Jussi Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 New release date for The Wise Man's Fear (DAW edition): August 2009! http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleD...?sku=0756404738 http://www.amazon.de/Wise-Mans-Fear-Kingki...5209&sr=1-1 http://www.booksamillion.com/product/97807...d=4344527856179 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 New release date for The Wise Man's Fear (DAW edition): August 2009! http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleD...?sku=0756404738 http://www.amazon.de/Wise-Mans-Fear-Kingki...5209&sr=1-1 http://www.booksamillion.com/product/97807...d=4344527856179 I think those release dates are a little optimistic but hopefully it should turn up at the end of the year (I think I'll paperback it). The synopsis from the third link sounds very interesting although I wonder if the stuff about the King's road is in the present rather than the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreverlad Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 New release date for The Wise Man's Fear (DAW edition): August 2009! http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleD...?sku=0756404738 http://www.amazon.de/Wise-Mans-Fear-Kingki...5209&sr=1-1 http://www.booksamillion.com/product/97807...d=4344527856179 Quite unlikely. Patrick posted to his blog on (...checking) May 11th that the first draft was completed, printed and shipped off to his editor right before he took off for his trip across the pond. Not only would the manuscript have to be near-perfect, the publishers would likely need to drop everything they were doing to focus on getting that book on the shelves to meet that release date. We'll be lucky to see it for Christmas, but more likely not until 2010. As an example, check out Republic of Thieves at Book Depository. It's slated to ship in 37 days. Book marketplaces have generic dates that are generally unreliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jussi Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I agree, but these sites used to have an April 2010 release date. They just changed it to August 2009. April 2010 still stands for the Gollancz edition in online bookstores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 This is undeniably the most ludicrously funny thing I have ever read on Amazon. Jaw-dropping in its comic goldness. Essentially, a small cabal of about 6-7 people have taken a dislike to The Name of the Wind. They published a string of 1 and 2-star reviews in rapid succession and then started this thread, in which they accused the author of plagiarism and orchestrating a 'deceptive' publicity campaign, then accused him of fraud. When some of Rothfuss' many fans chimed in to defend him, they were all accused of being alts of Rothfuss himself. The fact the book has sold enormously well, won numerous awards and been well-received critically seems to have sailed over their heads. As the thread continues it degenerates way beyond the normal Internet flamewar and enters the realm of the truly delusional, with people comparing the timestamps of reviews with the times that Rothfuss was doing book signings and other things going way, way over the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 That small cabal looks suspiciously like alts themselves. Hmm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I did a bit more digging and found that one of them was active on Wikipedia. He'd been trying to get Rothfuss' page deleted for 'non-notability' and was upset when other, saner editors kept undoing his edits on the ground that he had no leg to stand on. Because he'd then been accused of picking on Rothfuss he also picked another fantasy author's page to delete and chose Abercrombie's. A key part of his argument was that 'obviously' both Abercrombie and Rothfuss had created both their Wikipedia articles themselves. Except they didn't. I did. You can tell that just from the User Contribs panel. So you heard it here first, I actually am a gestalt entity formed by the unholy union of Abercrombie-Rothfuss (a bit like Voltron). Fear my power! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 So you heard it here first, I actually am a gestalt entity formed by the unholy union of Abercrombie-Rothfuss (a bit like Voltron). Fear my power! I think, subconsciously, i've known that for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallichore Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Delightful conspiracy-theorist crazies. I love this idea that the book's success is solely down to a massive marketing machine and Rothfuss skewing some award voting and so on and on and on. As if anyone would take that sort of time and effort for a bad book when it'd be easier to write a good one! And funnily enough... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 So you heard it here first, I actually am a gestalt entity formed by the unholy union of Abercrombie-Rothfuss (a bit like Voltron). Fear my power! :bow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I've worked it out. The critics are all Robert Stanek. He has taken exception to Rothfuss' critical acclaim whilst his books wallow unsold and has used his mighty power of Immediate Alt Creation to pour scorn on what he sees as his 'rival'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueRose Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Wert, is Pat aware of what's going on? His facebook status said that he was distressed about the 1 star reviews, maybe you should let him know that it's just some spiteful person or persons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Wert, is Pat aware of what's going on? His facebook status said that he was distressed about the 1 star reviews, maybe you should let him know that it's just some spiteful person or persons. I left a comment to that effect on his post. Whether he reads all of them (they tend to go into the hundreds) I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 This is undeniably the most ludicrously funny thing I have ever read on Amazon. Jaw-dropping in its comic goldness. That's a very bizarre thread. I'm guessing someone with a lot of time on their hands has a grudge against Rothfuss for some reason. So you heard it here first, I actually am a gestalt entity formed by the unholy union of Abercrombie-Rothfuss (a bit like