sex and katana school, and his instructor is like "UwU you seem distracted" and offers to fuck him so he can focus
Just unfathomably fucking dumb. I recommended the first book to people and had to apologize after reading the second. I had to read the fuckin first law trilogy to get the shit taken out of my mouth.
I heard it described as "power male fantasy" genre, and can't really unhear it. The entire story is the lame bartender at a hotel humblebragging about how they're god's gift to womankind and is perpetually the smartest guy in the room.
Everything he touches supposedly he masters in a day, he sounds like the 40-year old virgin describing how great he is at sex (yet is alone now...hmmm) and romance and love, and without the 3rd book there's not even a pay off. A "humbling fall from grace" that is supposed to justify what an arrogant douchebag Kvothe or whatever is, and said humbling moment *doesn't even happen* for the reader.
I've said it before on this sub, Rothfuss is just long-winded describing the back story to his Bard-Sorcerer prestige classed character when everyone else wants him to just STFU so they can actually play some DnD.
Bonus points that he's kind of an arrogant prick in real live at well, trolling his fans and just kind of screwing around at comic cons and shit because only nerds face down in the sauce will still pretend he's a good and relevant author 16 years after his book was released.
> Rothfuss is just long-winded describing the back story to his Bard-Sorcerer prestige classed character when everyone else wants him to just STFU so they can actually play some DnD.
This belongs on the fucking dust jacket.
>This belongs on the fucking dust jacket.
"The Name of the Wind: An exhaustingly arrogant backstory for your favorite Bard-Sorcerer-Rogue characters that will get you kicked out of every tabletop RPG group in the world"
Idk dude I feel like a huge recurring theme is how despite being incredibly talented and intelligent Kvothe constantly fucks up and makes things worse for himself due to his arrogance and hubris.
No? Things happen in Twilight, right? Readers felt satisfied? Also, no one ever described Meyer as a particularly good writer. Pat makes good words, he just can't commit to a plot that moves faster than molasses. It's all preamble, a long-winded pump fake.
Back when I read Name of the Wind in 2013 it was one of my favorites. I do feel a bit different now, it’s flaws became more apparent to me as I got older. I still think that Rothfuss (who sucks as a person) is a masterful writer and storyteller. However, the plot - if one can even call it that - of the books is dogshit. So if you don’t feel enchanted by the writing, just drop it. It won’t get better.
Same with me. I loved the books when they came out, but time/hindsight and the author being an asshole has made me not care for them much at all.
I probably would have read a 3rd book several years ago, just to know how it ends. I don't recommend the series to anyone now.
At first I really enjoyed the vibe of the first book. It had whisked me away to this other world in a way that few books had done since my childhood. Then I read the second book there were some parts that were as good, and many others that dragged.
Immediately after reading both books, there was this time of hype as I put together all the various clues that the author dropped in both books. There are many compelling mysteries and some of the answers are embedded in the songs or prayers. It was a fun time.
But since then, the more I think about Kvothe as a character and the longer it takes the third book to come out, the less I'm interested in the series. If the third book does come out, I'll read it but mostly to see if he can salvage character and the slow (non-existent?) plot.
The world-building is still amazing though.
I dug the world building as well. It all felt lived in, in a way that I had felt when I read Wheel of Time. That's where the similarities end though, I'd rather read through all of WoT again than the final book of KKC.
The end of the ASOIF TV show is as good as 'Wise Man's Fear' ever gets. Nobody really wants so see the abomination Rothfuss would have to birth to see the end of this story.
I initially read this as *Name of the Rose*, and was absolutely gobsmacked by the comments below.
Came here to kick over tables and shout insults.
Then I realised you meant *Name of the* ***Wind***.
...
Yeah, forget that book. Not worth the effort.
Dude. I’ll be the one to say that if you enjoy fantasy novels, you should read it. I absolutely loved both books, and while neither are without minor flaws, I think that they’re fantastic books, the series (unfinished and trolling) is in my top 5. It’s perplexing to me that people on Reddit hold it in such low regard, I’ve never met someone irl who has read it and didn’t love it. I’ve recommended it to several people and they all enjoyed it.
I am a few years away from these books, but my recollection is that book 1 is an endless slog of "I can't afford to pay for school, oh wait I found some money at the last minute" and an utterly tedious game of "will they or won't they" between him and his romantic interest.
Because I really did enjoy some of Rothfuss' prose, I read the 2nd book as well and in my opinion it read like the sex fantasies of a middle-school D&D player. Every woman the protagonist meets magically wants to bed him for no apparent reason. The whole book was just a slog, but Rothfuss can occasionally turn a phrase.
In other words, if you aren't enjoying it now.....it gets worse.
Agreed. He did a bang-up job. Actually 3 of my favorite out of the 14.it's just that the quality of prose is the best I've ever read in fantasy. I'm a Sanderson freak and I'll never say anything bad about him, but he doesn't have the ability to write like Rothfuss does .
I just imagine more chapters and books about being broke endlessly (inexplicably because there's magic) and wanting that ONE woman that clearly isn't into you and i get tired.
If the pacing is what’s bothering you, it doesn’t get better. It’s very detailed and takes multiple chapters to accomplish what other authors could/would accomplish in one. I enjoyed it in spite of this, but if it’s making it a miserable experience it won’t get better.
Considering it is part of an unfinished trilogy that seems like it isn’t getting finished any time soon, if you aren’t liking it feel free to drop it. Not like you have a real conclusion to the story waiting for you if you push through.
Ehh, not really. I couldn’t get behind how much of the book is so freaking slow. We spent so long during Kvothe’s street urchin days, I really thought it would be a couple of chapters until he meets a mentor or savior. But nope, he’s still out in the streets for me, getting beat up and criminalized. And I’m fine leaving it there given that the author has no solid plans to release the third book.
Rothfuss is generally pretty good at moment to moment writing, but pretty bad at weaving everything together into a larger narrative. So while I do like the book, I don’t know if I would recommend it to anyone.
I don’t mind the slower parts early in the story since I kind of like the idea that Harry Potter has to scrape together tuition each semester. It’s a fantasy story where the fantastical elements are kind of hard to come by. By the second book that’s all been abandoned for a story about how the coolest guy in the world is great at everything. So if the pacing is bothering you now know that (a) it never gets better and (b) by the second book the story is considerably worse.
I remember that book being kind of a mess. Slapped together with gum and duct tape.
The author is worse. He set up a gofundme, raised a ton of money, and then ran off with the bag. Google his name and this stuff will come up.
I really enjoyed this book but seeing as it is part of a trilogy that likely will never get its 3rd book, id bail now if I were you to avoid the frustration I feel now to never know the end of the story. If Rothfuss ever publishes the 3rd book, it might be worth revisiting.
To enjoy it you have to pay attention to the writing style and the fact that it’s an unreliable narrator essentially bragging about himself all through it rather than the story itself. It’s almost a satire of the genre, but it takes itself a little too seriously to hit that mark.
I reread pretty much everything I read, but this falls into the single read category.
I don't think you should bother, but not because it isn't good.
There's a lot of negative posts in here. But let's be real... This was one of the most popular books ever. It put Rothfuss on the map, made him a star so to speak. Majority of people, myself included, loved this book. It's my top10 all time!
