Something like The Name of the Wind

[Stan]

Kevin wrote: "Stan wrote: "I would have been happy if Wise Man's Fear had been like The Name of the Wind."

I'm kind of glad that they were different."

Let me rephrase:

I would be happy if Wise Man's Fear was worth the purchase price.

[Valerie]

Stan wrote: "Let me rephrase:

I would be happy if Wise Man's Fear was worth the purchase price."

Agreed...

[Helen]

I adore Kvothe!

[Kevin]

Stan wrote: "Kevin wrote: "Stan wrote: "I would have been happy if Wise Man's Fear had been like The Name of the Wind."

I'm kind of glad that they were different."

Let me rephrase:

I would be happy if Wise M..."

Oh, now I understand.

[Stan]

Helen wrote: "I adore Kvothe!"

What's not to adore? Smartest boy in the world. Fascinated by fairy tales. Taught to fight by the world's greatest warriors. Taught to make love by an honest-to-goodness sex goddess. Controls unbelievable magical powers. Sings like an angel. Plays the lute like a devil. A better craftsman than Feanor. A skilled actor. A heart of gold. Victim of the immoral aristocracy. The heartwrenching backstory of an orphan. Can woo any woman in the world except the one he wants (after all, the world's greatest man needs a worthy mate).

Who wouldn't adore dear, sweet, flame-haired Kvothe who has surely been annointed and named a hero by the spirit of Byron himself?

(Pardon me while I vomit and look for my good friends Fiddler and Hedge.)

[Ami]

Stan wrote: What's not to adore? Smartest boy in the world. Fascinated by fairy tales. Taught to fight by the world's greatest warriors. Taught to make love by an honest-to-good..."

Haha. Stan, you sound like a jealous jilted lover or something. Another spurned by Denna?!

Somehow at first I saw the name as "A Wide Man's Fear" and a whole different possible storyline took place in my head before I saw I was wrong.

And except for the sex-goddess stuff that took forever and a day, I liked it. I thought Kvothe's confident perfection, while irritating enough that I might not like him in person, made for an exciting story.

[Stan]

Aimdoggg,

I was trying to like it even though he skipped over potentially cool stuff like the trial and sea adventures ("murdered by pirates is good") so he could spend more time talking about the college hijinks, but when he got to the Adem, I just couldn't pretend anymore. Maybe it's because I'm a martial artist, and Rothfuss didn't sound like he'd ever stepped into a dojo in his life. Or maybe it's because I had visions of just about every martial movie training montage I'd ever seen mixed with a few porn movies for all the sex Kvothe has during his training. (I can hear Rothfuss yelling at me now: "It's original because the teachers are women, Stan! Think of the possibilities! Wooing and badass martial arts all in the same scene!")

By the end of the book, I realized that Rothfuss had turned Kvothe into the cliched awesome hero. Hooray. Adventure. High times. I can't wait to see what this weird combination of Bruce Lee, Doogie Howser, Rand Al'Thor, Eric Clapton, Barry White, Laurence Olivier, and Carrot Top is going to do next.

(By the by, I'm married to the woman of my dreams, so no spurned man longing after the unattainable Denna here.)

[Mach]

You are right Stan, Kvothe has a little too many good qualities, he is almost on the verge of being a Gary Stu. I thought Name of the Wind was a better book then the Wise Man's Fear. I especially liked his time before he came to the school.

[Kevin]

Mach wrote: "You are right Stan, Kvothe has a little too many good qualities, he is almost on the verge of being a Gary Stu. I thought Name of the Wind was a better book then the Wise Man's Fear. I espeacially ..."

We are always going to agree to disagree on this topic.

[Rachael]

Patrick Rothfuss himself created a list of recommended reads on his blog. http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/... Dresden Files is #1 :)

[Helen]

Okay, pirate story does sound good. Bet Kvothe would be amazing fencing in the rigging.

[Stan]

Helen wrote: "Okay, pirate story does sound good. Bet Kvothe would be amazing fencing in the rigging."

Of course he would! Kvothe is amazing at everything (except talking to Denna).

[[deleted user]]

Have you met Colleen, Stan? :P

[Mach]

Of course he has she is his twin sister, lol.

[Stan]

Is she really opinionated like I am, or does she just also think that Rothfuss let us all down with the second book?

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I haven't read the second book. I thought Kvothe was an insufferable Gary Stu in the first book, so I never even bothered with the second. Sounds like I made a wise decision.

[[deleted user]]

You'd have had the same reaction as Stan, Colleen.

[[deleted user]]

Heh

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Yeah - I've heard all about Kvothe's various conquests. And slow, meandering plot. And even people who liked the book seemed to bitch about it.

Luckily, Penny Arcade saved me time and effort:

[[deleted user]]

The sheer amount of tail this teenager was getting in the second book was ridiculous.

[Marion]

Aw, man. I knew I wasn't going to like the second book, that's why I put off reading it for so long. *sigh* Oh, well, plenty of other stories out there!