Voltron). I guess that's the true reason Wise Man's Fear has been so delayed, you've been busy writing Best Served Cold instead. I think, subconsciously, i've known that for a long time. I was a bit suspicious of the supposed picture of Wert and Rothfuss, where someone had clearly photoshopped in a young Brian Blessed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuenjato Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 lol, I've been following that thread for the past week or so. I tried to post a few sane moderate posts (like telling them they were out of order for recommending Rothfuss "go to iraq to get some life experience"), but both sides are a bit wacked. One of the defenders has posted comments in virutally every negative review (many of those before the "cabal" began their antics), including telling one poster that their "opinion doesn't matter" because Robin Hobb gave it five stars. But what is really hilarious is checking out the page after 2 or 3 days and seeing all those one-star reviews pushed out by, yep, five star reviews! IMO, this is one of the most overrated fantasy books of the last five years, and if I had paid full hardback price instead of waiting for a library checkout, I'd probably be pissed at the overflow of glowing praise and probably have rated it two stars instead of three. Though I'm sure there is some sort of disgruntled campaigning going on, the shoe fits the other foot as well, given the general review-fraud that goes on at Amazon, both from legitimate companies and loonies like Stanek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 I agree that the praise for the book is pretty full-on from some quarters, but at the same time I don't think it was quite as effusive here and on other forums. There's plenty of people who either didn't like it, or liked it but got turned off by the slow pace or the shoehorned-in dragon sequence, or even really liked it but had a few irks. The shitstorm does highlight the overwhelming problem with Amazon, that when people like something they tend to give it 5 stars and when they don't they give it 1 and that's it. People in the middle don't tend to get much of a look-in or get criticised for being fence-sitters. That said, I think marking a book down for hype is not very fair. I reviewed the book and enjoyed it just as the hype was starting to build, so managed to avoid that problem. But given that fan hype is something outside the author's control, it seems churlish to criticise them for having your expectations raised by other people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuenjato Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 I agree that the praise for the book is pretty full-on from some quarters, but at the same time I don't think it was quite as effusive here and on other forums. There's plenty of people who either didn't like it, or liked it but got turned off by the slow pace or the shoehorned-in dragon sequence, or even really liked it but had a few irks. The shitstorm does highlight the overwhelming problem with Amazon, that when people like something they tend to give it 5 stars and when they don't they give it 1 and that's it. People in the middle don't tend to get much of a look-in or get criticised for being fence-sitters. That said, I think marking a book down for hype is not very fair. I reviewed the book and enjoyed it just as the hype was starting to build, so managed to avoid that problem. But given that fan hype is something outside the author's control, it seems churlish to criticise them for having your expectations raised by other people. Just trying to explain why some people might act in such a way -- anger at money 'wasted' over a product artificially inflated. Personally, I learned my lesson concerning internet hype after Haydon's Rhapsody. Not that I'm championing what was going on in that thread, which went way beyond the pale in terms of author accusation (I told them it was better to deconstruct the book for flaws than fervently bash the author, which was promptly ignored by all involved) -- that said, I hope Rothfuss has taken some of the crits to heart when rewriting / editing the second volume, as he does show tremendous promise. It seems he has, given the longer than expected wait on the novel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 For me, the book generated it's own hype. The first 200 pages were absolutely brilliant and IMO the rest of the book failed to live up to that initial promise. It's why I'm so torn when it comes to reviewing it and admit I'm probably overly harsh in the rest of it. It's also why i'll end up reading the second installment once it's in paperback and as long as general reviews are positive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 The book is an odd one for me because I could see the flaws in it but they were all overwhelmed by the sheer joy of the prose- it's one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. I don't know if I'd give it five stars but it'd certainly be in contention. But I can see why others wouldn't. So basically the people doing the criticising in this case have decided that theirs is the only viable worldview and anyone disagreeing must have sinister ends... Heh. I find particularly laughable the guy editing Wikipedia for the way he keeps using phrases that imply his point of view is the only logical one as if everyone else is going to suddenly slap their forehead and say It's not Mystar is it? >_> If Rothfuss is getting disheartened by all this, someone should point out to him that creepy internet stalkers are a sure sign you've arrived. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 The book is an odd one for me because I could see the flaws in it but they were all overwhelmed by the sheer joy of the prose- it's one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. I don't know if I'd give it five stars but it'd certainly be in contention. If me and you are anything to go by then Patrick doesn't have to worry too much when it comes to the (love)haters As for the fanatical hater, it's quite disturbing how anyone could devote that much time to disliking a book. It's not like there's some scary BNP worldview in there that has to be put down at all costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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