The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)

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The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2)

by Patrick Rothfuss (Goodreads Author)

4.53 of 5 stars 4.53 · rating details · 70,646 ratings · 5,584 reviews

In "The Wise Man's Fear," Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, forced to reclaim the honor of his family, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who...more

ebook, 1088 pages

Published March 1st 2011 by Daw Books (first published 2011)

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Feb 19, 2012 Jacob rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, 900-plus, vote-whore

June 2011
Previously: The Name of the Wind

An Apology
I feel a bit conflicted about this. You can see from the rating that I didn't like this book, and if you’ve read any of my one-star reviews you'll know I’m very eager to tell you why. Problem is, I like Pat Rothfuss. He's a pretty cool guy. I liked The Name of the Wind, I read his blog regularly, I've been to a few of his readings/signings, and I admire his beard. But I didn't like this book. And as much as I want to be honest about my feelings,...more

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Mar 29, 2011 Simeon rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, utter-shite

I'm going to have to be the sole voice of dissent.

I found Kvothe profoundly annoying.
Here's an excerpt of his typical storytelling, word for word:

"I managed very little sleep that night, and Losi came closer to killing me than Felurian ever had."

(Post-coital thoughts on the second girl in 20 pages. He's 16.)

"She was a delightful partner, every bit as wonderful as Felurian had been. But how could that be? I hear you ask. How could any mortal woman compare with Felurian?"

Felurian is a ghost/fairy...more

213 likes · like · see review

Mar 25, 2013 Eric Allen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Wise Man’s Fear
By Patrick Rothfuss

A Review by Eric Allen

One thing I can say for Patrick Rothfuss is that he has great ideas. Unfortunately, great ideas do not a great story make. I have heard rumors that the first book, The Name of the Wind, took eleven years of revisions and rewrites to finally get published. Whether that is true or not, his hard work paid off. Since its release, the internet hype over the future of the trilogy has been building to monumental proportions. Rothfuss has devel...more

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Sarah I like this review, it makes me happy.

I also feel like Rothfuss has absolutely NO respect for the reader whatsoever. To an extent, keeping you by a th...more
May 06, 2013 07:18pm

Bobby Luke Loved the tangent on your tangent. I couldn't agree with the tangential part of your review more. Somehow, the chandrian and and overarching story are...more
May 06, 2013 08:35pm

May 08, 2011 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Well, it's done. And it's been a long time coming...

Back in late 2009 I finally got the book to the point where I was satisfied with it. It was an okay book. It was a book that if I had to publish it, I knew it wouldn't embarrass me.

By May 2010 I'd re-written the book to the point where I was happy with it. It was a good book. It was a book I was pleased with.

By my final deadline in November 2010, I'd revised things to the point where I was excited about it. It was a great book. It was finall...more

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Mar 11, 2011 Cassy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-own, event-met-author, 2011, fiction-scifi-fantasy-paranormal, region-elsewhere

Patrick Rothfuss sang to me. Literally sang “You are my sunshine” to me last Sunday. More on that later.

I didn’t want this book to end. When I was within sprinting distance of the end, I actually put the book down, bought groceries, and vacuumed the stairs. (My husband was pleasantly surprised.) I wanted so desperately to savor those last fifty pages that the parking lot at Target didn’t seem like an ideal location. Thus, I acted like a normal human for a couple hours until I could curl on my co...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Gavin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

So, there's an established phenomenon that I don't think anyone has coined a snappy title for yet, in my head I call it "Fabulous but Unpredicted Success Leads to a Complete lack of Editorial Constraint or Outside Input Whatsoever which-in-turn Leads to Creative Stagnation and Catastrophe". FUSLCECOIWLCSC. Foo-Sil-Kec-Oiw-Lecuscu. Not going to be printed in a newspaper any time soon, but it's true in all kinds of media.

Generally:
1. Someone outside the established system will bring in something n...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Michael S. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-fiction

I took a look back at my copy of The Name of the Wind. The second book, The Wise Man's Fear, had an asterisk and denoted that it would be released SOON in hardback. That was a long time ago. Honestly, that is what bothers me. Don't make promises you can't fulfill. HOWEVER, I also re-read Rothfuss's dedication page in that book. In the second part, he dedicated it to his father for teaching him that if you're going to do something, take the time to do it right. I think we should bear that in mind...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I finished this last night....finally. While there are moments in this book of brilliant writing they are (for me) interspersed with LLLLOOONNNGGG stretches of yawningly boring prose. Had the book been maybe two thirds it's length I think it could have been better.

Without spoilers I found that the story of Kvothe wanders along getting almost nowhere...yes I know we established some more of it here, but not a lot and we're about where we were in a lot of ways. The story in the book's "present" is...more I finished this last night....finally. While there are moments in this book of brilliant writing they are (for me) interspersed with LLLLOOONNNGGG stretches of yawningly boring prose. Had the book been maybe two thirds it's length I think it could have been better.

Without spoilers I found that the story of Kvothe wanders along getting almost nowhere...yes I know we established some more of it here, but not a lot and we're about where we were in a lot of ways. The story in the book's "present" is just as annoying and bogged down...and then we've got the "Denna story line". The thing keeps putting me in mind of Great Expectations with her "come here, come here, come here, get away, get away, get away" relationship with "our young hero" and his "please let me be around even if you need to walk on me" attitude. We even get one (seeming) coincidence that's worthy of Dickens.

By the time I finished this last night (and I sat up late, I'd made up my mind to get through it) I was slightly torn as there are interesting elements to the story but I was heartily sick of trudging through all the excess verbiage to get to the story. Will I follow it up and continue the series?

Maybe.

If it takes another three to six years for the next book to come out, the memory of the frustration will probably have faded a bit. If the library gets it, I probably will, but I don't plan to buy it.

But I live in hope. Who knows I may love the next volume.

I noted that here and on Amazon this book gets a lot of 5 ratings and a lot of 1 ratings. It seems to be loved and hated both (by different people of course, we'll hope). I go with two...not just to be different, but because I was constantly getting interested just to be then driven to distraction by it each time. I think the problem for me may be that I'm just not caught up in the Kvothe character. I don't actually "like" him, I'm not caring about the people. So...for me 2 stars. if you love these books, great I am happy for you. I hope I like the next one better.

(view spoiler)(less)

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Mar 29, 2011 Tyson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, fantasy, favorites

It's hard to write a review after reading a book like this. It's like reviewing a sunset after a spring storm. Yes, that's a poetic image, and that's what Rothfuss does to your brain. I plan on selling all my worldly possessions soon and devoting my life to chasing the wind...

