Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Review: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Book: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
Genre: Fantasy
Rating:★★★★☆
For: Fun
From: bought from Amazon

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.” The Wise Man’s Fear – Patrick Rothfuss



As most of you know, I've been dying to read this book since finishing the first book in the series, The Name of the Wind, last year. It feels like such an accomplishment to have finally done it! I think we all have to pat ourselves on the back when we manage these thousand page books!

This book starts off right where the last one ended. There's the "present" day time where our hero Kvothe is an obscure innkeeper who has decided to sit down with his student Bast and a dude called Chronicler, to once and for all tell his story. You see, somehow he has become a legend in his own time, and even now no one knows who he is, but the stories, these awesome unbelievable stories, are out there. But the stories, as legends tend to do, are much embellished. He's decided it's time to set things straight, or at least to just tell it like it is.

So while those little parts, called Interludes throughout the book, are in third person... most of the book is told in first person through Kvothe's eyes as he is relating what's happened to him. However, that's not to say that strange goings on are not happening during the interludes too... because something is definitely up there, which makes you, as a reader, feel okay about the jumping back and and forth between the times and stories.

Anyway, this book starts off with Kvothe at the University where he is, as always, struggling with trying to find enough money to pay his tuition and to simply survive. When an opportunity comes along for him to maybe find a patron (someone to sponsor his education) he jumps at the chance and is off to seek out this guy and quite the adventure ensues.

This adventure includes things like helping this important guy (the potential patron) woo a wife, catching bandits who are robbing this guy's tax collectors,  experiencing some time in Fae land (which is unheard of) and then learning the way of the Adem people (who have a fascinating culture,) which is also unheard of, and finally rescuing a couple of girls from some really bad guys!

All at the age of barely 17! (I find it interesting that this book is an adult fantasy when the main guy is a teenager throughout... maybe it's because he is older and looking back on his life? The first book didn't have much by way of "adult" content, but this second definitely does!)

As with the first book, I absolutely LOVE the writing, the story, the characters, everything! It really truly has everything that I love about epic fantasy. This book, however, did drag for a me just a bit during some of the adventures. We really got into detail about certain things and I found myself anxious to "get back to the story already!" Thus the reason for the "only" four star rating.

And as you all know, I love Kvothe to death, but he did start to do some things and make some decisions that bugged me! It's to be expected I suppose! But still.

My other complaint is the romance.... it makes me crazy! I'm becoming not that fond of Deena, the girl that Kvothe is gaga for. She is just not nice enough to him. He deserves better I'm thinking. Yet, he does some pretty rough things too, so there's that. Anyway, this connection they have, if it doesn't go somewhere soon, I might lose it!

Bottom line: I loved it, as expected.

Other Reviews:

Between the Covers
The Book and Biscuit
Only The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy
Adventures in Borkdom

7 comments:

  1. I have started this twice and still not finished it. Bad me! I must get back to it!

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    Replies
    1. Kailana: This one? Or the first one? Well, it only took me three weeks to read this one, and that's with loving it.

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  2. I always have to laugh at your impatience for "boring" parts and lack of romance. One of these dang days I'm going to get to the first one!

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    Replies
    1. Jenny: It is pretty funny, huh? I laugh at myself too! I can't wait for you to read them, but I do hope you are "in the mood" so no rush!

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  3. Congratulations on finishing! The first one really is high on my "to obtain and read" list. :)

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    Replies
    1. Jessica: Like I said to Jenny, make sure you are in the mood! :)

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  4. I <3 these books! EEEEE! Although my biggest pet peeve about this one was the "adult" part - I totally skimmed after a bit because I just wanted to get back to the action.

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