Ninefingers

I really do think he decided to write a 10 X 1,000 page series first, and then tried to figure out a story that would fill it rather than coming up with a story and figuring out how many pages/books it would take to tell it. The result is bloat.

And after days of standing outside of the four star restaurant with the lights off and the doors locked, I walked down the street and got the big mac so I didn't starve to death. Or perhaps a sports analogy: It's great to have a superstar, but if they're always injured and on the bench they're not as valuable to the team as the guy who shows up and plays every day. Fundamentally it's a balancing act. George wrote 3 excellent ASOIAF books and two OK ones that comprise a partially written story. Sanderson has written a couple dozen OK books with several complete story arcs. I'm getting to the point where Sanderson's accomplishments outweigh Martin's (despite me holding 1-3 in very high regard) YMMV

"Never ever" is a bridge too far for me. GRRM is pretty clearly a better writer, but mostly empty bookshelves aren't that fun to read. I think I'm just about to the point that if I were allowed to read only one of their catalogues for the rest of my life I'd take Sanderson. (And I say this as someone who thinks Stormlight is losing its way.)

She was sent by Glotka somewhere (I forget the name) to be his spy in the city. She was told to get a loan from Valint & Balk to pay for it if memory serves.

Now that I think about it more, I'm guessing that this was some sort of give and take negotiation between Abercrombie and his publisher. Abercrombie wanted to write a western, publisher wanted another Logen book because sales. Adding the other first law characters was a way of making it play as a true First Law book and avoiding 'Abercrombie clearly wrote a western but just dropped Logen in as the main character' cynicism. (BTW, this is my feeling on Locke Lamora 2 - sure feels like the author had an unfinished pirate novel on the shelf, dusted it off, wrote a Locke beginning and ending wrap and changed names in the middle. But I digress.)

@Ser Not Appearing You largely nailed it. For me it just felt contrived that:

My only real gripe with Red Country was too many old characters reappearing. Make no mistake, they're characters that I like but it felt a little too 'getting the band back together' for my taste.

Hey everybody, there is no new update. Repeat, no update.

Of the two, I think that one is significantly better.

Maybe because fundamentally it's just a day in the life vignette. And so if you make it longer without adding events it just feels padded out and less focused? But that's just a guess.

Read The Narrow Road Between Desires. It was...fine? I'm probably going to go back and read The Lightning Tree, because I'm having trouble putting my finger on what was different, despite it being about 50% longer. Maybe it's been too long, or I just wasn't a careful reader, because nothing leapt out at me as being new, different, or cool.

It's been observed by people before that both his apologies and talk about his mental health seem to coincide with new opportunities to give him money. (Kickstarters, charity drives, merch, etc)

It really, REALLY feels like the best path forward is just to release it in whatever state it’s in and move on. He can keep working on it if he likes, and once book three comes out [waits for laughter to die down] literally zero people will care if this chapter released for charity changed, or stunk, or whatever.

Update on the sample chapter: TL;DR I tried to make it cool, it got complicated. I feel bad. I still want to do it. It's half edited and don't know whether to keep editing or give you the old version.

He talks in this blog about the changes: https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2012/07/why-i-love-my-editor/

I've always really liked the dinner analogy. If you'll permit me to flesh it out: I prepare and serve my children dinner, then tell them to go outside and play for a bit, but that dessert has been prepared and will be served at 7. 7 comes and goes with some questions, then 8 rolls around and they start to misbehave. Around 9 they start throwing tantrums and using bad language when they realize I was lying about it having been prepared. I yell at them for their misbehavior and remind them that I signed no contract to provide dessert, and I'm the sole arbiter of whether it gets served. Now, are my children owed dessert? No. Is their behavior acceptable? No. Did I behave morally with regards to the expectation I created? I sure don't think so.

Meteors? This is a poor argument, which can be applied to absolutely anything, leading to the conclusion that moral obligations simply do not exist because someone could always be hit by a meteor. I can't speak to the end of Williams' book, but I think (hope?) you'd agree that there's a different level of expectation created between an open ended series and a declarative statement of: "I have already created thing and I will deliver thing at this time" As for the statement of "The author owes you only the book you purchased… no more… no less.", it uses language (purchase, owe) that suggests legal obligation. I completely agree with you here! There is no legal obligation.

Not even needed an edit, "good to go".

Certainly no legal obligation. But we'll have to agree to disagree on moral obligation. When you tell someone you'll provide something to them (be that item or opportunity), I think you've created an expectation. It comes down to considerations of right and wrong, and I don't believe it's right to go back on your word, especially when you're the one who created and volunteered the expectation.

I find this precisely in keeping with my username, thank you.

This is where I'm at. Taking to twitter, or email, or in person harassment of Rothfuss is assholeish behavior. (Although I would note that polite requests for updates I consider completely in bounds.) On the other side of the ledger, Rothfuss has repeatedly lied, broken promises, and gone on record that people who ask for updates on book 3 should "fuck off and die". So, yeah, no heroes here.

I'd happily put Robin Hobb in place of 4 different authors on that list.

I read the Tress and the Emerald Sea one. It was fine. Predictable, but fine. Felt like a very standard Sanderson book.

Bruce Campbell is too old these days.

Exactly what I was going to say, but better articulated than I would have managed.