But meanwhile, I'll try to do this book justice. It starts much as Name of the Wind ended, with Kvothe still a 15 year old at the University. It spends about 300 pages in this mode. Kvothe has a handful of new adventures at...more It's hard to write a review after reading a book like this. It's like reviewing a sunset after a spring storm. Yes, that's a poetic image, and that's what Rothfuss does to your brain. I plan on selling all my worldly possessions soon and devoting my life to chasing the wind...

But meanwhile, I'll try to do this book justice. It starts much as Name of the Wind ended, with Kvothe still a 15 year old at the University. It spends about 300 pages in this mode. Kvothe has a handful of new adventures at the university and tells us much about his classes and his never ending pining over Denna.

At this point it's good to make a, um, point. The Kingkiller Chronicles are not about the main storyline, i.e. Kvothe discovering who killed his parents, why, hunting the killers down, and avenging them. Many readers will no doubt be impatient at the amount of time Rothfuss spends describing seemingly unimportant side adventures of Kvothe's. The book is about how a man becomes a legend. What would seem to be the main storyline is just as incidental as all the rest. It's nice to have that main plot line running through the many hundreds of pages of his adventures, and it does give Kvothe's life a bit of a forward thrust. But that is not what the book is about. So if you read this series hoping to get a page turner as he chases down the Chandrian, then you may be disappointed. (Though it is still a page turner).

This reminds me of when Kvothe tells a story to his two friends. At the end of the story they're a little confused because the story didn't follow the familiar pattern they expected. Then Kvothe explained that he had told them a story that his people would tell each other, not a story meant for a general audience.

I wonder if there is a message from Pat in this.

What we have is a man at the end of his life, or what he hopes is the end of his life, recounting how his legend was born. And that legend is built of pieces. This book gives us some of those pieces.

He eventually leaves the University for most of a year. Rothfuss deftly skips over some of the more irrelevant side adventures, a trial and a shipwreck, and stays focused on those things which begin to build Kvothe as a person - his training, battles, moral decisions, role as a leader.

Kvothe is a bit of a contradiction. On the one hand, no matter where he goes, he's always a fish out of water. He's always the different one, the outcast, the landless, lowborn Edema. On the other hand, he's able to adapt wherever he goes, no matter who he is with. He can find a place anywhere. This contradiction is brilliantly balanced by Rothfuss, and we see that perhaps they're different sides of the same coin. His freedom gives him nothing to lose.

The strength of the book, though, is probably the sheer poetry of its prose. I don't think I've ever believed magic was as real since maybe watching Star Wars and the force for the first time as a 5 year old. I've often had difficult conversations with friends who were of a very strict, scientific and rational mindset. Trying to get them to accept the truth of other ways of seeing the world has been futile. I think from now own I'll simply recommend this book to them. If they can understand how Kvothe sees the wind, then they'll finally know what I've been telling them. Rothfuss does a better job of describing the worldview of the slightly mad artist/poet and making it magic than anything I've ever read.

This book, and the entire series, is destined to be a classic.

I somehow survived the four year wait between books one and two. I have no idea how I'll last until book three.(less)

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Feb 19, 2012 Valerie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

update 4/20/12: Right-o, so I've been pondering this for a while and thought this required some clarification. My feelings after reading the book became more negative the more I thought about it, and I considered dropping it down to two stars; reading a certain post from the author kinda confirmed some suspicions about the way some things were written and gave me the final incentive to do it. The original review is still intact under the spoiler tag below -- and I even said upon originally finis...more update 4/20/12: Right-o, so I've been pondering this for a while and thought this required some clarification. My feelings after reading the book became more negative the more I thought about it, and I considered dropping it down to two stars; reading a certain post from the author kinda confirmed some suspicions about the way some things were written and gave me the final incentive to do it. The original review is still intact under the spoiler tag below -- and I even said upon originally finishing it that I wanted to rate it 2.5 stars, so I just chose to round it down instead. That is all.

(view spoiler)[I loved The Name of the Wind. I loved the first half of The Wise Man's Fear - I enjoy the university setting in general and thought that Kvothe's foray into court intrigue with Alveron was really well-done. But as soon as he was sent off with the Adem mercenaries, everything slowed to a pace like oozing molasses. And when he started having his Neverending Magical Sexytimes with Felurian (he's the only one who hasn't gone mad from her, guys! THE ONLY ONE!), I honestly wanted to toss the book across the room.

But since I was persuaded that the last sixth of the book was really really really good, I persevered. I justified to myself: "Well, he certainly has an ego, so he probably isn't the most reliable of narrators. Hopefully." I gritted my teeth when he saved the two girls from the fake Edema Ruh in ALL OF HIS AMAZING GLORY and had people in the town justify him: after all, "Some people are worth killing," according to the random sagely healer. Another reviewer mentioned that he had bad flashbacks to Richard's random ability to carve life-changing statues in Goodkind's Faith of the Fallen. Personally, I was reminded of the village slaughter in Naked Empire. Not the same, I know, but the justification made me incredibly uneasy.

And then he went back to the court and then stirred up trouble. And then he went back to the university. And just when things started to pick up again, the book ended.

So, what actually happened? We learned the names of the Chandrian. He saw one of them again. He's also become a total stud and an amazing lover who, of course, wants the one woman he can't have. And he learned how to fight. Did this really have to take 1000 pages?

I'd rate this 2.5 stars if I could, but I'm rounding up to three because, as I said: a) I really enjoyed the first half of the book, and it's always a joy to read about Elodin and Auri; b) I loved Rothfuss' world- and myth-building and use of language. Now I have to re-read TNotW to see if it was actually as good as I remembered. (hide spoiler)](less)

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Apr 13, 2011 Jake rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed the first book, but did not feel the same way about this one. Fantasy books are meant to be the unbelievable, this much is certain, and the heroes that take the starring role are meant to be people of great intrigue and who can accomplish completely incredible feats, but it feels that it's pushed a bit too far in this book.

Kvothe not only is an amazing arcanist, a prodigy with a memory so perfect that he can call up how people smelled on a single day years ago, but he's a musician, and...more I enjoyed the first book, but did not feel the same way about this one. Fantasy books are meant to be the unbelievable, this much is certain, and the heroes that take the starring role are meant to be people of great intrigue and who can accomplish completely incredible feats, but it feels that it's pushed a bit too far in this book.

Kvothe not only is an amazing arcanist, a prodigy with a memory so perfect that he can call up how people smelled on a single day years ago, but he's a musician, and you're meant to believe he's the greatest musician in all the land based on some of the reviews that he receives, as well as how he can compose a song about himself in mere minutes which goes on to spread through the land, being forever etched in everyone's memory. So you have a character that is both an extraordinary magician (probably the most powerful one 'the University' has seen in years) and an extraordinary musician, surpassing people in their mid 20s when he's only 16, how do you make him even better than everyone else?