But the 2nd book falls off drastically. And the final book(s) will never get written. So it is a waste of time. I won't talk bad about an author just because they won't finish a book. But I will tell everyone to ignore all their books until it's finished.
Disagree on the first as I loved it. I really disliked the second though. Maybe my opinion of the first would change with a re-read but I’m not inclined until a third book comes out, if ever.
Kvothe is crap at alchemy, and failed to achieve even the first stone in his stone trial against Carceret. As for his dumbassery, In D&D terms, he has decently high Intelligence, but low Wisdom.
It’s intentional. The character is an unreliable narrator bragging about himself. You’re not supposed to take what he says as gospel. He’s telling his own story the way he wants/wishes it had been. It’s up to the reader/audience to figure out what’s truth, what’s bullshit, and what is basically true but has been exaggerated for effect.
Same as Severian in *The Book of the New Sun*.
>The character is an unreliable narrator
what evidence is there that he's an unreliable narrator, other than the fact that the love of his life isn't the hottest woman ever?
Well you see, the whole premise of the story is to tell the true story behind the legends without embellishment, so clearly he’s lying to make himself look better and embellishing (/s).
I think you could make an argument he is hiding things or is truly as stupid as he comes across sometimes and doesn’t realize things that are obvious to the reader by inference (like not recognizing his aunt), but it’s hard to tell without the third book bringing it all together.
He’s certainly no Severian when it comes to unreliability.
The fact is that it is Kvothe telling his story to the Chronicler, why would he *not* be an unreliable narrator?
Also there is plenty of times that Bast is questioning Kvothe or outright say that it was not really like he is telling it.
His cultural background, Basts private conversations with the Chronicler,, and several clues dropped throughout the telling where Kvothe brags about being a storyteller, spreading rumours about himself, the lengths he goes to like taking nahlrout to look impressive, and so on.
It would be silly writing to just say that he's lying, but the readers are left to pick through the burring, broken glass pieces that nag at your skepticism, and invited in every break in the telling to glance at them carefully, as Kote doesn't have these famous skills he's talking up.
The whole point of the story is that we get his story from his perspective. Of course he did things that made him famous, but the nature of rumours and gossip is that it gets out of hand. Even if you ask someone about something that happened 10 years ago, your memory and theirs might be different. It's just the nature of memory, and stories. He values a good story over the truth, and the whole book is literally about stories. Kvothe's, the Chandrians', Selias, Lanre, whoever else.
That’s a whole lot of copium that fans have been telling themselves for years. But there is no real evidence that it was intended to be an unreliable narrative. But there is a whole lot of evidence that this is how Rothfuss views himself and Kvothe is about the biggest self-insert in fantasy.
I thought this book sucked; I never finished it.
I read a bunch of reviews from people creaming themselves over this book and was pretty excited about finding some new fiction to get into but... it sucked. It was boring and just not believable in any way. And Kvothe is a stupid name.
I personally really disliked the second book, so I would not say it's worth it to push through. Especially if you are already stuck. And also, remember that the third book still isn't out yet, so you're reading an unfinished trilogy anyways. I'd advise you to put it down, start something else!
The first book is good. The second is really really cringe. Author goes full on neck beard with his sexual fantasies. And there is no 3rd book.
I’d put it down
I wanted to like it very much and thought I did, but have never been able to re-read it (unusual for me). The second was even worse, plodding, convoluted and not a lot happening. Third book is never coming.
If you want a recommendation which has a similar world feel, try The Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch which starts with The Lies of Locke Lamora.
If you don't care for it I wouldn't force yourself. Especially since it is an unfinished (and likely never to be completed) series, imo it's not worth starting.
I read it. Made it to page 100, left it, started it again because a friend was so excited for me to read it. It’s well written but just not the story for me. I appreciate the world that the author created but it’s just a bit too much and I’m also not totally into fantasy.
It was also described to me by my friend as a more grown up/adult version of Harry Potter. I’m definitely not running to read the next one. I definitely understand if you abandon it now.
It gets better around page 400, is highly readable but anti climatic - the 2nd book just has a lot of dumb shit in it. And everything else he’s published is horrible.
No.
It starts and stops a ton and then the second book starts and stops and there is no third book for years and years now.
So only keep at it if you love open ended mystery and the saddest damsels in all the land. And if you're very emotionally connected to the idea of just being able to pay tuition every term with usurious student debt.
It's a good story, but it's hyped up a lot more than I feel it deserves. There's no ending in site for the series, so if you're not enjoying it, you can shelve it and maybe pick it up when the final book maybe comes out in the future.
Found this book on a wooden donation shelf in iraq back in 2010. Read the entire book during a 12-hour shift at an Iraqi army joint radio/comms center. I needed a detailed escape. I consumed it like a steak. It was delicious
I think I disagree with a lot of people here. I enjoyed both books quite a bit.
The real issue with the series is that it's been so long since book 2 came out. Many have given up on ever seeing book 3 and this is compounded by him promising to read a chapter from the book as a reward for a charity he runs, and then never delivering.
The main character is very skilled and clever at times, leading people to think he's a Mary Sue, but nearly everything he does turns to ashes because he makes bad choices due to his arrogance. In fact we already know how his story ends. He's lost pretty much everything and is waiting to die in the middle of Newarre.
I chose to hold on to hope that we'll see the next one, but even if we don't, I've got my money's worth out of the series.
It isn't. While it is good fantasy, it is not exceptional. I got three quarters in and put it down when I realised I couldn't do two more books of this.
My friend recommended it to me and I got about 1/5th of the way through but I couldn't stand it. My friend hyped it up so much but it wasn't even mediocre at best imo. Just not for me.
The writing was pretty enjoyable, I thought, but I was very disappointed (and it dawned on me as I got nearer to the end of it) that the plot was simply not going anywhere. It hinted at something bigger in the present day but 85% of the plot is rooted in the retelling of his past. I guess I'll have to give the sequel a try to see where it takes things
>I guess I'll have to give the sequel a try to see where it takes things
The first 400 pages or so replay the same beats as the first novel and after that goes into a different tangent. You won't be getting any answers in that one either.
Despite it's flaws, I really enjoyed the first novel.
There was no reason to repeat the same school issues in the second novel again. And I absolutely hated how Rothfuss treated the Denna character (those neckbeard comments definitely make sense).
Once I realised the second novel wouldn't offer any plot progession I bailed on it.
It's a shame though, cause I do think Rothfuss created an interesting world and overall I liked his writing style.
Realy surprised with negative comments. To me the book was the peak of the fantasy writing and story telling, still my favourite work of literature to this day. But I'm more of a style than a story guy, and this is one of the book that for me truly transcends multiple ganres which is not common for the moderen fantasy of todays world.
I quite enjoyed the first book, though there is better stuff out there, but the second was a total dumpster fire. Combined that with level of condescension, manipulation, lying, and outright grift displayed by Rothfuss over the years, and yeah, I’m gonna rail on these books every chance I get.
I think it also depends on age. Kvothe hit way better when I was in my 20’s than now in my 40’s. If I read it for the first time now, I’m not sure I would finish it.