[Mach]

I was never bored while reading this, even though it is not quite on the same level as the prequel it is definetely worth reading.

[Contrarius]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "I haven't read the second book. I thought Kvothe was an insufferable Gary Stu in the first book"

Kvothe IS an insufferable Gary Stu, in some ways. But that's part of the point of the story, after all....

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

So I've been told... Still doesn't make me like it any better.

[[deleted user]]

Have you tried Drizzt....?

[Kevin]

Ala wrote: "Have you tried Drizzt....?"

What does that even mean?

[[deleted user]]

What does any of it mean, really?

Are we not all, just a little bit, drizzty? Stab me, do I no drizztle? Drizzt me, do I not bleed? Tis but a poor driizt who frets upon the stage, to be drizzt no more.










dude, it was little joke.

[Ami]

Thanks for making me laugh, y'all.

[Contrarius]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "So I've been told... Still doesn't make me like it any better."

Yeah, that's okay. I was really really irritated at Kvothe's Gary Stu-ness myself, after the first time I real TNOTW. But, ya know, I got a lot more comfortable with the concept after I read it for a second time. I definitely do agree that the guy is a big Gary Stu, but now at least I can understand some of the reasons behind making him that way...

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Ala wrote: "Have you tried Drizzt....?"

I have, actually, but only in graphic novel form. I thought it was an ok story, but a bit cliche. Maybe it lost something in translation, though...

But I'll pass on Drizzting you, thanks. ;)


@Contrarius - I've never understood the impulse to reread a book you didn't like. "Oh, hey, you didn't like this book? Maybe you should reread it and it'll give you a different understanding of it and you could, ya know, dislike it slightly less."

Who knows, maybe years and years down the line I'd think of rereading it, but not after a few scant years when it's still fairly fresh in my memory.

But, then, I only tend to reread books I liked.

[Contrarius]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "@Contrarius - I've never understood the impulse to reread a book you didn't like. "Oh, hey, you didn't like this book? Maybe you should reread it and it'll give you a different understanding of it and you could, ya know, dislike it slightly less.""

In my case, it wasn't that I didn't like the book as a whole. I liked some things about it, while other things really irritated me. I reread it because soooo many other people loved it, and I suspected that I had missed something important the first time around. And, as it turned out, I was right. I found a lot more to like about the book the second time I read it.

It's kind of like modern music. Some music, and some books, reward you in direct proportion to how much attention you pay to them and how much time you put into thinking about them. They may sound awful to you when you first hear them or first read them, but they become more and more appealing as you gain more understanding. TNOTW is like that. There's a lot of good stuff there that gets missed on a superficial reading.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Yeah, I kinda figured it was something like that... the whole "so many other people liked it, so I must've missed something".

I'm glad that you found more to enjoy the second time around, but I don't tend to assume my opinions are wrong just because they're in the minority. *shrugs*

Of course, I most often get accused of being too critical towards books and thinking about them too much. I have rarely been accused of ever being a superficial reader.

[Contrarius]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "I'm glad that you found more to enjoy the second time around, but I don't tend to assume my opinions are wrong just because they're in the minority. "

Oh cmon, now you're just getting offensive. You should be able to tell from my user name, if nothing else, that I'm not one to go along with the crowd.

I didn't "assume" anything. I was simply open to the possibility that I might be able to learn something.

You might try that some time. ;)

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I love it when people call someone on being offensive and then turn it around like that. "Come, now, there's no need to be offensive. And I shall prove it to you - by being offensive!" LOL

Good show.

Anyway, it's possible that you reread it and were open to the possibility that you might learn something. It's also possible that if you go in with the suspicion that you missed something that you look so hard to find them that you end up finding moments of profundity that aren't actually there.

Sort of like what I did when I reread Dark Tower with the intention of making it not suck as much as it did the first time.

Either notions are possible.

[Rachael]

You seem determined to hate some pretty darned good books.

On another note...Why are you even in this thread? You clearly don't like Name of the Wind. This thread is for something similar to it. So uhm, gtfo? lol

[Contrarius]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "I love it when people call someone on being offensive and then turn it around like that. "Come, now, there's no need to be offensive. And I shall prove it to you - by being offensive!"

I'm a strong believer in self-defense. If you can't take it, then don't dish it out. ;)

But anyway, to get back on track -- I have personally found that TNOTW is a book with a lot of layers. Some books impact me on a visceral level, and some on an intellectual level. TNOTW is one of the intellectual ones. I'm not saying it's a Great Work Of Art or anything, but it is absolutely true that it is a book that rewards close scrutiny. It's full of puzzles, and hints, and mysteries, and allusions, and just all sorts of nuggets that the casual reader will probably miss. The more one studies it, the more there is to see in it.

[Contrarius]

Rachael wrote: "This thread is for something similar to it..."

