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Rothfuss XIII: Fan Angst Live Stream


Myrddin

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My productivity has skyrocketed since I put self imposed limitations on my internet usage a couple of months ago.

I was at a stress management training, and they said that the most productive people work for 52 minutes, then take a 17 minute break.  So I set a timer and I only get on the internet while on break.  Rothfuss should try this.

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Well, the thread title seems a little more... unfortunate in light of these news.

Onto something completely different. I mused a little in the previous thread if the trilogy was meant to be unfinished, and this "Tricked you into reading" part didn't really soothe me.

 

I think a great portion of the appeal of this series lies in the contrasts between the past and the present. We're shown a present time where Kvothe has built himself the reputation of a living legend, but lives as a washed-out barkeep in the middle of nowhere. A war is going on, a king has been killed, and the once-legendary Chandrian have apparently gone on a bit of a spree. Monsters roam the land, and things look pretty dire overall.

Then we see the past. A young and talented Kvothe loses his parents after they begin unraveling some old legends. He lives a troubled life as a street kid, but is able to wit himself into university. Over the next few years, we see him go from learning the basics of magic to actively practising it. He gets friends, he gets an education, the realm is at peace, and the Chandrian remain the stuff of legends. Book two even ends on a very happy note.

 

The question that intrigues the reader is: "What the heck happened in between?" Who was the king that was killed, and how/why did Kvothe kill him? Why did the war start? What caused the Chandrian to emerge, and why did they kill Kvothe's parents all those years ago? What broke Kvothe's spirit so badly? What happened to Denna, and what's the deal with her at all? Where did Bast come from? So many plot threads we see the beginning and end of, but the middles remain mysterious.

There are times I wonder if it is all an elaborate prank. If Rothfuss wrote a great set-up, a massive tangle of mysteries, with no intention of ever untangling it. After all, tying together the beginning and the end is hard work, even if you know the ending (ref.: the series behind this forum) The mysteries may even be more intriguing than the solution, and sometimes not knowing can be even more interesting than knowing for certain (ref.: the General (ASOIAF) subforum).

Sure, it would make the publisher angry. But the payoff from the first two books is great enough to make a comfortable living anyway, and the publisher has also made their investment back and then some. I don't find it entirely unconceivable that the series was written with the intention to deliver questions without answers, anticipation without delivery. However, I think it would fall apart (or at least, stop making money) if the author was ever to spill the beans on the plan, so it's not like he could ever admit it.

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7 hours ago, Kyll.Ing. said:

Well, the thread title seems a little more... unfortunate in light of these news.

Onto something completely different. I mused a little in the previous thread if the trilogy was meant to be unfinished, and this "Tricked you into reading" part didn't really soothe me.

 

I think a great portion of the appeal of this series lies in the contrasts between the past and the present. We're shown a present time where Kvothe has built himself the reputation of a living legend, but lives as a washed-out barkeep in the middle of nowhere. A war is going on, a king has been killed, and the once-legendary Chandrian have apparently gone on a bit of a spree. Monsters roam the land, and things look pretty dire overall.

Then we see the past. A young and talented Kvothe loses his parents after they begin unraveling some old legends. He lives a troubled life as a street kid, but is able to wit himself into university. Over the next few years, we see him go from learning the basics of magic to actively practising it. He gets friends, he gets an education, the realm is at peace, and the Chandrian remain the stuff of legends. Book two even ends on a very happy note.

 

The question that intrigues the reader is: "What the heck happened in between?" Who was the king that was killed, and how/why did Kvothe kill him? Why did the war start? What caused the Chandrian to emerge, and why did they kill Kvothe's parents all those years ago? What broke Kvothe's spirit so badly? What happened to Denna, and what's the deal with her at all? Where did Bast come from? So many plot threads we see the beginning and end of, but the middles remain mysterious.

There are times I wonder if it is all an elaborate prank. If Rothfuss wrote a great set-up, a massive tangle of mysteries, with no intention of ever untangling it. After all, tying together the beginning and the end is hard work, even if you know the ending (ref.: the series behind this forum) The mysteries may even be more intriguing than the solution, and sometimes not knowing can be even more interesting than knowing for certain (ref.: the General (ASOIAF) subforum).

Sure, it would make the publisher angry. But the payoff from the first two books is great enough to make a comfortable living anyway, and the publisher has also made their investment back and then some. I don't find it entirely unconceivable that the series was written with the intention to deliver questions without answers, anticipation without delivery. However, I think it would fall apart (or at least, stop making money) if the author was ever to spill the beans on the plan, so it's not like he could ever admit it.

 

Yeah, that was not a plan. The dude made a bunch of money, and is now unable or unwilling to finish for whatever reason, and because he made that money he doesn't have to finish it.

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20 hours ago, Kyll.Ing. said:

 

There are times I wonder if it is all an elaborate prank. If Rothfuss wrote a great set-up, a massive tangle of mysteries, with no intention of ever untangling it. After all, tying together the beginning and the end is hard work, even if you know the ending

There was a rumor that circulated a while back that the feedback from his beta readers on the ending was not good at all. 

If true, this is a tidy explanation for the massive delays. All of the foreshadowing and easter eggs make it [as you pointed out] difficult to pull together in the first place, but if you have to change the ending....

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29 minutes ago, Myrddin said:

If feedback from beta readers leaked, I'd be pissed if I were him and be looking for new beta readers in the future. 

Absolutely. 

Leak didn't need to come from there though. Could have come from the publisher, for example. While Rothfuss doesn't update us, presumably there is a circle of people (Publishers, Lionsgate, etc) who are in the know about how things are coming along.

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2 minutes ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

i wouldn't necessarily hear about it. Besides W.org and Reddit I'm not really what you'd call "plugged in" to the spec fic community. I have no idea where new KKC news would be discussed.

There are a couple of communities on Facebook.

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8 minutes ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

i wouldn't necessarily hear about it. Besides W.org and Reddit I'm not really what you'd call "plugged in" to the spec fic community. I have no idea where new KKC news would be discussed.

Here’s the leaked ending on Reddit. 

 

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I looked for the beta thing, but found nothing. I did find the leak that showed the Book 3 was 463 pages, and a snapshot of his folder (apparently taken during a live stream, when PR didn't know the camera was rolling), which showed DoS is half the size of WMF and that there hadn't been any apparent editorial changes from 2013 to 2016. This is all based on two images on google, though.

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A little googling found this Reddit post from five years ago.

So, he sent a completed manuscript to beta readers in 2013 (two years after the release of WMF, btw) and it's still MIA? Was it really that bad that he hasn't been able to finish a revision since then?

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I think if the past two years of news taught us anything it's that repeating rumors you hear bandied about on the internet as if they're facts is, at best, unwise. It's something I've been guilty of more than once.

23 minutes ago, Myrddin said:

A little googling found this Reddit post from five years ago.

So, he sent a completed manuscript to beta readers in 2013 (two years after the release of WMF, btw) and it's still MIA? Was it really that bad that he hasn't been able to finish a revision since then?

This is also fairly consistent with his own statements on the MS though, isn't it? That it's been done for some time and that he's been endlessly revising it.

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