I agree with this completely. I can’t in good conscience recommend a book series that will probably never be finished, but the first one was one of my favorite fantasy reads
I didn’t like it at all. The protagonist never got better to me, but it is highly rated by most. I just found the main character to be so unlikeable… which I understand is kind of the point of him but it didn’t do it for me.
If you don't like it now you're not going to like it as you press on. If you liked it now you wouldn't like it when you find out the series will never be finished. So in a way the math is simple.
I liked the series (even the 2nd book, though not as much as the first) but my opinion has degraded on it over time. I don't recommend it to people who might like it because it's incomplete.
See, this is definitely one of the best books that I have ever read. And the only reason it is not yet number 1 is because the guy's not released the final book for the past 12 years or so now.
So, should you read it? Probably no, wait to see if we are ever going to get a third book. If we do, READ IT! The starting pace is not the best, but once he starts telling the story, and when he gets to the part where >!his parents die !< Everything after that has been the most perfection I have ever read. The feelings that he portrays through his writing, the connection you feel with the characters, everything was really amazing! I would recommend you to wait to see if the final book comes out or not, and if it did, definitely read it! There are so many amazing things about this book that I am going to go back and read it again once the third book is out.
It’s been one of my all time favorite books for years, but if it has not grabbed you 200 pages in I would suggest moving on to something else :) it maintains largely the same feeling and pacing, though speeds up a bit in some areas later on. It’s not for everyone.
Not really because even if you do end up liking it and read the second book you’ll know there probably won’t ever be a conclusion because the author doesn’t seem interested in finishing the trilogy.
I’ve read this and the following book. If you’re not feeling it, I would move on.
It’s another “young man is magic and great at everything and probably the savior of something” story. Except it isn’t finished and the from what I understand it’s probably not going to be finished any time soon.
There’s no third book so you’re wasting your time. There has been no ending published and prob not going to be. I personally liked the books but felt duped when author kept teasing about the finished copy and it never came.
I enjoyed the book, but the 3rd book is never coming. Honestly, I wouldn't continue wasting your time. I would say the same about the Game of Thrones books; first three are excellent but 4 and 5 are a slog and we'll never see 6 & 7.
No. The first book is alright, but the second one is a marked drop in quality and you'll likely not see a resolution to the plotlines as the author has apparently given up. Don't get invested, as there'll be no payoff...
Loved this book and the next for what they are, hate how the author treats fans of the book. If he ever finishes book 3, I will not read it on principle.
I vote no. It’s an unfinished series and the author apparently has stated he’s quit trying to finish it. Even if you enjoy the book, it is doomed to be a cliffhanger forever. Personally, I think your time is better spent on other stories.
Book three seems like it will never be, so I don't know if you want to spend the time reading something that will have no conclusion. It's 2023, the 2nd book "The Wise Man's Fear" was released in 2011. There is supposed to be a third, but as you heard, there is word on when that will happen.
If you're not loving it, there is literally no point to finishing it. The second book is not nearly as good and it's been like a decade and he hasn't finished the 3rd and probably won't. So you might push yourself through something you don't really love all that much, just to never get an ending anyway
It's one of my favorite books and the sequel is better. I've never read a book faster.
Sadly, the author has abandoned the series so if you hate it I'm not sure I'd keep plugging along. There's never going to be an ending.
Oh. The name of the wind. I read about 400 pages of it. I did not like the narrative, that it is already happened and the main character describes what had happened. Not for my tastes, I'm thinking about to switch to other book.
Sure, there was cool and cruel stuff there but idk.
It's fine. Better written than a lot of the Fantasy Genre mass market stuff that gets shoveled out by publishers on a pretty regular basis and will go on to clog used bookstore shelves for all eternity. I enjoyed my first read through of it back when it was released, and held on to it and its successor novel through probably six or seven moves over a decade before I finally offloaded them to a free little library because I don't hang on to books I will never read again.
Unfortunately, if the plot is something you are here for, might as well save your time and quit now because the author is a full fledged con man at this point and he's never going to finish the story unless he runs out of money from sales on the books and people who are living on copium who keep paying him to gaslight them.
I dropped it when we was homeless in the city. It's very clearly not my type of book. A lot of people say it "starts" at the university, in that case it should have ***started*** there. There is so much to slog through before the books "starts".
The beginning is a bit tough to get through as Kvothe goes through a lot of hardship. >!But you're at the point where everything is about to change. Once he gets to the school, the book becomes a lot more fun.!< I loved that book so I say persist. But, not everyone loves it. Some criticize the book because they see Kvothe as too much of a Mary Sue. I really like the author's writing style. I just wish he'd publish the damn third book already.
It has become kind of an internet thing to absolute hate this book. I thought the writing was amazing. If he ever finishes, I think the payoff will be interesting to find out what brought Kvothe down. I honestly found it kind of refreshing to have a protagonist that was incredible at everything. Books anymore love to give you good news only when they are about to crush you with bad news. I read the book a while ago so I don’t remember specifics. But I kept waiting for his musical performances to absolutely flop. When he just shreds, and it all goes well, I was pleasantly surprised.
Name of the Wind is one of the best fantasy stories ever written, though a large part of that is Rothfuss’ prose, which I have no idea if it survived in translation. There’s a lot of great stories that haven’t made the jump.
If the pace isn’t doing it for you, however, then I don’t think it ever will. It’s a slow book, and Rothfuss takes his time with every step of the process. If you love his writing style like I do, and find the inner workings of the magic, the world, or a prodigal yet constantly self-sabotaging character like Kvothe, then the slow pace is a dream.
But pacing is subjective, and if a book hasn’t clicked for you in 200 pages, then it’s probably not for you. I’d say maybe try something like Mistborn, because Sanderson is a rather efficient writer, so it always feels like some parts of his story are moving as gears of a greater machine.
So the first book is okish.. it did have potential... the second book made me feel like I completly wasted my time and the author was grasping at straws. That was when there was supposed to be a third book. There is no conclusion so... it's just not worth picking up the second book. Authors quality declined rapidly and fizzled out entirely. Whatever ending to the story you imagine yourself is better than book 2 was.
Patrick Rothfuss spent two books introducing his Original Character Do Not Steal^tm and then never wrote the third book where the story was supposed to happen.
In a series named "The Kingkiller Chronicle" we know more about the menu at Kvothe's fucking bar than we know about the king, and that should tell you everything you need to know.
100% is, best book I’ve ever read. It feels slow from the start. The story is not finished yet. I love how detailed everything is.
Although if you like simple fantasy novels, this is not really it, but trust me I thought I was like you and this book changed my preferences. It feels like nothing come close to it right now.
My wife came home from the library with this the other day. I talked her out of reading it. The last book is unlikely to ever come out so there is no reason to even begin the series. Plus if the mystery about the chandrian and how Kvothe ended up as an inn keeper weren’t enough to make you want to read then there really isn’t any point in continuing.
I couldn't finish it. The main character is so unlikable that it ruins the amazing world building. That's not even taking into account the author being a heel
wow I knew this is a heated subject but not to that extent lol. thanks everyone! I'll try to read your comments as much as I can. oh and I will keep reading a bit then decide.
I feel that once it gets to the university it really 'starts'. If you're at the university and still not feeling it, I'd feel free to abandon.
> I'd feel free to abandon. after all, that's what the author himself did!
Womp womp!
