EDIT: I'm not understading the reasoning that people who say they enjoy the book are marked as unhelpful. I'ts not as though the ones marked as unhelpful said anything unuseful or overly analytic. It's just a recommendation.
Original Post:
I realized as I was writing this review that the parts that I was thinking of negatively I didn't feel until after the book was done and I read these reviews. During the book, nothing really rung untrue. There are plot devices, you recognize them for what it is and Rothfuss doesn't insult your intelligence. It's a land of magic and old power coarsing throughout the land Why shouldn't there be a simple way for males to not impregnate women. (Some women claim this would be very welcome nowadays and I'd agree.)
Onwards,
Patrick Rothfuss has a gift. I say, dramatically.
He writes with such ability that even though there are plot similarities between this trilogy and Harry Potter, or Wheel or Time, he completely makes them his own, and it never feels like it's cheated you or the story has lost it's way. His manner of writing is for adults. (Adults should be bolded.) So his subjects don't need facile names like mugwumps. I know why people love Harry Potter, even while I contiunue to tell them there is much, much better out there. They love the wonder of the story. And this, is what The Name of the Wind, and A Wise Man's Fear have done for me. It has injected wonder back into the world for me.
The various arts as he describes their workings, the forms of magic, the immense power of a simple thing. Magical realms and creatures out of tales are true, but not intrusivly whimsical in Harry Potter, or in Jordan's Wheel of Time's relentlessly dark way. It's idea that "Your folk tales and nightmares are real and you can die anywhere even sleeping, and everything is trying to kill you." But in a somber, serious way that lies just below the lyrical nature of his writing.
Maybe he's tailored that to the world he's created in which music is all-important to the character, and the world, as certain civilizations consider music to be the equivalent of whoring while absolutely valuing silence, as pauses are built into their very language. While others consider music their greatest gift to all of civilization and have built their life around performing it for others.
If he hasn't built this lyrical quality in on purpose, to me, even better. It doesn't mean he's peerless, but it puts him in a rarified company. Maybe I'm not as wide read as I hoped, but in pure style he's with China Melvielle, Carlos Louiz Zafron, Neil Gaiman and others I can't think of at the moment.
John Scalzi, Charles Stross, they tend towrd a different style of writing. More direct. No less enjoyable, (as I don't want those authors to think I'm slighting them in any way.) I've bought all of both authors novels and enjoyed them all, even the Tor freebies, but I digress) Scalzi has a wry wit, as does Stross, Scalzi has a rapid-fire manner of making words do what he wants. He enjoys a clever phrase and isn't shameful of it. This is not a bad thing. It doesn't transform your perception of language though. He uses English like a set of tools he is extremely competent with and while not adding the soaring transformative architechture of the Italian Renaissance, he adds a touch or three to his well crafted house.
Stross also has a wry wit, and has a very wordy way that while I want to say is transformative, it's hard to initially decipher. (your mileage, as always will vary.) but once cracked, he's a great read with fantastic ideas.
But Rothfuss clearly grabs you with a unique, poetic, (have I said lyrical yet?) musical dance that draws you in and hypnotically wants you to see every sentence. Every adjective. Each motion in the phrase given. And he gives those phrases some thought. They aren't constantly children's puns or rhymes, although those are present. He makes seemingly dedicated and real observations about words, human behavior, and the power of a story, all the while using a powerful one itself.
Rothfuss enjoys a turn of phrase, a pun, the banter between equally eloquent characters. (Even if one seems only to exist as a perpetually annoyed sounding-board for Kvothe's cleverness with word and phrase.) readers fond of his work most likely do too, and won't be dissapointed. If anything, it feels as though the banter has gotten better. It makes the characters more real.
If anything, as several reviewers have said they don't enjoy the time with Fleurian. I have a mixed opinion. I saw it as the authors reinforcement of the point he's made time and again in the book. Some stories are greatly exaggerated. Maybe it's the approach men and women have towards sex, but it rang true to me. There's something very confusing about the other sex when you're that age and once you finally taste that fruit, the tendency is to want more. If anything, while keeping it (I thought subdued) and only hinting at eroticism without crossing the line into titilation, he used it to point out that once more, stories frequently morph in the telling.
The story seems to be about a stunningly intelligent and observant boy who has the small certainties of life pulled out from under him in a cruel feudal system-like world by the worlds darkest secrets and he's fighting back as he can, yet for all that he's a boy. And a nice one. With his own mind. A powerful will, a wit, a dark past, abilities any of us would kill for, saves teh day, loses some others, and yet for all that, for all the fantastical truth of his characters story to the Chronicler, Kvothe is still brought low to weary, hidden innkeeper, waiting out his days for something unrevealed as of yet, all because of story and how powerful rumors are.
This review is starting to lose it's coherency so I'll wrap it up by saying this: I love this man's writing, I don't see how he can fit so many answers to questions into the next book as it was stated a trilogy, and I pray he doesn't become bored with the world as it seems like it has so many enjoyable stories to still be told.
I highly recommend this book.
The Wise Man's Fear: Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 2
4.7 | 72,832 ratings
Price: 31.23
Last update: 01-03-2025
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TacticalTurtleneckPlease read the book before you read any reviews!
Karen B