(contains spoilers below)

How do you make someone who is already perfect aside from his shitty personality better than everyone else? Well, you could send him off on a throwaway adventure with a band of highly experienced mercenaries and woodsmen and have him be the leader and the one who saves them from certain destruction, but only after having multiple chapters where he and the band do nothing in the forest aside from Tai-Chi and tell stories that don't matter with the exception of one which gets thrown into the Fae mythos for incredibly lame reasons why wars begin.

This book doesn't feel natural whatsoever. Everything feels like a plot device just designed to string together a few random ideas that are incredibly cliched. Most of what occurs within the book just seems like an event meant to shout to you "Look how awesome Kvothe is!" Rothfuss attempts to offset the chapters where he points out how amazing Kvothe is at everything by flashing forward to the future where he's a lonely innkeeper who is perpetually sad and can't use sympathy to light a man on fire, and gets beaten up by a couple lowly soldiers... contradictory to when he killed a bunch of scrael singlehandedly.

Following his throwaway adventure in the woods attacking bandits (where one of the Chandrian is randomly thrown into the action to just show that it had slight relevance), Kvothe goes off with Tempi, a member of the Adem, a super secretive sect of mercenaries who are not accepting of outsiders at all. The reason he's going off with Tempi? Because he was instructed in some of the ways of the Adem Tai-Chi, even though the way the story unfolds you'd be led to believe no outsider has ever learned them. How was Kvothe so fortunate (unfortunate?) to be taught to fight by one of the Adem? He simply asked. And as though Rothfuss realizes that after he reveals how far-fetched it would be even in his own world, which exists solely to make Kvothe look good, for Kvothe to be taught this, he follows up the question of "Will you teach me the ways of the sword?" with an obligatory "Had I known more of the Adem, I never would have asked this..." It's lazy.

I'm not asking to be reading a book that could easily transpire in reality, it is a fantasy novel, and I do realize this, but the way the plot unfolds leaves a lot to be desired, after each important (or throwaway in the case of this book) plot point occurs, instantly Kvothe is on his next adventure, and this isn't something I have a problem with because oftentimes it will make the book more enjoyable to read, but he could at least use some brainpower to try and make it all fit together. Immediately following the fight with the mercenaries, he goes into the Fae, immediately following that, he goes to the Adem, immediately following that he rescues two young girls from rapists disguised as troupers... lame plot point after lame plot point in quick sequence, without any breathing room, which makes little sense considering how much of the start of the book is filled with the mundane sequence of "Look for Denna. Study. Drink with friends. Sing. Repeat process." Chapters repeat themselves so often that the few ones of import stick out like a sore thumb, and those either take too long (the Fae) or end too quickly (the Mercenary fight after the incredibly long buildup).

The worst part of the book, by far, is the Felurian arc, which consists entirely of him having sex with the most beautiful woman in the world, who is known to make men go mad simply because they're no longer in her presence when she gets tired of them and allows them to leave. What's the difference between Kvothe and the average guy? Well he convinces Felurian to let him leave, by playing her a half finished song, oh and then he leaves but after he spends "as much as a year" in the Fae, where only 3 days have passed in reality (conveniently enough, before Kvothe ran after the faerie creature, he yelled to the people he was with "meet me at the inn in 3 days!", what LUCK!). The entire time spent in the Fae is simply ridiculous, and it felt like I was reading a 40 year old male fanfiction diehard's own take at Twilight for virginal fantasy readers in their late teens. "Oh Kvothe, you're telling lies, there's no way you're a 16 year old virgin! The sex I had with you was amazing, even though I'm a faerie creature who has lived for thousands of years in an alternate world where time passes exponentially slower than the mortal world, and where the only thing I've been doing all these years, while not singing and stealing men from the mortal world, is having sex with those men until I grow bored of them, or they insane." Painful to read.

After the Fae arc to me it becomes clear that Kvothe is Rothfuss' superimposed teenage self finally living the fantasy nerd's dream and living out a life of perfection in a prototypical fantasy world that he doesn't bother to develop. The world is generic, like the plot of this book, and has no real substance outside of the different words used for week (span) and random curses that get thrown in towards the middle-end of the book (Kist).

This book is long for the sake of being long. On top of this, the plotline is just too pretty of a package, the story is too perfect, and although Rothfuss seemingly knows this and tries to make the future look bleak and grim with future-Kvothe implying that he's the subject of a tragedy, it doesn't do much help. Overall it feels as though Rothfuss had several ideas and rather than develop them coherently and try and make it flow like a novel should, he lazily combined them together, and it feels sloppy. It's a shame too, since I really wanted to like this book, but it leaves you wondering what the 'kist' Rothfuss was thinking when he wrote this, unless his goal was to be the male high fantasy equivalent of Twilight which would be a success on all counts.(less)

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Enric Noelle wrote: "Harry potter didn't have ninjas appear to add as a plot device. Elric didn't meet a time lord and Conan didn't rescue Rapunzel. You hav...more
updated Dec 05, 2012 01:58pm

Noelle Campbell You're nothing if not persistent. It must be nice to have such loyal fans when your writing gets so Mary Sue. But. Maybe that's the new fad. It worked...more
Dec 05, 2012 01:57pm

Feb 20, 2009 Ronando marked it as to-read · review of another edition

When THE HELL is this book coming out?? The first book grabbed me by the throat and threw me down and had it's way with me and I am fast becoming impatient in having it happen a second time.

... This better not turn into another George R.R. Martin wait! Or ... or... or I shall be extremely vexed. VEXED I tell you!

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Nov 24, 2011 Tim Hicks rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I have almost 1500 SF/F books in my database, and I've probably read 500 more that I forgot to list. I have never read a book that was simultaneously so bad and so good. I suspect that as time passes I will like it less. You know when you go to the local Enormous Portions restaurant and go with the meat in the rich gravy with the fries and onion rings, and the mud pie for dessert, and a couple of drinks, and you enjoy it all. Until near the end of the meal, when you don't feel so good; then you...more

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Apr 27, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fantasy-epic, fantasy-medieval, audiobook, doorstopper, faeries

The Name of the Wind was one of the best fantasy novels I've read in the past several years, so it was inevitable that the second book in Patrick Rothfuss's debut trilogy would have a hard time living up to expectations. Although I really liked it, I felt like rather than building on the awesomeness of book one, Rothfuss kind of let his momentum carry him through the second book. It would have been better had they been released as one volume, except of course it would have been the phonebook-siz...more The Name of the Wind was one of the best fantasy novels I've read in the past several years, so it was inevitable that the second book in Patrick Rothfuss's debut trilogy would have a hard time living up to expectations. Although I really liked it, I felt like rather than building on the awesomeness of book one, Rothfuss kind of let his momentum carry him through the second book. It would have been better had they been released as one volume, except of course it would have been the phonebook-sized.