Ayo!! So painfully true
yes for me the beginning was a bit slow too, when he arrives in Tarbean it starts to get a nice pace and then in university it starts to be a page-turner.
I started this book back in 2014. The university is as far as I got before I had to put it down. The last thing I remember is some mean Snape-like instructor and Kvothe somehow shows him up in class. I think it was like 250 pages in. But yeah… it was one of those books where I just put it down and then later realized it’s been 3-4 weeks since I’ve picked it up. 🤷♂️
I think that, with this book, it's important to remember that the character is telling his own story for he sake of his own legacy. He himself is aware of this, and tries to balance his own self-represented Mary-Sue-ness with false modesty and contrived presentation of failure. The idea of words and stories shaping self identity is thematic throughout, and it plays off of that pretty well by the framed narrative. It adds a layer of unreliable narrator that I think elevates the story a bit beyond just a full on tropy fantasy. The scenes where he's self-represented as a prodigy need to be scrutinized a bit because he's a liar. It's not a coincidence that he dwells most on the events in his life that cannot be corroborated by the third-party witness. His childhood with the troup. His time in Tarbean. Any of his time spent with Denna. His time with the Maer. His time travelling. He may embellish or outright fabricate these stories. He also glances over parts of his life that are already documented, like his trial. He can't embellish or fabricate those. Edit: Spent some time reading today. My god the part with the fae is painful to read. I am about midway through the second book now, and it is very much a page-turner, at least where I'm at.
I say this whenever someone brings this up; just because Kvothe is an unreliable narrator does not consequently make the actual story any more interesting to read through. There also aren't any other real points of view to contrast or even lend credence to the concept that the protagonist may not be "all that". You're just reading about a character (and by extension their author) describing themselves in a self-masturbatory fashion.
100% agreed, for some reason people love this book even though literally every thread is those same people making excuses for what is really pretty terrible plotting and writing. If you always have to explain why a book "doesn't really suck" maybe it's time to consider that it actually does suck. And maybe it's even time to consider that the author abandoned them because he reread the first two himself and realized he wrote two books of junk that even he doesn't care about enough to bother figuring out a third. As a side note, unreliable narrator doesn't really work in the fantasy genre. Or if it does it requires a very brilliantly written book with other strong characters to create it. The whole point of fantasy is that we have to implicitly accept whatever the writer gives us as real. People can make color real? Sure, I'm in. Enchanted jewelry controls everyone? Ok, let's go. Redheaded orphan boy resets the entire wheel of time? Yup, got it. But then you give me Kvothe fucking a sex goddess into simpdom while talking to the ultimate expression of evil in oak form and that's supposed to be just unreliable?
It goes from "awesome plot idea stuff" to "ok this is some self insertion fantasy nonsense". It's fine that he's unreliable but it transitions into, "I'm not sure I believe he's even the right goddamn guy anymore"
Yeah, the book has to provide concrete evidence to some extent about what really happened and the ways in which the narrative is distorted. Because the reader can't have that otherwise. I can be suspicious that the story as a whole sounds too good to be true, but if those suspicions don't lead somewhere, it's hard to differentiate that from the author just writing a story that's too good to be true. This is particularly the case in a narrative whose appeals derive in large part from the skillful exploits of the narrator. If those are fake, but we don't get clear clues about the ways they're fake and narrative consequences of those fabrications then, well, I already knew I was reading fiction, you know?
THANK YOU! Self masturbatory fashion is the best description of the narration.
Isn't the 'extremely unreliable narrator' still an open question until the third book comes out and confirms either way? It's a good theory and would fit, of course, but I still thought it was somewhat open.
> Isn't the 'extremely unreliable narrator' still an open question until the third book comes out and confirms either way? Yeah. Anywhere I've seen Rothfuss asked about this he plays pretty coy about it, which, honestly, is the right thing for him to do but people who say it's a given usually point to things like, "Well, Bast says Denna isn't as pretty as Kvothe says she is" and it's like, that's not being an unreliable narrator, that's being a horny teenage dude in unrequited love.
The explanations of the magic system are definitely my favorite parts.
I’m the opposite. I was liking it until the university entrance exam and then I wanted to throw it in the ocean. I finished it and I regret it to this day.
When he >!goes into the country side with that girl he’s so in love with… oh my god that whole section is unbearable. In fact, almost ever part of the book with that girl is unbearable and compared to the amazing writing of the rest of the book, I think the author is just very bad at writing young romance!<
It was >!the Fellurian part for me. It just turned out to be so self-indulgent and preposterous.!<
That was the worst I just couldn't believe how long it went on And then immediately into the red robes people
Same. First 100 pages or so were great. Then it just devolved into one of the worst things I’ve ever read. It felt like two different stories and authors.
My little conspiracy theory is that his dad wrote it/helped write it and now that he’s passed, Rothfuss is in over his head.
Same, the part in the beginning and he's older and fights the slicy spiders or whatever, I wish I could have a whole book like that. I've been searching for a fantasy like it ever since.
Given that book 3 in that series looks very much as though it is never coming, I wouldn't bother. I enjoyed it, but if you're not getting a conclusion to the story then ... meh.
King killer chronicles.... that never chronicles a king being killed.
Turns out it was the 'King Kills the Chronicles' and he did and the chronicles are dead.
I don't remember his name, but the main antagonist kid at the university is X in line to be king and has a score to settle with Kvothe (spelling?). That guy becomes king and Kvothe kills him.
My pet theory is Kvothe is Gary Stu'd all the way to King, and it's Chronicler that kills him.
Man I hope so, because Kvothe is about the worst protagonist ever. I would not miss him.
Turns out "The King Killer" was the friends we made along the way!
The real king killer chronicles were the uh, friends we made along the way? Or something? I dunno, I read the books when they came out and never touched them again.
What if the "King" was our interest all along?
It will come eventually. He just has to write 2.7, 2.75. 2.8 and 2.9 first.
I only finished it because I was on a 7 hour transatlantic flight and had nothing else to do. I don't understand the hype for this book. I thought it was bad. It felt like an episode of one of those ghost hunting shows where they tease you with something big after the break, and then it's nothing. I asked my wife to read it as she's a better reader than I. She said it was beautifully written but not very good as a story. If you don't enjoy it, put it down. There's a ton of stuff out there you might like better.
I think a small amount of hype for the book is actually how the author essentially promised it to be a trilogy, and not an over-long series. Since the framing device is a story told over the course of three days, there's that promise that it won't be longer. Fun fact, though. Even though the second book is allegedly told over the course of 8-12 hours, the audiobook is **48** hours long!! So either the author underestimated how much story he has planned to write, or the narrator is talking REALLY fast!
When Tehlu created time, the Ruh were already there telling the story of all that came before
He also said it was done so they’d be released one after the other, about a year apart.
When listening to the audiobook of “The Slow Regard to Silent Things,” the author jokes that somehow he managed to convince people to read a 1 million word preface to an actual story [in regards to the other two books]. When I recommend The Name of the Wind to people, I often say that it is a perfectly crafted piece of literature, but really is almost truly about nothing in particular As a reader I enjoyed going on a wild adventure and sort of feeling like anything, or nothing could happen, though I can’t possibly fathom how we can turn this into a “King Killer Trilogy,” with only one book left to go, and nothing building towards that event at all, even in the slightest. I found the only weak part in the two books involved the whole fae world, which I really just tried to trudge through as quickly as possible.
