A Wise Man's Fear

OwaynOTT · 14-03-2011 11:28am #1

Just finished the book yesterday with a marathon reading session on my day off.
Just wondering what would be other people's feelings after finishing it.
I enjoyed it quite a bit, particularly the bits with Kote, Bast and The Chronicler.
A slight niggly worry for me is how little everything actually moved forward.

pljudge321 · 20-03-2011 4:58pm

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Just finished the book yesterday with a marathon reading session on my day off.
Just wondering what would be other people's feelings after finishing it.
I enjoyed it quite a bit, particularly the bits with Kote, Bast and The Chronicler.
A slight niggly worry for me is how little everything actually moved forward.

Yeah, at the rate the actual story is progressing it definitely feels like having only one more book to cover Kvothe's age period of 17 at the end of Wise Man's Fear to his current mid thirties might be selling him short considering it has taken two full books to cover the 12 - 17 age period.

OwaynOTT · 24-03-2011 12:57pm

Well it definitely be one more book though? The fantasy landscape is littered with series that have taken more installments to complete the story than originally planned by the author.

Paddy Samurai · 24-03-2011 10:32pm

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Just finished the book yesterday with a marathon reading session on my day off.
Just wondering what would be other people's feelings after finishing it.
I enjoyed it quite a bit, particularly the bits with Kote, Bast and The Chronicler.
A slight niggly worry for me is how little everything actually moved forward.

I'm about 250 pages into it,and I'm getting the same feeling.
While I'm enjoying it,I was hoping a bit more would happen story wise.:(

ixoy · 30-03-2011 11:35pm

Just finished it and really liked it. A lot more happens in the second half of the book, shaping the legend but I can see what people are saying. Structurally the story is definitely set to be told as a trilogy (being told over three days).
I do notice that at times Rothfuss seems to race past certain events:

such as the shipwreck that Kvothe escaped from

so maybe we're going to fast forward over some events.
I would be quite happy if there's more than one instalment left, given how good the first two are.

groovie · 14-04-2011 8:00am

Given what's already happened he just needs to steal princesses from the sleeping barrow kings, get expelled from university, and he's bang up to date.

I'm slightly disappointed that he has not got to grips with

the chandrian

yet, though. He's not getting any younger, is he?

Trojan · 14-04-2011 8:02pm

Is this on sale in paperback? What's the going rate? I'll be in Dublin at the weekend, might try a couple of places for it, assuming Chapters is cheapest.

ixoy · 14-04-2011 8:52pm

Trojan wrote: »

Is this on sale in paperback? What's the going rate? I'll be in Dublin at the weekend, might try a couple of places for it, assuming Chapters is cheapest.

Large trade paperback only - it'll be a while before the regular paperback is out.

ixoy · 14-04-2011 9:17pm

Someone's gone and recorded their take on "Tinker Tanner" (from the books):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Jbzl2Vkv8

Sounds like an Irish folk song almost.

Trojan · 28-04-2011 1:51pm

AWMF: pretty good read. If it was any other author I'd have said it was incredible, but unfortunately he has to live up to his previous.

I felt that too little happened over the course of the book, especially considering the size of the book. Also there is a risk of The Hogwarts Effect* sneaking in. I feel that he should be finished with the University by now, and he definitely should have more of an idea of where the Chandrian are. There's 15 years missing to bring us up to date, can he really do that in book 3 without rushing through everything?

Speaking of which, any rough estimates on book 3 date?

* I don't know if there's such a thing, but that's what I'm calling it.

Teferi · 28-04-2011 1:58pm

The 3rd book is going to have be the size of a couple of yellow pages stacked on each other if he is to wrap everything up nicely.

I reckon he will realise this during the creation of the 3rd and split it. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't.

Sir Ophiuchus · 01-05-2011 1:14am

I have no problem with it stretching past three books, but what I suspect will actually happen is the trilogy willl end after being brought up to the present day, and a second trilogy will focus on Kote becoming Kvothe once more.

pljudge321 · 01-05-2011 8:12am

Sir Ophiuchus wrote: »

I have no problem with it stretching past three books, but what I suspect will actually happen is the trilogy willl end after being brought up to the present day, and a second trilogy will focus on Kote becoming Kvothe once more.

This seems pretty likely, it will be enough of a stretch to fit the rest of Kvothe's life story into the last book without trying to deal with the current events as well.

coffee_cake · 01-05-2011 10:40am

I still wish he'd move on from the whole "I'm poor I'm poor I'm poor" theme.