In The Wise Man's Fear, Kvothe continues to struggle to pay his tuition at the University, continues to engage in pointless juvenile rivalry with Ambrose, continues to have an on-again, off-again not-really-a-relationship with Denna, and continues his search for the secrets of the Chandrian. In the meta-story, it's day two of Kvothe's narration to Chronicler and Bast, and all that really happens is we get more dire portents and hints that the world is becoming a darker, scarier place, and that Kvothe is not the man he once was, if he ever really was that man.

I enjoyed The Wise Man's Fear, every hour of it. It was all great storytelling, and while there were chunks of the book that could have been edited out, nothing was a waste or uninteresting. That said, Rothfuss has been credited with bringing something new and awesome to the table in the fantasy genre, largely with his inversion of expectations and his skillful use of all the fantasy tropes we know and love, treating them affectionately and knowingly while making something new with them. But the second book of the trilogy doesn't really do anything new, and in some ways falls back into the cliches I thought Rothfuss was subverting. For example, Kvothe is like the ultimate Mary Sue of high fantasy literature, except in book one, we found out that a lot of his supposed legendary feats were made up or exaggerated. In book two, he actually does a lot of the things he's credited with, so it's less a story of a man being trapped by the legend he created and more a story of a man actually becoming the legend -- which we've seen many times before. Sure, he's still very human and vulnerable, but he gets away with an awful lot and he learns all kinds of skills with just a few weeks practice and makes friends with everyone he meets, who all teach him their secrets (except the people who irrationally hate him just because he needs some antagonists).

The worst part of The Wise Man's Fear is when Kvothe wallows in the worst aspects of Mary Sue-ism: the land of teenage wish-fulfillment. He starts the book as a virgin, but by the end he's added advanced sexyjutsu to his list of super-special skills that he does better than anyone else, starting with his encounter with a fairy seductress sex'n'death goddess. It's not enough for Kvothe to get laid by a superhot immortal fairy woman, it's not enough that he's the only one in history to walk away from her afterwards, it's not enough that she doesn't toss him back into the water like the underage virgin he is (yeah, an older woman who can have pretty much any man in the world she wants is totally going to fall for a teenage boy), no... she also gives him a magic cloak and sends him off to sex all the other ladies in the world so everyone will know that her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

I liked the chapters where Kvothe is in the fey realm -- they were magical and mysterious and had a perfect fairy tale quality to them, and Felurian was hot and sexy and creepy and scary all at the same time -- just as I liked Kvothe's time among the Adem learning badass martial arts skills -- but Kvothe getting laid by pretty much any woman he shows an interest in felt like straight-up fanboy pandering, as did his becoming the equivalent of a black belt after a couple months of study.

The Wise Man's Fear is a huge book, but it only covers Kvothe's life from age 15 to 16. So I'm not sure what Rothfuss is going to do for the finale. I'm hoping he actually ends the series in book three -- this story really needs a decisive, genre-rattling ending, not to become yet another interminable multi-book series coasting on fanboy adulation like every other fantasy series out there.

All my griping aside, this book was still entertaining as hell and I am looking forward to book three, but whereas The Name of the Wind was a glowing 5-star book (and I always think hard before I give a book 5 stars), The Wise Man's Fear is more like 4.5 stars -- still a damn fine book, but it did not blow me away like the first one. I've got enough faith to hope this was just the dreaded "sophomore slump" a lot of authors suffer in the middle of their trilogies and that Rothfuss is going to bring it in book three. C'mon, dude, don't let me down!(less)

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Mar 09, 2013 Lee Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: re-reading

I would give the first half of this book 5 stars...It repeated a few things through the first few chapters, but it was really good. Now the second half was quite difficult for me to rate. I thought way too much time was spent on or "in" places that had little relevance to the story except to add detail and pages...for example, his time in the Fea and with the Adem. I think both could have been condense greatly..but I still loved it. Who knows, maybe it was needed information for the following bo...more I would give the first half of this book 5 stars...It repeated a few things through the first few chapters, but it was really good. Now the second half was quite difficult for me to rate. I thought way too much time was spent on or "in" places that had little relevance to the story except to add detail and pages...for example, his time in the Fea and with the Adem. I think both could have been condense greatly..but I still loved it. Who knows, maybe it was needed information for the following book, but it distracted from the true story which is Fantastic! I guess I will have about a 4 year wait for the final installment where I suspect I will find myself re-reading the first two again. This is truly a remarkable story and I can't wait to see how it ends...come on Kvothe...get your act together and become the hero we all want you to be!

***March 2012:
I just finished listening to Patrick's books and as much as I thought it was impossible to like them more than I already had, I proved myself wrong. Everything about this story and Patrick writing style is so...honestly I can't really find the words to describe it. The story is so personal and this young man's struggles and triumphs are written so eloquently you can't help but to be drawn into his life and all of the wondrous details surrounding it. While listening to the story I was able to catch many key elements I missed while reading the story...the connection between Lady Lackless and Kvothe, the rhyme about the door of stone shared by the young boy, and the box without hinges, which make me anticipate the final book even more. Areas that I thought were over detailed and overdone while reading, were not so while listening to the story. Honestly, I believe this is my favorite book of all time...and will be my favorite series once it is completed...so much that I will be collecting first editions/first printing to give to my son one day. I was not one who grew up in a reading family and was not big reader myself until after college...finds like this are very precious to me and I hope I am able to shape my son's love of reading with masterpieces in story telling like the Name of the Wind...(less)

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Apr 11, 2013 Yasiru rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Since it appears to be bad form on here to be a faerie intercourse apologist (a future government post, surely), and also because I've seldom seen any author indulge themselves to quite that extent and personally didn't care for it, the following, I assure you, is by no means a justification but instead a... different reading.

It was during a sip in search of the Green Fairy's own delights (though by happenstance clear rather than verte) that it became obvious to me. My eyes drifted idly to a Goo...more Since it appears to be bad form on here to be a faerie intercourse apologist (a future government post, surely), and also because I've seldom seen any author indulge themselves to quite that extent and personally didn't care for it, the following, I assure you, is by no means a justification but instead a... different reading.