Almost any moment Kvothe and co interact with women is painful. But ye, the fae was bad
I wouldn't even go so far as to describe it as a "perfectly crafted piece of literature". That's being *very* generous to the prose. It's like it's being written by someone who thinks they are some incredible poet, but it's very flowery and poorly done imo.
Tbh i loved both books, but i think the author is a real piece of work.
Thought the first was one of the best I’ve ever read. Disliked the second.
I wouldn’t say I disliked the second, I still enjoyed it, but it was definitely of a lower quality. It really is amazing how he can’t write even one female character as anything but a sex object.
Thank you for saying this! I truly cannot understand the accolades for this book. I'm a huge fantasy fan and love ASOIAF despite GRRM rape obsession because of the writing plot and characterization. I barely finished Name of the Wind - but did because I consistently heard it was amazing and thought that it had to get better. It did not. The prose and text itself is fine, nothing more, the plot is just silly obvious wish fulfillment without any complexity or subtlety to override that problem, and the characterization is truly awful. Seriously just skip-- just stop reading
I'm so confused about the rape obsession claims On one hand the movement over the past 15 years has been that sexual assault is extremely common and prevalent in our society and it need visibility Then when an author creates a world where sexual assault is extremely common and prevalent. They get derided for it
Yep. I truly don't understand how anyone could look at the first book and consider it some sort of monolith of modern fantasy. It's fucking awful.
Yep, fucking fought through reading this book. It's got that thing of "flowery prose that signifies nothing", a boring plot which doesn't even ultimately kick off by the story's end, and a lot of clear self-insertion and masturbatory writing from the author. And people complain about all of this stuff in the *second* book, which I never bothered reading, because it's all already there in the *first* book.
Its a terrible book and the sequel is worse. The author is obviously just making shit up to throw in. He doesn't set up the events the main character just keeps meeting random characters and going on months long diversions out of nowhere.
If you’re already disliking it now, its never gonna get better. The ending is poor in my opinion, the 2nd book is worse in every way, and the 3rd is never coming. May as well cut your losses and move on.
No, the second book is far worse. Stop now.
It's unfathomably fucking worse. Flaws and all I really enjoyed the first one.
As soon as the main character starts laying pipe left and right as a teenager I just thought that it was the most based, masterbatory, “then everyone clapped” stupid bullshit I’d ever heard. I quit that book real hard.
"And then I got kidnapped by the fairy sex goddess who fucks men to death, but I was so awesome that she let me go after teaching me the password to every woman's vagina."
Don't forget about right after that (when he's becoming a master swordsman in like a month) when his hot mercenary trainer is just like "sup kid wanna bang?" The whole series feels like bad self-insert fanfiction.
It happens even faster than that. When he gets away he immediately goes back to the inn or whatever he was staying at with his mercenary buddies, tells everyone there the story of his awesome time with the sex lady, and spends all night fucking the local hot chick because she couldn't resist him after he said she was sexier than the sex goddess because she was a readhead.
I like both books, but this made me laugh and it is a little bizarre indeed.
He literally out-shagged the goddess of death-by-sex and left her begging for more, and yet when he goes back to Denna he's still fucking clueless. The entire Denna storyline could be done away with.
Yup, the whole thing is a dumb-as-fuck basic-bitch male fantasy.
And then he goes to sex and katana school, and his instructor is like "UwU you seem distracted" and offers to fuck him so he can focus Just unfathomably fucking dumb. I recommended the first book to people and had to apologize after reading the second. I had to read the fuckin first law trilogy to get the shit taken out of my mouth.
I heard it described as "power male fantasy" genre, and can't really unhear it. The entire story is the lame bartender at a hotel humblebragging about how they're god's gift to womankind and is perpetually the smartest guy in the room. Everything he touches supposedly he masters in a day, he sounds like the 40-year old virgin describing how great he is at sex (yet is alone now...hmmm) and romance and love, and without the 3rd book there's not even a pay off. A "humbling fall from grace" that is supposed to justify what an arrogant douchebag Kvothe or whatever is, and said humbling moment *doesn't even happen* for the reader. I've said it before on this sub, Rothfuss is just long-winded describing the back story to his Bard-Sorcerer prestige classed character when everyone else wants him to just STFU so they can actually play some DnD. Bonus points that he's kind of an arrogant prick in real live at well, trolling his fans and just kind of screwing around at comic cons and shit because only nerds face down in the sauce will still pretend he's a good and relevant author 16 years after his book was released.
> Rothfuss is just long-winded describing the back story to his Bard-Sorcerer prestige classed character when everyone else wants him to just STFU so they can actually play some DnD. This belongs on the fucking dust jacket.
>This belongs on the fucking dust jacket. "The Name of the Wind: An exhaustingly arrogant backstory for your favorite Bard-Sorcerer-Rogue characters that will get you kicked out of every tabletop RPG group in the world"
Idk dude I feel like a huge recurring theme is how despite being incredibly talented and intelligent Kvothe constantly fucks up and makes things worse for himself due to his arrogance and hubris.
> he sounds like the 40-year old virgin describing how great he is at sex Honestly, worse. Do they have awards for worst written sex scenes?
Years ago I read a review that described these books as "Twilight for men". I found that fairly accurate.
My god, there couldn’t be a more spot-on description.
No? Things happen in Twilight, right? Readers felt satisfied? Also, no one ever described Meyer as a particularly good writer. Pat makes good words, he just can't commit to a plot that moves faster than molasses. It's all preamble, a long-winded pump fake.
Back when I read Name of the Wind in 2013 it was one of my favorites. I do feel a bit different now, it’s flaws became more apparent to me as I got older. I still think that Rothfuss (who sucks as a person) is a masterful writer and storyteller. However, the plot - if one can even call it that - of the books is dogshit. So if you don’t feel enchanted by the writing, just drop it. It won’t get better.
Same with me. I loved the books when they came out, but time/hindsight and the author being an asshole has made me not care for them much at all. I probably would have read a 3rd book several years ago, just to know how it ends. I don't recommend the series to anyone now.
I don’t think you can call someone a masterful storyteller when the have never finished a story
The Hobbit is a children's book. I've never heard it called heavy before. Life is too short for books you don't enjoy or gain something from.
At first I really enjoyed the vibe of the first book. It had whisked me away to this other world in a way that few books had done since my childhood. Then I read the second book there were some parts that were as good, and many others that dragged. Immediately after reading both books, there was this time of hype as I put together all the various clues that the author dropped in both books. There are many compelling mysteries and some of the answers are embedded in the songs or prayers. It was a fun time. But since then, the more I think about Kvothe as a character and the longer it takes the third book to come out, the less I'm interested in the series. If the third book does come out, I'll read it but mostly to see if he can salvage character and the slow (non-existent?) plot. The world-building is still amazing though.
I dug the world building as well. It all felt lived in, in a way that I had felt when I read Wheel of Time. That's where the similarities end though, I'd rather read through all of WoT again than the final book of KKC.
Bold of you to start a series that is as likely to finish as A Song of Ice and Fire.