Ya know, I'm not sure that there ARE many books that are really similar to TNOTW. It is often mentioned in the same sentence or same paragraph with The Lies of Locke Lamora and The First Law trilogy, but IMHO it isn't like either one of those either.

Now, the OP wanted to follow a single main character, more magic, and more fights. Perhaps the recommendation can be as simple as Harry Potter....

[Kevin]

Contrarius wrote: "± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "I love it when people call someone on being offensive and then turn it around like that. "Come, now, there's no need to be offensive. And I shall prove i..."

Even though I do not like the book at all, I agree with you having the rights to love the book, especially after a reread. I know have had that happened, but I can't think of any at this time.

[Kevin]

Contrarius wrote: "Rachael wrote: "This thread is for something similar to it..."

Ya know, I'm not sure that there ARE many books that are really similar to TNOTW. It is often mentioned in the same sentence or same ..."

Do you think The Name of the Wind is a lot like Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice?

[Contrarius]

Kevin wrote: "Do you think The Name of the Wind is a lot like Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice?"

Absolutely not. I'm a big fan of the Assassin trilogy, but it isn't *anything* like TNOTW.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Rachael wrote: "You seem determined to hate some pretty darned good books.

On another note...Why are you even in this thread? You clearly don't like Name of the Wind. This thread is for something similar to i..."

I don't hate it, I just wasn't that impressed with it. What I do get annoyed with are the common reactions people spew out when you don't like something they like.

And you can blame Ala for my being in the thread in the first place. :)

[[deleted user]]

My milkshake brings all the colleens to the yard.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

He could teach you, but he'd have to charge...

*pinches chibi Solo in the cheeks*

[Kevin]

This now has turned into something I would have done.

[Contrarius]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "I don't hate it, I just wasn't that impressed with it."

That's kinda like somebody saying that they aren't all that impressed with the Statue of Liberty, when they've actually only seen it once on a postcard in passing. ;)

I'm sure you *think* you paid attention to TNOTW when you read it, but I can pretty much guarantee that you weren't paying *much* attention.

Here's just a few miscellaneous questions about the book as a very small illustration. You can find the answers by searching the web, if you're interested enough, but I bet you won't have picked up the answers to most of them from your own reading of the book.

1. What is the true name of Kvothe's mother? How do we know this? Why is it important?

2. What are waystones? Why do we know that they are going to become important at some point in the trilogy?

3. Is Kvothe a reliable narrator? How do we know whether he is or isn't? Why could this be important?

4. Kvothe spent three years on the streets of Tarbean, essentially just barely surviving, before he went to university. This interlude really really irritated me the first time I read the book, because I didn't understand how such a "brilliant" and "accomplished" kid could just spin his wheels that way. But I found some good answers the second time I read the book. So -- why did Kvothe spend his time this way? How do we know?

5. Here's one that you can't be expected to answer, since you didn't read WMF. I'm posting it just to provide an example of how far in advance Rothfuss plans out these things.

When Kvothe meets Denna after a long absence, he says "Where before she had been pretty, now she was lovely as well." What is the significance of her being "lovely" now?

These are just a few simple examples of the intellectual hints and puzzles hidden throughout both of the books so far. There's a lot of more complicated themes and variations and mysteries and such that can be noticed with careful attention, but these few small examples should be a fair illustration of the general principle that these books do reward careful reading. :)

[Jamie]

Ala wrote: "Are we not all, just a little bit, drizzty? Stab me, do I no drizztle? Drizzt me, do I not bleed? Tis but a poor driizt who frets upon the stage, to be drizzt no more."

I snorted coffee on this one

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

@Contrarius - Actually, since I read the book with a group and we discussed, in depth, many of these questions... and since I have actually read other bits and pieces about the book from various sites and things before now... I can pretty much guarantee that I didn't just see it in a postcard in passing. But whatever, continue fanwanking over there and I'll continue to not care.


@Kevin - LOL. Now there's an indictment if ever I heard one!

[Mach]

Ala wrote: "What does any of it mean, really?

Are we not all, just a little bit, drizzty? Stab me, do I no drizztle? Drizzt me, do I not bleed? Tis but a poor driizt who frets upon the stage, to be drizzt no..."

Hilarious comment Ala.

Rachael wrote: "You seem determined to hate some pretty darned good books.

On another note...Why are you even in this thread? You clearly don't like Name of the Wind. This thread is for something similar to i..."

Lol, so so true, do your hating on other threads, this is for recommmending something similar.

[Stan]

If someone hasn't said it before, I recommend The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It's similar to TNOTW in that we have a gifted boy being accepted to a school for magic. It's different in that this boy, Quentin, is NOT a Gary Stu.

[Rachael]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "@Contrarius - Actually, since I read the book with a group and we discussed, in depth, many of these questions... and since I have actually read other bits and pieces about the book from various si..."

Please take your discussion of The Name of the Wind's merits and demerits to a thread that has been created for that purpose. This is a recommendation thread.