It was during a sip in search of the Green Fairy's own delights (though by happenstance clear rather than verte) that it became obvious to me. My eyes drifted idly to a Goodreads notification in my e-mail and the vantage was set. Kvothe's journey to the Fae is in fact no more -and no less!- than a case of his hoarding a bottle of that same sweet liquid alchemy which has inspired so many! He wins it for himself and delves into its titillating delights, guided by the intimate hand of the the Fairy herself. The slow, lucid demise into the Alice-like adventure is then jolted by the kind of clarity only the absinthe has to offer, shedding protective conceits and laying a cold hand directly upon the heart of matters. Startling clarity and inevitable, painful wisdom as the Cthaeh teases with is the familiar progression. But the fairy comforts too, and restores wavering resolve to numb determination, but her grip on the drinker does not ease nor relent through it all, and the only escape from her tireless inebriation is to brush other, more transient tulips having returned to pale sanity with traces enough of shadow to frighten and intrigue, and sing servile praise far from the dens of habit.

Well, there goes my attempt at a whimsical kind of review, partly parodying the inordinate amount of attention others here have lavished on what was rather a self-contained episode which they claim for the most part to have disliked.

It should be said in addition that while I enjoyed the Cthaeh scene and thought it a strong point of the book, thus far it's only a scam in the style of Pascal.
The following (which is a real-life analogue of Kvothe's encounter with the Cthaeh in this book) may amuse you, or, depending on your inclinations, cause you psychological distress and then possibly lead you to bankrupt yourself (so be warned!), but with a suitably panicked 'Whoops! Nearly turned into Scientology there!' reaction to make it all so very droll-
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Roko%27s...(less)

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Jul 28, 2011 Allison (The Allure of Books) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: other-adult-fantasy, own-it, 2011, signed-by-author

Originally posted here.

Well. It should be no secret that I have been anxiously awaiting this book since I first read The Name of the Wind back in early 2009. Since then, I've been on a crusade to make as many people read it as possible. I haven't kept up an exact count, but I know the number of people that have picked it up because of me is around 20. When people ask me what my favorite book is, that is the book I tell them. When I re-read it last month, I just loved it more. Now, after finally...more Originally posted here.

Well. It should be no secret that I have been anxiously awaiting this book since I first read The Name of the Wind back in early 2009. Since then, I've been on a crusade to make as many people read it as possible. I haven't kept up an exact count, but I know the number of people that have picked it up because of me is around 20. When people ask me what my favorite book is, that is the book I tell them. When I re-read it last month, I just loved it more. Now, after finally getting to see the next stage of Kvothe's story, I am glad to say that The Wise Man's Fear is just as good...maybe better!

(Ridiculous amounts of gushing to follow.)

The writing. Oh, the writing. I have had countless conversations about how amazing the writing is in The Name of the Wind. I quote the especially poetic and lyrical parts - or the dialogues that made me laugh. I absolutely believe that Rothfuss is one of the best writers out there. (Click here to check out all the Goodreads quotes from the book so far, you'll see what I mean!) But, other authors can write lyrical passages and make me laugh. I couldn't put into words what it was that made Rothfuss the (in my opinion) undisputed best. Then, I read a scene in this book that made it come together:

The real magic behind the story is the writing. Not just the lyrical and poetic passages, not just the humorous ones - but the parts that cover the everyday, basic interactions. You know how, when you're talking to your friends, you'll laugh (chuckle, if you will) at little things that aren't particularly that funny? Then - you read a passage with dialogue like that in a book - and even though you notice - and appreciate - the (borderline) humor, you don't actually laugh. Well - when you're reading something Patrick Rothfuss has written, you laugh. You do a double-take. You feel a slight awkwardness. You get a chill...you blush. You do all the little things you'd do in your own life and your own conversations that you don't normally react to when you're reading. That is what Rothfuss does like no one else.

One of the best things about Kvothe is that he can really be an irritating SOB. He isn't one of those characters that starts perfect and has absolutely no personal growth. In this book, we see him finally start to mature and understand that, while he might have more life experience then some, he is still ignorant in a lot of ways. We also (finally) see him realize that sometimes it really is better to keep his mouth shut. Of course, on the other hand, sometimes he still can't help himself. He still manages to get into heaps of trouble, most of which is his own fault. The way his character thinks and interacts with others makes it really seem like you're reading about a life and not a character. The realism is why it is so easy to become so deeply involved. Also, sometimes, when he isn't being obnoxious...he can show kindness that will make your heart clench. The man has layers.

I was really nervous about the middle of the book, because I knew that he had to leave the University at some point (based on the synopsis). Actually, I was scared to death he was going to be kicked out for some godawful reason and that it would be a horrible section to read. I was hardcore dreading it. Well, no spoilers, but it didn't unfold like I thought it would and, as you can see, I lived through it. I enjoyed the story just as much away from the University. I shouldn't have doubted it!

Also, we get a lot more of "Kote," Bast and the Chronicler in the present-day with this book. I liked those parts a lot, which was another pleasant surprise, because I didn't so much in NOTW. And if the Kvothe that is unfolding through the story has layers, forget about trying to understand him as he is in the present-day. Although we're closer to seeing what has brought him to an out-of-the-way inn, there are still gaps and mysteries. The third book will have a lot of ground to cover!

One of the best surprises in the book, for me, was Elodin. SO MANY awesome scenes with this guy. Seriously, he is easily one of my favorite characters in the series. I'm definitely avoiding going into specifics in my review, but let me tell you - when you read the book you will love him.

This book ended basically the same as the first - it leaves you definitely wanting more, but not on a cliffhanger that makes you want to choke somebody to death. I am already looking forward to the third book - and whether it takes one year or seven, I can't wait to see what happens next!(less)

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May 01, 2011 Kat Hooper rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicle is the story behind a legend — the real truth about the famous young man who has come to be known, for various reasons, as Kvothe the Arcane, Kvothe the Bloodless, the Kingkiller, etc. There are many names for, and stories about, Kvothe, but nobody knows which ones are true and which are merely based on some small kernel of truth. The Chronicler, though, is getting the scoop. He’s sitting down with Kvothe, now a humb...more ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicle is the story behind a legend — the real truth about the famous young man who has come to be known, for various reasons, as Kvothe the Arcane, Kvothe the Bloodless, the Kingkiller, etc. There are many names for, and stories about, Kvothe, but nobody knows which ones are true and which are merely based on some small kernel of truth. The Chronicler, though, is getting the scoop. He’s sitting down with Kvothe, now a humble innkeeper (how did that happen?!), over three days to learn the true story and to write it down. The Name of the Wind was Day One — when we learned about Kvothe’s early childhood and his goal to be admitted to the university so he could find out about the Chandrian — the strange beings who killed Kvothe’s parents and who nobody else seems to believe in.

The Wise Man’s Fear is Day Two. For the first part of the book, Kvothe is still at the university. His problems with poverty, teachers, girls, and his enemy Ambrose continue. Though it’s a lot of the same stuff we’ve seen before, and it is a bit tiring to constantly hear about how arrogant and clever Kvothe is, I actually enjoyed this part of the book the most. Kvothe’s antics are funny, I’m a sucker for a university setting, I enjoyed the explanations of sympathy and artificing, and I just can’t help but adore Kvothe for loving the library stacks so much that he has to crawl through dirty hidden subterranean tunnels to sneak in.