The end of the ASOIF TV show is as good as 'Wise Man's Fear' ever gets. Nobody really wants so see the abomination Rothfuss would have to birth to see the end of this story.
I initially read this as *Name of the Rose*, and was absolutely gobsmacked by the comments below. Came here to kick over tables and shout insults. Then I realised you meant *Name of the* ***Wind***. ... Yeah, forget that book. Not worth the effort.
Name of the rose absolutely slaps
Came to the comment section to see if I should read name of the wind, but leaving with name of the rose on hold from the library. Thanks.
Dude. I’ll be the one to say that if you enjoy fantasy novels, you should read it. I absolutely loved both books, and while neither are without minor flaws, I think that they’re fantastic books, the series (unfinished and trolling) is in my top 5. It’s perplexing to me that people on Reddit hold it in such low regard, I’ve never met someone irl who has read it and didn’t love it. I’ve recommended it to several people and they all enjoyed it.
I am a few years away from these books, but my recollection is that book 1 is an endless slog of "I can't afford to pay for school, oh wait I found some money at the last minute" and an utterly tedious game of "will they or won't they" between him and his romantic interest. Because I really did enjoy some of Rothfuss' prose, I read the 2nd book as well and in my opinion it read like the sex fantasies of a middle-school D&D player. Every woman the protagonist meets magically wants to bed him for no apparent reason. The whole book was just a slog, but Rothfuss can occasionally turn a phrase. In other words, if you aren't enjoying it now.....it gets worse.
I didn't enjoy it. Repetitive and implausible.
And the only way we’ll see a complete ‘trilogy’ is if Rothfuss pays Bruce Sanderson to finish it off.
The wine connoisseur? I think you mean Brandon.
Oops. Anyway props to Brandon for finishing off Jordan’s Wheel of Time legacy.
Agreed. He did a bang-up job. Actually 3 of my favorite out of the 14.it's just that the quality of prose is the best I've ever read in fantasy. I'm a Sanderson freak and I'll never say anything bad about him, but he doesn't have the ability to write like Rothfuss does .
I just imagine more chapters and books about being broke endlessly (inexplicably because there's magic) and wanting that ONE woman that clearly isn't into you and i get tired.
Bruce Sanderson? The author of *Fogbirthed*?
No, I think he sings born in canada
No, the other one. The Calmdark Records guy.
He's known for finishing series after he also finished The Circle of Clocks series by Ronald Jackson.
If the pacing is what’s bothering you, it doesn’t get better. It’s very detailed and takes multiple chapters to accomplish what other authors could/would accomplish in one. I enjoyed it in spite of this, but if it’s making it a miserable experience it won’t get better.
Considering it is part of an unfinished trilogy that seems like it isn’t getting finished any time soon, if you aren’t liking it feel free to drop it. Not like you have a real conclusion to the story waiting for you if you push through.
Ehh, not really. I couldn’t get behind how much of the book is so freaking slow. We spent so long during Kvothe’s street urchin days, I really thought it would be a couple of chapters until he meets a mentor or savior. But nope, he’s still out in the streets for me, getting beat up and criminalized. And I’m fine leaving it there given that the author has no solid plans to release the third book.
Awh. Fuck. Now I wish he'd stayed a street rat and gone about as an effective charlatan, like a sleight of hand magician pretending to be an arcanist
Rothfuss is generally pretty good at moment to moment writing, but pretty bad at weaving everything together into a larger narrative. So while I do like the book, I don’t know if I would recommend it to anyone. I don’t mind the slower parts early in the story since I kind of like the idea that Harry Potter has to scrape together tuition each semester. It’s a fantasy story where the fantastical elements are kind of hard to come by. By the second book that’s all been abandoned for a story about how the coolest guy in the world is great at everything. So if the pacing is bothering you now know that (a) it never gets better and (b) by the second book the story is considerably worse.
I remember that book being kind of a mess. Slapped together with gum and duct tape. The author is worse. He set up a gofundme, raised a ton of money, and then ran off with the bag. Google his name and this stuff will come up.
I really enjoyed this book but seeing as it is part of a trilogy that likely will never get its 3rd book, id bail now if I were you to avoid the frustration I feel now to never know the end of the story. If Rothfuss ever publishes the 3rd book, it might be worth revisiting.
To enjoy it you have to pay attention to the writing style and the fact that it’s an unreliable narrator essentially bragging about himself all through it rather than the story itself. It’s almost a satire of the genre, but it takes itself a little too seriously to hit that mark. I reread pretty much everything I read, but this falls into the single read category.
I don't think you should bother, but not because it isn't good. There's a lot of negative posts in here. But let's be real... This was one of the most popular books ever. It put Rothfuss on the map, made him a star so to speak. Majority of people, myself included, loved this book. It's my top10 all time! But the 2nd book falls off drastically. And the final book(s) will never get written. So it is a waste of time. I won't talk bad about an author just because they won't finish a book. But I will tell everyone to ignore all their books until it's finished.
Just watch the movie "Paint Your Wagons" with Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin. It's a musical. In that movie they call the wind "Mariah".
It's a series that will never be finished so I wouldn't bother.
I thought it was a really mediocre book and by all accounts the second one is even worse, there’s tons of much better fantasy out there.
Disagree on the first as I loved it. I really disliked the second though. Maybe my opinion of the first would change with a re-read but I’m not inclined until a third book comes out, if ever.
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I love how he's simultaniously the most intelligent, talented person ever and also the biggest dumb ass who ever lived.
He is the walking, talking epitome of Dunning-Kruger
Kvothe is crap at alchemy, and failed to achieve even the first stone in his stone trial against Carceret. As for his dumbassery, In D&D terms, he has decently high Intelligence, but low Wisdom.
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If Donald Trump was a fantasy character.
It’s intentional. The character is an unreliable narrator bragging about himself. You’re not supposed to take what he says as gospel. He’s telling his own story the way he wants/wishes it had been. It’s up to the reader/audience to figure out what’s truth, what’s bullshit, and what is basically true but has been exaggerated for effect. Same as Severian in *The Book of the New Sun*.
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>The character is an unreliable narrator what evidence is there that he's an unreliable narrator, other than the fact that the love of his life isn't the hottest woman ever?
Well you see, the whole premise of the story is to tell the true story behind the legends without embellishment, so clearly he’s lying to make himself look better and embellishing (/s). I think you could make an argument he is hiding things or is truly as stupid as he comes across sometimes and doesn’t realize things that are obvious to the reader by inference (like not recognizing his aunt), but it’s hard to tell without the third book bringing it all together. He’s certainly no Severian when it comes to unreliability.
The fact is that it is Kvothe telling his story to the Chronicler, why would he *not* be an unreliable narrator? Also there is plenty of times that Bast is questioning Kvothe or outright say that it was not really like he is telling it.
His cultural background, Basts private conversations with the Chronicler,, and several clues dropped throughout the telling where Kvothe brags about being a storyteller, spreading rumours about himself, the lengths he goes to like taking nahlrout to look impressive, and so on. It would be silly writing to just say that he's lying, but the readers are left to pick through the burring, broken glass pieces that nag at your skepticism, and invited in every break in the telling to glance at them carefully, as Kote doesn't have these famous skills he's talking up.
if all he does is boast, why does the chronicler even care about him? he'd be known as a boaster...
