Happy Ent Posted September 29, 2007 Share Posted September 29, 2007 However, I disagree with compositions not existing before the late 19th century. Oh, I know my Early Music history as well as the next tree. My point is that this tradition exists outside of inns. Ballads and songs do not come with a composition. (Masses do.) Ballads and songs come with lyrics, tune, and possibly chords, all of which are extremely flexible and would display geographic variation and also variation between performers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AverageGuy Posted September 29, 2007 Share Posted September 29, 2007 Oh, I know my Early Music history as well as the next tree. Sorry, on reread my music nerdity was a little much My point is that this tradition exists outside of inns. Ballads and songs do not come with a composition. (Masses do.) Ballads and songs come with lyrics, tune, and possibly chords, all of which are extremely flexible and would display geographic variation and also variation between performers. Okay, I see what you're saying. Completely agree, though I didn't even think about that while I was reading the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted September 29, 2007 Share Posted September 29, 2007 I find this thread, and the whole debate, rather interesting. As I said to Happy Ent the other day, I haven't read the whole book, only the sample chapters and about the first twenty pages of the ARC. And I find the whole debate puzzling. I know people whose opinion I respect who disliked the book, very much. I know people whose opinion I respect who loved it. Myself? I found it completely unremarkable. Standard fare. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Some cliches, the prose is not nearly as good as it thinks it is, the hero is a bit annoying, but decently written. And thoroughly, completely unremarkable. I assume I'm missing something. But after reading this thread, I'm still not sure what... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Just heard back from the author who says that April 2008 is not the correct date for Wise Man's Fear and they have asked Amazon to change this. This date cannot be met. This confused me because it was stated repeatedly that the trilogy had pretty much been written before the first one was ever published. Rothfuss explained that the editing and making a final draft takes him much time and he wants to get it right. It is not known when the book will be out. If they already know that they can't even make the April date though, that's not a good sign in terms of a swift release. Anyway, he said he would release it if he felt it was good enough. So, that's three, after the delays of Scott Bakker's Great Ordeal and Ruckley's Bloodheir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I just saw that Rothfuss won the best SF/Fantasy/Horror category at the 2007 Quill Awards. Full list of winners and (further down) nominees here. Rothfuss beat out Brasyl, Farthing, Marusek's Getting to Know You, and The Execution Channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Rothfuss beat out Brasyl. As much as I enjoyed The Name of the Wind, this is still a pretty poor result. I liked the book but it is absolutely nowhere near the same level of quality as Brasyl. That said, given the number of people who found the book allegedly incomprehensible (seriously, why?) I'm not surprised the easier-to-read book won out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcf Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 As much as I enjoyed The Name of the Wind, this is still a pretty poor result. I liked the book but it is absolutely nowhere near the same level of quality as Brasyl. That said, given the number of people who found the book allegedly incomprehensible (seriously, why?) I'm not surprised the easier-to-read book won out. I agree that Brasyl was a better written and crafted book than The Name of the Wind, but I simply enjoyed The Name of the Wind more. Mostly because I think that McDonald completely screwed up the ending, but I seem to be in a minority in that belief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 As much as I enjoyed The Name of the Wind, this is still a pretty poor result. I liked the book but it is absolutely nowhere near the same level of quality as Brasyl. Well as Ran would say, mileage varies I much prefer The Name of the Wind. I think it is one of the best written Fantasy books in several years. It just does epic Fantasy really well, and there is a lot of promise for the next book when Kvothe has matured more and starts getting more into his own. I found Brasyl to have remarkably uninteresting characters. It goes to show that debut authors really can outclass writers who have loong since been working in the field. Of course it is a bit odd to compare such vastly different books, but hey, the Quill awards started it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinsdale! Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 The Name of the Wind. Em. Meh? I read the darn thing a while ago, and took issue with it. Let me see if I remember what they were. I think that as a writer Rothfuss needs seasoning. I constantly saw places where small changes would make the story work better, as I read. Technically, his writing doesn't measure up to what I expect at the top of the genre. I remember thinking that the chapters that took place in the inn did nothing to add to the book. In fact, they detracted from it, because they made K'vothe so God-like that he ceased to be interesting as a protagonist. I think Rothfuss went overboard with the child-prodigy aspect to the point where it detracted from the narrative. The romance bits were not very good. I got bored halfway through, in part because of it. Also, as a rule of thumb, protagonists in 700 page books should not be annoying people. That's just not what I want to deal with in something I reading for pleasure and plot. If I want the protagonist to not be likeable, I'll read some Lit Fic or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henderson Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 I found out about this book from this site. Thanks for the recommendations. I really enjoyed this book because it was well-written and a page turner. The story was interesting and I enjoyed the main character. I like the magical system. I really enjoyed the scenes at the university (it reminded me a little bit of that Robin Hobb novel, but I cannot remember the title). Having said that, I agree with some of the criticisms mentioned in this thread. The draccus scene was long and drawn out (I felt the same way about the nautical scenes in Red Seas under Red Skies). The secondary characters could have been fleshed out a little more. It seemed some of the characters were very similar. Fela and Mola come to mind. In some respects, Auri and Denna are similar. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It does not remake the wheel, but it is very entertaining. I look forward to reading the second book. I look forward to learning more about Bast, Chronicler, Auri, Ambrose, Devi, and of course, Kvothe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Journeyman Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 So, I picked this book up about two weeks ago. At the time I was reading A Storm of Swords and it got put on the shelf. After finishing A Feast For Crows a few days ago I opened this one. What's the big deal? I became interested in the book after hearing about it through several of my online friends and saw all the four and five star reviews on Amazon. The last book I took a shot in the dark with was "The Lies of Locke Lamora" and I loved that book. So far, I don't see what the big deal is with "The Name of The Wind." I'm only a little over 100 pages in but nothing seems to be happening. I've yet to come across the hook that makes me keep going. Is anything exciting going to happen to keep me going or is Kvothe just going to spend the rest of the book prattling on about his traveling troupe family and his childhood wizard friend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 There's a discussion/review thread further down on the board. Just put in 'Rothfuss', IIRC, in the search and you'll find it. Opinion seems to be quite divided on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Journeyman Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 Thanks, Ran. I really should learn to use the search option here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nymeria87 Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I agree that it has a rather slow start, but all in all I really liked the book. Here's my review if you'd like to take a peek. I agree that it's kinda slow at first, but I personally really liked the way he narrated it, writing as if Kvothe is actually telling his story. Well like I said: I just finished the book yesterday and my review is up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dingosatemybaby Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 I agree that it has a rather slow start, but all in all I really liked the book. Here's my review if you'd like to take a peek. I agree that it's kinda slow at first, but I personally really liked the way he narrated it, writing as if Kvothe is actually telling his story. Well like I said: I just finished the book yesterday and my review is up I thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven't read a novel that size since GRRM's work. Hang in there - I won't say it ramps up to a madcap roller coaster ride of wizardly destruction (or anything even close), but the guy's writing grows on you and the story is quite good. The fact that there was no dark and sinister Overlord trying to overthrow the world, and oh, by the way the hero turns out to be "The chosen one" actually was a plus in my book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 going to merge this with the existing thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Looks like it's going to be a long wait until Wise Man's Fear is out. WTH!? In March Rothfuss said the series was done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pat5150 Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 In case you didn't know (I made the announcement this morning on the blog after receiving word from Betsy Wollheim), Rothfuss' upcoming The Wise Man's Fear has been postponed and the tentative release date is April 2009. It sucks, I know. . . :| Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nymeria87 Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 That does suck, yeah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beniowa Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 WTH!? In March Rothfuss said the series was done. There's still the rewrites and editing to be done though why that's going to take so long... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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