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The Name of the Wind Thread


wuzzup3003

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Pat, I can't wait to see the two new covers for Rothfuss's books! If you approve then I'm sure they are worth taking a gander at! Any idea when they might be released to the public? I remember seeing on your blog that you were trying to convince his publisher to let you post them. Any luck?

Deornoth, glad to know you're enjoying it. Rothfuss is a heck of an author and if his debut is anything to go by (and it should be considering the second and third novels were written at the same time) he should really be a person to watch out for. He was also a delight to work with when we put together an interview for my blog, he' always seems to manage to steal the show!

Can't wait to read your review!

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Only gripe is probably Denna, being the enigma-wrapped-in-a-conunundrum that she is at this point, mucho irritating.

Ahh, but isn't that the point? Readers seem to be very divided when it comes to Denna because of her nature, but I feel that she was one of the strongest points of the novel.

Haven't we all been in a position where we torture ourselves just as Kvothe does when it comes to Denna. She treats him terribly one moment and then can't get enough of him the next... and yet he can't stop thinking of her. I know that when I was Kvothe's age I fell for girls of similar evilness and couldn't get enough of them, even though I knew it wasn't doing me any good!

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Concerning the covers: I haven't heard from Betsy or Sheila yet, so I don't know if they'll let me post them this early in the game. Hopefully they will! :)

Patrick

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Deornoth, glad to know you're enjoying it. Rothfuss is a heck of an author and if his debut is anything to go by (and it should be considering the second and third novels were written at the same time) he should really be a person to watch out for. He was also a delight to work with when we put together an interview for my blog, he' always seems to manage to steal the show!

Can't wait to read your review!

Apparently Tad Williams reckons he's great and I can see the influences in 'Name of the Wind'. I think it will be a better series than 'Shadowmarch' but I'm wondering how it will compare to 'Memory, Sorrow and Thorn'

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  • 3 weeks later...

I finished this one last night and thought it was good stuff.

I agree with those upthread that have liked the magic system(s) and the manner in which Rothfuss approached the 1st person narrative. It must have been a good book in that regard, as I normally do not like the 1st person approach.

Also, some good action bits, some pretty genuine LOL moments and some original ideas. All adds up to a worthy effort IMHO.

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Guest Ser Jaime

I really like that cover art for The Wise Man's Fear. Much, much better than either of the covers for The Name of the Wind.

I think Rothfuss, out of all the new fantasy authors to emerge in the past few years, has the best chance of breaking out into Jordan/Martin superstar status.

Even more so than Scott Lynch, if only because Rothfuss is writing more "traditional" epic fantasy, and that always seems to be the type of book that lands at the top of bestseller lists these days.

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Since there is still a large group of readers of this board who praise this book so highly, I made another effort, after giving up twice. It only get worse, as far as I can tell.

For example, I can see no consistent characterisation in young Kvothe. The kid with the Ruh had nothing in common with the beggar in Tarbean. Now he is at university, and suddenly becomes a confident wise-cracker. To me, this comes from nowhere. Doesn't work at all. (For me. Maybe somebody wants to offer a different opinion.)

So, characterisation of Kvothe is nothing to me. Doesn't need to be a problem.

But the worst part, right from the start, is the utterly unbelievable world. The level of altruism in this world is nothing I've ever encountered, neither in real life today, and certainly not in pre-modern societies.

But did I say pre-modern? It's nothing of the sort. Where do I start? Medicine is on the level of the late 19th century. Germs! There's an asylum!

People use phrases like "Just to check my mail". There's a librarian behind a desk. And a cantina. I'm afraid I can't really articulate why it all feels fake...

I just shake my head. This feels even more fake than my single foray into Robert Jordan's books. Wrong on all levels. Does this really work for you? My disbelief came crashing down early in the book and has failed every attempt at suspending itself.

And has a plot materialised? No. Now, from really boring escapades in Tarbean, the novel has become a boarding school young adult drama.

So, please help. I don't get it. At all. What makes this even remotely good? (I promise to read some more.)

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I enjoyed it quite a bit...but I think I had my brain turned off for the length of the book. Now that I read all the criticisms of it by various people on the board, I'm revising my earlier impressions quite a bit. It was well-written, at least. Top-notch prose. And for me it was a page-turner, even if nothing of any real import happened. But the characterization runs from sloppy to non-existent, the worldbuilding is incredibly anachronistic, and the author seems to have gotten the "show, don't tell" rule rather backwards. If I do get the next book, it definitely won't be in hardcover.

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Guest Ser Jaime

I think I read that sales of The Name of the Wind have been comparable to what A Game of Thrones sold in hardcover.

But I'm pretty sure AGOT didn't sell 100,000 copies in hardcover. The book didn't really gain momentum until it came out in paperback.

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The sales are comparable to both Martin's A Game of Thrones and Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule. And The Name of the Wind continues to sell steadily, it might beat both of them.

Understandably, I cannot divulge just how many units Patrick Rothfuss' debut has sold. But it's not 100,000 books. You can count the number of fantasy authors who reach the 100K mark with each release in hardcover on the fingers of your hands -- and you won't use them all! ;)

Patrick

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Guest Ser Jaime
The sales are comparable to both Martin's A Game of Thrones and Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule. And The Name of the Wind continues to sell steadily, it might beat both of them.

Understandably, I cannot divulge just how many units Patrick Rothfuss' debut has sold. But it's not 100,000 books. You can count the number of fantasy authors who reach the 100K mark with each release in hardcover on the fingers of your hands -- and you won't use them all! ;)

Patrick

Jordan, Martin, Goodkind, and Terry Brooks are the big 4.

Maybe Tad Williams and Raymond Feist.

As far as divulging the number of copies sold, actually I've never understood why book publishers are so cagey about revealing sales figures.

Movie box office figures are readily available, as well as music sales, and TV ratings.

Books are the only form of media that keeps sales figures a closely guarded secret. It's weird.

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In that league are:

Rowling (millions), King (millions), Pratchett (well over half a million per novel for the last decade and a half), Jordan (over half a million, but only for the last two books IIRC), GRRM (250,000 for AFFC I believe) and possibly Gaiman. I'd imagine that Brooks, Goodkind, Feist, Eddings, L. Hamilton and Weis & Hickman all crack the 100K hardcover target as well.

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I haven't heard any talk of new printings. I do see that back in March PW reported that the publisher was running a 100k first print, which shows some confidence. However, only some fraction of those could possibly have sold, so I'm dubious he's cracked the 100k mark.

As far as comparisons to AGoT go, I think it seems to me that these must be comparisons to AGoT's initial sales -- when it had a rather surprisingly small print run. There have been at least two other hardcover editions since, and I'm not sure how many new printings. I am highly doubtful that all these hardcover editions haven't sold at least 100k combined. Pat, any info on that?

According to PW in March 2006, AFfC had moved 325,000 copies. I'm not entirely clear if the sales figure is literally what retailers moved, or the amount of copies ordered by booksellers )and I've a vague recollection of this particular figure being discussed before for that reason).

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I don't have any new info pertaining to AGoT sales. Considering the additional printings, just in hardcover, I don't know if the book hit the 100K mark. Given GRRM's popularity of recent years, it's a strong possibility.

The Rothfuss figures being discussed here are based on the initial sales of both A Game of Thrones and Wizard's First Rule. So they're nowhere near 100,000 copies.

Patrick

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