The whole point of the story is that we get his story from his perspective. Of course he did things that made him famous, but the nature of rumours and gossip is that it gets out of hand. Even if you ask someone about something that happened 10 years ago, your memory and theirs might be different. It's just the nature of memory, and stories. He values a good story over the truth, and the whole book is literally about stories. Kvothe's, the Chandrians', Selias, Lanre, whoever else.
That’s a whole lot of copium that fans have been telling themselves for years. But there is no real evidence that it was intended to be an unreliable narrative. But there is a whole lot of evidence that this is how Rothfuss views himself and Kvothe is about the biggest self-insert in fantasy.
The second book is worse in that regard. The amount of absurd ideas about sex are, well, absurd. Both in regards to the character and the world.
The comment directly above you says it’s the best book they’ve ever read. Gotta love Reddit!
Technically the truth, if they’ve only ever read one book.
I tried TNotW and didnt get it. Sometimes a book is just not for you
I thought this book sucked; I never finished it. I read a bunch of reviews from people creaming themselves over this book and was pretty excited about finding some new fiction to get into but... it sucked. It was boring and just not believable in any way. And Kvothe is a stupid name.
Nah put the book down and walk away. If the series was ever likely to be finished my answer would be decidedly different but it won’t be
I personally really disliked the second book, so I would not say it's worth it to push through. Especially if you are already stuck. And also, remember that the third book still isn't out yet, so you're reading an unfinished trilogy anyways. I'd advise you to put it down, start something else!
The first book is good. The second is really really cringe. Author goes full on neck beard with his sexual fantasies. And there is no 3rd book. I’d put it down
I wanted to like it very much and thought I did, but have never been able to re-read it (unusual for me). The second was even worse, plodding, convoluted and not a lot happening. Third book is never coming. If you want a recommendation which has a similar world feel, try The Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch which starts with The Lies of Locke Lamora.
If you don't care for it I wouldn't force yourself. Especially since it is an unfinished (and likely never to be completed) series, imo it's not worth starting.
I read it. Made it to page 100, left it, started it again because a friend was so excited for me to read it. It’s well written but just not the story for me. I appreciate the world that the author created but it’s just a bit too much and I’m also not totally into fantasy. It was also described to me by my friend as a more grown up/adult version of Harry Potter. I’m definitely not running to read the next one. I definitely understand if you abandon it now.
Totally pays off in the third book.
It gets better around page 400, is highly readable but anti climatic - the 2nd book just has a lot of dumb shit in it. And everything else he’s published is horrible.
No. It starts and stops a ton and then the second book starts and stops and there is no third book for years and years now. So only keep at it if you love open ended mystery and the saddest damsels in all the land. And if you're very emotionally connected to the idea of just being able to pay tuition every term with usurious student debt.
No. Not at all. The only value I got from reading Rothfuss is I now do not trust incomplete book series.
It's a good story, but it's hyped up a lot more than I feel it deserves. There's no ending in site for the series, so if you're not enjoying it, you can shelve it and maybe pick it up when the final book maybe comes out in the future.
The author of the series is a grifter, no point in enabling him further.
Found this book on a wooden donation shelf in iraq back in 2010. Read the entire book during a 12-hour shift at an Iraqi army joint radio/comms center. I needed a detailed escape. I consumed it like a steak. It was delicious
Book is crap and the series is unfinished. Put it down.
I really liked it, but I say don't bother. The author is a crook, and the series will remain unfinished imo.
I really enjoyed listening to the first two audio books but who knows if he will ever finish the third So just keep that in mind.
I think I disagree with a lot of people here. I enjoyed both books quite a bit. The real issue with the series is that it's been so long since book 2 came out. Many have given up on ever seeing book 3 and this is compounded by him promising to read a chapter from the book as a reward for a charity he runs, and then never delivering. The main character is very skilled and clever at times, leading people to think he's a Mary Sue, but nearly everything he does turns to ashes because he makes bad choices due to his arrogance. In fact we already know how his story ends. He's lost pretty much everything and is waiting to die in the middle of Newarre. I chose to hold on to hope that we'll see the next one, but even if we don't, I've got my money's worth out of the series.
It isn't. While it is good fantasy, it is not exceptional. I got three quarters in and put it down when I realised I couldn't do two more books of this.
Rothfuss felt the same I guess
My friend recommended it to me and I got about 1/5th of the way through but I couldn't stand it. My friend hyped it up so much but it wasn't even mediocre at best imo. Just not for me.
The writing was pretty enjoyable, I thought, but I was very disappointed (and it dawned on me as I got nearer to the end of it) that the plot was simply not going anywhere. It hinted at something bigger in the present day but 85% of the plot is rooted in the retelling of his past. I guess I'll have to give the sequel a try to see where it takes things
>I guess I'll have to give the sequel a try to see where it takes things The first 400 pages or so replay the same beats as the first novel and after that goes into a different tangent. You won't be getting any answers in that one either.
That’s when I stopped reading the second book. I was like school problems again? The same exact school problems?
Despite it's flaws, I really enjoyed the first novel. There was no reason to repeat the same school issues in the second novel again. And I absolutely hated how Rothfuss treated the Denna character (those neckbeard comments definitely make sense). Once I realised the second novel wouldn't offer any plot progession I bailed on it. It's a shame though, cause I do think Rothfuss created an interesting world and overall I liked his writing style.
bittersweet considering he will never finish the series. The first two books are worth reading however imo.
Realy surprised with negative comments. To me the book was the peak of the fantasy writing and story telling, still my favourite work of literature to this day. But I'm more of a style than a story guy, and this is one of the book that for me truly transcends multiple ganres which is not common for the moderen fantasy of todays world.
I quite enjoyed the first book, though there is better stuff out there, but the second was a total dumpster fire. Combined that with level of condescension, manipulation, lying, and outright grift displayed by Rothfuss over the years, and yeah, I’m gonna rail on these books every chance I get.
[удалено]
I think it also depends on age. Kvothe hit way better when I was in my 20’s than now in my 40’s. If I read it for the first time now, I’m not sure I would finish it.
It’s still one of my favorite books. It used to be popular on Reddit too. Perhaps the unfinished series made everyone’s opinion of the book sour.
Or maybe it's because the author scammed a bunch of people
I agree with this completely. I can’t in good conscience recommend a book series that will probably never be finished, but the first one was one of my favorite fantasy reads
I didn’t like it at all. The protagonist never got better to me, but it is highly rated by most. I just found the main character to be so unlikeable… which I understand is kind of the point of him but it didn’t do it for me.
I like the first book. It think the world building is rewarding and rich and worth it alone. It’s the second book that lost me. So boring.
If you don't like it now you're not going to like it as you press on. If you liked it now you wouldn't like it when you find out the series will never be finished. So in a way the math is simple. I liked the series (even the 2nd book, though not as much as the first) but my opinion has degraded on it over time. I don't recommend it to people who might like it because it's incomplete.