Yet when Kvothe leaves the university for a possible patronage, I was ready for some new scenery because his life had become a bit stagnant (the familiar cycle of admissions, trying to earn money, trying to find Denna, avoiding Ambrose’s pranks, etc). At first the change was welcome, but when Kvothe is sent off to lead a group of mercenaries to flush bandits out of the forest, the story became downright dull except for the climactic scene with the bandits. After that there’s an insufferably long episode with Tempi and the Adem which crawled on for hours in my audio version. I had to increase the playback speed so I could get through it — I was having a hard time believing in their culture (and Kvothe’s reaction to it) and, besides, I was seriously worried that Chronicler’s hand was going to seize up, or that he’d fallen asleep while Kvothe rambled on. (By the way, I recognize, from reading other reviews, that my opinion is the minority one.)

The audio version, produced by Brilliance Audio, was read by Nick Podehl — an excellent choice for The Wise Man’s Fear. His voice for Kvothe is perfect and he does a great job with the other characters, too. The book is 43 hours long and it’s a great way to read this story, though you may find that you need to occasionally increase playback speed which you can do with Windows Media Player or an iPod.

I’ve struggled with how to rate The Wise Man’s Fear. I love Kvothe, and it’s a lot of fun to watch him use his intelligence and his trouper skills to build his own legendary reputation. The problem isn’t the story — the problem is that the story doesn’t need to be this long. There’s a better shorter book inside The Wise Man’s Fear.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.(less)

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Mar 29, 2011 Autumn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 01, 2011 Stefan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, www-fantasyliterature-com-review

4.5 stars

If, like me, you were so impressed with The Name of the Wind that you neglected all but the most pressing business until you turned the final page, you may have decided to give it a quick re-read in anticipation of the sequel. If you did, you probably spotted this quote in Chapter 43:

There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.

After a long but worthwhile wait, we now have the second novel in The Kingkiller Chronicle, an...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Doug Bradshaw rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. ***Spoilers Contained***

Lord of the Rings and the Arthurian Legend are my internal models for fantasy literature. Frodo, the simple unsuspecting guy with no real training or special ability, on the impossible journey with impossible odds and then Arthur the straggly boy who turns out to be the chosen and pre-ordained one who has the power and the genetics to pull the sword out of the stone. Tolkien's beautiful poetry is unsurpassed and amazing and some of the characters we meet and lose are asto...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Vinaya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-loved, comparative-5-stars, could-have-been-better, fantasy

*Vinaya emerges from her cave, blinking owlishly at the sun*

You gotta admire a man who can hold your interest through two days and 994 pages of more or less nonstop reading. The second installment of Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles, The Wise Man's Fear, is just as compelling and beautifully written as the first. Kvothe returns in full glory to recount more of his adventures at the University, at Vintas and in Ademre.

I was a little annoyed and more than a little impatient through most of...more *Vinaya emerges from her cave, blinking owlishly at the sun*

You gotta admire a man who can hold your interest through two days and 994 pages of more or less nonstop reading. The second installment of Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles, The Wise Man's Fear, is just as compelling and beautifully written as the first. Kvothe returns in full glory to recount more of his adventures at the University, at Vintas and in Ademre.

I was a little annoyed and more than a little impatient through most of the book. Oh, I was still devouring pages and falling headlong into Kvothe's reality, but I couldn't see where the book was going. It took me a while to have my epiphany. This book is not going anywhere, anymore than the first book was. It's not like most fantasy, whose strength rests in the convolutions of the plotline. Don't expect the tale to have a progression that leads into a subplot, subtly furthering the main plot. There is NO main plot or subplot, as we understand them in the fantasy genre. This book is not so much a story as it is an autobiography. Yes, this is my big epiphany, and if everyone else has had it before me, I apologize. See, there were a lot of things that bothered me about this book. First was the fact that Kvothe was the only character really spotlit in this series. The second was that there were so many incidents, anecdotes and stories-within-stories in the narrative, and most of them didn't serve any purpose, plotwise. How does the Maer's poisoning, for example, play into the larger scheme of things? The answer is, it doesn't.

However, let's assume for one second, that Kvothe is a real person, living in an actual world. Let us assume he is telling us his life story. Wouldn't his rescue of one of the richest, most important men in the world be something he was particularly proud of? Wouldn't it be an incident worth recounting?

Once I realized that I was reading the book in entirely the wrong way, and needed a different set of expectations, I began to appreciate the "barbarian cunning" Rothfuss possesses. He can pour all of his role-playing fantasies into the book, through his hero, without having to worry about their relevance to the bigger picture, because the bigger picture IS the hero. The only time the book falls into standard fantasy storytelling tropes is during the interludes. Then we are presented with several mysteries, unanswered questions and some movement towards a larger picture looming at the end of the series.

As usual, the book is beautifully written, prose and poetry melding seamlessly. I am still very un-fond of all the female characters in this book, although Rothfuss does flesh out Denna a little more. But really, I wasn't very happy with who he made her. She's like a mixture of Ayesha from She and Fantine from Les Misérables. Not my favourite characters, but that's my gripe, not a general one. Willem and Simmons also make a longer appearance in this book, portraying a strong, solid friendship, which was the one thing Kvothe lacked in his life until now. (view spoiler) And, of course, Bast and Chronicler make their own bid for popularity, despite being sidelined shamefully by the characters from Kvothe's past.

All told, this is a great book, sure, but still ridiculously long. And I have a feeling the last book may have to be split into two parts, just to get the entirety of the story - past and present- done. I think The Wise Man's fear would have been the better for the loss of a couple of hundred pages. For me, it didn't have the same impact as The Name of the Wind, for several reasons. First, the sheer length of the book leads to a sort of disconnect; by the time you're halfway through the book, you've forgotten how the book starts. Second is a more personal reason. Patrick Rothfuss is one of maybe three authors whose blogs I read regularly. And being a verbose sort of man, Pat tends to blog very frequently. As a result, I have his 'written voice' fixed very firmly in my head. This written voice is also very clear in the Kingkiller Chronicles, so there were too many instances where I was distracted by Pat the real person, instead of Kvothe, Pat's character. I don't think I'm explaining it very well, but I also don't think it's something that'll bother anyone else anyway, so that's okay, I guess. Third is the fact that a lot of things that had been puffed up in the first book were downplayed in this one: Kvothe's time with the Ademre, for example. It wasn't half as impressive as I was expecting it to be. No doubt this was the effect that was intended, but I don't like teasers that turn out to be anti-climactic, so I feel entitled to complain about this. Fourth is what I like to call middle child syndrome. This generally happens to the middle book in a highly-anticipated trilogy; the build-up is greater than it ought to be, making you feel like the product is letting you down just that little bit.

