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Wise Man's Fear [SPOILERS!]


Rugburn

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I've probably mentioned this before, but after I finished Name of the Wind, I realized that objectively it was the sort of book I hate. Kvothe was a Mary Sue, angsty, and broods over Denna to no end. His struggles depicted so far shouldn't have interested me, and yet they did (sometimes the prose was noticeably weird, too). Somehow, Rothfuss manages to pull it off. Whatever its faults, it managed to be a damn good book, and I'm pretty excited about Wise Man's Fear.

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she plays a big role. At times she is just background, but others she's right there with Kvothe doing all the mooning of the first book.

That's horrible news. Expected, yes, but horrible nonetheless.

That review posted above is probably the best one I've read so far. I reserved it this afternoon at the local library; being number 3rd on the list, that means I'll be reading it, latest, April 1st :P

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Pat-- does Denna dominate the second book? Or is she relegated to the background once Kvothe leaves the Uni?

You have to put up with a lot of Denna. . . :ack:

Patrick

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While I finished it over a month ago, my review only just went live. In short, I really liked it - though if you didn't like The Name of the Wind, I don't think you'll like The Wise Man's Fear either. But if you did like The Name of the Wind, I think you'll like this one even more.

An excerpt from my review:

In this series, Rothfuss sets out deconstruct the standard epic fantasy hero. To do this he must embrace a number of the classic tropes involved – Kvothe is orphaned, driven to avenge his parents’ death, attractive, arrogant, gifted (at music and in some academic pursuits), an adolescent coming of age, a legendary fighter, a talented wizard, etc. The joy for me is in watching Rothfuss slowly dissect this ideal fantasy hero – a classic Gary Stu if you will. Rothfuss chooses to do so by having an older and (possibly) wiser hero relay his story to a chronicler and the reader sees this all through the first person perspective of Kvothe telling his coming of age story. Kvothe chooses what to share and how to share it while periodic interludes provide hints of the popular versions of these events as told by people at large and offer other fun and interesting perspectives. Kvothe often leaves out what would otherwise seem rather important – like the time he is on a ship attacked and sunk by pirates which he barely survives after which he spends time as a penniless beggar is glossed over in only a couple of lines, yet he spends pages mooning over the girl of his dreams. Apparently one of the more infamous events in Kvothe’s popular lore is a trial that he eventually wins – yet he barely mentions it in his retelling, much to the chronicler’s chagrin. The reader is left wondering which is more at work – the exaggeration of rumor or Kvothe’s own version of things?

The truth is that all of this would be a complete failure if not for Rothfuss’ incredible story-telling ability. The style that he writes with is intoxicating and addictive – there is energy to his story-telling that cannot be denied. Calling the book a page-turner doesn’t quite do it – this is a 1000+ page book that reads like a book less than half its size. In a time when I have very limited time for reading, I still managed to finish it in less than a week. The way Rothfuss writes makes me think he’s one of those people that you could spend all night listening to as they tell one ridiculous story after another. At the time of your listening you are having the time of your life, later in retrospect you kind of wonder what the big deal was.

Full Review

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I started reading last night before bed, looked up and it was 4am. Now i'm sat in work desperately trying not to fall asleep.

So yeah, a lot like the first book.

Yea, very fast moving book. I'm about 125 pages into it and started this morning on my way to work. Definitely one of those books where I'll go home and read instead of doing anything else.

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Finished WMF today.

I enjoyed it but I feel like it should have been several hundred pages shorter, like at least 200, probably 300. And then maybe it wouldn't have had such a fucking colossal price tag.

Lots of good but also plenty of meh and stuff I feel could be cut. I'm increasingly convinced that with these zomgdoorstoppertomes the editors don't actually bother because they can't actually make it through ~1000 hardback pages, and I wouldn't be unsympathetic to that excuse either. I feel like Name of the Wind should have ended with an event that happens like 350 pages through this book. And that it would have been doable.

I don't mean to be all negative but it's easy to ramble around meta thoughts. And I guess it'll be some time before everyone has actually read the book so I should hold off on starting up the spoiler discussions and talking about the good stuff.

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I have to say that while Pat's a nice guy and a good author, he really needs to get people to figure out how to handle signings better. Over 500 people at the UW bookstore, signing started at 7 and lasted 6 hours. Each person wanted pictures, signs, etc.

This book better fucking rock.

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Finished WMF today.

I enjoyed it but I feel like it should have been several hundred pages shorter, like at least 200, probably 300. And then maybe it wouldn't have had such a fucking colossal price tag.

I really thought this was the case in the section where Kvothe was

Training with Adem meceneries and tracking the bandits.

These sections could have been cut in half and still had the desired effect, partocular given how good Rothfuss' writing style is.

Can't complain though - absolutely loved the book, haven't been able to put it down.

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I really thought this was the case in the section where Kvothe was

Training with Adem meceneries and tracking the bandits.

These sections could have been cut in half and still had the desired effect, partocular given how good Rothfuss' writing style is.

Can't complain though - absolutely loved the book, haven't been able to put it down.

Yeah.

Needs less Denna. The opening section in the university could have been trimmed a bit. And the bandit tracking/adem bit too I agree could have been trimmed some.

I loved all the stuff in the Fae realm.

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Really?

I got a little tired of Felurian. On the other hand, I thought Kvothe should have spent more time (though not necessarily more pages) with the Adem.

I don't know why everyone hates the Denna scenes so much. Their relationship is annoyingly static, but at least the banter is usually amusing.

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