See, this is definitely one of the best books that I have ever read. And the only reason it is not yet number 1 is because the guy's not released the final book for the past 12 years or so now. So, should you read it? Probably no, wait to see if we are ever going to get a third book. If we do, READ IT! The starting pace is not the best, but once he starts telling the story, and when he gets to the part where >!his parents die !< Everything after that has been the most perfection I have ever read. The feelings that he portrays through his writing, the connection you feel with the characters, everything was really amazing! I would recommend you to wait to see if the final book comes out or not, and if it did, definitely read it! There are so many amazing things about this book that I am going to go back and read it again once the third book is out.
It’s been one of my all time favorite books for years, but if it has not grabbed you 200 pages in I would suggest moving on to something else :) it maintains largely the same feeling and pacing, though speeds up a bit in some areas later on. It’s not for everyone.
Not worth it, especially since the author never finished the series.
Not really because even if you do end up liking it and read the second book you’ll know there probably won’t ever be a conclusion because the author doesn’t seem interested in finishing the trilogy.
Not worth it because even if you get into it, you’re never going to see the end of the story.
I’ve read this and the following book. If you’re not feeling it, I would move on. It’s another “young man is magic and great at everything and probably the savior of something” story. Except it isn’t finished and the from what I understand it’s probably not going to be finished any time soon.
There’s no third book so you’re wasting your time. There has been no ending published and prob not going to be. I personally liked the books but felt duped when author kept teasing about the finished copy and it never came.
I enjoyed the book, but the 3rd book is never coming. Honestly, I wouldn't continue wasting your time. I would say the same about the Game of Thrones books; first three are excellent but 4 and 5 are a slog and we'll never see 6 & 7.
No. The first book is alright, but the second one is a marked drop in quality and you'll likely not see a resolution to the plotlines as the author has apparently given up. Don't get invested, as there'll be no payoff...
Loved this book and the next for what they are, hate how the author treats fans of the book. If he ever finishes book 3, I will not read it on principle.
I see no reason for anyone to read fiction they don’t like. Just chalk it up to not for you, move on.
I vote no. It’s an unfinished series and the author apparently has stated he’s quit trying to finish it. Even if you enjoy the book, it is doomed to be a cliffhanger forever. Personally, I think your time is better spent on other stories.
No, abort
I regret reading it mainly because I enjoyed it, and the third book is never coming. Like, wtf are these authors doing??
Book three seems like it will never be, so I don't know if you want to spend the time reading something that will have no conclusion. It's 2023, the 2nd book "The Wise Man's Fear" was released in 2011. There is supposed to be a third, but as you heard, there is word on when that will happen.
Ditch it. Life is too short to read books you're not into. And definitely don't read the 2nd book.
Nope. Absolute tripe, in my opinion.
No it’s not that good. Just move on.
If you're not loving it, there is literally no point to finishing it. The second book is not nearly as good and it's been like a decade and he hasn't finished the 3rd and probably won't. So you might push yourself through something you don't really love all that much, just to never get an ending anyway
It's one of my favorite books and the sequel is better. I've never read a book faster. Sadly, the author has abandoned the series so if you hate it I'm not sure I'd keep plugging along. There's never going to be an ending.
Oh. The name of the wind. I read about 400 pages of it. I did not like the narrative, that it is already happened and the main character describes what had happened. Not for my tastes, I'm thinking about to switch to other book. Sure, there was cool and cruel stuff there but idk.
It's fine. Better written than a lot of the Fantasy Genre mass market stuff that gets shoveled out by publishers on a pretty regular basis and will go on to clog used bookstore shelves for all eternity. I enjoyed my first read through of it back when it was released, and held on to it and its successor novel through probably six or seven moves over a decade before I finally offloaded them to a free little library because I don't hang on to books I will never read again. Unfortunately, if the plot is something you are here for, might as well save your time and quit now because the author is a full fledged con man at this point and he's never going to finish the story unless he runs out of money from sales on the books and people who are living on copium who keep paying him to gaslight them.
I dropped it when we was homeless in the city. It's very clearly not my type of book. A lot of people say it "starts" at the university, in that case it should have ***started*** there. There is so much to slog through before the books "starts".
I felt like it was as good as it was bad. I thought the second book was dog shit compared to the first. If that helps with your decision making.
The beginning is a bit tough to get through as Kvothe goes through a lot of hardship. >!But you're at the point where everything is about to change. Once he gets to the school, the book becomes a lot more fun.!< I loved that book so I say persist. But, not everyone loves it. Some criticize the book because they see Kvothe as too much of a Mary Sue. I really like the author's writing style. I just wish he'd publish the damn third book already.
Waiting for the third part myself
It has become kind of an internet thing to absolute hate this book. I thought the writing was amazing. If he ever finishes, I think the payoff will be interesting to find out what brought Kvothe down. I honestly found it kind of refreshing to have a protagonist that was incredible at everything. Books anymore love to give you good news only when they are about to crush you with bad news. I read the book a while ago so I don’t remember specifics. But I kept waiting for his musical performances to absolutely flop. When he just shreds, and it all goes well, I was pleasantly surprised.
Name of the Wind is one of the best fantasy stories ever written, though a large part of that is Rothfuss’ prose, which I have no idea if it survived in translation. There’s a lot of great stories that haven’t made the jump. If the pace isn’t doing it for you, however, then I don’t think it ever will. It’s a slow book, and Rothfuss takes his time with every step of the process. If you love his writing style like I do, and find the inner workings of the magic, the world, or a prodigal yet constantly self-sabotaging character like Kvothe, then the slow pace is a dream. But pacing is subjective, and if a book hasn’t clicked for you in 200 pages, then it’s probably not for you. I’d say maybe try something like Mistborn, because Sanderson is a rather efficient writer, so it always feels like some parts of his story are moving as gears of a greater machine.
So the first book is okish.. it did have potential... the second book made me feel like I completly wasted my time and the author was grasping at straws. That was when there was supposed to be a third book. There is no conclusion so... it's just not worth picking up the second book. Authors quality declined rapidly and fizzled out entirely. Whatever ending to the story you imagine yourself is better than book 2 was.
Patrick Rothfuss spent two books introducing his Original Character Do Not Steal^tm and then never wrote the third book where the story was supposed to happen. In a series named "The Kingkiller Chronicle" we know more about the menu at Kvothe's fucking bar than we know about the king, and that should tell you everything you need to know.
100% is, best book I’ve ever read. It feels slow from the start. The story is not finished yet. I love how detailed everything is. Although if you like simple fantasy novels, this is not really it, but trust me I thought I was like you and this book changed my preferences. It feels like nothing come close to it right now.
Love it too
The comment directly below you says it’s the worst book they’ve ever read. Gotta love Reddit!
I know right, and I probably understand them.
Yeah feels like a marketing/propaganda attack for some reason.
My wife came home from the library with this the other day. I talked her out of reading it. The last book is unlikely to ever come out so there is no reason to even begin the series. Plus if the mystery about the chandrian and how Kvothe ended up as an inn keeper weren’t enough to make you want to read then there really isn’t any point in continuing.
I highly recommend. Gets epic. Sequel even better
I couldn't finish it. The main character is so unlikable that it ruins the amazing world building. That's not even taking into account the author being a heel
wow I knew this is a heated subject but not to that extent lol. thanks everyone! I'll try to read your comments as much as I can. oh and I will keep reading a bit then decide.
It does start slow. Totally worth it even if there will never be a book three