In comparison to most of the fantasy out there, The Wise Man's Fear is a five-star read. In comparison to The Name of the Wind, and my expectations for this book, it would only get a 4.5. But everything said, I am still a rabid fangirl with a massive author-crush on Patrick Rothfuss. My recommendation: read it, but be prepared for a long haul!(less)

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Jan 14, 2012 Noelle Campbell rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Too wordy. Too unbelievable. Even if this is the quintessential exceptional hero, what has happened to the hero in the short span of less than a year is completely unbelievable, especially at 17. There is no time for these events to happen. The wisdom, the luck, the meetings are all too much, it started to get long winded. It feels like you are being manipulated for future events. Like the dungeon master just happened to put the exact sword, gem, and book of magic all in one room and then told y...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Ben Johnson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first third of The Wise Man’s Fear is a repeat of the plot conflicts of The Name of the Wind. Kvothe is back at the University, but worries about tuition; Ambrose tries to ruin Kvothe’s life; Kvothe loses his instrument, rhapsodizes about how much music means to him, and then gets it back; Denna comes and goes. After the Harry Potter setting is abandoned, the book goes into several side-conflicts that take up more time than they seem to warrant. And then the book ends.

Once again, there is no...more The first third of The Wise Man’s Fear is a repeat of the plot conflicts of The Name of the Wind. Kvothe is back at the University, but worries about tuition; Ambrose tries to ruin Kvothe’s life; Kvothe loses his instrument, rhapsodizes about how much music means to him, and then gets it back; Denna comes and goes. After the Harry Potter setting is abandoned, the book goes into several side-conflicts that take up more time than they seem to warrant. And then the book ends.

Once again, there is no overarching plot. Nominally Kvothe is still hunting the Chandrian, but there is so little development on that front that I really can’t call it anything but a background issue. Instead, the book’s main concern seems to be showing how the stories of Kvothe hinted at in The Name of the Wind were created by situations not nearly as extraordinary as expected (for a fantasy book). The nature of stories to take on a life of their own is not an altogether unique concern but one that does have potential; the problem, however, is that it is just not much fun to read about. The most exciting thing about The Name of the Wind were the hints of future heroic exploits by Kvothe, and revealing that these exploits are not as spectacular as they sound is not exactly a recipe for excitement.

And there are still a lot of stories to go. Clearly there is too much for one trilogy - and that’s okay. With a tight plot that uses these hints as context and setting, these events wouldn’t necessarily need to be explained. They could be background depth, just as The Lord of the Rings is a story built upon an encyclopedia. Or the trilogy could have taken a broader view, and moved time quickly in order to hit the highlights. But The Kingkiller Chronicles takes a middle path in which the plot is in the background and the events that are described feel disjointed and irrelevant to each other.

And I still don’t care about Kvothe. He is still a smarmy know-it-all that is firmly encased in the author’s protagonist armor. Kvothe does develop in some new ways: in the middle of the book the story suddenly becomes about sex. Kvothe is taught the arts of love by a beautiful faerie (*eyeroll*) and suddenly he is a womanizer. He then travels to a new culture where sex is not a taboo like it is in Kvothe’s society (or in America). It is a fairly obvious ethnographic trope that I never found compelling or original. And after that there is a situation involving rape and racism. I appreciated the more nuanced representation of females when compared to The Name of the Wind, but it was also a bit jarring to suddenly have every conflict somehow involve sex when the subject had been absent for the first 1,500 pages of the series.

The writing is generally of high quality, but dialogue has a tendency to be more explication than interaction and often comes off as melodramatic. For example, when Kvothe’s heritage is insulted he launches into this dramatic declaration: “And I am Edema Ruh to my bones. That means my blood is red. It means I breathe the free air and walk where my feet take me. I do not cringe and fawn like a dog at a man’s title. That looks like pride to people who have spend their lives cultivating supple spines.” It just doesn’t feel like a real person’s speech, unless that person is on a stage looking at an audience. Kvothe is presented as a master actor (one of the many skills he masters effortlessly), so perhaps that’s the idea. But no one ever calls him on it in the book; nothing ever challenges Kvothe in a significant way. It gets old.

The book comes off as a “fantasy greatest hits” written for the high school crowd, with the inconveniences of an overarching plot structure done away with. Too many issues are injected into conflict (racism, poverty, sexual politics, puberty) and none are dealt with in an original way.

(But I still read all 900 pages of it.)(less)

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Feb 16, 2013 Kevan Dinn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-challenge-2013

This is a common review for The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, the first two books that comprise The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss. While they have been published as two separate books, they are in reality two installments of the same unfinished story, the third installment of which is now being written. Unlike Mistborn and Harry Potter the books do not stand on their own.

The two installments are unequal in more respects than mere size. They are estimated (by fantasy-factio...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Nermin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, series, e-books

Soo, I finally finished The Wise Man' Fear. God, this took so long. I feel like I've been reading this for years and years. And it's not because it's almost 1000 pages or something. It was long but it was boringly so. It could and should've been shortened by at least 200 hundreds pages. Seriously, what was the point of all the mercenary chasing, hundreds and hundreds pages of Kvothe's adventures in Ademre and the Fae? No, I understand it's important for the story but did Patrick really need to g...more

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Dec 02, 2012 A.E. Marling added it · review of another edition

View my dance review (seriously) of this book:
http://youtu.be/Qu1hDuvIl_0

In which Kvothe becomes more and more of a badass.

If the idea of your favorite, red-headed Arcanist becoming a juggernaut of skill and talents sounds like chocolate ice-cream to you, then you'll love The Wise Man's Fear. Those who treasure fantasy languages and enjoy immersing themselves in innovative cultures will also have much to revel in. If, however, you expect Kvothe to make progress (any at all) on avenging the death...more View my dance review (seriously) of this book:
http://youtu.be/Qu1hDuvIl_0

In which Kvothe becomes more and more of a badass.

If the idea of your favorite, red-headed Arcanist becoming a juggernaut of skill and talents sounds like chocolate ice-cream to you, then you'll love The Wise Man's Fear. Those who treasure fantasy languages and enjoy immersing themselves in innovative cultures will also have much to revel in. If, however, you expect Kvothe to make progress (any at all) on avenging the death of his parents at the hands of the Forsaken-types who killed them, then your enjoyment may be less.

For those who aren't in the know, The Kingkiller Chronicle offers superb dialog and a cast of memorable characters. Elodin, the eccentric Master of Naming, is my favorite. Early in the book, Master Elodin encourages Kvothe to burn his master's robes, except they turn out to not be his own robes but that of a rival master, filling the vengeful man's apartments with an acrid fume.