I'm finding it amusing how many comparisons he makes to "it's like when a lover..." at the same time going on about his lack of experience with women. He must have made up for it in the 3rd book, big time :pac:

ixoy · 01-05-2011 12:55pm

bluewolf wrote: »

I'm finding it amusing how many comparisons he makes to "it's like when a lover..." at the same time going on about his lack of experience with women. He must have made up for it in the 3rd book, big time :pac:

But he made up for it big time in this book really - it was a significant part of it.

coffee_cake · 01-05-2011 12:56pm

ixoy wrote: »

But he made up for it big time in this book really - it was a significant part of it.

Shhh I'm only halfway through!!

ixoy · 01-05-2011 1:04pm

bluewolf wrote: »

Shhh I'm only halfway through!!

Opps - much embarassment

I just misunderstood you and thought you had finished it.

coffee_cake · 01-05-2011 1:05pm

ixoy wrote: »

Opps - much embarassment I just misunderstood you and thought you had finished it.

No you're right, I phrased it badly. I assumed as he's still a pup bumbling around in the forest there wasn't much time to catch up!
I'll finish the rest before I mouth off again

coffee_cake · 01-05-2011 7:40pm

I see what you meant :cool:

Coriolanus · 03-05-2011 10:16pm

Finished it last night. Not a patch on the first and there's a bit of a MarySue emerging.
They're enjoyable so far, but we'll see if the third book continues the downward trend.

JD1763 · 06-05-2011 11:10am

350 pages into the first one and really enjoying it. In fact finding it very hard to put down and now face the debacle of reading something else first or launching straight into the second one!

pH · 12-05-2011 10:22pm

Got to agree, it's not as good as the first.

I was reading it on a kindle, and at 33% he was still basically in the same story from book 1 ... at university, feuding, no money etc.

And for me, it then got worse, I hated the narrative jumps, disliked the Felurian part and the Adem part, the bits with the Maer was better, but overall not nearly as good as the first book.

Morag · 03-06-2011 5:24pm

I was going to wait until it came out in paper back to get it but as I wandered in my local library looking for s alittle light reading over the long weekend, I found it sitting on the shelf. So if you are a member of any of Fingal's library you can reserve it. I should be returning it this Tuesday.

Fluorescence · 18-07-2011 8:10pm

It's only about 7/8 years to the present day though; he's only early-mid twenties at the Waystone Inn. Don't forget that 2 of those years is him hiding away with Bast.... Still, I'd imagine the final book will be the largest of the lot (not that I'm complaining

).

Also, there's some people that reckoned the thing near the end of Book 1 where he get's expelled and whipped for calling the wind on Ambrose counts as the "getting expelled from the University younger than most people are admitted in" thing (despite the masters not actually expelling him). There's not actually too much for him left to do besides kill a king. After all, the Chandrian are still wandering the world when Kote's telling his tale to Chronicler.

Anyone want to hear some theories? [possible spoiler alert] I think that Denna's patron is Bredon, and that he is perhaps an Amyr or a Chandrian (not sure). I'm also convinced Master Lorren is one of the Amyr who's job is to prune the Archives of information about themselves (he only took Kvothe aside after his inquiry about the Amyr and scratched that line out from the ledger, he left the Chandrian request alone). I thought that maybe Elodin and Auri are somehow related (siblings maybe) who are now estranged. Their appearance as described in the books is kind of similar, and they did seem to know each other on the rooftops that time. Just a thought.

Anyone have some theories themselves?

Saltfeather · 20-07-2011 4:54pm

gotta agree the 'i'm poor' 'i'm poor' is grating
i don't think Auri is Elodins sister, after he seems so surprised when she talks at all and his behaviour around her doesn't suggest past history to me. I like your theory on the hidden Amyr though:D
also the huge different in young Kvothe and Kote is so vast in character difference makes me wonder what 'broke' him and will the next book really bring us up to date? hope so, sincerely tired of short series that whoops sorry turn into long series with unnecessary filling to make up the extra books *sigh*

Fluorescence · 20-07-2011 6:28pm

Saltfeather wrote: »

gotta agree the 'i'm poor' 'i'm poor' is grating
i don't think Auri is Elodins sister, after he seems so surprised when she talks at all and his behaviour around her doesn't suggest past history to me. I like your theory on the hidden Amyr though:D
also the huge different in young Kvothe and Kote is so vast in character difference makes me wonder what 'broke' him and will the next book really bring us up to date? hope so, sincerely tired of short series that whoops sorry turn into long series with unnecessary filling to make up the extra books *sigh*

Well Rothfuss apparently already had everything written when he published Name of the Wind, he's only rewriting the books now to patch up the extra storylines and stuff he added to his original tale (it wasn't being framed by Kote's storytelling beforehand). Kote does say in the beginning of Book 1 that he "loved, lost and was betrayed" so maybe Denna betrays him so deeply he runs away and changes his name. Methinks that's why he can't use his magic anymore (remember how horrified Elodin is when he thinks Fela's changed her Name?).

looksee · 21-08-2011 5:41pm

I am about three quarters through Wise Man's Fear and I am loving it! I don't care how fast the story is going, I love his writing style, and his ideas.