In addition to delightful banter and camaraderie, the series also offers the bittersweet romance of an iconic Bad Girl. Kvothe continues his distant pursuit of her in this book, fearing to get too close lest she shun him like all the other men who try to possess her.

I admit, the frame-story nature of the series does not appeal to me, so I simply skip the interludes where the older Kvothe in the guise of an innkeeper is talking to the Chronicler. This was also true of the first tome, The Name of the Wind, which is a story about the orphaned Kvothe finding a place that he could call home, a magic academy. In the same vein, you could perhaps say The Wise Man's Fear is about him finding financial security, as many of his difficulties revolve around money problems. However, it's more about him amassing talents. It's apparently not enough that at sixteen he's a prodigy of multiple classes of magic, knows four languages, excels at thieving, and is a virtuoso of the lute and storytelling. No, he must learn more languages, study martial arts, gain skill in sword fighting, and become unsurpassed in bed (no joke).(less)

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Feb 21, 2012 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-challenge, fantasy, favourite-series, favourites

The Wise Man's Fear was in some aspects better than the first novel and in many ways also worse. If I were to do a brief plot of how I read the book it would be: Slow take off get about 400 pages in over a few days, then end up skipping unnecessary fairy scenes end up going another fifty pages and run into another unnecessary hundred pages of training, skip that and race through final pages going: what was that all about?

Yes to put it simply I felt that this novel could have been far shorter. O...more The Wise Man's Fear was in some aspects better than the first novel and in many ways also worse. If I were to do a brief plot of how I read the book it would be: Slow take off get about 400 pages in over a few days, then end up skipping unnecessary fairy scenes end up going another fifty pages and run into another unnecessary hundred pages of training, skip that and race through final pages going: what was that all about?

Yes to put it simply I felt that this novel could have been far shorter. One of the longest books I have read in recent times was Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell however the length of that book did not put me off in any way because as I read it I saw that most of the pages were required to properly tell the story. Here we end up with scenes where I could honestly say that if they were taken out not only would the book be 200 pages shorter or perhaps even 300 but it would still make the same amount of sense.

That said I still found the first book a far easier read from the start. The Wise Man's Fear did not have the same immediate impact from the take off and it took me fifty ages to properly get back into Kvothe's world. I'm just being brutally honest in saying this because I feel the propensity of most viewers it to be too harsh or to gushing. I would rather attempt to fall properly in between.

So as noted the book has its faults with length and time taken to read. However Patrick Rothfuss still remains as an excellent story teller and writer and his story despite a few stumbling blocks remains quality work. I particularly like the fact that Kvothe is no super hero without flaws. He acts like any stubborn, oppinionated human being and is incredibly proud. That said he is also at heart a boy trying to become a good man and he's likeable for that.

I get the popularity of this series but I still think that the third book may make or break it for me in terms of how much I will enjoy it. Because while I like the writing some things about the books haven't made me like the series as much as I could.(less)

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Apr 06, 2013 Zak Oglesby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, interesting-magic, favorites

I cannot believe I never reviewed this book. Ah well, better late than never. I will preface by saying I unabashedly love the King Killer Chronicles so just a little warning.

As the second book in Patrick Rothfuss' debut series this book came on the heels of what I consider one of the greatest works in literary history. This being said I was actually scared to read it, after all how could it possibly compare to something so surprising as The Name Of the Wind? All I can say is it did, and it did s...more

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Oct 22, 2011 George Loch rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I do enjoy the pacing of this trilogy. It is different than most as it takes a more detailed approach in revealing the main character's story. It seems to sprinkle smaller amounts of fantasy than most in this genre but, enough to qualify for it's inclusion. It is an intriguing approach.

However...

It is fair to call "Mary Sue Factor" on this. The conflict feels mostly predictable as the main character turns his hand to just about everything and becomes master of it. The progression of the story f...more

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About Patrick Rothfuss

It all began when Pat Rothfuss was born to a marvelous set of parents. Throughout his formative years they encouraged him to do his best, gave him good advice, and were no doubt appropriately dismayed when he failed to live up to his full potential.

In high-school Pat was something of a class clown. His hobbies included reading a novel or two a day and giving relationship advice to all of his femal...more It all began when Pat Rothfuss was born to a marvelous set of parents. Throughout his formative years they encouraged him to do his best, gave him good advice, and were no doubt appropriately dismayed when he failed to live up to his full potential.

In high-school Pat was something of a class clown. His hobbies included reading a novel or two a day and giving relationship advice to all of his female friends despite the fact that he had never so much as kissed a girl. He also role-played and wrote terrible stories about elves. He was pretty much a geek.

Most of Pat's adult life has been spent in the University Wisconsin Stevens Point. In 1991 he started college in order to pursue a career in chemical engineering, then he considered clinical psychology. In 1993 he quit pretending he knew what he wanted to do with his life, changed his major to "undecided," and proceeded to study whatever amused him. He also began writing a book....

For the next seven years Pat studied anthropology, philosophy, eastern religions, history, alchemy, parapsychology, literature, and writing. He studied six different martial arts, practiced improv comedy, learned how to pick locks, and became a skilled lover of women. He also began writing a satirical advice column which he continues to this day: The College Survivial Guide. Through all of this he continued to work on his novel.

In 2000 Pat went to grad school for English literature. Grad school sucked and Pat hated it. However, Pat learned that he loved to teach. He left in 2002 with his masters degree, shaking the dust from his feet and vowing never to return. During this period of time his novel was rejected by roughly every agent in the known universe.

Now Pat teaches half-time at his old school as an assistant-sub-lecturer. He is underpaid but generally left alone to do as he sees fit with his classes. He is advisor for the college feminists, the fencing club, and, oddly enough, a sorority. He still roll-plays occasionally, but now he does it in an extremely sophisticated, debonair way.

Through a series of lucky breaks, he has wound up with the best agent and editor imaginable, and the first book of his trilogy has been published under the title "The Name of the Wind."

Though it has only been out since April 2007, it has already been sold in 26 foreign countries and won several awards.

Pat has been described as "a rough, earthy iconoclast with a pipeline to the divine in everyone's subconscious." But honestly, that person was pretty drunk at the time, so you might want to take it with a grain of salt.(less)

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Books by Patrick Rothfuss

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)

The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed

The Doors of Stone (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #3)

O Medo do Homem Sábio (A Crónica do Regicida, Livro 2 - Parte 1)

O Medo do Homem Sábio (A Crónica do Regicida, Livro 2 - Parte 2)

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Quotes from The Wise Man's Fear

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.” — 1,142 people liked it

“It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers.” — 595 people liked it

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The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2)

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