IRL_Sinister · 26-09-2011 12:32pm

For the people that are saying the story moves too slow and that he needs to write more books:

He has already written all three and is releasing one each year.

On that note, when I picked up this series I actually had no idea what it was about. I went into my local bookstore here in Toronto and asked "Hey, I want a book with lots of magic, lots of character development and a well thought-out plot" (I love books from the likes of Trudi Canavan). So when I actually started reading The Name of the Wind I was, honestly, disappointed by the lack of intense magic and spells. However, the plot and character development has more than made up for it. The Amyr, Chandarian and the "stone door" looming in the background have more than made up for any doubts and disppointments I had when reading it initially.

For the people that haven't read A Wise Man's Fear in full yet: the story progressed quickly (and intensely) towards the end of the novel. I was pleasantly surprised by how Rothfuss dealt with the end of the novel. I like the guy's post outlining the theories, I think they are well thought-out but we won't know until 2012, unfortunately

To be honest, I really enjoyed this series, it's just a shame when I bought the first one I didn't know he was only going to release one a year (I would have bought them all simultaneously otherwise). I recommend it for people. The one thing I need to warn you about, though, is there isn't really the "intense" spell-casting and magic throughout the novels like some of the other titles I like. However, the character development and plot are of the highest quality so it will appeal to a majority of the fantasy readers out there.

Zapp Brannigan · 26-09-2011 6:15pm

IRL_Sinister wrote: »

For the people that are saying the story moves too slow and that he needs to write more books:

He has already written all three and is releasing one each year.

On that note, when I picked up this series I actually had no idea what it was about. I went into my local bookstore here in Toronto and asked "Hey, I want a book with lots of magic, lots of character development and a well thought-out plot" (I love books from the likes of Trudi Canavan). So when I actually started reading The Name of the Wind I was, honestly, disappointed by the lack of intense magic and spells. However, the plot and character development has more than made up for it. The Amyr, Chandarian and the "stone door" looming in the background have more than made up for any doubts and disppointments I had when reading it initially.

For the people that haven't read A Wise Man's Fear in full yet: the story progressed quickly (and intensely) towards the end of the novel. I was pleasantly surprised by how Rothfuss dealt with the end of the novel. I like the guy's post outlining the theories, I think they are well thought-out but we won't know until 2012, unfortunately

To be honest, I really enjoyed this series, it's just a shame when I bought the first one I didn't know he was only going to release one a year (I would have bought them all simultaneously otherwise). I recommend it for people. The one thing I need to warn you about, though, is there isn't really the "intense" spell-casting and magic throughout the novels like some of the other titles I like. However, the character development and plot are of the highest quality so it will appeal to a majority of the fantasy readers out there.

Really? :P

As far as I know he hasn't got it all written yet. And we're probably going to be waiting another 2 years for the next one.

Fluorescence · 26-09-2011 8:40pm

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Really? :P

As far as I know he hasn't got it all written yet. And we're probably going to be waiting another 2 years for the next one.

He wrote them years ago, and then rewrote the first for publishing - adding in extra sideplots and expanding characters etc etc*. The second was released 7 years after the first because it took him faaaar longer than expected to tie all the extra stuff from book 1 into his existing material for book 2. As for the 3rd? Who knows? Maybe he learned a lot from A Wise Man's Fear and will have it ready much quicker. Maybe it will take him even longer as it now has to incorporate 2 volumes worth of extra material and not just one.

*Some of this "extra" stuff includes the whole current day frame story (of the older Kote), characters like Auri and Ambrose, and other bits and pieces - none of which was in the original versions that he had fully written almost 10 years ago.

Tenger · 10-10-2011 12:03am

ixoy wrote: »

Large trade paperback only - it'll be a while before the regular paperback is out.

And amazon have it for $19 in the kindle store.........will have to grab it, just finished book 1, so can't wait.

A Wise Man's Fear

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